THE VATICAN & HOME

INSIDE THE VATICAN MUSEUM

EGYPTIAN COFFIN

PERSEUS & THE MEDUSA

ELABORATELY DECORATED CEILING IN VATICAN MUSEUM

CEILING OF SISTINE CHAPEL

BASILICA OF SAN PIETRO IN BACKGROUND

INSIDE THE BASILICA OF SAN PIETRO

PIAZZA SAN PIETRO

OUR LAST SUPPER (BEFORE FLYING HOME)

Fortunately, my injured shin did not spoil Tuesday's visit to the Vatican, a final 'must see' during our visit to Rome. It would have been an hour's walk from the guest house so we took the Metro to get there. The queue to the Vatican Museum was long, and we had to resist constantly being hassled by 'guides' offering us the opportunity to 'skip the line' by paying twice the normal €16 ticket price for their guided tours.

As it happened, queuing under the shade of Vatican City wall was not unpleasant and it only took about half an hour before we were inside.

We were obviously keen to see the Sistine Chapel, but getting there involved passing through many other wonderfully decorated rooms packed with statues, paintings and historical artefacts. It was all very interesting stuff, especially the Egyptian displays, and undoubtedly worth a fortune. When we finally reached the Chapel it was packed with people looking up in admiration at Michelangelo's famous fresco-painted walls and ceilings. It spite of the 'No Photography' signs, Rubi sneaked in a few discreet shots without using flash.

It was past 2 o'clock by then, so we went back to the canteen near the Museum entrance only to discover that there yet more galleries to view, stuffed with yet more paintings, tapestries and items from all around the world that had been gifted to the various popes.

After resting our legs in the Vatican garden for a while, we exited the museum and walked around the city wall to Piazza San Pietro from which the Basilica of San Pietro can be accessed through a security barrier. I was carrying my first aid kit, which contained scissors and a knife, so a bit of explanation was required before the security guard would let me through.

The next barrier to get through was the 'clothing police'. Hats had to be removed and several girls with 'disrespectfully short' skirts were turned back.

The basilica was bigger inside than it looked from the outside, and was opulently decorated with marble of differing colours, and filled with many statues, including those of previous popes. The voices of the choir singing in the background made the visit very atmospheric. It felt like a fitting finale to our holiday.

By the time we left San Pietro the sky had darkened, and a thunderstorm broke just as we were passing back through the Piazza. We dodged the rain and crossed back over the Tiber as we made our way towards Giolitti's ice cream shop for a final 'hit' before departing Rome. Usually the shop was packed inside and out, but the rain had clearly driven the customers away so we could enjoy our ice cream under cover inside. By the time we finished the rain had stopped and the streets were already drying.

Supper was an excellent meal at the same place we had eaten when we visited the Colosseum - the mere €20 they charged us included a litre of Frascati wine which we later wondered if we should have drunk. In any case, we certainly slept well.

Roberta had prepared breakfast early for us on our final morning, and gave us two hard-boiled eggs to eat on the plane. The Leonardo Express took us back to Fuimicino Airport and by early afternoon we were in the air heading back to the UK. It had been a full holiday, the weather had been excellent, and we had seen all that we had planned to see, and more.

Unfortunately, work awaited us both in the morning.

VILLA BORGHESE & FRASCATI

GARDEN AT TERME DI DIOCLEZIANO

ONE OF THESE LOOKS LIKE A HORSE!

QUADRACYCLE

PIAZZA DEL POPOLO

SHOPPING IN FRASCATI

LAGO ALBANO

A MERMAID

BY LAGO ALBANO

HIGH WALL ENCOUNTERED ON OUR WALK BACK TO FRASCATI

Sunday was a good day to explore more of Rome. We walked past the Stazione Termini to the Terme di Diocleziano (the Baths of Diocletian), which is a National Museum of early Roman history. We were lucky, as entry is free on the first Sunday of the month. There were lots of ancient sculptures on display and we were fascinated to learn what had been deduced about early Roman life by digging up graves. You were clearly 'middle aged' in your 20's back then. A film about how they worked out the design of a chariot from a few bits of iron was fascinating.

