The next phase of our adventure saw us getting up early on the Monday morning for a somewhat convoluted taxi ride to Stansted airport for our flight to Roma. We were delighted to find sunny blue skies when we arrived. After bussing into town from Fiumicino, and trying to figure out exactly where to go next, we caught an 'adventurous' Roman cab to our little apartment near the Forum and Colosseum, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise -spacious, nicely decorated, and central.
Looking down the street from 'our place', Piaggio workshop in the foreground.
As you can see from the photo above, it wasn't long until we had hit the streets and found our first genuine Italian pizza, served by a suitably surly Roman signora - my idea of heaven really. Just around the corner we found the Roman Forum, and its equally ancient neighbour, the Fori Imperiali, which you can see in the photo below.
The Roman Forum.
Three gladiators outside the Colosseum, complete with Roman sandals. We managed to beat our way past the queues by going on a tour, which was fascinating, despite the somewhat monotonous nature of our tour guide.
Don't ask.
Us, wandering in footsteps of Caeser. Come to think of it, we actually saw the grave of Julius Caeser himself in the forum, which was a wierd kind of thrill for me, at least!
From the forum, we walked through twilight Rome, finding ourselves outside the Pantheon, just before the sun went down.
The interior of the Pantheon.
Luke's tribute to Dean Martin....ever the romantic.
At our penultimate stop for the night, outside what turned out to be really nice trattoria in Piazza Navona. Our waiter (who bore a canny resemblance to Darryl Sommers), of course, had lived in Melbourne, so provided a great source of entertainment, mainly at my expense!
Roman margherita - Get in!
The Fontana del Nettuno in Piazaa Navona.
Fontana di Trevi, as beautiful as ever. We finished the night here, throwing our coins and feeling very happy with ourselves.
One of the surprises of our visit to Rome was our tour of the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel. Our passionate, and highly entertaining guide, gave us all the seedy gossip surrounding Michealangelo, his ego, his influences, and his relationships with the Medici, the Pope and cadavers.
Bernini's baldicchino inside St Peter's.
The Vatican square. Another warm, beautiful day. It was getting late in the afternoon, so unfortunately we had to run back to the termini to pick up our rental car for the trip to Pienza. After a bit of a search for the rental place, we eventually squeezed into our 7 seater Chrysler and hit the streets of Rome...in peak hour....
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