February 2008

This trip we decided to spare ourselves the 4am taxi ride to Luton airport for an Easyjet flight. Instead we got the Heathrow express straight to terminal 2. After about 2 hours in the air we were landing at Leonardo Di Vinci airport in Rome.

We took the express train from the airport to Rome's main station, Termini. It was about 8pm and dark so we hailed a cab and headed for our hotel. We arrived at the address. Only one problem... no hotel. Our driver lokked confused for a while and then jumped out of the cab and started racing down the road searching for the hotel. A guy came out from his business and explained, in charades, that the numbers were all out of whack and that our hotel was actually a block down the road behind us. We found it, checked in and laughed with relief.

Day one we jumped on the metro and headed for the Colosseum. We figured why not start with the big guns of sightseeing. There is a metro stop located there so we emerged from the station to the awesome sight of this huge structure. It is genuinely staggering to see something so enormous and so old. It had a capacity of over 55000 and was built in the first century AD.

The Colosseum

To be able to walk the interior gave just a hint of what it may have been like in all its glory.

The rising stands of the Colosseum

Just beside the Colosseum stands the Arco di Constantino.

A short walk SW took us to the Palantino, a hilly area scattered with the ruins of temples built for the Emperors. There is an orange grove at the top and several terraces from which we could view the remains of the Roman Forum.

We Grabbed some pizza sandwiches for lunch and ate seated in the shadows of the Coloseum.

After a pit stop we headed out for a veiw of the city at night. We had our guide book, a metro map and an illustrated map provided by the hotel. Now... as we have found previously in European cities, it is easy to get a bit mixed up with similar sounding place names. We devised a foolproof Aussie system to plot our course around Rome. We determined that if we got onto the metro and Boyzone station (Manzoni) and travelled past Colin See 'em and continue as far as Vinnie Barbarino station (Barbarini) we could walk to Trevor the fountain. It was illuminated beautifully and, as is customary for visitors, we tossed coins into the water to ensure we would return.

Trevi Fountain is so impressive and beautiful at night, we took a heap of photos before getting completely lost on the walk back. We did, however, manage to get a look at the Colosseum on the way home.

On Monday we headed out to the Vatican. We arrived at about 10.30am but the line to get in wound around corner after corner for blocks. We decided to give it a miss and, instead, jumped on the first tram we saw and went exploring. Here's what we found...

View along the Tiber towards St Peters

Parliament house

Entrance to Piazza del Popolo

Piazza del Popolo

Central fountain in Popolo

Fontana detarughe

On our anniversary we got up really early and took the first train to St Peter's Basilica. The piazza was almost completely deserted and we were able to watch the sunrise from within.

We went inside the Basilica and it was astonishing.

Next stop was the Vatican museum, home of the Sistine Chapel

Parts of it reminded us of the bathroom in our old place in Coburg!

It was still really early so we went and explored the ruins of the Roman Forum.

We returned to Central Rome and climbed the Spanish Steps.

We walked to the Pantheon and had lunch at a cafe out front.

... before taking a romantic ride around the city in a horse drawn carriage.

We finished the day off with dinner at a great restaurant near our hotel. The food was fantastic and the service was outstanding.
We had a beautiful day filled with amazing experiences and, most importantly, spent it together. We thought it was going to be tough to capture the romance of Paris but Rome delivered us a perfect day.

Wednesday was our last day in Rome. We spent a lazy morning in Piazza Della Repubblica

So that was Rome. The amazing city where the ancient word meets the modern world

With Dave and Liz in town for a while, we decided to head off to Hungary for a few days. We landed early on Thursday and checked into the Ambra hotel. It is located on the Pest side of the Danube, close to transport and some of the main tourist sights. We basically spent our five days trying to get around to most of the must see spots. We were struck by the beauty of Budapest. The architecture is impressive, the river setting is beautiful and we were able to view the city from many aspects as we travelled from one vantage point to another.

We managed to visit almost everything onour list and discovered an amazingly affordable Budapest buffet which provided dinner on our final three days. It's a great city for a short break, plenty to see and some beautiful statues and structures. Check some of them out below

Standing on the Chain Bridge between Buda and Pest

View from the Chain Bridge

Budapest on the Danube River

Statues in Pest

Buskers at Fisherman's Bastion

Hawk at Fishermans Bastion

Statue of Imre Nagy looking towards parliament

Liz and Dave view Pest from Royal Castle

St Stephen's Basilica

The dome of St Stephen's

Budapest at night

Pest from Fisherman's Bastion

Gellert Hill Statues

The view of the city from Gellert Hill

Budapest from Margit Bridge

Parliament House