When in Rome...

It has always been one our mottos to try and avoid vast metropolis cities for our weekend getaways, especially considering we live in one and the idea of a holiday is to avoid the rat race. However despite Rome having a population of 2.6 million people it is definitely no ordinary big city as Rome's history spans over two and half thousand years and was once the centre of a vast Roman empire. It has such a big history it would be impossible to summarise in a paragraph, and I am sure most of you have watched Gladiator so I won’t bore you with the details!


Trying to get around the mammoth amount of historical sights in a weekend was no easy feat, excellent walking shoes are a must and patience necessary to deal with the lines and the grey brigade on their tour groups slow ambling along in massive packs blocking the narrow cobbled streets. Luckily for us we didn’t go in the height of summer so the crowds were not excessive. We walked for about 8 ½ hours each day and got through a lot of sights, so the best way is to summarise what we saw with a good old fashioned list:


Vatican Museum (and Sistine Chapel of course): Lined up, got pooed on by a bird with the biggest poo of all time, the impact of the mighty dump was so powerful it splashed off my bag getting Chris and I well covered. They say it is good luck...and must be even better luck if you are in the holy Vatican city... but the line didn’t move any faster and we had crap all over us so go figure? Once inside and out of firing range of evil birds we were taken in by the sheer beauty and extravagance of the Vatican. The art, statues, gold trim and excessive riches never seemed to end, each room offering more and more to marvel at. The Sistene Chapel ceiling was breathtaking, but certainly not alone in its surroundings.

St Peters Basilica: Looked out for the Pope but he wasn’t taking visitors, especially the non-catholic kind, so we wandered around his “meagre” church instead. It was huge, ridiculously huge. We resisting taking off our shoes and sliding across the marbled floor in our socks, didn’t fancy a million years of doing penance for that one.

Pantheon: One of the most historically important monuments in Rome. It is considered as the temple of all the gods. It was constructed between 118 and 125 AD and is well-known for its large open dome which lets in all the seasons. It was one of our favourite sites, although Chris loved it more than I did and got strangely affectionate with it...hmm...

Trevi Fountain: Neptune, the god of the sea, riding on a shell-shaped chariot with his minions around him all carved out in a baroque style – impressive. They say if you toss a coin over your shoulder into the fountain it guarantees you will return to Rome. Looks like we won’t be back as we couldn’t get through the crowd to even get splashed by the water from the fountain. Had a lovely pizza for lunch right near there though...

Spanish Steps: On the fringe of Rome’s most expensive shopping streets although the grubby looking Spanish Steps weren’t up there on our wow list. Didn’t help that they had a fake Berlin Wall exhibition up on the steps at the time. We moved on quickly, and somehow Chris managed to steer me away from the shopping street on the back (maybe his good luck from the bird incident).

The Roman Forum: The old powerhouse site for Rome, not as well preserved as other historical landmarks in Rome but still unbelievable to think that some of these ruins date back before Christ and are still standing today. Sends a shiver to think of some of the decisions that were made on that very site back in the day.

The Colosseum: Everyone knows the Colosseum! Originally capable of seating some 50,000 spectators for animal fights and gladiatorial combats (basically anything that would draw a crowd) it must be one of the most famous stadiums in the world. Utterly fantastic. The night before we visited we watched Gladiator at the hostel so we were all pumped up about seeing it for real.


There was other stuff we saw on our epic walking missions, but all we can do without writing pages and pages is sum up Rome as a historic wonderland which you could spend weeks exploring, but I think we gave it a good shot for a weekend. I haven’t even mentioned food that much which is totally unlike me but it was mostly pizza slices and gelati on the run although this did not mean we were hard done by, Italian fast food has to be up there as some of the tastiest street snacks you can get.

Bog Blog

The Baltic countries have always etched out a place in our top destinations list so it felt necessary to complete the trio and visit the third and most Northern Baltic, Estonia. We pretty much knew what to expect having already stamped our mark on Latvia and Lithuania.

For some reason we always end up travelling to the Baltic countries in the colder months. This inevitably means that we are pretty much the only tourists in the very quiet of season cities and towns. It makes things a little hard to organise but it also makes for a very peaceful yet exciting voyage.

We decided to go a little Ray Mears style and scheduled a trip into the depths of Estonia's wilderness. This lead us to the Sooma National Park, home to one of Europe's largest and most unique bog lands. We got picked up in Parnu by our private guide who fitted the bill well. He smoked a pipe, had an unruly beard, talked with passion of his homeland, albeit a little too much, and was obviously used to being in the Baltic bog land in the middle of winter, unlike us.

After a short drive to the park we disembarked at an old park house which was still in use. We were given a very in-depth run down of the local history, environment, wildlife, culture etc. The park has a unique fifth season which can happen at any time of year. This is the flood season where almost all of the park is covered in water. For the animals and plant life this is a great thing as the water disperses nutrients over the land fertilizing it. In winter the floods sometimes freeze leaving a frozen reminder of how much the water level actually rose. It is not surprising then that the most effective way to travel around the park during this fifth season was by dugout canoe.

Being the middle of winter and considering beavers had blocked most of the waterways knawing down trees to make houses and dams dugout canoe wasnt an option so we were on foot through the bog lands.

We walked for miles until Julie was no longer able to handle the pain of the cold, especialy considering she had broken her shoulder just days before. The bog which is a very acidic peat area was like a desert island surrounded by forest. The trees struggled for life in the acidic soil growing in gnarly patterns and only reaching small heights after hundreds of years. Snow shoes were essential as without them we would have fallen through the 2m deep layer of heather and sphagnum moss and probably frozen to death.

After a sum what surreal experience of bog walking it was back to Tallinn the capital of Estonia to spend our final night. The old town was beautiful and quaint and the fact that most of the tourist activities were shut did not bother us. After the bog walking, just strolling the streets enjoying the smell of sugar coated pecan nuts while soaking in the medieval surrounds was plenty to keep us happy.

Tallinn was full of restaurants trying to create a medieval dining experience. We thought that we should go and have a look not only for the singing and dancing but the fact that in the middle ages the diet of the rich was basically meat and beer. The food was different but amazing. Glazed cranberries and horseradish to accompany my boar, bear and elk sausages mm mmmmm. I think the honey beer and dried elk meat also must get a special mention however Julie may strongly disagree.

Again the baltic's have impressed. I don't know whether it is the fact that there is always some sort of crazy activity to take part in like ice fishing, bobsledding or bog walking. Maybe its the long and interesting history of good and bad times or the fact that the countries remind me of home with small populations living in cities and towns surrounded by beautiful wilderness. What ever it is I recommend going for a sneaky look for yourself.