Friday, February 09, 2007

no work yesterday! i stayed at home the entire day entertained myself with tudou.com shows and dvds. we had a name card of a authentic chicken rice some where in shaanxi road and we all met up at the MRT station nearby just to satisfy our craving for singapore chicken rice. who knows even with the address, we cant find the restaurant :( we cant even get engaged on the restaurant's telephone number on the card. we ate mac in the end..sighhh...

since i have some time now, i shall blog about the super outdated trip to rome.
oh.. finally i downloaded the picasa programme! yea i know everyone's using it since eons ago, cos i was lazy to do it. tried it today and it was so easy! hahha..i've been meddling with photoshop to create my collages. old fashioned me..

Rome Day 1 (31 Dec '06)
mac cafe was our best friend for breakfast at florence. the food there was cheap and good. cuppuccino was fantastic. 1.20 euros for a medium! the pastries were fresh and tasty too! This was our breakfast before taking our train to rome.

It was new year's eve on our first day, so the attractions close at 3pm. we reached there at 1 and we rushed our way to check into our rooms and rushed to the colloseum. lucky we made it there on time, orelse i wont be able to see it before i leave. we were lucky to join in the last english guided tour over there. we paid 30 euros for entrance fees, for the guide and shorter waiting time to get the admission tickets. but we kinda felt cheated after that cos we heard that the entrance fee for the colloseum and palantine hill is only 12 euros. the guide told us that 12euros excludes the hill. nonetheless it was great to have a guide, we had a much clearer picture about the place.


the entire place was flooded with tourists, its obvious in the photos. that's the constantine's arc and some other arcs in the roman forum. arcs were built to celebrate each victory the romans made.

inside the colloseum:
palantine hill, the ruins of some i-forgot-who-emperor's palace. there were orange trees along the pathway. some tourists even took down some of the oranges and ate them.


the ruins, it was like the city centre of ancient rome. i love this view! its magnificent..the metro station in rome. the lines are not as extensive as paris'. we were on foot most of the time, took trains for less than 3 times a day. its very easy to get a free ride on the metro. cos they have their side gate open for those transferring people, but its open for everyone unless there's a guard there to check the tickets. we were free loaders for a couple of rides..hee..
The big fountain: Fontana di Trevi. we tossed coins in there. the instructions were: stand with your back facing the fountain. hold your coin on your right hand and toss over the left shoulder, and wish that you will come back to the eternal city of rome. yea! i want to come back to rome again.
The spanish steps - lots of people there, tourists and locals. the atmosphere felt dangerous too. quite a number of shady people and pickpockets around. there were lots of artists gathered at the top of the steps. we had a portrait each for 40euros. kinda ex right just for the experience of having someone drawing you..S$40 for each piece...*heartache*
more of rome, day 2, in the next post..

belle * 5:07 PM