I am not Audrey Hepburn and other life lessons I learnt in Rome.

15/06/2011 – 19/06/2011

I may be a hopeless romantic in fiction but when it comes to real life I am not really a fan of any kind of romance. Well OK, that's probably an understatement... actually if anything romantic happens around me I shut my eyes, cover my ears and start to hum until it all goes away. If any kind of romantic gesture actually involves me I run as fast as I can in any direction that gets me the hell away from it, and I mean that quite literally. There is a point to this I promise and it's not just a warning to anyone stupid enough to try to date me. No, the point is that in Rome I might be able to understand those silly romantic gestures.

It really is a very ROMAntic city (pun totally intended). If I ever broke my no dating rule enough to actually marry someone (of course I would have to find someone that was willing to marry me first) then I would want to come to Rome for my honeymoon. Everyone goes on and on about Paris being the city of love, and while I liked Paris and enjoyed my time there I think that Rome is where you need to be if your looking for that special romantic holiday.

Enough of romantic ideals lets talk about my travel adventures... of which there are not that many (or at least none I can publish on the internet for the world, and more importantly my mum, to see).

I had to get up super early in order to make my flight from London on Wednesday morning, and I arrived at the airport in plenty of time, yet I somehow still managed to be the last one on the plane. It's a unique skill, my ability to fail at the simplest of tasks. On the plus side though, once you have done the 24hr trip from Sydney to London, the 2hrs it takes to get to Rome is easy. I only needed one G&T to survive and I arrived in Rome relatively calm and sober.

The calm thing did not last that long because I soon realised that I don't understand a word of Italian. I don't even know the numbers – which meant we got lost a couple of times on the way out of the airport. Don't worry, we found our way out and onto the train, soon enough we had made it all the way into Rome and even found our hotel. You can applaud my skills if you wish, I am pretty awesome.

Touristing... Day One.

We did the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour and to be honest I wouldn't recommend it, for Rome at least. In London it's different, it's easy to get around and adds to the experience, the bus its self has become a tourist attraction. In Rome it just felt a bit tacky. The streets of Rome are beautiful, the mish-mash of architecture and the occasional ancient ruin mean that just walking the sides streets is an experience in its self. While I was riding around on the bus, being fed facts that I already knew I just couldn't love the city. When I finally got off the bus and began walking my way through the city from the the Wedding Cake to the Trevi Fountain I fell in love.

Side note – smooth marble is not so good to walk on for those of us that have trouble keep balance... so stairs made out of the stuff are a nightmare. I may or may not have fallen on my ass. Also cobbled streets don't help much either. Therefore while I think walking is the best way to see the city I also think that it's a tad dangerous (that's not even considering attempting to negotiate the Roman traffic).

I went to the Trevi Fountain, threw my coin in (only one, I want to come back but I don't want any of this falling in love nonsense) and then got some gellato... it was all very Italian (or least what the movies make me think is Italian). The fountain is pretty, I would really like to go back and see it at night. Also pretty sure it would be a nice place to make out – very romantic, you know if you're into that kind of thing.

Dinner was pasta, as you do. SO MANY CARBS! If I wasn't walking so much I would return home even bigger then when I left (two seats on the plane I think). It's also really cool that you can get half a litre of the house wine for like 4 Euro and it tastes awesome. Next time I come to Rome I am coming with someone who likes to drink, because while I shared my wine with a girl I met in the hostel (please don't ask me her name, I'm not going to remember) I would have liked to have continued to drink this cheap tasty wine into the wee hours of the morning.

Oh and the Hostel is pretty good, simple but clean and that's all you need really. Breakfast kind of sucked, but it kept me going till I could load up on pizza and pasta at lunch and dinner.

Rinse and repeat – Day Two

Sleep in a bit too late – by that I mean hang out in my bed a bit too long because I actually woke up at 6am like a crazy person. Very productive though, booked a tour for the afternoon, unfortunately back on the horrid bus for the morning. Bus was good because we rode it up the hill then alighted pretty close to the Scalinata Di Spanathe aka the not-so-Spanish Steps (on account of they were built by a Frenchmen for the French church that sits atop them) and wow.

If I wasn't in love with city before then, I was most certainly was when I saw this view. I could have spent hours up there just gazing at the city below. The good news is I didn't even fall down the smooth slippery steps. This is a pretty big achievement for me because I was sure I would fall on my ass in front of the thousands of tourists watching from above.

Walked from the not-so-Spanish Steps down through the heart of Rome ending up at Piazza Novona for some pizza and wine then met up with the tour guide.

I enjoyed the tour, the guide was personable and had lots of interesting things to say I probably could have done all the things we did on my own. I have enough historic understanding to be know where I was and what it was used for and I wish I could have had more time to explore the Colosseum and the Forum, maybe even walk up Palestine Hill. Also my camera ran out of batterie so I didn't get any pictures from inside the Colosseum. I know I should have charged it, but I'm flaky its one of my most annoying and redeeming traits. Of course you are all excited about the fact that your facebook newsfeed isn't clogged up by the thousands of photos I inflict on you every day.

Hi my name is Yvonne and I am a photo addict.

I did meet some nice people on the tour though so it was good for that. Also discovered that offering to take a photo for someone is a good way to get a convocation started – oh and my stupid hybrid accent confuses people.

No dinner this evening, grabbed a snack at the supermarket and headed to the hostel for an early night... big day tomorrow.

Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum – Day Three

Day trip to Pompeii – up super early, out the door and down the road to meet the bus. It's a lot further from Rome then I expected it to be. It took about 3 hours to get from the centre of Rome to the Ancient ruins of Pompeii.

I wasn't really fussed to go, because even though I studied ancient history I find the whole idea of visit the deathbed of so many people kind of morbid. It was alright though, there were so many people crowded around any of the body casts that I didn't have to see anything – I could just stand back and judge all of the people that were pushing their way to the front of the crowd to get a picture of the poor people who lost their lives in that disaster.

I can't really say much about what I did when I finally stumbled my butt back to Rome – it's pretty far away, especially on the way back.

That night... nothing much happened really. I had a very satisfying dinner, I mean it really hit the spot. I guess I was really hungry from my big day out.

If Jesus does come back I bet he will sell out St Paul's Basilica...

I went to the Vatican and I Vatican't even walk anymore – see even my puns are tired. I know god is probably gonna smite me but I really didn't think it was worth all the trouble. I'm not a particularly religious person so I didn't have any kind of special connection to the place and I'm not really the biggest fan of renaissance art. So while I appreciated the history and beauty of the place I don't think I will go back. Although I will probably go back and see St Paul's Basilica, it is seriously epic. I mean epic doesn't even begin to cover it. It's a church you could fit an entire city in. It's the kind place that could almost make me believe in some kind of higher power.

My sister would be excited to see the number of Jesus's that are scattering the place – I wanted to buy some rosaries but I fell like if it turns out there is a god he would judge me even worse for my insolence. I figured I should tackle some of the important theological questions while I was in there, because that's just what you do.

Oh and Michelangelo's ceiling is very lovely, well done to him. I'm just not all that keen on renaissance art, like I said.

And now off to Florence...

Stay tunes for more boring and uneventful adventures.


Von, xx