Rome day 4

So it's day 4 and I forgot to set an alarm so spent most of the morning in bed, oops!!! It came to my attention yesterday that I had at least 5 readers and i'm now feeling the pressure to produce the goods. As I havent done anything this morning I will talk briefly about the crazy traffic situation. For anybody thinking about travelling to Rome you should be aware of the traffic situation in order to remain alive. There are two types of crossing in rome, pedestrian crossings and zebra crossings. And there are two types of drivers, those that are actually trying to kill you and those that do a pretty good impression of the first type. First up the pedestrian crossing, the same as in England with one significant difference, the green man doesn't mean that nobody is going to try and kill you. They are safer than the zebra crossings but it's a false sense of security. The zebra crossings are marked in the same way as the ones in England however, cars will not stop to allow you to cross and normally they won't stop whilst your crossing until the very last minute and leave you in no doubt that if they could've got away with it they would have enjoyed ending your life. So when crossing roads either close your eyes and run like hell or don't and just see one side of Rome!!



I didn't really have much planned for today, the only place I wanted to visit was the rome forum. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to receive an email from Mrs L (the mother in law) advising me to visit the spanish steps. Now I am not entirely sure how Mrs L has taken the comments I have made about her so far therefore I took her advice with caution, just to be on the safe side. I am now sat on said Spanish steps and relieved that it wasn't a set up, although I am still expecting a courier to appear with a list of jobs or serve me papers for a liable case. The spanish steps are steps but pretty impressive steps. They are yet another site that appears unexpectedly, one minute I was walking past every designer shop in the world, for example Gucci, Prada, and then I was walking up 400 year old steps. The first thought that came to me when I got to the top was how did Mrs L make it up them. They are a must on any trip to Rome and it's nice to just sit near the top watching the world go by or crazy tourists getting ripped off by the street sellers. Talking of street sellers, for anybody that watches the real hustle there was an episode that showed a scam involving little dancing doll things. They look like they dance to music but are in fact on a thin cord attached to a motor. I have seen a number of street sellers trying to flog them and ignored them until today. This guy spent a good 10 minutes expaining how the magic worked and was pretty pissed when I stood on the cord and the doll fell to the ground, genius!!!

The roman forum is romes historical centre, the oldest temple in the forum dates back to 500bc. The path through the middle is 2000 years old, the spot where ceasar was burnt is still visible. What more can I say, you can't come to rome without visiting the forum. It's difficult to explain how being surrounded by buildings and ruins so old and with so much history makes you feel. It's awesome, I am sat of another stone that has without doubt got to be older than even Mrs L, never mind Miss Hughes. I seem to be developing an unhealthy obsession with sitting on old things, i hope this is a temporary obsession!! Right not done a huge deal today but still enjoying Rome, tmrw is the only day I have actually planned and is set to be a very busy day. With that in mind I am heading back to the hotel before that dam Irish bar switches it's tractor beam on.

Back at the hotel with supplies for tea and now preparing for tmrw. Tmrw I am visiting every major site from Dan Browns Angels and Demons. There are a quite a few to get through and are all over the place. My intention is to walk most of it so hopefully my sense of direction won't get in the way. In preparation for tmrw I have steered clear of the Irish bar and am just about to watch angels and demons, then I'll be an expert!!!