Day 10 - Rome

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This morning we had a bit of a sleep in (besides the bells waking us up again!) then we had to wrestle against an American lady to get a table for our buffet breakfast (there was so much competition at 8.30am!). After we'd won the battle for the breakfast table we then went shopping (yay!). After our morning of shopping we went to the train station and made our way to Rome. We got the train station early this time so had time so bit more time to relax. We then took a 1.5hr train ride to Rome, where the train did over 248kms/hr. When we got there we took a taxi (first time taking a taxi) to our apartment where we were going to meet Jacquie and Pete (Blair's parents). We were so excited because a) this is the biggest room we've had in Europe and b) we could talk to other people we knew in English! We got to the apartment first and waiting for us were complimentary lollies and a bottle of red wine..... But unfortunately so was the city tax fee which we had to pay. We tried to claim the master bedroom, but were kicked out when Blair's parents arrived an hour later. It was so good to see them, we all went out for a short walk to the trevi fountain, the piazza venezia and then had a nice dinner down the street where we are staying. The owner of the restaurant enticed of complimentary champagne and a story of the all blacks. We ordered wine from chianti (the region we visited the day before) and Pete ordered 1 litre of beer. We were all impressed with the value of dinner, especially after coming from Switzerland! After dinner Jacquie had her first experience of Gelato which she absolutely loved, she was so enthusiastic that the Gelato guy gave her a free one! After our Gelato experience we went to the Spanish steps which are unfortunately all closed off for construction 😞 but at least the other beautiful things we got to see are still open! We then had another bottle of wine to drink but didn't have a corkscrew, so Blair and Pete sneakily went back to the restaurant where we had dinner and asked if they could open the bottle of wine for us which they happily did. Tomorrow we are seeing a bit more of Rome and going to Vatican City (technically another country.... But right next door). Ciao!

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