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I never did a proper write-up. I started one, but it felt like is was going to go on forever.
Given a week and a half to absorb, reflect, and compress, I guess I can give it a go now!
Saturday: Pack, airport, fly, discover bag missing, dinner @ hotel.
Sunday: Mope at missing bag, then get acquainted with local infrastructure, that is, get a weekly travel pass (€16 for a week for all buses/trams/metro! yes London Transport is expensive...). Find the Trevi fountain (not for the first time that week!), discover also Tourist Hordes. Wander round Pantheon and other lesser bits. Get confused by buses and taxi back to hotel.
Monday: Capitoline, Forum, Palatine, Colosseum. Exhausting, and Kulcha Overload. But impressive nonetheless, though the Colosseum itself is, in my opinion, a little disappointing (and very difficult to find your way out of!). I bought clothes (shirts & socks) to replace those lost by BA. Not cheap.
Tuesday: Short-ish, visited a couple of churches (okay so Sta Maria Maggiore is more of a cathedral, but, whatever) before monging at the hotel. Our feet/brains/etc needed the break.
Wednesday: Up at the arse-crack of dawn to get ferried to the pick-up point for our tour of the Vatican, which ends up being a bit of a disappointing whistle-stop of a few of the bits and not quite long enough in the Sistine Chapel, which is something else, but just a bit too crowded. Basically the only benefit we got from the tour was skipping the extensive queues. St Peter's was off-limits because some bloke called "The Pope" was chatting to a couple (of thousand) people. We failed to find the Post Office.
Thursday: A quick wander round the Ghetto (Jewish quarter), then a train ride (all on our weekly ticket!!) out to Ostia Antica, formerly the port of Rome, now mostly ruined and still being excavated. Aliza ran round the amphitheatre, which is very well preserved and as far as I can tell is still used from time to time (they were advertising a jazz festival). Oh, and pretty much on the stroke of midnight, my luggage was finally returned to me - just in time to go home, and not in time to prevent me paying to buy some new shirts.
Friday: Back to St Peter's, to finally visit the basilica (difficult as Aliza had to be carried... so nearly not as much time as we'd have liked) and find the Post Office, where we duly purchased stamps and set post cards. Wandered back via the Spanish Steps, and more Tourist Hordes, and the beginning of Walter Veltroni's pre-election rally (he lost).
Saturday: General wandering round Tridente prior to heading back to the airport to fly back. Got back in good time. Discovered debit card blocked because it'd been used in a place where cards had been cloned before. Yay.
Given a week and a half to absorb, reflect, and compress, I guess I can give it a go now!
Saturday: Pack, airport, fly, discover bag missing, dinner @ hotel.
Sunday: Mope at missing bag, then get acquainted with local infrastructure, that is, get a weekly travel pass (€16 for a week for all buses/trams/metro! yes London Transport is expensive...). Find the Trevi fountain (not for the first time that week!), discover also Tourist Hordes. Wander round Pantheon and other lesser bits. Get confused by buses and taxi back to hotel.
Monday: Capitoline, Forum, Palatine, Colosseum. Exhausting, and Kulcha Overload. But impressive nonetheless, though the Colosseum itself is, in my opinion, a little disappointing (and very difficult to find your way out of!). I bought clothes (shirts & socks) to replace those lost by BA. Not cheap.
Tuesday: Short-ish, visited a couple of churches (okay so Sta Maria Maggiore is more of a cathedral, but, whatever) before monging at the hotel. Our feet/brains/etc needed the break.
Wednesday: Up at the arse-crack of dawn to get ferried to the pick-up point for our tour of the Vatican, which ends up being a bit of a disappointing whistle-stop of a few of the bits and not quite long enough in the Sistine Chapel, which is something else, but just a bit too crowded. Basically the only benefit we got from the tour was skipping the extensive queues. St Peter's was off-limits because some bloke called "The Pope" was chatting to a couple (of thousand) people. We failed to find the Post Office.
Thursday: A quick wander round the Ghetto (Jewish quarter), then a train ride (all on our weekly ticket!!) out to Ostia Antica, formerly the port of Rome, now mostly ruined and still being excavated. Aliza ran round the amphitheatre, which is very well preserved and as far as I can tell is still used from time to time (they were advertising a jazz festival). Oh, and pretty much on the stroke of midnight, my luggage was finally returned to me - just in time to go home, and not in time to prevent me paying to buy some new shirts.
Friday: Back to St Peter's, to finally visit the basilica (difficult as Aliza had to be carried... so nearly not as much time as we'd have liked) and find the Post Office, where we duly purchased stamps and set post cards. Wandered back via the Spanish Steps, and more Tourist Hordes, and the beginning of Walter Veltroni's pre-election rally (he lost).
Saturday: General wandering round Tridente prior to heading back to the airport to fly back. Got back in good time. Discovered debit card blocked because it'd been used in a place where cards had been cloned before. Yay.
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