We proceeded on to Villa Borghese to see the huge park that surrounded it. It was busy with people who obviously enjoyed a weekend visit. We hired a motor-assisted quadracycle so that the two of us could explore the area more fully. It was fun, but we found ourselves having to take a short cut on a dirt track to get back to the bike hire centre in time.

We left the park via Piazza del Popolo, then walked along the east bank of the Tiber to Ponte Umberto I, before heading back to our guest house via Giolitti's, where they serve the most stupendous ice cream. We had to wait in a long queue to get served, but it was worth it.

Continuing back, I took a wrong turn and we ended up back at Piazza del Popolo. Fortunately, the close proximity of the Metro line enabled me to appease Rubi, and we were soon back at Pousada.

We were up a little earlier on Monday morning so that we could catch the train to Frascati, a small town in the mountains famous for its wine, 12 miles to the south-east of Rome. On arrival we walked to the town square and enjoyed watching local life whilst we drank coffee, and each had an 'alcolico completo' (wine or beer with various nibbles). The weather was exhaustingly hot today!

Around 2.00pm we decided to take a bus to Castel Gandolfo close to the extensive Lago Albano (Lake Albany). The lake was beautiful and we enjoyed a swim in the warm(ish) green/blue fresh water before eating and sunbathing for a while. All too soon it was time to return to Frascati to catch the train back to Rome. We decided to walk the 7 mile distance, but our journey was not without incident. Just north of the lake, the path, so clearly shown on Google Maps, turned out to cross private property and also required us to climb down a steep wall. Later, as we got close to Frascati in fading light, I managed to walk into the steel pole of a car crash-barrier which was bent across the path. I bashed my shin, which was incredibly painful, but Rubi took great pleasure in playing nurse as she improvised a dressing for the swollen and bleeding wound.

I limped back to our lodgings and, after applying a more permanent dressing to my injury, we ended the day sharing a wine and pot-noodle supper on our balcony.

COLOSSEUM, ANZIO & ROME LIFE

COLOSSEUM

UNDER THE ARENA FLOOR

VIEW OF COLOSSEUM FROM PALATINE HILL

LOOKING WEST OVER ROME FROM PALATINE HILL

CATCHING THE TRAIN TO ANZIO

ANZIO BEACH

MEMORIAL OF ANZIO LANDINGS

DOG SHOW

It was Rubi's birthday today, so we had to do something special. Well, one cannot come to Rome for the first time without visiting the Colosseum. Thus, following breakfast, we walked there by the most direct route along Via Alessandro Manzoni.

It is possible to pre-book tickets to go inside, but we chose to buy the tickets on the day. This turned out to be a good move as this was by far the shortest queue and we were inside within 20 minutes. As well as gladiatorial combat, the Colosseum was used to stage shows. Without seeing it for yourself, it is difficult to appreciate the complex workings of the lifts that raised scenery and animals from the underground spaces into the arena.

The Colosseum is huge and, apparently, it could accommodate between 40,000 and 70,000 people. Watching events here must have been a great day out for Roman citizens.

Our Colosseum ticket also entitled us to tour Palatine Hill, where Rome was founded, and the Roman Forum. This kept us occupied for the whole of the afternoon. It was fascinating to learn how the area developed over the time of the Roman Empire, with new buildings being constructed upon the foundations of old, and churches replacing temples as the Empire converted to Christianity. It was impossible not to appreciate just how advanced and sophisticated the Roman civilisation was.

After a full day we headed back to Romana Pousada, finding a very good value restaurant along the way where we enjoyed a pasta supper with wine. Just to complete the day, Roberta had left Rubi a flower and a birthday wish in our room.  

On Saturday we decided to leave Rome and take the train to Anzio, about an hour's journey away. This little seaside town was the scene of momentous history being created in 1944 when Allied forces landed and established a bridgehead here in an attempt to drive the Germans out of Italy. Unsurprisingly, the waterfront buildings were devastated, but have now been rebuilt of course. The ensuing battles resulted in a stalemate which was costly in lives for both sides. In the town square was an exhibition of photographs taken to record these events 72 years ago.

