Hi Friends! This is one of the 3 posts that is submitted for the nomination of Best Photo Blog category by OMY Singapore Blog Awards. I must hereby THANK the panel of judges from OMY’s editorial team for selecting TravelerFolio.com as one of the top ten finalists in the Photo Blog category.

Please leave your comment in this post if you like it.

A more relaxing sightseeing day for us, after the mad cow rush the day before. It was very hot, seemed hotter than Singapore, on 29 May. It’s always good to start Europe first from the South like Italy, as it is warmer; then move to colder regions so that by the time, those colder regions should be nearer to Summer and turn warmer.

We visited the Catacombs, which are the underground burial places under Rome. It was a mind boggling experience, seeing human bones being arranged artistically with shivers down the spine.

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In Rome, we stayed in Pensione Ottaviano Hostel, which is only a short walk to St Peter’s Square. We got ourselves a six-bedder dorm in this pleasant hostel occupied by youths from all over the world. An American youth told us she worked in the hostel to make some money to tour in Europe. Perhaps we should try that too, so that we could continue our next league in Europe immediately!

One of our friends had to depart two days earlier. She wanted to visit as many attractions as possible in the day; thus, we had to squeeze our three days’ itineraries into a one-day tour! Our marathon for the day included Vatican City, Vatican Museums, Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum, National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and Pantheon. All in a day! Phew!

The weather had turned very warm. We were perspiring while walking to Vatican City. It happened to be a Wednesday when Pope John Paul II (1920~2005) would give his weekly Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

It was still early when we were there, so we went into the Vatican Museums first.

Adam and Eve painting.

The Mummy is so well-preserved that the hair is still clearly visible.

It was so crowded in the Sistine Chapel. The chapel is very small and a part of it was closed at when we were there. The guards were very strict and they shouted across the chapel to stop visitors from taking photos. We were being warned a few times too when trying to snap photos of the world famous paintings. My friend escaped the vigilant eyes by putting his arms at the sides and at the same time, holding his camera facing the ceiling of the chapel and snapping the paintings on the ceiling, and one of them was the famous God Creates Adam by Michalangelo.

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Leaning Tower is to Pisa as Colosseum is to Rome. The mighty Colosseum is the largest elliptical amphitheatre ever built in the Roman Empire and one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and engineering. When we think of Colosseum, we think of the brave gladiators who fought for their lives.

Admission to Colosseum is not free and we did not enter it as we thought we could just peep through the gaps to see its interior.

We headed to the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum near the Colosseum. The forum was closing when we entered and there was hardly anyone in the forum which is now left with ruins of the past. But from a historical perspective, much more interesting than Colosseum.

The Roman Forum was the political, legal and religious centre of the mighty Roman Empire. Imagine standing in the Roman Forum which was once a centre of splendour and glory during the mighty Roman Empire is like stepping into the biggest film set ever.

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Travelling in May proved to be the right month for us: lesser crowds, cheaper rates, attractions open with longer operating hours, longer daylight, not too cold yet able to see snowing in Central Europe like Austria, spring flowers blooming.

Yes, everything seemed to be right for us throughout our 27 days in six countries. We did not fall sick or hurt ourselves…we had enough money to survive… we managed to stick to our tight train schedules except some hiccups in Austria… we managed to catch our flight to Switzerland at the last minute… we didn’t lose our pile of train tickets… and we were not picked or ROBBED!

But, on the last day of our sightseeing in Rome, something sickening happened to us. It was related to our metro tickets. We had already read some journals about some tourists being confused with the metro tickets in Italy and were slapped with a fine. So, we had been careful in reading those fine English lines among a lot of Italian words on the metro tickets.

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