Day 1, Sunday 23rd October, 2016

Well we made it to Rome! Arrived at 1.10pm and breezed through customs (what customs actually!!) - it did take forever for our bags to come out – seems to be just what happens in Rome. No hurry. What a flight...the 6.5hr flight was good, plane was a Boeing 777 – smaller than the A380 – you really notice the difference! Food was good. Steve didn’t eat – again.

What movies did I watch? Money Monster with George Cluny of course! The Man Who Knew Infinity (great movie...going to buy that one on DVD), and I started watched Eddy The Eagle and got 10mins to the finish and they cut off the movies – NOOOOOOO - bastards! Ugh – so now I have to buy that one to see the ending.

We were met at the arrivals hall by the most lovely gentleman. In my tiredness, I never caught his name – such a shame, as he was just beautiful and so friendly and made us laugh the entire way into Rome.

Gosh its warm here… it was 16 degrees and very overcast and yet it was humid as hell – thought I was in Bali for a moment!

We arrived at our apartment – Roma Veneto Relais – via Collina n’24 HUGE doors greeted our arrival….all doors are huge here!

Riccardo was our arrival host. I want to put him in the suitcase and bring him home! He’s so lovely.

Our room (#2) is fantastic! Small, but it has everything you need in it. The bathroom was funky – I love the LED lights which are on a colour relay, turning red, blue, green & yellow – looks like a disco. Amazing shower head and wall vents. Steve could have stayed in the shower all day. We both had a shower to freshen up and decided that sleeping now was a bad idea and that we should get outside, even if it was for an hour.

Once we settled, Riccardo got out the map and showed us some sights and where to go. We decided to go walking, it was about 3.30pm. The first thing we did was walk directly across the road, to La Caruso Gelati shop – RIGHT ACROSS THE ROAD – like, 10m walk from our big front door to their door… I can see them from our bedroom window!!! I am in Gelati Heaven!

So what flavours to have….. of course everything was in Italian and being the first 5mins being in the country & being sleep deprived, nothing had come flooding back to me, so it took a minute to work out what the flavours were. I was SO EXCITED and I must have freaked the girls out behind the counter – they were giggling and laughing. Steve had Vanilla, Custard Vanilla & Milk Chocolate with Waffer and Cream. As there was no coconut on the menu, I had to be content with Pistachio, Banana & Cassata Siciliana, Waffer & Cream. Was lovely. I was a very happy girl.

From there we started walking, taking the back streets, looking at all the fabulous old architecture at every turn & admiring the cobblestone streets.

We found the area that Riccardo warned Steve about – the ritzy shopping district!! OMG – the place was going OFF….I mean, GOING OFF!! remember the 23million Chinese that followed me around when we were in Beijing last year? Well, they had nothing on this place. Every street was wall to wall people and there are a lot of streets! Fendi, Tiffany, Bvglari, Hermes, you name it, they were all there.

I found out later this was the Spanish Steps....ahhhh, now it all makes sense.  Plus it was a Sunday, and everyone is out on a Sunday, the locals and the tourists make for a very busy place.  I loved the vide!

Steve was hoping to find the Vodafone store to get a SIM card. We turned left up a street instead of turning right…. It was ok, as there were lots more ritzy stores to see. But we ended up in front of a Basilica, so we decided to go inside. Thank god Steve had his camera….this church was BEAUTIFUL (but they all are – right?). So we walked around and soaked all the art in, before leaving again to find Vodafone. The heavens opened with some rain for a few minutes and then cleared, but it did make it more humid.

We finally found the Vodafone store, and took a number and started waiting. It was so hot in the shop, that I took the camera and shot the local Castania stall (roasted chestnuts) – OMG – these guys are on every corner. I really want to buy some to try (maybe tomorrow night).

We got sick of waiting at Vodafone and it was then that Steve realised we couldn’t have purchased anything as he didn’t have any identification. So we started to head back to the hotel. Not before stopping at Carlos Pizzeria. It was the enormous wood fired oven that got Steves attention. But he ended up eating Spaghetti Carbonara, and I had Cannelloni and ensalata! It was nice to it out on the street and watch the world walk by. They even gave us a shot of Lemoncello to finish off our meal - YUM!!

I took a photo of Steve in front of the restaurant with the big pizza oven in the background, only for an Italian lady to come over to me, asking about photos…..I thought she wanted me to take a photo of her and her grandson….but no – she was worried I had taken a photo of the child and demanded to see the photo to ensure he wasn’t in it….OMG…. After proving to her that he was not in the photo, she apologised for being so abrupt and then left. WOW – there you go – be careful of where you point that camera!