Anzio had a glorious beach and we had intended to swim, but ended up watching a fascinating amateur dog show instead. It was particularly amusing to watch one of the organiser's dogs cock it's leg up against the competition judge's table.

We ate by Stazione Termini on our way back to our guest house. After taking a shower we chilled out on the balcony in our nightclothes, enjoying a glass of wine and watching Roman life below us.

Rubi had spotted a tall 'woman' hanging around the road opposite who we determined was a prostitute managing her business on-line using 'her' smartphone. I use apostrophes here because we later established that 'she' was actually a male transvestite.

Of greater concern was the screaming of a young girl as a black man successfully snatched her purse. We were too remote to help. Fortunately the girl was able to retain her car keys and drive off. However, we took it as a warning that we should take special care of our money, smartphones and passports.

ROME

DEPARTING SOGGY GATWICK

INTERESTING LIFT AT POUSADA ROMANA

POUSADA ROMANA - OUR ROOM HAS THE ONLY BALCONY

PART OF CITY WALL NEAR PORTA SAN SEBASTIANO

WALKING THE CITY WALL

DIOCLETIAN'S ARCH & THE COLOSSEUM

CAFE LIFE

PONTE & CASTEL SANT'ANGELO

TREVI FOUNTAIN

I had wanted to visit Rome for many years, and so had Rubi, so on Wednesday 1st of June we departed Gatwick and, courtesy of easyJet, landed at Fiumicino Airport near Rome. Our transfer to the Eternal City involved a half-hour rail journey on the Leonardo Express to the Stazione Termini. From there it was just a short walk to Pousada Romana on Via Giovanni Geolitti, our accommodation for the week.

Pousada Romana was on the 5th floor, which was reached by a charming, though apparently temperamental, antique lift, with manually opened doors and a surrounding cage through which the workings could be seen. It reminded me of one I saw in the film 'Blade Runner'.

Although it was 9.30pm, we were warmly greeted by Roberta on arrival and shown to an excellent en-suite room sporting a balcony. It was too late to go out, and we were weary from travelling anyway, so we spent the remainder of the pleasantly warm evening on the balcony finishing our travel snacks and enjoying a drink.

We chose to take breakfast at 9.00am the following morning. As she cooked eggs for us, Roberta explained that Pousada Romana had been a family home for many years before its recent conversion to a guest house. All the bedrooms had names and ours was called 'Sarina' after her Mother.

Roberta suggested that, as a first day's outing, we might like to follow a section of the 132 mile-long Appian Way, the first and most important of the roadways that the Romans built. Construction to connect Rome with Capua in the south-east was initiated by a Roman magistrate, Appius Claudius, in 312 BC, who leant his name to the road. We duly caught the 218 bus out to the Catacombs of St. Callista and walked back, past the small Church of Quo Vadis with its purported imprints of Jesus's feet on a marble block, until we reached the Rome city wall at Porta San Sebastiano (St. Sebastian's Gate). Here we were able to enjoy a visit to the Museo Della Mura and take a short walk along the wall.

We continued into the city where we caught our first sight of the famous Colosseum, and enjoyed lunch in a nearby cafe. From there we wandered through the ancient streets past Piazza Venezia to the Pantheon, where we listened to a guitarist giving an amazing rendition of Pink Floyd's 'Money'. On then to Piazza Navona, then across the River Tiber at Ponte Sant'Angelo to the huge cylindrical Castle of the same name.

After a long day Rubi's feet were sore, so we made our way back through the city to our lodgings by the most direct route we could manage, which happily took us past the famous Trevi Fountain. However, the day was not yet over. After a shower, we headed out to find a restaurant. We chose one called the 'Pinsa & Buoi dei....' where the quality of the food was good but the quantities seemed surprisingly generous. All became clear when the higher than expected bill arrived. They had served us more than we had ordered, but since we had eaten it they expected us to pay the greater amount. Our protestations came to naught and we settled up, but a subsequent internet search showed that this was not the first time that this restaurant played such tricks.

Tomorrow we would see the Colosseum.