The first thing that I did was hide under the blankets in my room as the early morning was quite chilly and I was still suffering from my cold / chest infection.
The second thing I did was take a slow plod down the road, snapping pictures as I went, to see some of the big ruins in the centre of city that were next door to the hour long 5D experience of Rome.
The ruins turned out to be part museum and quite empty of other tourists which was good despite them being still in very good condition, although perhaps it was that they were not as important as the colossium.
I did spot a nice restaurant that overlooked the ruins and thought it would be a lovely place to stop and have a coffee or a light snack, but even preparing myself to how expensive it was likely to be I was still shocked at how much extra they had hiked up the price and I doubt I would have chosen to stay even if they had a happy hour and slashed their prices in half.
The 5D experience was very cool and well worth the EU $9, after taking the discount voucher from the hotel. Being fairly tight with my budget I missed out the classic 3D extra film, but the even the normal film included going back through time and also a mini roller coaster style seating so while you viewed you moved with it so I guess in the end I only did a 4D but thats me.
What I wasnt expecting was that when it rained in the movie the sprinklers from above let out tiny jets of water and when it showed rats swarming over the place they had special wires in the seats that shot up your leg and gave your the eeriest feeling I have ever had in a musuem. It is amazing the power that the mind has over the body, especially if it has visual or audio help it can convince you of just about anything.
The film was also quite informative going back to the birth of Rome with the twins and the wolf, the erection of the Colossium right down through the ages, even including the birth of the Renaissance and the painting of the sisteen chapel.
After finding a much more affordable place to have my very first Italian Pizza I made my way via the subway to the stop where the Vatican City is, only to end up getting caught up and following a crowd that I realised before anyone else that whoever was leading was probably not actually going to Vatican as we were not going in the right direction.
Leaving the ignorant masses at a corner I checked my map and then after taking a mini detour to take some photos of the fort that was very nearby I corrected my trajectory and headed off to visit the Pope and see if he was in.
When I arrived I saw how magnificent the place was, with a ring of pillars four deep perfectly erected and topped with statues, with a few fountainns all leading up to the main building. I also saw the other tourists, waiting in line to get inside, or at least I tried to see but the line was so long that by the end going into the building they seemed too small to be people, more like ants from an airplane window and so feeling stupid I just gave up as I had no desire to wait two hours or more in a line just to see the inside of a church and a well painted ceiling.
It was my own fault, I had been reliably informed with plenty of time in advance and yet had chosen to ignore it, so this should have been expected, but it was still a minor dissapointment.
When the few spots of rain fell I almost hoped for a downpour to scare away the others, but it didnt last, so much so in fact that soon I almost doubted I had felt anything at all and wondered if it was all in my imagination or not.
Truly giving up I headed back to my hotel where I crashed for a couple of hours before heading out into the early evening to grab a bite to eat and try a movie in the nearby cinema. Having already had my two top favourite Italian meals it was time to try the Spaghetti and I was a bit deflated when I couldnt find any with mince, so I had to order a mini three course in order to get my daily ration of meat.
Just before heading off to watch Gran Torino I got chatting to a friendly Aussie and then was most annoyed at the Italians for not putting any adverts or trailers on before the movie, either that or for starting the film before the time as I was no more than two minutes later than the time on the ticket and already the film was in full flow.
It was a good film and a sad film, with not the ending I was expecting at all, but when I left out I found that I was in a very happy mood and was even hoping, skipping and spinning around as I walked back to my hotel room.
Having already made my plan to travel to the airport tomorrow night, as it was the only way of reaching the check in desk at that early hour in the morning, I decided to get a good nights sleep and also figured that tomorrow I would do as little as possible as I would be carrying around my rucksack for the whole day.
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