It felt like it was so late, as we were officially exhausted we headed back to the hotel, where our Riccardo was waiting to greet us. I tell ya, he is coming home with us…. He printed out for me the 20 best Gelati shops in Rome and their addresses. And also the best local places to get local cuisine – away from the tourist restaurants. Riccardo is also studying Graphic Design, so that started us chatting for ages about art and photography – well, you know we can talk about photography for hours and hours. After boring Riccardo with our many, many images from Canada, NZ, Tasmania etc, we decided to hit the hay and get some sleep. The time would have been 8.30pm.

Day 2 Monday 24th October, 2016

Slept like a baby. As Steve predicted, we were awake at 4am. What to do...what to do. Get our cameras and go take some photos of course!!

So we walked the streets we did did last night and we made our way to the Trevi Fountain. We came down the small street and turned the corner and WOW – OMG, I wasn’t expecting it to be so big. So impressive, its just gorgeous. Unfortunately we had council cleaners on the site, pressure washing everything, so they were in our way. So we waited and waited, and waited, and they still weren’t moving, so we had to make do with what we had access too. Such a shame, as we had the place to ourselves otherwise. I did need a wider lens…. 16mm wasn’t wide enough. Wish I had my 14-24mm with me.

The detail in the marble is amazing. I could have stayed there for hours just soaking in the detail, but alas we had other things we wanted to see.

So we started walking down the small narrow streets of Rome, heading to the Fume Tevere (the big river!) lol After a few turns left and a few turns right we eventually found it. (wish the map was bigger – or the font was bigger – as we are getting older we can’t see a damn thing….)

So we found the Fume Tevere and turned left and walked past the most amazing building which is the Court House. Then we walked past Castel Sant Angelo which has a beautiful bridge leading from it with beautiful statues that lined it.

Steve was hoping this was a bridge he could take a long distance shot of the Vatican from that he had seen by a famous photographer….but alas it wasn’t. We were hot, tired and with our feet hurting, we were getting a tad cranky. So we just gave up on that for now.

And from the bridge we could see it…. It was there in all its glory lit up like a beacon….yes, it is the Vatican City! Wowsers, laying eyes on it for the very first time does take your breath away, regardless if you are religious or not. You have to admire the architecture.

We stopped to take many photos on our walk right up to it.

We did not know what the time was, but the sky was still dark as night. The city was starting to stir, being a Monday morning, people were out, and the traffic was starting to get heavy around us.

I could not get over the amount of people out so early at the Vatican – they were everywhere! All making their way to the front to get inside to start their tours.

Steve and I made our way ever closer to the Vatican. Inside the big barricades where the people on mass sit and wait for the Pope to address them. As the sky finally started to become light, we climbed over a small fence of the Obelisk and got a little bit higher and started taking more photos – only for the Police to come with their lights blazing on their car asking us to get off that immediately and for us to pack up our tripods. Tripods are not allowed in Vatican City. We thought it was only inside the Vatican itself, but no, the whole grounds do not allow tripods! OOOPS – so we quickly made our way out.

Not before Steve had taken some stunning panorama’s. Bugger, I missed out on doing them, too busy being focussed on the Vatican itself, waiting for the sky to get some colour, but alas that didn’t happen this morning.

We decided to head back to the hotel since the sun was now up.

We stopped off on another bridge to look for this photographic location Steve wanted, and we found it – it was the bridge that is opposite the Court House. Such a shame that bloody Samsung has this enormous billboard advertising on a prominent building right in front of the Dome. Ah well, you get that I suppose, it is 2016.

We plan on coming back here for sunset.

So we walked back to where we were last night. We found the Basilica that we found last night again, so I could take many photos. Steve sat outside on the steps enjoying the cool morning air, whilst I stayed inside. To have the whole place to myself was humbling. Then they started up the organ pipes – I couldn’t help but get teary eyed, it is very emotional and moving.

Afternoon – part 2

Well, we finally made it out of our new room….I think it was too nice to just get up and leave, so we had to stay a while. Alfonso recommended us to see a few more things, so we headed off on another walking trip of Rome. The time was 3.30pm

We firstly made our way to to Santa Maria degli Angeli, another church. From the outside it is a ruin. I mean, if you were walking past, you’d keep on walking. We made our way inside and WOW – the place is vast….enormous. It just keeps going and going and going. It was ornate, but not “pretty” as the other basillica’s. There was a man doing some repairs to the marble floor. Looking at the size of the floor and how long it was taking him to do just one little bit, I think it will be a family job for many generations to come! It was truly lovely to have seen inside.

