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June & July 2005

Rome & Vatican City

Jeremy Koh
2005-11-05 11:48:59

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most important place of prayer dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Soon it was time to head back to our hostel to check in. To our horror, the person in charge told us that we couldn't have our beds because the minimum stay was for two days and we were only staying for one night. Fortunately, she made some calls for us and got us an alternative lodging at Roma Inn Youth Hostel, which is just a short walk away. Roma Inn itself was situated along some back alley and there are no signboards or stuff to signify its presence. Instead, we had to look for the unit number. Finally we found it. Roma Inn does not occupy the entire building so we entered the dark interior of the building, and headed to the second storey, which is where Roma Inn is sited. It's front desk is just one small counter in what appears to be the living room of a flat, but the lady manning the desk was quite friendly. We paid �20 each for a bed in the 8-person dormitory. The dormitory itself is very cramped and you hardly had any room to maneuver, but well, we didn't think so much about it. It was already 4 plus in the afternoon and we wanted to explore Rome.

From Roma Inn, we decided to head towards the Coliseum. Roma Inn's location was quite good as it was close to most of the major attractions in Rome. After taking a couple of wrong turns, we finally caught sight of the world-famous Coliseum. Of course we couldn't bypass the opportunity to take pictures of this great historical monument. Meanwhile those who've watched the Hollywood movie Gladiator, would probably know this. The Coliseum, built between AD 72 and AD 90, is an amphitheatre that was once used for gladiator combat. It is capable of seating 50,000 spectators.

We paid �10 for entry to the Coliseum and nearby Palatine Hill. Walking in , we emerged from one the the 80 entrances at ground level into the arena. Underneath the arena in the centre ...