oh, Rome!!!

Rome, the land of la dolce vita. It was a birthday present from Him, glad that he finally got it right after 6 years.

Another tip from me, never trust BBC weather forecast, it sucks, really. I have had numerous experience... needless to say more, i thought it was going to be cold, since it was freezing cold in Germany, but suprisingly, it was quite warm when we arrived. Very excited to be there, and went straight to the Hotel, though the hotel was quite nice-with a balcony(it felt like we were in a villa at the beach) but it was quite far away from the centre. After changing into T-shirt, went to the Metro, and went to our first stop-Colosseum.

We were starving, and just when we went out of the Metro station, the Colosseum proudly stood infront of us, it was just amazing. I have seen countless images of the Colosseum from books, magazines, but still- it blew me away. We went around, and realised is better to get something to eat before our long journey, and so we went to a cafe nearby. Had a terrible disgusting pasta, not very satisfy, but expected something like this, after all, a touristic area.

Was queing to get into the Colosseum, but being told that we have to wait for at least 30 mins, there were too many people, so decided to go back the day after early in the morning. I groaned. Decided to walk a little, to the city centre, found out entrance is free to all attractions and Musuems on Sat and Sun as it was World tourism day. Fantastic!!

Rome is really nice to walk around, the small lanes, you might just bump into a historical building randomly. Walked past the ruins of ancient Rome, the Temple, the Forum, i'm glad that we can still see the traces of 2000 years ago. Is amazing, isn't it?

Went to the famous Fountain Trevi, and amazed to see so many tourists, and to be honest, it did put me off a little. You see them trying to squeeze themselves in front of each other, is pathetic. You can see how many of them in the pic.

I guess this is one of the most photographed monument in Italy.

Anyway, decided to move on, and one of my colleague told me that there's a famous Gelati shop around the Fountain, but we didn't find it, quite dissapointed.

The weather was getting chilly, but we decided to go on, because Spanish Steps is just round the corner. Still feeling dissapointed we didn't find the Gelati shop, i was determined to get one, so i randomly picked one, but it turned out ok, not too bad. They were too many people around, and so we sat down at the Steps to enjoy my little precious gelati!!

And so you see, overlooking the famous street-i forgot the name, with all the high end fashion houses. I did see lots of people coming out of the shops with huge bags-you name it: Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Tods, Miu Miu, Louis Vuitton...... while the Media was spreading the news that we are going into Recession-I'm Amused.

It was getting colder and colder, and we realised we have made a terrible mistake for not wearing at least a warm cardigan. It was too hard to bare and we decided to head back to the hotel and have dinner there.

Just when we thought we were lucky to get a Taxi, The taxi driver didn't know the hotel, and we forgot the street either, but we knew the way, because it is very close to the Metro station and so we told him the Metro station-Marconi and he started to shout at us: ''Marconi? Marconi? it is very..big!! very big!! street!! street!!'' and we said again,' pls go to the Metro station in Marconi', and he repeated the same thing "very big! street!", i didn't know what to say to him, i mean he is a taxi driver, he should know the Metro station, or else ask somebody, you don't expect the tourist to know their way round, if they do, he will be out of business. Finally, he poped up a street name, and we both recognize it.'Thank God' i thought. After 15 mins, we were almost there, but caught in a traffic jam, and he said to us: '' you get off here, hotel there, you can...walk. traffic jam, ok?" we were so pissed, but didn't want to argue with him. It was 17.70 euros, He pay him with 20, and the f***ing taxi driver didn't want to give us any change!!!! Can you imagine how rude they are? Ridiculous. We have to walk 15 mins in the dark, starved and pissed to the Hotel. He f***ing spoiled my evening.

To be continue....