Sunday, June 13, 2010

Rome

Last weekend, we were invited to Maureen and Giacomo's wedding in Castiglione Di Pescaia, a little town north of Rome, so we decided to spend a day in Rome.

 
We started with what we do best: Eating! before walking to the Vatican and St Peter Square.


Apart from the St Peter's Basilica, the other thing you cannot miss are "The Swiss Guards".

 They have a high reputation for discipline and loyalty to their employers. Apart from household and guard units, some formations also serve as fighting troops! So basically, don't laugh and point at them when you check them out :)

The Basilica is really impressive, it has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world, holding 60,000 people. 
I know what you think: YES! football games could be organised inside!

We didn't go in as the queue was simply massive, and we didn't feel like waiting half a day to get in. If you want to go there, get in the queue as early as you can (think about trying to get a ticket at Wimbledon on a saturday or get an i-Phone 4 before everybody else...).

See for yourselves!


We found a few minutes to post some letters. It is thought that many Romans make weekly trips to the Vatican just to post their important letters, as the Italian post is quite unreliable. Italian stamps may not be used on Vatican mail nor vice versa. It is believed that more letters are sent each year, per inhabitant, from the Vatican's postal code than from anywhere else in the world. 
It doesn't really come as a surprise when you think that the Vatican has a population of just over 800 and that 4.5 million tourists visit the Vatican every year!


We then walked across Rome to end up at the train station to go back to the airport to meet Marion and Johannes to drive to Castiglione.

Rome is a beautiful city. Castel San Angelo, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Forum, The Coliseum... So many great sites. We stayed there for a day, but it was not enough to see it all.

Go there! It was a real surprise for us (mainly Thomas, as it was his first time there), as we are not big fans of crowds and touristic places. :)



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