Just photos ...will try to write on the bus tomorrow
Well it's tomorrow now.
Up at 6.45am....on the bus at 8.15am
Absolutely beautiful room...the bed was king size!

Yesterday....
On my God, Rome!!!!!!
Wow!
So hard to keep up with all the sights.
On your left...ruins.
On your right...ruins.
And The Coliseum!!!!!!!!
OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!

Ok...first ...walking tour of Rome day before yesterday.
That was amazing.
Had the funniest and best tour guide, Christina.
We saw so many sights that I lost track.
But the Trevi Fountain!!!!!
Loved it...just beautiful.
Lots and lots of people but got to the front (elbows and a big smile) and dipped my hand in.
And I studied each and every statue in detail.
Amazing that it is fed from spring water via aqueducts put in by the Romans 2000 years ago!
Only 20 minutes there but due to the police delay....(I think that was the same day) ...we had to get to The Pantheon ....but just loved it....threw a coin for a wish....just the one.
Onto The Pantheon....just amazing... Incredible....Loved it.
You just can't get your mind around how old everything is.
You try to take photos to capture it all but just seems impossible to capture it.
I have been buying postcards to try to.

Then, onto a wonderful square for free time to wander and grab dinner.
If I have a complaint, it would be that you see so much that you just can't remember all the names.
The big ones, yes...we all know those. But would love a summary of each trip that local guides take us on....
But that is also the type of trip I am on....we are really seeing as much as the guides can arrange.
This square was magnificent...beautiful church and fountain.....the sculptor carving the marble statues for the fountain was upset that this enormous church was being built to overshadow his fountain so one figure has his hand up in horror to shield his face from the church.
In retaliation, the church architect commissioned a statue at the front of the church to be looking away as if totally ignoring the fountain. Just wonderful.

Now, I have decided that it is genetic.
I am known as 'the Energiser Bunny' on the bus apparently.
Remember, how you thought Greg might be lost in Paris, Leanne .....and Tony said that he would be fine so long as he was moving.
Well.......
Yep...
I have to keep trying to see what is round that next corner.
So....
This free time in this magnificent square annoyed the living day lights out of me.
Once I had circled the place 4 times...I was ready for more.
Tried all the side streets...but really couldn't go too far away...didn't want to get lost.
So, if you can imagine this frustrated woman, circling, circling.
Now, apparently, when they offer you free time for dinner....you are supposed to sit and enjoy it.
I have never been one for the eating out thing....(no....surely not ....really?)
But I have now engaged Trish ( seatmate and NZ sister) to grab me and make me sit down.
SIT!
She says it's so funny because I sit there and grind my teeth.

Next day, up and away early to The Vatican City.
Christina again...great fun.
Huge queues....but we went straight in.
The garden was beautiful, paintings and tapestries just wonderful.
Then into The Sistine Chapel.
Wow!
Amazing to see it in person.
I got a very, very cricked neck.
Again...so hard to actually believe I was actually there so wanted to take absolutely everything in.
The place was absolutely packed...we were shoulder to shoulder. ( which came in handy when I was leaning so far backwards to see all the ceiling! )
And the weather was very hot.

The amazing thing that I didn't realise ( one of them!) was that the white marble statues that we see today were actually originally very brightly painted.

Wandered around St Peter's Square....amazing.

So then, free time for lunch...( You don't have to sit for lunch do you?..... Well, except at work )
I went shopping and exploring.
Back on the bus for a driving tour of Rome.
This was the amazing bit.
Look right, look left, right again.
Just absolutely amazing.... There are bits of marble columns just laying on nature strips!
And then we turned a corner...and there was The Coliseum.
Oh my god!
I had a ball here...(could walk in circles and still see amazing, amazing sites.)
Loved it.
Just loved it. The grin was from ear to ear.
Amazed me that it took only 10 years to build,
The bricks were originally covered in marble so the whole place would have been white!
This was removed and is now in the Vatican.
They also used to fill it with water and have ship battles!!!!!!
That stopped once they built the stone walls underneath....previously to that, they had wooden walls that they would remove before they flooded it.
Hunting competitions..for wild animals after they filled the arena with trees and scrub.
That each archway had a number and tickets were issued and people would enter by a particular archway.
50,000 - 80,000 of them.
Just amazing, amazing place...and I have been there!

Group photo taken in front of The Coliseum

Back to the hotel for 2 hours, then out for a Roman dinner.
Best night ever.
See the photos.
We were all hysterical.
Wonderful waiter who would present an unsuspecting woman with a rose...and then proceed to be very amorous!
And the men didn't escape his advances either.
So amongst my wonderful memories of this magnificent place will be the stroll back to the bus in the warmth of the Roman evening, then the outrageously loud singalong on the bus as I watched ruin after ruin flit by the bus windows.

There is so much to write about and nowhere near enough time.
I want one day for touring and one day for writing.
I am missing so much out.

So, I am not answering your comments individually.... Just no time.
But I love getting each and every one... So thank you