well, this is day 2 in rome. Currently sitting in the air-con bliss of an easy internet cafe. only Ä1.65 an hour.
Outside it is is 31 degs according to the bbc and was 37 earlier today. I believe it was hotter. It has certainly been hotter earlier on in the holiday. be recorded a temp of 42 degs using the car’s temperature gauge.
Getting the car to rome was like many kinds of hell. a story for another day tho. Suffice it to say that will never be using Europecar again.
Rome is nice. smaller than I expected, and everything seems to be within easy walking distance. Our hotel is run by a youngish, strange italian bloke who struts around in speedo shorts, strumming on a guitar occasionally.
Yesterday we wandered around fairly randomly. we saw various monuments (the names of which escape me) and saaw the changing of the guard at what we guessed was the president’s residence. today, we spent the morning trudging round the muesii di vaticano in the vatican city. It was free becuase it was the last sunday of the month (oh how generous and charitable of them). Frankly, it was crap; loads of religious paintings which i didn’t like. the “map room” was nice enough – filled with, yes indeed, maps. we then spent many hours trying to get in to the sistine chapel. after about what seemed like 6 hrs we got in. it was filled with japanese tourists taking forbidden photos of the ceiling and wasn’t really that impressive. though i had, by that point, seen about 10 other painted ceilings, so the novelty had worn off.
Just wandering round is nice though, you continously bump in to piazza’s with a fountain, statue or monument in it. Or some sort of castle or large building. I think we shall see the coliseum tomorrow.
This pm we walked to large park in rome, the villa borghese i believe it is called. most pleasent tho still hot. we read a while before striding back.
drinks are extorsion here. i use my 1ltr bottle and fill it from the occasional drinking fountain we come accross. I’ll probably catch leprosy or something.
our flight is actually late on tuesday, so i shall get back to barnham lunch or early pm.
I’m pretty sure i have created new records in the amount of sweat i’ve produced.