wow, great city, awesome people, and damn, why am i doing whistle-stop traveling? three days are hardly enough to explore a beautiful city such as this...

I took a four-hour train ride from Florence to Rome this morning, and upon arrival, deposited my heavyass backpack at the station and hopped into the Metro underground...there is simply no time to lose! Rome has much to offer and the time i allocated for it does no justice to it whatsoever...

I got out of the underground and was immediately in awe...there it is, the majestic Colliseum, standing right before me, such an imposing and wonderous architecture, with so many stories to tell, among them sinister ones...

and so it is like that throughout the rest of the day, every corner you turn to, something caught not just your eyes but your breath as well, it is really an exceptional city...

and just like most of the other italian cities, it is infested with tourists...can never seem to get rid of them...it's not like i hate to share such a beautiful city with other people, it's just that, their presence hike up the entrance fee tremendously, few years back and it was free to enter the colliseum, nowadays please deposit 11 euro at the counter, tyvm...

i should feel grateful nevertheless, it is mid-winter now and they say the amount of tourists are the least this time of the year, next month onward when Easter is on, it will be three-fold no less...

After visiting the Palatino, i went to look for Luca at his place. The good thing of staying with an italian host is that, you get to see everything through an italian's eyes, you know where the best pizzerias and gelaterias are, you learn about italian language and history, and you get to experience everything the italian way...

and one of it is flying down the roman streets in the scooter! it was amazing, albeit a little chilly, but riding behind Luca, who was kinda showing off by speeding, is really a shitload of fun...it's like having a personal guide around the city with him explaining every important monuments and obelisks and even statues! you have no idea how many there are lurking in nooks and corners...

we then stopped at what he claimed as one of the best pizza place in town, and sure enough, it was really good! we had a large pizza each along with antipasto and beer...sometimes i wonder how the italians eat all that carbs and yet still maintain a near-perfect figure...Life is unfair huh?

As it is, Luca lives conveniently next to the Vatican City, so we took a stroll to say hi to the pope, and visited Castel Santa Angelo, another magnificent piece of art...More history lessons and more pictures taken...we later hopped in to his favourite bar for some live music, walked along River Tevere, where he criticized Dan Brown for his groundless story-telling, to prove his point and in reference to Angels and Demons , he brought me to the exact location where the story took place...'the dude clearly has no head or tail about Rome', he said.

I am so looking forward to more sight-seeing tomorrow...