We then kept heading left and made our way tot he big train terminal. We were trying to work out how to make our way to Florence. The automated machines do make it pretty easy. We didn’t buy a ticket, but we had a good look around. Warnings about pick pockets are everywhere! We kept our valuables close.

We left the Terminal and headed down one of the the main roads, via Cavour and found ourselves in front of Santa Maria Maggiore. The back of the church faces this road and it was barricaded up. We were almost going to keep walking past, but we thought “what the heck, we’ll walk around it” - so glad we did. We had to get through security and x-ray our backpacks to get inside. The place was packed with tourists. It was quite ornate, but it wasn’t till we walked to one of the smaller chapels that BOOM – it was amazingly beautiful! Then on the other side, there was a mass being held, and we weren’t supposed to be in there with camera’s, but we weren’t leaving without taking a photo of that chapel…. It was the most beautiful room we had seen. Steve has said it is the highlight of Rome so far for him. Truly breathtaking!

We left the church feeling so excited by what we saw, over the road was a Gelati shop, so of course we had to keep the good vibes going (plus the fact it was 4.30pm and it was the FIRST gelato for the day – I mean, hello….. 4.30pm – there is something very wrong with this picture!!) anyway, keeping good things till last as they say, I had a full cup of Coconut Gelato and OMG it was TOTES-AMAZE-BALLS! BEST EVER!! Well….. I must admit, this was only the 2^nd Gelato since arriving, but it is the best so far! Steve had, vanilla, vanilla and some vanilla – boring!! ha ha ha Poor Steve, I do like to make fun of him and his very bland taste buds. 

Back on the via Cavour, we made our way to the Colosseum. Must admit we both didn’t really care whether we got here or not. But we are glad we did. We met a lovely local Roman named Maxamillion (I know – right!), and he was fantastic, right into photography, so we talked a while and he suggested we take some shots from the bridge behind where we were standing. So we did….glad we did, Got some light trails of the cars against the Colosseum at blue hour. Looked great – I love the whole “old vs new” of the image!!

Feeling very tired now, we decided to head back to the hotel going a different way. We found another little church that had mass going on. We snuck inside to take a quick photo and headed on, back up via Nazionale and then home.

We were way too hot and sweaty, tired and with all our camera gear, eating at a fancy restaurant was out of the question. So we grabbed some pizza just around the corner from the apartment and ate back in our room.

I was fast asleep within minutes. I think the time was 8.30pm. Steve said we walked another 7kms tonight. So thats 23km today, with all our camera equipment. No wonder we were tired, and sweaty and our feet were killing us!!

It was a great day.

Buone Notte (good night)! :)

Day 3 - Tuesday 25th October, 2016

Bonjourno (good morning)!

OMG, I slept 12 hours straight! We decided our feet were way too sore to get up for sunrise. Thank god. Walking to the toilet was bad enough. It did take us an hour or so to get our bodies moving again.

The day is looking a tad overcast. Forecast of 26 degree’s today and high humidity once again. I did open my eyes to see a faint pink streak in the sky at sunrise.

We had a very long leisurely breakfast with Riccardo. No, not the Riccardo who checked us in (who will now be known as ‘young Riccardo’) - this was with Riccardo, who runs the business with Alfonso.

Riccardo is also lovely and I also want to take him home! Not sure I can afford all this excess luggage!! ha ha ha

We laughed so much, my tummy hurt. I talk too fast for him to understand which made me talk faster still. It reminded me back in the old Italian days when I couldn’t understand what everyone was saying because they talked too fast! We shared photos from the past few days and shared photos from our travels.

Alfonso joined us as the morning got later, and from there it was just a comedy show. I love these guys!! I can’t decide if I should just move here permanently, or if they should come to Australia! :)

My Italian is slowly coming back to me….rusty and I certainly couldn’t hold a conversation, but some words have come flooding back, and no, not just the swear words, because they are never forgotten. Had to brush up on my prego vs grazi to make sure I use it in the right context. Alfonso was impressed (or I think he was….I’m going with “he was”!)

More suggestions of places to see. There is a tiny little church which is right next to the Colosseum (doh – we were just there last night…. do they not know my feet are sore??) ha ha so of course we will go there.

We have to buy our train tickets to Florence today, so we have our seats booked. And we also want to try and book a tour to the Vatican City. Steve would like to see inside St Peters Basilica (what we photographed the other morning) – and of course there is the famous stair case at the gift shop that I MUST photograph (its the whole reason I have come to Rome)….well, that and the Gelati, and Steve just reminded me he still has to go to Vodafone to get the SIM card. Oh there goes the day.

