Jim & Happy : Rome

The drive from Florence to Rome was 4.5 hours. Uneventful thank goodness until we hit the many large roundabouts close to the airport parking, then the confusion began. Europe seems to have many large roundabouts. It is a skill trying to manoeuvre through them, reading and listening to the GPS and dodging traffic all at the same time. Our car will stay in the car park till we return from Malta.

The shuttle from the parking station to the Rome airport was 10-minutes. Our private transfer met us at the airport to take us to our apartment. It was a 45-minute drive from the airport to our apartment. The driver was a friendly older Italian man who loved Steve Irwin – how funny is that. He said he loves watching him on TV.

Our arrival to our apartment was hilarious. It wasn’t ready!!! The team of work people were carrying out last minute jobs like hanging curtains.

The building was in a residential area only two Metro stops away from the Termini station (main railway station). The building was an old block totally renovated and modernised. The apartments have just opened for inspection. Our apartment didn’t have any bedding, cutlery or crockery until the manager asked if there was anything we needed. The three of us were thinking the same thing ‘would you like a list’.

The reason we came to be in this apartment was because the hotel we were booked into (within walking distance of the Colosseum) decided to shut for renovations so us and another Australian couple were moved to the apartment block. It didn’t really matter as we were only in Rome for two nights. It was a stop to have a look around before flying to Malta.

Staying in residential areas has its advantages, one being finding family run restaurants. There was one down the road from the apartment block. We ate there for our two nights. It was authentic Italian food and to make it even more enjoyable the father and sons would joke with us, well mainly Jim.

The afternoon of our arrival we could hear an opera singer practising, I thought that was pretty special.

Our day of sightseeing we took the Metro to the Termini Station and caught the obligatory, ‘Hop on hop off’ bus tour. We hopped off after two stops and spent the next two hours at the Colosseum and Forum. The Colosseum doesn’t take long to look around but the Forum could take half a day. It is fascinating but we had to move on, there was so much more to see on the bus tour. Our last stop was the Vatican City. By this time it was 5pm so it was a good time of day to go inside St Peter’s Basilica, not so crowded and cooler. It was amazing.

Rome was extremely busy with tourists as was Paris and Florence but along with the normal population it was a very busy place. Now we are in Malta enjoying the more rustic slower pace of life, one we like.

Our Rome apartment, Jim bought us flowers from the Bangladeshi flower seller (they're everywhere at night in the restaurants, just like in Aust in the eighties)