Italy

An unexpected break in the weather took us to Ancient Rome Wednesday morning.

Firstly we went to the Colosseum where we took a guided tour with about thirty others. The tour guide was very informative and we listened to her using radio controlled walkie talkie things as all of the tour groups banged together at the best spots.

Our tour continued to the Palatine Hill where we had a new guide, a witty cockney who told the story of Ancient Rome in amusing anecdotes including a few wee and pooh stories.
We wandered around the Roman Forum which wasn't that crowded

We wandered up from the Forum to the Victor Emmanuel Monument where we imbibed in expensive tourist coffee and more panini for lunch.

We made our way to the Piazza Navone to follow a walk in our tourist book after a fortifying glass of chianti. The walk was OK but we deviated from the path into a delightful little laneway called Via de Coronari, probably named after the prices you might expect to pay.
Upholsterers, gilt mirror makers, decorative painters, rug repairer, venician glass bead shop, old fashioned barber etc.

For dinner we found a little place around the corner called the Ristorante La Cantinola Da Livio. Vicky had Spaghetti with clams and Graeme had Risotto Pescatori with some reasonably pleasant house vino rosso.

Today, Thursday, we walked from the hotel along the Via Veneto to the Spanish Steps with a bit of window shopping and actually found a few nice places amongst the Prada, Dior, Escada, Hermes, YSL, etc etc.

More panini for lunch and this evening out to dinner in the Trasterveri district.

Weather : Cold and wet

Spent today at the Vatican.

Activity one : Climbed to the top of the dome of St Peters. A lift followed by 320 steps up tiny sloping passageways and spiral stair cases untill we were suddenly on a small balcony right at the very top. Unfortunately accompanied by several hundred others including several school groups. View spectacular, architecture amazing.

Activity two : Wandered through St Peters. Very ornate with lots of marble and gold and statues. Accompanied by similar crowds but much more respectful inside the church.

Activity three : Lined up for about 30 minutes for the Vatican museums. These were amazing, full (overfull really) of relics from Ancient Egypt right through to today but mostly ancient Rome and then the Renaissance. There was so much to look at that we could have been there for twice the time and still not seen everything. Unfortunately most of the exhibits are inadequately labelled and many are too far away to be seen in close detail. There were some astounding sculpture and the Egypt section was the best we had seen. The crowds were horrendous with many school groups of disresepctful, loud, pushy children. The highpoint was the Sistine Chapel which was truly wonderous and managed to blow away some of the annoyance we had felt up until then. We spent about half an hour just looking up with a thousand or so of our new friends who constantly ignored the entreaties of the guards to be silent and not to take photos.

We returned to the hotel as light faded and enjoyed a Bombay Sapphire with Schweppes or two before dinner in.