ROME & VATICAN CITY
after waking up at 5 am on christmas eve to catch our flight and flying 14 hours, we arrived in rome early christmas morning. although fatigue was written all over my face, i still anticipated my first encounter with europe in excitement. our tour guide had already informed us that he'll be arriving a couple hours behind (he's based out of toronto so he also needed to fly in), and he had arranged for a local tour bus to pick us up and send us to the hotel. ok, that's understandable.
when we got to the hotel around 9:45 am, the front desk told us that our rooms wouldn't be ready until after noon. now what do we do? well, the hotel had a vacant function room for us to temporarily store our luggage and freshen up. but there still wouldn't be anything for us to do because the hotel wasn't close to the city center, and since it was christmas day, nothing was open (not even the mcdonalds next to the hotel).
luckily, after 30 mins, the rooms became available. BUT, we got an update that the guide wouldn't arrive at the hotel until 2 pm. so again, what do we do? well, now that we have a room, we decided to take a power nap before the tour guide joined us.
after nap time, we took a quick lunch at the hotel restaurant before meeting up the guide. we ordered seafood risotto which was quite tasty~ this was the first positive thing that happened within our first 5 hours in rome!
our guide, eric, finally showed up at 2:30 pm along with our bus, our driver mario, and the rest of the tourists. we wasted a few hours of our trip, but i guess the other people who arrived later were less fortunate because they didn't have a chance to rest or drop off their luggage, and were sent straight to sight-seeing.
anyway...
our first stop: saint peter's square in vatican city
in front of saint peter's square
traditional swiss guards at the sistine chapel
greek architecture of the sistine chapel
the Pietà, a marble sculpture by michel- angelo, depicts the virgin mary cradling the dead body of Jesus
the interior of the sistine chapel
we were told that vatican city has its independent postal system, and that if we were to wait and mail our postcards in rome, the mail would get a rome seal instead of one stamped by the vatican
earlier that day, Pope Benedict XVI had given his christmas greetings at this square.
next stop: colosseum in rome
local apartment building
many italian locals display a ladder-climbing santa on their windows
colosseum in the evening
many cars were parked on the streets of rome, mostly hatch-backs
trevi fountain looked amazing at night, and still filled with lots of people
hope everyone's christmas wishes came true!
many cars were parked on the streets of rome, mostly hatch-backs
trevi fountain looked amazing at night, and still filled with lots of people
hope everyone's christmas wishes came true!
one thing that i must mention...
some meals were included as part of the tour package. eric took us to a chinese restaurant for dinner this night, and that was the WORST chinese food i've ever had. i would rather have panda express than to eat there ever again. do not ever go to Lon Fon chinese restaurant (龍鳳) when you're in rome!! actually, just don't eat chinese food in rome... period.
this concludes day 1 of my europe trip.
will day 2 be better?
keep reading :)
some meals were included as part of the tour package. eric took us to a chinese restaurant for dinner this night, and that was the WORST chinese food i've ever had. i would rather have panda express than to eat there ever again. do not ever go to Lon Fon chinese restaurant (龍鳳) when you're in rome!! actually, just don't eat chinese food in rome... period.
this concludes day 1 of my europe trip.
will day 2 be better?
keep reading :)
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