Rome in a day and a half!

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ROME
From Iceland we arrived in Rome through Amsterdam – I found people here to be very helpful starting with a young man handing down the carry on when we arrived...no other baggage arrived with us – we had 2 fairly short flights and a bit of an extended visit at the missing baggage counter before we were able to connect with our ride who had already given up on us once.

Traffic was fast and furious and Sian warned me on how to cross streets in Rome…no doddling here…gotta move it! We arrived at our B&B which was a fourth floor apartment type room overlooking a narrow street about a block and a half straight up from the Collosseum. Clean and a great location with two very nice landladys. We were met by the landlady who gave us a quick tour of the neighbourhood and showed us where the metro was down the street, along with a great place for a pasta dinner. Our breakfast would be coffee and a pastry at the corner Bar in the morning. The landlady was lovely and as it turned out was extremely instrumental in helping us obtain the delivery of our luggage which as it turns out spent an extra amount of time in Amsterdam. Without her help I'm not so sure when it would have caught up with us or even how. Dinner was pasta and Italian beer for me and wine for Sian at a lovely corner restaurant. We walked down the street to the Collosseum …it was beautiful…it was night and was lit up along with a full moon. There is a lot of people in the street and there is a fountain that many are sitting and drinking at like a community gathering. Great first few hours and night in Rome.

The next morning we headed for the Metro and to the Vatican. Public transportation is not a common occurence for me nor large cities so this is quite the adventure for me and good thing Sian is excited to show me Rome and is leading the way. First we got in a line up for St. Peter’s Basilica. We hiked up a narrow staircase that circled around along the outside walls and to our surprise, getting narrower as we went and the walls were slanting in the higher we got. I think Sian said there were over 300 steps. What an incredible view. The Basilica was absolutely beautiful and massive.

Next we were off to the Vatican Museums. What an incredible place this was. Truly need a few days and research to absorb what an incredible place this was. Then to the Sistine Chapel. We were quite in awe as well as everyone else …so difficult to describe in words. We stood in the middle of the room trying to absorb the energy and history, listening to the whispers of many languages around us.

We followed up with lunch and Sian leads the way to find the Spanish Steps…up we went on one side and down the other. It was covered with people. The narrow streets were really crowded…off to Trevi Fountain…we found it…lots of people… and what a gorgeous fountain built in the early to mid 1700s. Then away we went to find the Pantheon…we found it…or should I say, Sian finds it and I follow...unfortunately we were not able to go in as they were holding mass. So off we went again, walking by the capital buildings, the Roman Forum and up to the Collosseum to have ice cream and get our bearings…very hot and we were still in our Iceland travel clothes… we picked up some beer to take back to our room wishing for the appearance of luggage awaiting us. No luggage…no bottle opener either so I head off to buy a bottle opener…we need a beer…no, I need a beer, Sian has wine or something, so then I ran into the landlady with wonderful news that luggage delivery had left a message with her and that our luggage would be delivered within the hour or so. We were very happy for the delivery…we'll have clean clothes and as we are leaving in the morning we won't have to worry how this luggage would have eventually caught up with us.

We hustled out in the morning down narrow flights of stairs with the landlady helping us, and head to the Metro. One stop down and we were at Termini Station. We were able to find our train or should I say, Sian was able to find our train as we crossed the area a couple of times, as they arrive in what is called a Bin…there were 24 Bins. Met a nice couple from Winnipeg catching the same train and same ship. Seems they were having difficulty finding their train and proper bin and were relieved to be boarding. The train ride to the port was lovely and took about 45 minutes...we are on our way. At the train station we had to drag our luggage down a flight of stairs and then up a flight of stairs. Really!! People actually clamouring over each other with suitcases. We got tired of waiting for taxis so we take off walking for the port and meet up with a shuttle which delivers us to the door. Now we say goodbye to Rome and the whirlwind day and a half where we got to cover what we could in this amazing city and onto another part of this incredible journey.

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