Rome

In theory the flight cancellation meant we would be able to enjoy a day in Rome, however in practice it just made for a very long day consisting of planes, trains and automobiles!

A 5.45am start, meant we were up in time to see the last of the sunrise as we arrived in the port, followed by a quick last breakfast and we were off the ship not long after 7am, on the bus to the airport arriving around 8.30am.

We walked for what seemed like miles through the airport, through the covid testing centre, to get to the bag storage. We paid to get our cases stored and headed to get the train into Rome. Once there we got on a hop on/off bus and headed for the Coliseum.

The sun came out and it was absolutely boiling! We got to the Coliseum but weren’t able to get tickets to go inside so instead decided to hire some scooters and go for an explore. Turns out we aren’t very good at adhoc exploring around busy roads and one way systems. Combine the with the heat and we were both a little grumpy!

We found our way in the end and had a fun scoot, went all the way round the Coliseum and also found some other old ruins (I’m sure they have some Roman historic significance but no idea what!!).

Headed back to the airport around 2pm, retrieved our cases, stood in a queue and waited for ages for check in to open, with a very nice but waaaaay too talkative couple behind us! Checked in, told we couldn’t use the lounge and the airport had plenty of seat, got through security and discovered we were delayed.

Delay finally stopped moving and we took off at 9.30pm, finally back in Heathrow and the long day ended with a wait of over 1.5hours for our cases, finally getting to Vikki’s around 1am!

So a fleeting glimpse of Rome which mainly consisted of around 8 hours in the airport!