Tuesday 30 May to Thursday 8 June 2017 Rome
Arrived in Italy at the Leonardo Airport at 8am Italian Time – 3:30pm Adelaide.
Beautiful weather, just like Adelaide on a nice summer day. After immigration and Customs our driver was waiting for us. You just gotta love having transfers set up for you when entering a new country. A 40min drive to our hotel. If I had to drive this I would have got lost even with a GPS. The first 10min was on a motorway at 130km/h but then the road narrows and other roads merge and the traffic becomes chaotic. I don’t know if the driver just knew a shortcut or we were taking the normal route to the city but we went through a lot of back streets. I was just too tired and didn’t really care as long as he got us there.
Took a right hand turn into what in Adelaide would have been called an alley and there was our hotel. Hotel White
Checked in and went to our room. Certainly not the standard we were used to in Singapore, still nice. We’re on the ground floor with easy access to the courtyard.
Kingsize bed which we found is one of those that adjust just like a hospital bed on each side.
Went for a short walk around and we’re only a 2 minute walk from the Trevi Fountain.
Had lunch at one of the dozens of cafes around the hotel. The road the hotel is on is the main route for coach tours to pass down to the fountain. At the right time of the day at least a dozen tour groups of 20-30 people will pass by every 10 mins.
We were determined to stay awake until night time. That failed at 1pm I laid down for a couple of minutes and was woken up by Dea at 4pm. So much for staying awake.
Had tea about 6pm at another café. Decided we’d catch a City Sightseeing bus tomorrow.
I took a pill my doc gave me to help reset my internal clock and slept through till 5:30am. Dea as usual struggled with sleep but still seems to function adequately on a couple of hours sleep.
It’s Wednesday morning about 6:30 and went to have breakfast in the hotel. Not available until 7. Breakfast is quite good with everything from cereal to smoked salmon and pastries (no curry here). Dea and I had bacon, scrambled eggs and the smallest sausages I have ever seen. Finished off with a couple of pastries and a coffee.
Rome early in the morning is great, the weather is mild, and the shops don’t open until 10 and there is very few tourist around. Walked down past the Trevi Fountain. Hardly anybody there was able to easily get to the water this time.
Off to the bus, but hangon here comes a horse and buggy. Roberto tells us his is the best way to tour Rome, he will take us places the bus can’t go as well as the normal tourist spots. And how much is this special tour, only €150 for 1 1/2 hour. and that’s what we did.
Roberto and his horse, Spartacus, took us to some great places and explained the history. We went through back streets and past 500 year old market.
It was a good tour but ended up at €300 for 3 hours. It really is a good way to see Rome.
3 hours in a horse and buggy took its toll on Dea’s back so we returned to the hotel to rest for the rest of the day.
Tea at the seafood café next door was fantastic with grilled prawns, squid, salmon, sea bass and lobster with fries. Off to bed early, took another sleeping pill.
Thursday, decided this was going to be rest day to give Dea’s back a chance to normalise.
Tomorrow we’re off to Florence by train for the day.