Rome
Posted by Martin Orr on Monday, 14 August 2006 at 11:58
Rome is huge - everything always takes longer to walk than you expect. There are so many things to see that even without that there would have been lots I wanted to see but didn't have time to. Fortunately I did have three full days which was probably the minimum time worth anything. The things to see are also very varied, with lots of ancient ruins as well as many more recent things (indeed most Roman churches seem to be a couple of hundred years newer than those in the north of Italy).
The queue for the Vatican Museums two or three times longer than the one in Florence but it moved much faster and only took 45 minutes. These museums are huge and have lots worth seeing (the most famous being the Sistine Chapel, but I preferred the Raphael Rooms) but they close early on Saturdays and I only got 2.5 hours inside - I could have spent much longer.
Centuries of Christians have quite a lot to answer for in their treatment of their Roman ruins - many have been turned into churches or had statues stuck on top of them. I suppose this does at least preserve the buildings; many other ancient buildings had their stones removed to build things like St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
Now in: Belfast
-- Martin