We got up fairly early this morning and were greeted with yet another glorious sunny warm Italian day in the port of Civitavecchia, the port for Rome. After a good breakfast it was soon time to join our tour "Rome On Your Own". On the bus was Veronica who would be our tour guide for the one and half hour bus journey from the port to the heart of the city of Rome. Veronica chatted all the way giving us background information about this iconic city.
When we arrived in Rome we were then on our own to do our own thing for 5 hours. We had prepaid our tickets for the Vatican Museum and The Sistine Chapel so we got a taxi to take us to The Vatican Museum which was a fairly long journey and only cost us €12 including tip. When we arrived the queue for tickets was very, very long. We were so pleased that we had booked online. Even so there were people near the entrance trying to "con" you into spending more money with them all posing as officials from The Vatican - They were not- We joined a small group and within a few minutes we were in and started the very long walk through the museum. We had been advised to speed along these many long corridors glancing at the painted and gilded ceilings and the works of art on the walls. Even though we sped along it still took us about twenty minutes to reach our goal - The Sistine Chapel - It was worth the walk. It was amazing to see the paintings on the walls and ceilings that took Michael Angelo many years to complete. What really surprised us was that they looked liked they were painted a few days ago. They were all so well preserved. There was no fading, flaking paint work or discolouration.
After sitting and eating our sandwiches in the Vatican gardens it was time to go out of the museum and follow the walls of The Vatican, at least half a mile, until we came to St Peter's Square, another unbelievable place, a massive square with St Peter's Basilica as the centre piece. This is the area where the Pope lives and where he appears at the window every Wednesday and on special religious days.
It was then time to find a Hop On Hop Off bus. There are numerous to choose from but we find "City Sightseeing" a good reasonable service. Again beware of men posing as representatives of this company - they are NOT - we only buy tickets on the bus or at the official office. We got on and spent a good hour and half visiting various iconic sights in Rome. When we got to the Colosseum we both agreed that we had to get off and visit another one of The Seven Wonders of Medieval World. Two Wonders in two days. What a gigantic, enormous place this is and has to be seen to be believed. The dilapidated state of it is all part of its charm. We walked back to our meeting point via the Piazza Venezia (The Wedding Cake). Again the military were out in big force throughout the City, especially at the popular tourist places.
The journey home passed very quickly in the still bright sunshine.
We were very tired after a hectic four days, but the hot tub was very welcome and dinner again was superb. Pheasant was on the menu tonight along so many other delights. Our fellow diners persuaded us to join them at the Footlights Theatre to see 'Someone Like Me - A Tribute to Adele' performed by Helen Ward-Jackson and she was brilliant and we were pleased we went.
