Day 37 - Rome

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For breakfast this morning we had cold meat and cheese from the local grocery store. We were going to have cereal but the local doesn't sell it only cold meats, cheeses and every kind of alcohol you can think of.

After breakfast we walked across the road to catch a bus to get us somewhere near the Vatican. The Sun was shining directly on to the ticket machine so we gave that up and ended up buying a 48 hour hop on/off bus ticket from a street vendor near the bus station. When asked where the bus stop was he said follow me I'll show you a shortcut. So off we head with our Bangladeshi Segway pilot with Wayne hobbling along behind and Vicki trying to act as an intermediate guide between our Segway speedway racer and Wayne. We headed down back streets, lanes and even a couple of very dodgy looking alleys. True to his word we came out from his shortcut just down the road from the number 5 stop.

By now it was already low 30s and stifling hot. We were both hot from the adventure and boarded what was a packed bus. No big deal as we were only going one stop. We knew we were in for a walk when we got to the Vatican stop as we'd seen it on the map. What the map doesn't show you are the pushy sidewalk vendors selling everything from selfie sticks, bottles of water and all kinds of garbage that they can hock off to unsuspecting tourists.

We walked across Ponte Sant'Angelo over the Tiber connecting the city of Rome to the precinct around Vatican City. Once on the bridge we were confronted with ticket sellers offering all kinds of discounts and jump the queue tickets, we ignored them and soldiered on. By now Wayne was down to a very slow amble despite the strapping Vicki had applied to support the calf. On turning left off the bridge we encountered what can only be described as a sea of people waiting to enter St Peter's Basilica. Wayne opted for a seat and Vicki headed off to join the other pilgrims. It didn't take her long and she was back, devastated by the overwhelming crowds.

We sat on the seat and talked about what next. It was now stinking hot and Wayne's calf is not good so long walks were pretty much out of the question. We made our way back on the bus, this time it was less packed, and headed to the next stop at Piazza di Spagna the stop for the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. First we had some lunch at a buffet, 10 Euro per head, and the food was pretty good and service equally as good except for the "checkout chick" (where you pay the bill). She rolled her eyes because how dare us interrupt her mobile phone call. It didn't matter because as soon as we handed our Master Card over her phone rung and she answered it prior to serving the other customers queueing behind us.

From here we walked to Trevi Fountain. Now fountain means there should be some water right? Not the Trevi Fountain, the water had either been evaporated from the never ending heat that is Rome or it was drained for maintenance. The building is impressive and we're sure the fountain would be too but it is hard to call when there isn't a drop of water in the thing. We were now headed to the Spanish steps but alas we took another wrong turn and in the heat we'd had enough. We hopped in a taxi and headed back to our Air BnB where the air conditioning would provide some sane relief to this ridiculous heat.

After cooling off at our apartment and having a refreshing shower it was off to dinner we go. While we were out and about earlier we spotted a café/restaurant called Caffe Argentina that we thought would be nice for dinner. Well reading this you know that today has not been the best, well it slid right downhill right about now. Alarm bells should have rung straight away when it took 10 minutes to see a menu that was basically thrown at us. We ordered and no sooner had our drinks arrived than so did our dinner. In fact we waited less time for a "meal" than we did to see the menu. Fresh from the freezer to the microwave to your table is how they do it at Caffe Argentina. The food was terrible, and that is being unkind to terrible as it was worse. On top of that we get a 10% service charge. When queried about that we were told that is a tax and would you like to pay a little extra for a tip. We'll be ok thank you, we just want to leave was our reply.

On escaping we went to a Gelato shop around the corner and got great service and a really nice couple of gelato that we enjoyed at the ruins we detailed last night. The forecast for tomorrow is a lot cooler than it has been, hopefully that holds true, and we can enjoy our last real tourist day in Europe as Wednesday will be a travel day to Frankfurt and Thursday we head home to a climate far more pleasurable to us.

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Photos

Ponte Vittorio Emanuele
Taken from Ponte Sant'Angelo

St Peter's Basilica
Way over crowded for us