That night I hung out at the hostel and was super tired from the long train ride but still met some friends from Denmark. All very nice and super inviting for me to join there group, like I said people are all trying to be friendly and meet new people.
Woke up Thursday morning and headed off down some streets looking at my map every time I felt like I was lost. I was very frequently but came acress some beautiful churches and cathedrals. My first stop planning to be the Colloseum. I stood in line for 1 hour and decided to get a guided tour with the entry. The guided tour allowed me to see the 3rd floor where the poor people and women sat during the games as well as the basement where they housed the animals to prepare for fights. I could not believe my eyes at the work that they had to endure in the 60-80AD to complete a project of this size. As I have just graduated from Engineer School I could not imagine working in thosE conditions and the thought that it is still standing today. Astounding.
Anyway I saw the roman forum and Palestine hill full of old ruins and making my way to Vittoriano, Trevi fountain (throw one coin to come back to Rome, throw two to find love) I didn't throw any becuase I heard that Rome makes on average 10,000 euro a day from all the coins tossed in and I didn't have any, but saw the Pantheon and it's ginormous columns, and piazza Navona and it's 3 massive fountains. I didn't make it home till after dark getting lost many times but always finding my way. I did a few calculations and I think I walked about 12 miles that day. That night my friend Ryan that I met in Vienna happened to be in my hostel again so we grabbed some food and hung out at the hostel.
Friday we began by heading towards the Vatican not knowing what to expect, seeing St. Angelo castelo, which has a tunnel from the Vatican for the pope to flea in case of danger, the Spanish steps, and piazza de Popolo which houses the church of Santa Maria of Popolo. All beautiful. We walked next to the absolute filthy river and got to the Vatican. The Vatican being it's own country and smallest in the world but housing the largest basilica, St. Peter's. Ryan and myself both bought 5 euro tickets to climb the 552 stairs to reach the top of the basilica the view amazing and seeing how large the city of rome actually is. We also saw the inside which was the largest building and pillars I have ever seen. Such a beautiful peace of work. Both tired we walked the 4 miles back to take a quick nap and to meet up for dinner.
I walked to the Vatican museum the next day in a light drizzle happy that it was clear the day before. The tour guide here costs 32 euro so I decided to opt out. Inside was so much art and sculpture I had no idea what I was looking at(might have helped to have a tour guide) but kept chugging along standing by tour groups as often as I could to listen and find out what was going on. I'm sure I looked really funny. I finally came across the Sistine chapel and was nothing what I expected. It did not seem like a chapel at all but a huge room of annoying tourists. So I didn't spend much time here and no pictures were allowed but I did get one! I'm a bad boy.
I went back to the hostel and met up with Ryan and an Aussie and we hung at the bar before meeting some fellow Americans in the navy. They talked us into coming to a club where we got VIP again into the club skipping lines and everything else. They were some great guys and I thanked them many times for there work. We all got back to the hostel at 5 am. The next day I was super tired I planned my next few days and went to a church and just went and chilled in the plaza in front of it because of the beautiful weather and it's massiveness. That night Ryan and myself took it easy as we were tired and I had talked him into coming with me to Cinque Terre!
Monday morning I woke up got my things together checked out and was waiting for Ryan I had to break into his room to wake him up before we took off for our train. Te train was long and slow but we got to La Spezia were we got off. Here a kid named Chris (Germany) asked us if we knew of any hostels or places to stay we said yeah follow us. We went got some food and caught a bus to Biassa where our hostel was located. We had a very early night after playing some uno.
The next mornig we caught another bus ten minutes through a tunnel to Rammagiore which is the most southern town of the 5 Cinque Terre towns. We walked around touched the Mediterranean Sea and hoped on the train for 2 minutes to Manorola ( hiking path was closed due to mudslide). Here we began our 8 mile hike up vertical mountains to each of the other 3 cites that remain. It took us 6 hours, 2 bags of cookies, and a lot of water before we finished in Monterroso.
The hike was absolutely gorgeous and we went in the off season so we were some of the only people on the trail. Making me feel like I was back home. We caught a train back to Rammagiorre where we ate our first real meal of the day and got the bus back to hostel at 8.
That night Ryan talked me into joining him to Dublin for St. Paddys day since i talked him into cinque Terre. So we booked flights played some Uno and went to bed feeling exhausted.
So now we are training to Interlaken Switzerland for two nights then catching a flight to Dublin to celebrate with all my Irish ancestors(if I have any).
Here are some pics as many of them don't do justice for what the naked eye can see.
This is on the platform that once stood the floor where they fought
Buncha old things
Old chariot racing grounds
Looking down as we climb to the top
The path no more then 2 feet wide
The sites are crazy and had a ball getting to know Chris and Ryan and hiking up and down the crazy hills that the locals did up to 1874 when the first train connected them to the surrounding cities
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