Europe Odyssey 2010 (3)-Reminiscent of the "Eternal City"-Rome & Vatican

Feel free to read my previous Europe Odyssey write up on London Europe Odyssey 2010-London and Paris Europe Odyssey-Paris.

Now is the continuation from my last post on this trip of a life time to Europe, the final destination being Rome, which is also known as the "Eternal City" and the Vatican City.

We started our journey early in the morning to take our Ryanair flight from Paris Beauvais Airport. The flight took about around 2 hours with nice weather throughout the flight to Rome. It was a nice advantage travelling during the Summer time in Europe as the day-hours are longer and generally the weather will be good for sightseeing and traveling around.

Our plane at the airport.....was so excited at this moment as we were about to visit another new country which all this while had only been dreamed about......

 

Entering Rome's airspace..if you look closely at the middle part of this picture you can see the Colosseum ..........

finally landed at Rome's Ciampino Airport. Afterwards we took the airport shuttle for a 45 minutes ride to the city.

I was really caught in awe with the sights of many historical buildings in Rome, it was as if all the buildings in the city had been built since 100 years ago and still maintained in good and tenantable condition. It was hard to see any signs of modern designs in the city itself. We checked into the Acropoli Hotel, which was located near to the Termini Bus and Rail Station. As the daylight time was long and it wont be until 9pm till it's dark, we quickly settled into our room, left our back and went out to wander around the city.

If you are an avid architectural lover, you must come to Rome and see all these magnificent buildings your self. The buildings are like pieces of art on their own and i can understand why people would come to Rome just for the buildings and nothing else...well maybe for its foods in addition......

The next day, we took a tour of the city and the interesting places with Viator Tour http://www.viator.com/.

This is the Victor Emmanuel Monument located right in the heart of the city........very magnificent looking and gigantic. One would wonder in amazement of the ability of the people in the past to build such a building with their limited equipments and non-modern tools.

This monument was built to commemorate the first king of the unified Italy, King Victor Emanuel II.

Some relics of the ancient Rome..........

We finally arrived at the Colosseum.........

 

This building was built as an arena for gladiator fightings. There are 3 levels of viewing terraces. Take note that it may take you sometimes to enter this building as the que will be long.

As the summer heat started to leave stinging effect on our skin, we decided to hop on to our bus again and to just enjoy the city views on board.........

The next day we took a bus from Termini Station to Vatican City, it cost around 1 Euro only....

St Peter's Square and the Basilica..........

To climb up to the Dome, you will be charged a small fee, nevertheless it was worth the climb as you will get the full view of Vatican from here.......

the Swiss Guard...not particularly friendly though........but i like their uniform :)

The next day we dragged our feet to the airport for our flight back to London and thereafter to KL. It marked the end of our 8 days Euro trip with journey across thousand miles. What i liked the most out of this experience is that ive gained new exposures of the way of life of the people at the other parts of the world and knowing the fact that each place have different way of living and surely different things and experiences on offer. Ironically enough, we are still living in the same planet but most people just don't do much to know the other parts of the world except those of their own. I would love to venture further into the known and the unknown to satisfy my curiosity and to please the adventurer's instinct of mine-Kay2011