Roma, Italy

Hi everyone!! :)

It has been busy here.
We have entered Rome, seen the colosseum and visited the catacombs.
We also have seen Constantines Arch as well as things like the Trevi Fountain, the Vatican and the spanish steps. Here is the recount.

 Tuesday
We woke up late while Mum and Dad went and moved  the car. They have a policy that between 10pm to 8am have free parking in the  blue lined  parking lots. In between 8am and 10pm during the day, you have to pay if you are in the blue parking lots. If you are pivarked in a white parking lot you dont have to pay kannyedat all. After parking the car, Mum and dad came back to our apartment to check on us. Well, as you might expect, we were still lying in bed slacking off and sleeping. Mum and Dad decided to let us be for a while and went shopping.
When they returned, we went to the Colosseum and went inside it. It was fascinating and you could see the setting of the movie Gladiator and of Ben Hur. It was not like what everyone tells you. It is pretty good but might be a bit exaggerated. We walked up to the Piazza Venetia which is a large monument with horses and statues. There were ruins and other old things that were surrounded by fences. We walked all the way up this path to find it was a dead end. It was all uphill too! :) There was a church at the end ( Roman catholic) and we went in there for a bit.  We went to a supermarket and bought some lunch. We ate it next to some ruins and we also found a fountain that constantly flows outside our house. There are heaps of them in rome. Everybody uses them as well! On the side of the road were some men and women spray painting little images. They turned out to be remarkably good. There was an "Egypitian Mummy" that stood still for almost a full five hours. It looked like a statue. Our poor old legs felt like jelly so we decided to head home. We had a sound sleep with dad performing remarkably well on the trumpet.

 Wednesday
We woke up this morning to the sound of an alarmed roster due to Emilys phone alarm. We decided to take the bus to save our legs the really long walk. We first went to the Trevi Fountain where people throw a coin into the water and make a wish. It looked pretty snazy and well kept. We then travelled to the Spanish Steps. They weren't very impressive and they were a bit of a letdown but we saw some pretty good paintings at the very top. There was one man who had been painting for 52 years. Emily was impressed and even bought a piece of his art.
We then travelled on to the metro to travel to the Vatican city. On the top of the Vatican building are all statues. It was pretty good. Afterwards, we went down the street. On the streets were quite a few shops and stalls selling souvenirs or clothing and we noticed that many sold the same sort of things. Hanna and Em searched some of the clothing stalls and tried to find dresses without much luck. We then searched and searched for a Mc Donalds but could not find any. Then, I Steven, in my sorrow went and sat down, started to cry and that is when i saw the Mc Donalds sign.It was too expensive there but we did get a pizza from a pizzeria. It tasted good despite the 10 minute or so wait. We then caught the metro to the bus station to get back home. After a bit of searching, we found our bus and were homeward bound. We got home, had lunch and prepared to go to the catacombs. We caught a bus as close as we could and then followed a German man to the catacombs. We bought tickets and headed down with the tour. Along the tour, I went down one of the side passages and had a look. Afraid of getting lost i raced back to the main tunnel and almost gave a stranger  heart attack. We cracked up laughing and then followed the Guide lady. We ended up at the end of the tour above ground in St Sebastianos basilica and  left it with disgust - everything in it was very people centred, focussing on the dead 'saints', images of Jesus, decorations, candles and so on, rather than focussing on Christ, His death, and the fact that He is our Saviour. We caught the bus almost to our door step and then here i am writing this blog. Dad, Hanna and Em and currently doing shopping and Mum is doing dishes. Hoons on motorbikes and in cars are flogging past and so are trams and busses. We've also noticed quite a few ambulances driving through the city; unfortunately they seem to have very annoying sirens - droning and whining.

Lots of love and wish you were all here with us. God has been gracious to us and we have not had any injuries. We are thankful for that. Also the weather has been in our favour. What a blessing that is. This is all for now.

Love From us all
Dad, Mum, Emily, Hanna-lee and Steven signing off.