Date: Mon 24th June
Temperature: Pleasantly warm
Mood: Happy
Highlight: Coliseum & Forum

We enjoyed a lovely breakfast provided by the Hotel (we’d forgotten it was included, but very welcome as saved us having to spend time hunting down our own!).

As the Spanish steps were nearby, we decided to check them out straight after breakfast and then return to the Hotel to prepare for another big day of sightseeing.

We had an itinerary in hand provided by Travel by Design and a map, but with limited time as we had a pre-booked guide to take us through the Forum and Coliseum. Unfortunately neither of us can claim we have excellent navigational skills and sense of direction. Compounded by the poor map in hand and the complex layout of roads and long street names and Piazza’s, we spent the morning wandering around Rome trying to follow our Itinerary but failing dismally. It made Venice a walk in the Park in comparison!

We were relieved to actually make it on time to meet our guide Caitlin at Campidoglio and that was after asking for directions on more than one occasion!

What a pleasure to have our own private guide. We were completely absorbed in hearing the Ancient Roman history as we walked through the Forum and then enthralled by the stories around the Roman people’s Coliseum, literally transporting us back in time as we could visualise this great space in full action. Jenny as a Vestal Virgin watching on and Stephen as a Gladiator?

Back to reality! We’d missed lunch due to our sloppy navigating earlier in the day and we headed back in the direction of the Hotel with a little sightseeing on the way. As has been typical, we finally ended up eating at around 9:00pm (Still early by Italian standards) and finally crashed at 11:00pm. Well one us did. We will have to get up earlier if we think we can attempt to give justice to our itinerary which will also include another tour with Caitlin, this time to the Vatican.

(P.S Caitlin sends her regards to the people at Travel by Design!)

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Date: Sun 23rd June
Temperature: Hot
Mood: Enchanted
Highlight: Eating Pizza whilst sitting on the banks of the Grand Canal

With our bedroom windows left open, we awoke to the first Gondola’s making their way along the canals outside our window.

A quick shower to freshen up and we were on our way. We had received an email earlier from Travel by Design and needed to do a quick rescheduling of the day’s activities.

To combat queues and the like we tackled the Doge’s Palace first, followed by the Basilica, after which we were on a slow burn out due to the lack of breakfast and the heat. We took off for the original scheduled breakfast stop, but were disappointed with the views as the church opposite was undergoing renovations, with so many other great views to be had we went in search for lunch. We ended up with takeaway Pizza which we ate whilst enjoying the hustle and bustle of activity around the Grand Canal.

It was now time for some more walking to take in more of Venice and her amazing intricacies of narrow streets and criss-crossing canals and small pedestrian bridges. In just the nick of time, we found the popular Venetian Gelateria il Doge for a quick lick before making our way through the streets all the way back to the railway station.

Before long we were on one of Trenitalia’s fast trains, the Frecciargento, to Rome. Scheduled arrival, around 8:20pm. Luckily these trains come with Internet WiFi so we can catch up on our blogging!

On arrival into Rome, using just a map handed to us from our gypsy friend Fabian, we loaded ourselves up with our backpacks (which are starting to weigh a lot more than when we set off a few months ago!) and headed off in search of our accommodation. Couldn’t have been easier and the traffic was sedate (probably due to it being a Sunday evening). Checked in to a lovely a hotel recommended by a work colleague (no disappointments) and had the staff arrange a booking at a nearby Pizzeria. On the way back from dinner, we noted a few Gelateria’s if needed in future!

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