Rome

Roma

Early departure at 7.20 for the trip to Rome.  Being Sunday morning the roads were empty and we arrived at the Trevi Fountain by 9.  The amasing thing for me was that the fountain was attached to a building – I always thought it was a massive fountain in the middle of a square!  From here we had 2 hours to explore on our own, so armed with a map off we went.

Found our way to the Pantheon, which could have done with a good clean, then to Piazza Navone, which is a church.  From here we were headed to Mausoleo Augusto but mmm, Alan couldn’t read the map, Alan got cranky, Alan threw a tanty and life was miserable. Apparently only women can read maps upsidedown! Di read the map, found where we were and off we went to Campo de Fiori, Palazzo Farnese which was the farmers market and some great food and wanted to get truffles etc for Anto but someone was still in a shit so didn’t stop.  Next stop was Palazzo Spada then Campidoglio and then Monumento a Vittorio Emanuelle II.

Unfortunately we had absolutely no idea what we were looking at or the significance of the places but our time was up and we had to find our way back the Trevi fountain.

Once we met up with our group we had to walk to the bus which was a good 30 minutes.  We went past some of the places we had already seen and our ‘guide’ explained that she was an ‘escort’ and as she hadn’t passed her ‘guide’ exam she couldn’t tell us what we were going past. Very frustrating!!.

Back on the bus and off to the lunch, where again we drove past some of the highlights and once on the bus our guide decided she would tell us what we were seeing but her English was so poor we couldn’t understand her anyway.  I think I heard her say one of the roman ruins was where Julius Caesar died.

After a lunch of tuna salad (yuck, yuck, yuck, I would rather starve than eat cat food) and the weirdest lasagna, followed by tiramisu (which was frozen so enjoyed that) we picked up a proper guide and went to the Vatican.

Yesterday being Pentacost Sunday meant that the Pope did a mass in St Peter Square (which is why we couldn’t go until the afternoon).  By the time we got there the line was a couple of times around the square but after 75mins in the sun we made it in.  We all had radio headsets so we could hear the guide so we didn’t miss out on anything. Saw the Popes apartment from the Square then ventured into The Basilica.  Wow, what can you say, it is magnificent and well worth the wait.  The Sistine Chapel was closed as were other parts of the Basilica but there was more than enough to see.  The artwork is incredible and to find that there are no paintings – what look like paintings are mosaics! Tiny naturally coloured stones all perfectly placed to make these masterpieces.  Really mindblowing.  I was expecting to see a Michael Angelo painting but found out he designed the building but never painted it.  We didn’t have time to go to the Museum but if we are ever back in Roma we will plan on spending more time here.

From here we were off to the Colosseum, which once again required a long hike from the bus and some very steep steps inside. We were very short of time so had to do a quick look around but again with excellent commentary from our guide and even though it is falling down you could see how it worked in its time.  Fascinating building when you think it was originally covered in marble and had sail shades over the roof to provide shade!

Utterly exhausted by this time and happy to get back on the bus.  We were disappointed in the way the ruins were presented ie the ruins where Caesar supposedly died were surrounded by a knee high concrete wall with glass panels on top.  The glass panels were completely covered in graffiti so you couldn’t see through them and the only sign said ‘do not feed the cats’ – not very helpful at all.  There were numerous examples of ruins being built over by different generations but no signage so we have no idea what they were about.

Rome in a day really isn’t possible but at least we got a snapshot of what was available.