We arrived Sunday afternoon after a 3 hour train ride from Siena. Sundays are a good time to be in Rome as all of the roads are closed to traffic which makes it easier to wander the streets. So we hit the road immediately to visit the Colosseum which was literally at the end of our street (another fantastic hotel choice!)
The Colosseum is a great site. One of the real tourist attractions that are still fascinating, particularly if you try to imagine what actually went on there and how it would have looked in all of its glory.
After the Colosseum, we chose a cute vine-covered restaurant outside our hotel to sit and have a drink. A drink turned into another.. and then dinner.. and then more drinks.. until we were the last ones there and were being told to leave! It was a good night in a cute place. And we tasted Rome's specialty, Pasta Carbonara, done the proper way with bacon, egg and cheese only. Apparently if anyone puts cream in a Carbonara, they 'must be egyptian'. Might have to tell this to the bad chef in Venice who served us a dreadful milky one!
More sightseeing occurred on day 2, with us visiting the Roman Forum and Palatine (lots of old rocks and remnants of old rome), the Pantheon (another church), Trevi Fountain (speccy) and just general roaming around in Rome. We walked for ages to get to what looked like the Spanish Steps on the map..but turned out to be an unimpressive spanish building. Oops. We never found the actual steps.
We were so impressed by the restaurant last night that we went back there again for dinner of steaks with pepper sauce. Delicious!!! During the day we had found a nice big square which had signs up saying that the Miss Roma competition was on that night - so we headed back there to check out Rome's talent. WE also checked out a 'cat sanctuary' that's in the middle of the city. It consists of old ruins with hundreds of cats living there and getting looked after. Then off to bed.. our last night in Europe!
Day 3 involved a quick trip to the Vatican. We got there at 11:55am, and then saw a sign saying the whole square and dome would be closed at 12 noon for an International Convention of Alterboys.. or something. So we pretty much just snapped some pics and headed away for our last meal. Note our days are almost entirely revolving around food!!
Rome is a fascinating city to visit. So different to see the old old old stuff next to not-as-old stuff, and even new stuff. But it was VERY touristy (busiest of anywhere we've been) and was also VERY hot. We're over people now. Let's go home, hey?
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