After our day of travel we finally arrived in Rome, the final destination of our tour. We picked up a tour guide, named Fedora, as we entered the ancient city. We then spent the next hour or so driving around Rome in the comfort of our air conditioned coach while Fedora gave us a commentary of the notable features we passed. The first feature we passed through was a traffic jam, as of all days, today there was a strike of the public transport. No buses or trains so more more and more cars. As if driving in Rome isn't chaos enough. Not sure why they have lines on the roads or traffic lights because it is just raffertys rules here, glad I'm not driving. As said many times before though nothing phases our drive
We passed the old residency of popes, pre Vatican, the ruin which was the track where the Ben Hur chariot race supposedly occurred, took in the Victor Emmanuel statue and tomb of the unknown soldier from WW1. We finally arrived at the Garibaldi monument that over looked the city and stopped for a photo opp. Not only were the cities views impressive, it was a good chance to stretch the legs after a long day one coach. Somehow John ended up official photographer taking numerous photos of different couples with the city as a backdrop.
Our bus then headed through the roman ruins towards the colosseum and around to our hotel. A good start to help get our bearings...well a little.
Experience 38. Farewell Dinner Extravaganza. 22 June
The tour officially ended after breakfast tomorrow but there was no denying the tour was ending on this night, with a tasty many course dinner at a local restaurant, a couple of blocks from our hotel. We sat with a few regular pals and a few others we didn't mingle with quite so often and also the tour guide, Aldo. We had a pretty good meal, a laugh, took a few photo's...Chez was taking pictures at different tables and whilst trying to get one group to react a bit for a happy snap, she managed to throw wine over this nice fella from WA who incidentally just happened to be the owner of the Feral brewery that we visited during C2H3's trip to Perth a few years back. I don't know if he was laughing all that much but everyone else was.
Chez and I were pretty well the last to leave the restaurant. As others departed their unfinished wine bottles were dropped at our table...not sure what they were tryng to say there. We went for a nice stroll to finish the evening and were looking forward to exploring Roma on the morrow.
Experience 39. Italiano Espresso. 22 June.
We danced around it for almost the entire tour...espresso. At each toilet stop on the bus trip, after each meal....it was "due cappucinii per favore". But tonight after dinner it was time to take the plunge and try an espresso. Not a lot to them really, a small cup, bit of crema, add a bit of sugar...drink it two sips. It was good, glad we did it, became our regular after dinner each night.
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