38. THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE ROME

It's been a week since I came home from Italy. Gosh, Italy was...AMAZING!

It was a midnight flight from the KLIA. It was my first time on the plane with the new sky-trax seats. Coolness~ I likey! The seat inclines all the way, 180°, flat! There are like 20 buttons to control the seat to your comfort. And each seat has a lot of privacy. Mom and I had the seats which were closest to each other, and we were about half a meter away from each other. And about a meter in front of our seats, there's another small little seat. When the main seat inclines, the legrest of the main seat joins with this little seat, making the bed longer. So cool huh? I must have looked tired because as soon as the plane was cruising steadily, the stewardess handed me a pair of complimentary pyjamas and when I came back from the washroom, my seat was already a bed, lined with a red checkered comforter, and a yellow quilt, and a big fluffy pillow sat on the head of the bed. Oh, I fell asleep almost instantly. 10 hours later, I was awoken by the stewardess tapping on my shoulder. Breakfast 2 hours before we landed. Geez, I didn't even have time to meddle with the in-flight entertainment. Next time huh~

We arrived at 5am, checked into the hotel at 7, and caught the 8 'o clock shuttle bus to the city, which was 15 mins away from the hotel. Pretty okay. The first place we went to was to the ruined city, located right next to the drop-off point.

First picture of me in Rome! These are the steps leading to the ruined city. Yes, that statue's naked.Second picture of me in Rome! Yes, that statue's also naked. Okay I'll cut it short. 8 out of 10 statues in Italy are all naked and showing their prunes. It seemed like a big deal at first, but when you've seen a hundreds of them, you'll be like, "Oh yeah, yours is definitely bigger than the previous one, what's his name? Caesar?" Haha~ No kidding! Anyway, presenting.... The ruined city! (Well, there's a name for it, I just don't know, so I'm sticking with 'The Ruined City')

This is the entrance. Just look at the carvings. The whole thing is made out of marble! Italian marble people! Holy cow~

This is why I called it the ruined city. Don't you think it's a nice name? You can see a lot of pillar bases. This was probably once a city of administration.

See? Huge random pillars are still standing. That's why they don't allow anyone into this place if there are strong winds. The pillars might just fall. Woo~

OMG I love this picture! Large pieces and boulders of marble with the sun in the background. Just beautiful!

Gorgeous~ How on Earth did those Romans manage to build such big buildings without cranes and such building machines?

It might not look like it, but this building here stands over 30 meters tall! I was standing right in front of it, so it was rather hard to get a picture. I had to put my camera on the floor with the lens facing upwards.

This is a part of the ruined city which had signs of buildings that were not made of marble. Hahah~ This was probably the living quarters or something lower class.

We then exited the city through an arch similar to that of where we entered from, walked down a straight pathway and then..... I saw it..

I know I look like an idiot, but hey~ Who cares? It's the Coliseum damn it! It was freakin' huge! Standing 50 meters high! Bloody hell! It was like as though I was in a movie! Ahh!!! *screams* We didn't go inside because the queue was horribly long. Kinda regret it now. Like, how many chances do I have to see the Coliseum? Oh, nevermind. We walked around the amphitheater and I saw this..
Wahhh! Bahayanya! Sudah mau pecah!! It was collapsing, so they filled in the arch. Imagine if the unfilled arches started to collapse. Gosh, pieces of marbles dropping from the sky! Yes, the Coliseum is made of marble as well! Cool huh? The Coliseum has this part which looks as though it has collapsed. It didn't. The columns of marbles were actually stolen. Gah!

This here is Tomb of the Milite Ignoto (Unknown Soldier) in Piazza Venezia, also made of marble. Gosh, compared to our Tugu Negara, this building is easily a thousand times larger than our national monument. The picture I have here shows only the main (middle) building. There are 2 more parts, an East and a West wing, which are each about half the size of the main building! Wahhh!!



Next stop, the Basilica of Saint Peter! Don't ask me what's a Basilica, I don't know. I think it's a very very large church! Lol. This is the largest church in Christendom and is often used by the Pope. No, I didn't see the Pope. The inside of the basilica is unbelievably huge. It's not a super big church. It's more like a lot of churches joined together. There are many service, mass, and prayer halls, some of which did not allow us to take photographs.

It's just impossible to describe the massiveness of this place in my blog! What else can I say? It was HUGE!

Right in front of the basilica is Saint Peter's Square. It's quite empty right now. But during festive days (like Christmas), this place is filled with people crowding around shoulders to shoulders.. Probably waiting to be blessed by the Pope.

An hour's walk from the basilica is the Pantheon! Yet, another HUGE church.
It's a dome-shaped church with a hole in the middle. So.. Where does the water go when it rains? Aha! Some of the marble on the floor have 4 holes in the middle of them to drain away the water! Lol.. Kinda cute. Then daddy took us to walk in some back alley... The back alleys are different from ours. They have shops in their back alleys. And then suddenly... This appeared..

Like OMG! The Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) is located in the middle of... back alleys. Lol~
No joke!

And I don't get this place, the Spanish Steps. Why are there so many people here? There's nothing here! Everyone just sit on the steps and hang out~ Some smooch, others just chat. Weird. Oh, right in front of these steps is a street... Prolly the high class street. Designer labels such as Prada, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Mont Blanc.. ahh, you get the idea. That lane is their territory! I noticed that many Japanese people were shopping there. Garr, rich bitches! Haha~

Then, after 8 hours of non-stop walking, we decided to go back to the hotel. There would be a shuttle bus arriving at 4:15. It was already 4 and we were like half a mile away from the pick-up point. If we ran, we could make it on time but we were just too tired to hasten our pace. Alas, we missed the bus.. and had to wait an hour and a half before it came by again.

The sun began to set.. We just sat around and I took a picture of the nearby aphitheatre. It's not the Coliseum. It's a lot smaller.

Got back to the hotel and went to bed after a quick shower. I think I slept at around seven. I guess it's okay to sleep early since I would need to wake up before sunrise the next day, I could use the rest.

I shall continue on my second day in Italy in my next post~

Until then, Merry Christmas and may you all have a Happy New Year!