Roma

Monday saw us bright and early to head to the airport to get our flight to Rome from Prague. All went well getting to the airport, going thru all the other formalities with plenty of time to have coffee before we boarded, on time as well. Great flight to Rome without any problems. The flight was about 90% full with many Italians returning home after (I presume) a weekend or a few days away.

I wouldn't have believed this if I hadn't been there, however as the plane landed, and it was a good landing with no hassles or problems during the flight, there were shouts of "bravo" and much hand clapping. These Italians - amazing.

Win took this shot as we flew over one of the many lakes on our descent into Rome











We bought tickets to travel "express" train to the main station "Termini" in Rome. We had planned to then catch the metro subway system to a stop close to our hotel. By a stroke of luck we were sitting next to an Aussie who had been holidaying for a few weeks with his family in the Tuscany region, and when we mentioned what we were intending he advised that we would be better off catching a taxi, making sure that it was an official taxi. I am very pleased that we did take his advice and quickly and easily got to our destination. Having said quickly & easily the guy did travel on the tram tracks following a tram to get around the traffic snarls, also looking to pass the tram if an opportunity arose when a tram was not coming the other way, a very adrenalin rush trip I must say. 

If we had taken the metro, there were many stairs (few escalators) between station platforms, difficulty transiting to a local bus for the last 700 metres trip to our hotel and really not knowing in which direction we needed to travel to take the correct bus stop. I originally thought that we could walk the last 700 metres, however this would have been impossible we realised later.

After checking into the hotel, we headed out mid afternoon to the Colosseum, one bus and one metro line all for €1. Now realising how many visitors flock to any & every tourist attraction in Europe in general there was a cast of 000's milling around the Colosseum and adjacent areas. Unfortunately, we were too late to get a ticket to go inside the Colosseum. My thought was that we would try again tomorrow to get inside

Until we were at the Colosseum, I also didn't realise that there are so many other attractions in this area, Roman Forum, Caesars Palace (yes actually the one that Julius Caesar built not the one in Las Vegas) and so on, so we spent several hours exploring, having dinner & a nice Vino Rossi in the vicinity and heading to our hotel about 9PM. So not a bad first day in Rome.

Yes it is the Colosseum, not from a Postcard but taken by me










Although it is much warmer than Prague still a little cool at night for just a T shirt which is what I decided to wear on our first afternoon and evening in Rome