Rome: 9 hours of night, dawn and prayers (7-8 July)

Photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nickchasingthesunrise/Rome9HoursOfNightDawnAndPrayers

The cheapest flight I could get from London to Cairo was with Alitalia and involved a 9 hour stopover in Rome. Given that a golden rule of holidays is that sleep is a waste of time, I decided to check my luggage all the way through and wander the ancient city from midnight to dawn. I met up with two guys, Mohammad and Karim, at the Rome airport and convinced them to join me. That was a bit of a bugger for them as they still had their luggage.

We headed to Rome's Termini station and after some late night pizza (yum!) set off on foot with bags for the Colosseum plus Hadrian's Arch, the Fora Romano and finally the Vatican as dawn broke. As Mohammad and Karim are Muslim I had the interesting experience of watching them pray and perform wudhu (pre prayer washing) in ancient fountains and in front of the Colosseum and Fora Romano. I wonder if anyone has ever done that before.

We dragged ourselves back to Termini station where I had one of the best coffees I have ever had plus a ham and cheese bread thing. Unfortunately the lads missed the flight as they hadn't checked their bags in so I rushed and begged my way past security, customs and immigration lines before boarding the flight. Egypt here I come!