Oh and then we have to try and walk over to Piazza Navona…..3 fountains by the same guy who did the Trevi fountain (Riccardo told us funny stories about the fountains!) and there is another church to see that looks amazing!

So the time is now 1pm. We’ve eaten breakfast all morning – not sure I can fit anything else in…. Well, I can fit some Gelato. Must try for 2 today! And best we get a move on and get out amongst it. (Steve is dilly-dallying…. His calves and feet are very sore – he is sounding like an old man today!)

We’ll report back later on!! :)

WOW, what another huge afternoon of walking! I know they say you walk everywhere in Rome – but this is ridiculous! Another 10kms carrying all our camera gear. I think the issue is the cobblestone streets – its not our normal walking pattern, plus you don’t stop. Even when you stop for a drink or gelati, you’re standing. One day I’ll come back to Rome and leave the camera gear at home – it’ll be much easier!

So we made our first stop the Vodafone store on via Del Corso, via the Spanish Steps on via Sistina. Still very busy there, but not quite as busy as on Sundays! It really is a beautiful street – via Condotti with all of the top end boutiques and the “beautiful people” out for a walk. If I had a few thousand euro to splash around, I’d come back here for sure!

I left Steve at Vodafone to do his thing, and I visited a small church that was right next door in Piazza S. Lorenzo in Lucina. I love how some of these churches are totally hidden – not big and flashy like some of the others. This was a beautiful little church.

From there Steve met me (yes he got the SIM – yay!), and we started our walk to find the Pantheon. Gosh the little back streets are getting more and more beautiful! You turn down a small street and think “for sure this can’t take us anywhere” and then boom, it opens up and you are in a small piazza – just gorgeous!

It was getting more humid and being that it was close to lunch time, everyone was out and about and I saw lots of people eating Gelati….but I wasn’t eating Gelati….so poor Steve was made to stop to buy some!! Galliano Patisserie and Gelateria….it was PACKED…. People lining the streets eating the Gelati and the queue inside was insane….but we waited in line, and it was worth it!!

Steve had Vanilla, Creme Vanilla & and I had Coconut, Banana & Nougat – OMG, the Nougat was insanely good!! The Coconut & Banana was more Gelati, and the Nougat was Gelato.

I tried to move off the street to put my backpack down and get out of everyone’s way, but I was told off by a Policeman for climbing over the small fence to the cleared area – OOPS!! Sorry Officer!! So told off twice in two days by the police – I’m doing well! Ha ha ha

From there we walked the small streets till BOOM we turned a corner and there in all its glory was the Pantheon. Again, it was another site we weren’t all the fussed about seeing or not seeing. But so damn glad we did. WOW, its so BIG and impressive. I just love the way these things are hidden, and the whole city is built right up around it, and you have no idea and you turn a corner and BOOM – cracks me up!

So we walked around inside with the thousands of other tourists there. It was vast inside and impressive. Not ‘pretty’ like the churches, this was more about power and size and carvings.

I tried to take a few photos of it outside, but eh – nothing good to be taken in the middle of the day.

Once again we walked down some small streets until we came upon Palazzo Madama, another spectacular Church!!  Did we go inside?  Of course we did!!   Church San Luigi dei Francesi.

We moved on through the small back streets till we came to Piazza Navona. WOW, once again you turn a corner and come across this large piazza and church and fountains.

Legend has it (this was told to us by Riccardo at the apartment…) - that the sculptor who did the Trevi Fountain did these fountains at Piazza Navona and was having some issues with the Architect building the Church there. So he made one of the men on the fountain looking like he is bracing himself for the church to fall down on him. Basically saying to the world that he thought the architecture was of questionable quality! Ha ha - funny!

We went inside the Basilica…. No photos apparently – signs everywhere. But the minute I saw the dome, stuff what the signs said (bring on the police!) - I HAD to take a few sneaky shots. WOW – so gorgeous. I wanted to stand under the dome, but that was too obvious, so I stood off to the side and snuck a few in.

Steve was a good boy and he didn’t take any photos! Goody-Goody Two Shoes is our Steve! :)

We looked at the other fountains outside, and then saw another dome to another church and that was it…. Whats that one look like inside? We must have walked inside another 5 or 10 churches along the way – they are everywhere. Every fresco is stunningly gorgeous and beautifully ornate. Honestly, I am running out of words to describe them all.

Santa Maria Dell-Anima - WOW, look at how ornate it is!!  Amazing!

San Nicola De Lorenzi was locked and we weren't allowed inside, but that didn't stop Steve and I from putting our lens through the gate to take a shot of the ceiling - the best we could!  So beautiful!

