Roman Empire

10th July 2008

Early morning, it was 5:30am when our train reached Roma Termini... the central station of Rome city. Took rest for some more time on the platform as were feeling very sleepery at that time..
Around 8am got up and moved in search of washroom to get fresh.. but it was rather surprising to see the cost they were charging to use the washroom.. 0.7 Euros.. :P
Germany mein bhi kahi yaar 0.25 Euros se jyada nahi dene pade they... yaha toh hadd hi thi.. :P

So instantly Rahul came up with a suggestion 'aisa karte hai, pehle khaa pee lete hai... sab enquiry n all kar lete hai.. phir we'll use the washroom.. ready bhi isi mein ho jaayenge.. :P '
I definitely noded yes to his suggestion..
Luckily we got a Supermarket , CONAD was the name, at station itself.. and prices were reasonable too... felt great to get food reasonable prices.. ate some apples n all with some cold drink.. :-)
After using the washroom.. we went for the great monument cum Amphitheatre 'Colosseum', The symbol of Roman Empire's cruelness is what I would say. As criminals were thrown alive infront of hungry Lion n other such wild animals.. and they were supposed to fight.
If somehow Criminal beats Lion he is supposed to be freed (which definitely to me is like they were allowing dangerous and wild criminals to get free)

Anways there was a huge rush at the entrance of Colosseo, long queues to be seen.. But luckily we had purchased 'Roma Card' which includes the ticket to Colosseo (Ticket of Colosseo is 11 Euros) so we didnt' have to stand in the long queue of purchasing ticket , rather just go towrads smaller queue leading towards entrance.

First impression on entering Colosseo was.. WOW its amazing to see that amphitheatre of which I have read in my literature some years back, and infact a movie Gladiator also is available which also has the theme of this Colosseo.. Just imagined myself to be a part of spectator who used to watch this Barbarious game and felt happy as if it was great entertainment source for them..
However I don't think I would have been able to surive such an Inhuman fight if I was present in that Elite Spectator's place.

After Colosseo, there is Palatine Hill just infront of the place.. where we saw Roman Forum symbol of great Roman Empire.. You can almost feel it through the old buildings how rich the Roman Empire must have been..
There are lots of fountains all over Roman , with great architecture (statues n all) on each fountain , where you can relax for a while and appreciate the great artistic work of past :-)

On the whole its really very nice place to be.. n at the end of the day we headed towards our youth hostel cum hotel for night stay... And we were really surprised that they send a bus to station every 3o minutes to pick up their Guests (Room holders)
So it was around 11am we boarded in their bus and went towards our hotel.
Receptionalist told us that there is free internt access, swimming pool is also free to us... and Bar is open almost for the whole night..
Amazed to see the services present , and more importantly the place was very clean and well manaaged.... All this in just 10 Euors... (for 1 night stay)
HATs off is all what I said when i left that place next morning.. :-)