Rome - Day 5

We came home today. The flight was at 10.40, and we wanted plenty of time at the airport in case the Entry/Exit System caused delays. So we aimed for the 7.45 bus from Termini station, which entailed leaving the apartment at 6 and getting the tram to Piazza Venezia.

From there it was a half hour walk to the bus, but we made it in plenty of time.

The bus took us to the airport, and we were through security with still well over 2 hours till our flight. However the gate hadn't yet been announced and passport control wasn't open yet, so it was a bit of a waste of time being so early.

When it did open we were first through, and it worked without any drama.

Our flight left on time, and we had good views down to the city after take-off.

We flew over the Swiss Alps, which were quite dramatic.

The rest of the journey home was uneventful, and we arrived in Edinburgh on time. After getting through passport control quickly we retrieved the car and drove home, getting there about 2pm.

Rome - Day 4

This was our last full day in Rome, and we didn't have anything booked in advance. First we went out for breakfast to a local café which advertised pancakes. However they didn't actually have them on, so we ended up with pastries instead. This was actually more traditionally Italian, and very cheap at 7 euros for two coffees and three pastries.

The weather wasn't so good today, and after breakfast it started to rain so we returned to the apartment to wait it out.

Once it had dried a bit, we walked up and crossed the River Tiber to its only island, Isola Tiberina. It's quite small and we walked all the way round it.

This bridge is the oldest in Rome, dating back to Julius Caesar times.

We crossed over the bridge into the Jewish Quarter, then round to a theatre which is designed as a mini-Colosseum.

We walked to the Spanish Steps and climbed up them. It was extremely busy there.

From the top we walked along to the park around Villa Borghese. It's a huge green space with a boating pond and many paths. We bought ice cream and a snack there.

After a bit of a walk round the park we went down hill to Piazza Barberini where we sat outside Pepy's Bar and had an (expensive) beer. It was nice to people-watch though.

We caught the Metro back to the Circus Maximus, the stadium where they used to hold chariot races.

The reason we'd come to this area was to visit the Thermal Baths. This is an absolutely massive complex of buildings where the Romans used to come for hot, tepid and cold baths, and generally to socialise.

We caught the tram back to the apartment, where we had a rest and did some packing. Later we went out for dinner locally, to a restaurant called Pizza in Trastevere. We shared a salad, spaghetti carbonara, and a gorgonzola pizza, which was all pretty good.

Rome - Day 3

Today we had tickets for the Vatican. Our entry to St Peter's Basilica was timed for 9.30 am and the advice was to arrive 30 minutes before. So we had to get up pretty early and catch a tram about 7.40. This took us up to the River Tiber, and we walked along it to the Vatican.

We arrived pretty early and the square was quite quiet.

This is the balcony the Pope appears at. Though he's not even in Rome at the moment, he's visiting somewhere in Africa.

We could already see people had climbed to the top of the dome.

At our time slot we went into the basilica. Security at that time was pretty non-existent, nobody checked our tickets and although our bags went through an X-ray, nobody was watching most of the screens. Later when we came out it was different, and the queues had built up hugely.

As you might expect, the internals of the basilica are very elaborate.

We had to queue about 10 minutes to get into the crypt, where some popes are buried.

Next we climbed up to the top of the dome. The first part was a ramp/staircase up to the roof.

Then inside the dome you first went onto a balcony that looked down into the basilica.

The we climbed the dome itself. It was a long way up, and the staircase got narrower the higher we got. It was quite congested and a bit stop/start.

Eventually we emerged at the top. It's a total of 551 steps to get there. The views all around were amazing.

After spending some time there we went back down and emerged into the square again. The Swiss Guard were at one of the entrances.

Our next booking was the Vatican Museum at 11.30am. It's a 20 minute walk round the outside wall of the Vatican. We were a bit early and had to queue up.

Once inside we gradually discovered how huge it is. It would be impossible to take it all in in one day, apparently there are 7 km of corridors.

We did our best to do it justice, but it did feel you were being forced round a one way system like at Ikea, and there were loads of organised tours which caused it to be very congested at times.

One good bit was the map gallery, which was a couple of hundred metres long and had maps of different parts of the Roman Empire painted on the walls.

There are lots of amazingly decorated ceilings.

The last place we got to was the Sistine Chapel, with the ceiling and the Last Judgement painted by Michelangelo. Here you're not supposed to take photos, but I did take a couple of sneaky ones.

At last we got out to a courtyard, and it was actually quite a relief. We sat on a bench for a rest.

We'd only been round less than half the museum, but didn't have any enthusiasm to go in again, so we left the Vatican and went into the streets to find some lunch. We managed to find a great place that did good street food. We got suppli and arancini, which are both different types of stuffed rice, and some pizza bianca - white pizza flavoured only with olive oil and salt. It was very good. With 2 large beers it only came to about 15 euros.

We decided to visit the Capuchin Crypt, so we caught the Metro to it. It's a type of monastery with many chapels filled with human bones in elaborate arrangements. It was quirky and very interesting.

After this we walked to Piazza Venezia and caught the tram home, visiting the supermarket on the way.

After resting for a while we went out for dinner at a local café, where we had slices of pizza cut traditionally with scissors and sold by weight. It was very good.

We took a walk up Janiculum Hill to see the sunset. It was a pleasant walk but the views of the sunset weren't the best we've seen.

We went back down a slightly different way and passed a nice waterfall, with lots of people taking photos of some old Fiat 500s.

We walked back to the apartment and sat out on our balcony with a drink.