Yep, 12 hours later we are still on the plane! And yes we did get some sleep along with visits to the toilet and walks and stretches to ease the aching bodies. It was night time outside the plane for what seemed a very a very long time. Breakfast was served at about 5ish which consisted of fruit, yogurt, juice, bread roll & jam, omelette with chicken sausage, mushrooms & potatoes, muffin and coffee! The sun finally made an appearance and we arrived in Rome at about 7.45am.
Well, Rome airport is a very different sight to Singapore. Smaller, older and nowhere as clean. We did notice there were some pretty major building works going on, perhaps new terminals? We actually exited the plane via steps onto the tarmac and then were transported via bus back to the main terminal. Unlike Singapore where we had a private transfer, this time we were in a small mini bus with 3 other tourists. A couple from Germany along with a lady traveling on her own from South Australia. It would appear that we may be on the same tour as her, guess we will find out on Sunday.
The journey from the airport was great to start with, then got hairier and hairier as we got closer to the city. It appears to be everyman for himself on the roads. There are a huge amount of bikes (vespa's) and generally only small cars (smart cars) and the idea is to basically keep in your lane, but squeeze in and out of traffic wherever you can. Don't worry about cutting anyone off, everyone does it. Pedestrian crossings are just lines on the road, does not mean that pedestrians will get right of way. Give way signs are there, however your choice if you do give way or not. Parking of cars and bikes has to be seen to believed! They seem to park wherever they want, 2 abreast, on corners, on pedestrian crossings, so close to the one in front that it will be impossible for either one to get out without damaging one or the other. Talking on the phone while driving is as bad here as it is back home, at one stage, our driver had two phones going at the same time as driving us in what appeared to be peak hour traffic!
We arrived and checked into our Hotel Oxford, but had about 5 hours to kill before the room would be ready. So off we headed to explore the chaotic city of Rome. It is amazing to see how many other people were doing just that as well as us. So many people walking around with map in one hand and camera in the other.
We happened upon the worlds most famous staircase 'The Spanish Steps" without realising we were there! Apparently in the 19th Century the steps were famous for sleek young men and women who lined the travertine steps flexing muscles and exposing ankles in the hope of attracting an artist an being hired as a model! As this is one of the 'tourist' attractions of Rome, many, many, many people were here taking photographs.
We found a McDonald's so had a quick bite to eat (actually I ate, Michael drank) while we got our bearings on exactly where we were and where we needed to be. We wanted to get to the first stop of the Hop On, Hop Off City Bus Tour. This journey took a couple of hours to do a complete circuit around the city, taking in most of the attractions you would expect to see. We really just wanted to get an overview of where things were as would do things in more detail over the next few days.
We headed back to the hotel and finally we were able to have a long overdue shower and change into fresh clothes. Our room here in Rome is vastly different to Singapore. Twin beds, tiny room, but free Wi-fi, so we were able to catch up on emails and facebook messages.
We were absolutely exhausted from the last 24hours traveling and exploring so decided we would head downstairs to the restaurant for a snack meal - being a small pizza to share, and a lemon lime & bitters each - then back up to our 'tiny cabin'. Apparently Michael lasted till 8.30pm but I didn't see 7.45pm!
No comments:
Post a Comment