Lazy Sunday afternoon in Rome...

Yesterday I visited Ostia Antica, which literally means the Ancient River Mouth - it was the old port of Rome before the Tiber changed its course. It is all ruins now, and the site is HUGE - it's at least a kilometre or two long. There are ancient mosaics everywhere, columns, buildings, statues, and a huge ampithreatre... it was really cool. It was a beautiful sunny day too - I was walking around in a t-shirt for the first time since I left Australia :) And after so many cities, it was really nice to be out somewhere with grass, trees and birds.

I met up with some American music students in the hostel who were pretty cool, so we had been hanging out eating gelati, drinking cheap crappy wine and playing Uno. A nice change from hanging around on my own. I have also discovered that nutella gelato is the most awesome ice cream in the universe. Seriously. If heaven existed, it would serve nutella gelato. Mmm. (Note to all those people who said "you'll lose weight in Europe" - totally wrong.)

Today I walked to the other city of the city to visit a huge market, where I bought myself an Italian leather wallet and a fake Prada handbag. After this I walked all the way to the Vatican, where I was planning on visiting the Sistine Chapel, but unfortunately it closed at lunchtime.

Because it's Sunday, everything in Rome is closed. I have no idea how they manage to run an economy when people only work when they feel like it. Shops are generally open from around 10am to 1:30, and then from 4 to 7pm... Saturdays some things are open in the morning, and Saturday afternoon and Sunday pretty much everything is closed. I also have no idea how they get away with having absolutely no customer service skills, but that's another story.

So here I am having a lazy Sunday afternoon on the internet. Tomorrow morning I catch a train to Bari, which is where the boat to Greece departs from. I'm trying not to think about 16 hours on a boat. I did manage to pick up some seasickness tablets, just in case.