Roma!! Ancient Rome before my eyes...

I used to wonder how life in ancient rome would be like everytime i read books about the roman empire, its emperors, or watched gladiator for that matter. So i was at my touristy best again, snapping pictures left and right trying to capture as much of it as possible. And to start off here's a symbol of ancient roman might- the colosseum


The mighty colloseum in Rome. It has the same seating capacity as Bukit Jalil stadium...70,000 people. 



Build in rememberence of all the Christians who were matryed by Emperor Nero. 



A view inside the colosseum. With me in it, of course :P 



The arch of Constantine. Emperor Constantine. No, not that comic book character. Build to celebrate some victory. Quite a few around Rome. 




The Roman Forum. Words fail me when i look at the size of the ruins that are left.  



Victor Emmanuel II Monument. Under that giant statue in the middle is the tomb of the unknown soldier. Its guarded but troops so forget about taking pictures with it. But anyways, its there as a tribute to all the italian soldiers who died in world war 1 and were unable to receive a proper burial. 



Steps leading up to Capitoline Hill in both directions. On the left is a church, and on the right is some musuems.  



The Spanish steps. Shortly after taking this picture, it started raining cows and buffalloes and wouldn't stop for an hour. 




Casa D S'Angelo - Castle of the angel. Story goes that Rome was once suffering from a terrible plague throughout the city. The pope lead a procession(or something like that) to pray to God to ask for the plague to be lifted off the city. People then saw and angel coming down to the roof of the castle and sheating his sword, as a sign that grace had been granted to the city. Interesting indeed. 



The baths of caracala. Looks fascinating from the outside but a real dissapointment. Ranks 2nd worst behind Pisa as the bogeys of the trip. 


I guess no trip to Rome will be complete without a visit to the Vatican. I wouldn't forgive myself if i did. (Although in truth i missed a free entry into the sistine chapel and the vatican musuem due to a slight oversight about the opening times of the two places...blearrggghh!). So here's a little bit of the Vatican City



View from atop the Vatican, St Peter's Basilica. Right in the middle is an Eygptian Obelisk. The statues at the bottom of the picture are atatues of Jesus and the 12 disciples. 



Inside St Peter's. My jaw was gaping open for the 2 hours that i was walking inside. I closed it after that for the sake of decency. 



A small portion of the ceiling in the cathedral. 



I wish i could add some commentary to this picture but i really cant remember what is it. Its in the cathedral though...ehehe...sowieee. 



A guard outside the vatican. Interestingly enough, to qualify as a guard for the pope, you need to be swiss, catholic, male and some other stuff. You get to wear nice uniform though =) 


Okies....that was rome in pictures. Took many more shots, but not all of them came out well, so i decided not to put them up (Mainly due to the fact that it would be a pain to put up all 300 pictures!). Venice, Florence, Pisa and Pompeii are here too, so scroll down and take a look see. Thanks for visiting folks! Will upload pics of Sabah soon!