Santa Maria Della Pace - how impressive is that front with the columns?  The dome was carved instead of painted, and I loved the windows right the way around the dome.  It was just lovely.  A different look again to the other churches we'd been into thus far.  The fresco's were painted by Raphael in the 1400's.

We found ourselves on a main road – via Coro Vittoria Emanuele. Where we found – yes you guessed it – another Church! Well, two actually. One we could get inside, the other we couldn’t. Parrocchia Santa Maria in Vaillicella Church on Piazza Chiesa Nuova. WOW - check out the inside of this church!

We stopped for a few minutes to rest but we had to keep going, so on we walked.

We walked until we hit the bridge Ponte Sant’ Angelo which leads you to Castel Sant’ Angelo. It was still too early to photograph so we found a small restaurant where we had an early dinner. Well, not quite early for us – but early for the Italians.

Steve had Spaghetti Cabronara, and I had Tortellini with Ham & cheese – OMG…. Nothing beats real Italian pasta! 2 pasta dishes and I had some Melanzani Parmigiana & 2 soft drinks was $25 euro – cheap considering we were very close to the Castel Sant’ Angelo!

I asked Steve what the time was and it was 6.11pm and sunset was at 6.20pm!! OMG, you haven’t seen two people with very sore feet move so quickly! We all but ran to the other bridge, the Pont Umberto which leads to the Court House to take sunset shots of the Vatican.

Eh, pretty average sunset, no colour, heavy non-descript clouds. Very disappointing to be honest. But the bridge was packed and no one seemed to notice those things except us. We played around with some long exposure images. I got talking to some tourists from France who had been here for a few days. They had just been to the Vatican City today. They asked when I was going, and I said, hopefully tomorrow – she said ‘your game to go tomorrow’. Why I asked? The Papal Mass!! Oh…. The thousands and thousands of people who will be there tomorrow….. hmmm… well, that just made the decision for us. No Vatican tomorrow. Oh well, the staircase photograph will have to wait for my next visit to Rome. Shame, but there is no way Steve and I will cope with that amount of people – not with very sore feet!

After a few more shots were taken, we packed up and ran (not quite...let’s call it a fast shuffle with sore feet) to the Ponte Sant’ Angelo for blue hour. Well, more like “blue 10mins”. Omg, this bridge is packed with people!! We set our tripods up in the middle of the bridge and started doing long exposure shots to try and remove some of the people. Of course with such heavy traffic, you can’t remove everyone, but considering what we had to deal with, I was very happy with what we captured.

We thought of these images as a test run, as we plan to come back at 5am to shoot the bridge with no one around.

As it is now dark and we are even more exhausted, we made our start back to the apartment. We thought about taking a taxi, when we spied a Gelati place! What the heck, that is my Number 2 for the day! “Frigadarium” This was more of a western ice-cream shop than a Gelateria. All very creamy. They dipped everything in chocolate at the end. It was nice, but I wouldn’t have it like that again. Steve thought this was the best ice-cream so far. Nah – my coconut of yesterday is still by far the very best I’ve had! I had coconut, banana & their own flavour ‘Frigadarium’ - which was like a toffee, butterscotch with chocolate fondant – extremely rich! Steve had the ‘Frigadarium, Vanilla & Chocolate Chip.

So sugar loaded we were ready for our big hike back. We took del Governo Vecchio & numerous other small streets back (they looked like they were the same street, but weren’t), back through Piazza Navona, to the Pantheon (where I took some long exposure shots at night trying to get rid of the many people….) - not too shabby an image, gotta say I love it!

Then back through the Trevi Fountain (HILARIOUS the amount of people there!)…. Then back up the hill to home.

These back streets are superb! If we had more time, I would have explored this street more with its eateries and fabulous trattoria’s, and shops selling all sorts of wares & designer homewares etc.

Ahhh back home finally…. Nothing like it!! We estimated we’ve walked another 15kms tonight.

We couldn’t get our shoes off quick enough. Unfortunately, I now have one hell of a blister on the left foot heel...to the side. OUCH. I knew it was sore, but didn’t think it was a blister. This is going to be an issue for the huge OOAK trip in the next few days – damn it! ugh

We both made the decision that we can’t do photography in the morning. We can’t risk hurting our feet more, not this close to the big OOAK trip – the whole reason we are here!!! So we are better off resting our feet. We got some nice images of Rome and in reality we have to be happy with what we got.

My main priority will be to find a Farmacia tomorrow to get some big plasters/bandaids to put on my heel.

Anyway, too tired to really worry about all of that now. We showered then fell into bed and we were both asleep within seconds of our heads hitting the pillow.

Buone Notte - Tiamo Roma