Day 1 in Rome

Hi all, and thanks for all the comments - it's great to know that people are reading this!

Right now I'm struggling to type on a weird Italian keyboard at an internet kiosk across the road from our hotel.

We had a good trip from London to Rome. I gave up on the cab we had booked through reception the night before, and grabbed one that pulled up to drop someone else off. It was a nice trip to Paddington Station to catch the Heathrow Express back to the airport. We were there in plenty of time and check-in was easy thanks to the online check-in I'd done the night before. We had a nice dinner in the local pub that night, too. The flight left half an hour late because someone decided not to travel and their luggage had to be unloaded for security reasons. The flight was good, but nothing gluten free for me to eat, so David enjoyed my sandwiches and I had a muesli bar. We decided to get a taxi from Rome's airport for the fixed price of 40 Euros, and were glad we did. The place is a mad house!

Our hotel room is small but nice, and it should be for 150 Euros per night! It has an antique lift, one of those old ones in a cage. We're in a relatively quiet area, for which we are thankful. Last night we couldn't be bothered doing a proper dinner, so bought some bits and pieces from a small supermarket across the road - Ross will be impressed to know that we had chippies for dinner - along with cheese and crackers, a beer for David and coke for me!

This morning we headed down to the Palantine Hill, where we followed Rick Steve's tour, then down into the Forum area where we followed his podcast tour - we found it a bit hard to follow, but still good. Then up the Capitol Hill at the back and down into a big piazza area - can't remember the name of the huge building there right now (David is back in the room with the guide book). We had an hour, then, to find our way to the Vatican Museum for the tour I'd booked online for 1 pm. OMG - the traffic!!!!! The trip cost 20 Euros, double what it should have because several streets were closed and it was wall to wall cars (Pope arriving back in Rome from his Middle East trip?). I've never seen anything like it, no lanes, just cars pushing in and out between each other. We got to the Museum with 10 minutes to spare - phew! This was the quieter time of the day - but I don't think David believes me! We followed Rick's tour through all the amazing display halls - I have lots of photos, but don't know when I'll get a chance to put them up yet. But, what a fabulous place - everything pillaged by the Catholics, and the Roman Emperors before them, from other civilizations. However, the items have been well looked after here, and I doubt they would have survived otherwise. It is a great pity, though, how invading peoples destroy or carry off the heritage of the country they take over.

Anyway, after the Museum, we popped through to the Sistene Chapel, with Rick again on the podcast, and listened to him explaining what we were seeing. Then, with Rick again through to St Peter's. All very beautiful and interesting. Then, how to get back... We discovered the #40 bus and were lucky enough to get on it before the crush! It brought us all the way back to Termini, near our hotel.

For now, I'm going to head back for a coke, a shower, and to put my feet up to plan how we get across to near the Spanish Steps to meet up for dinner with a couple from the cruise (Bob and Lorraine - we met them on Cruise Critic). That's booked for 7 pm (Friday evening here).

Tomorrow we'll look at the Colosseum, and have a more leisurely walk through some of the streets to some of the spots Rick recommends.

Over and out for now!