Rome: The mini series

They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but it was just one day that we had to see everything last time Sandra and I were in town with my Mum eight years ago. It's nice this time to supposedly take things a bit easier this time, but after a long day of serious tourist activity we're still completely exhausted. Rather than just tick sites off the list like last time, we were able to stop to take in the atmosphere today which was great.

This morning (Sunday 27 June) started with a trip to St Peter's Bascillia which is literally less than 100 steps away for us to walk from our apartment. Not wanting to make the same mistake as last time I was careful to wear trousers to not be turned away for causing offence to the Church (or more precisely some slick Italian security wannabe who'd still let in gorgeous young ladies wearing next to nothing). So it was very nice to at last see the inside of this beautiful cathedral for the first time. Unfortunately we were misinformed and the Pope wasn't giving Mass today, rather will deliver a service on Wednesday when we fly out to Amsterdam. Nevertheless, it was still interesting to see a regular Mass performed in the church to hundreds of people with their cameras. Thinking we were in line to see the Sistine Chapel, we instead ended up in a queue to take a lift up to the top of the cathedral to see the dome up close from the inside, before climbing 320 very steep and narrow stairs to get on the roof. While it was hot and hard work, especially for the kids, it was an unexpected treat with the views of the Bascillia and Rome below simply fantastic (see first pic).

We returned back to the apartment for a quick lunch and change into more appropriate clothing for a 30 degree day and headed off to find a hop on / hop off bus like we did last time we were in town. We weren't on the bus for long after seeing another important site to tick off on my sad Angels & Demons tour - the Piazza Navona. Apparently it's more famous for three beautiful fountains by Bernini than Dan Brown's fictitious attempt to kill off a cardinal (the 'water' element for those that care). It's also famous for it's killer gelato - or at least should be - with a couple of excellent stores in the area. We all cooled off in the sun by the centrepiece fountain with several flavours of gelati (no cardinals floating around in the water un/fortunately). Here there was also a large artistic market where the kids took in turns posing for their own masterpieces (well, 10 Euro caricatures of themselves - see second pic of Lachlan modelling).

A short walk had us at the Pantheon about 30 minutes later - 10 mins if it wasn't for the junky souvenir shops serving as a distraction. Like last time, the Maccas out the front saved the day as the only real toilet stop in the area, and was where we stopped for some takeaway as it was already about 5.30pm. The front of the Pantheon where we stopped to eat is undergoing renovations unfortunately, but it was still "impressive" inside to use Lachlan's exact words. The kids have changed so much over the past five weeks that we've been away. I reckon Lach has grown a couple of centremetres at least and is talking like a teenager sometimes. Johanna has always taken challenges in her stride, but even more so over the past few weeks, and seems to be learning a lot about the world as we visit new places.

After the Pantheon, we continued our walk through the laneways to the Trevi Fountain. Its bright white marble, and clear blue water shone out from the gritty lane on the approach to an impressed "woah" from Lachlan (about as a good praise as you get from a 5-year-old). Legend seemed to work for us last time as throwing a coin into the water is supposed to ensure your return to Rome. We repeated the tradition, this time with the kids (see video below).

We then returned to the hop on / hop off bus only to discover that it must have just been a hop off bus because after an hour of waiting there was nothing to hop onto. Dozens of similarly annoyed tourists gave up as we did, and instead took to walking. For 65 Euros for two days we weren't impressed that the bus failed to come after 7pm (it's supposed to run to 9pm, but that might just be what tourists of all nationalities joke as "Italian time"). So, as we hadn't done enough walking, we trekked about 4 or 5kms back to the Vactican and 'home' to call it a night. We'll try our luck at getting a refund on the bus tomorrow (no joy tonight though hopefully we scared off a few other tourists from using this company). If nothing else, this trip has certainly been good for keeping the family physically active as we're constantly on the move.

While it's not fair to tar an entire nation with the same brush, our impressions of Italian service generally has been pretty average. Awesome country with many wonderful things to see and do, just not great when it comes to service unfortunately.

Video of Lachlan and Johanna at the Trevi Fountain follows (watch for the scene-stealing pigeon) ...