Well the day got off to a wonderful start, we were both up and about by 7.00am. Lauren headed for the gym while I planted myself ocean side and wrote some blog notes. Lauren joined me 45 minutes later and we had a swim before a deluxe breakfast at the hotel. After a couple of hiccups on the road leaving Porto Stefano, namely Lauren getting her Left and Right temporarily confused and trying to send Flavio up a one way street, the wrong way… Actually, I said I wouldn't mention it here, but considering my somewhat more significant stuff up later in the day, I think it's worth a mention now.

We headed South along the coast, with some very scenic views, for most of the journey to Rome. Unfortunately, missy moo has the same propensity to "motion sleep-ness" as Bradley, barely able to stay awake past the city limits. A great attribute for a navigator….

During our 164Km journey, we passed through 4 toll gates, for an aggregate of 12.20 euro (my keyboard has a Euro symbol on the #5 key, if anyone knows how to use it, please let me know…), I guess it's one way of paying for the roads, because you soon know when you're not on the Autostrada! The bumps on the normal highway sent poor Flavio flying more than once (speed may have played a part)… As soon as you see this little sign, it looks like two little humps, you know you're in for a jolt in the next 50m or so. Lauren even woke up at one stage…

As we came down from Autostrada, to highway, to main road, to back road, to lane way, to OMG WTF are we… the intensity grew. Missing our next left turn at the colosseum (don't know how we missed it, it sort of stands out a bit), had us doing a loop of the not so scenic back roads of Rome.

Unfazed as we had an hour up our sleeve, we melded into the traffic. With the expression "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" pinging in my left brain, it was another one of those moments where you find yourself massaging your own ego, and speaking in the third party… Jeez you're good !

More likely dumb luck, but we managed to find a parking spot less than 200m from our apartment..

Now standing out the front of our apartment, loaded to the gunnels with bags that had put on more weight than me (not easy going carb free in Europe), I wondered why the contact was not answering the door buzzer.. Deciding we were a little early, I mentioned to Lauren that we had a Segway tour of Rome booked for the morning. No sooner had the words come out of my mouth, a flash back to the mental picture of the booking confirmation had the date as the 8th of July…

The following conversation went something like this:

Dad - Lauren, what's the date today ?

Lauren - Hmmm, I think it's the 6th.

Dad - Are you sure?

Lauren - Hmmm, Yep.

Dad - O'oh…

Lauren - O'oh, what Dad ?

Dad - We're booked in for the 7th in Rome…

Lauren - Daaaad, stop being silly… (should have done that when I was making the booking me thinks)

Dad - No really, we have no place to stay tonight…

Lauren - Blank look, followed by more blank looks…

All of this while standing in 35 degree sun!

I could not have asked for a better attitude test for my youngest baby.

We parked ourselves, oversize bags n all, in the very friendly pizzeria next door, and ordered a coke and beer. A few phone calls and half a dozen text messages later, we had organised our apartment a day earlier and once again, all was good in our world.

Still giggling at my stupidity a few hours later, Lauren is starting to doubt my ability to get us home.

We spent most of the afternoon in our apartment (washing time again), before heading out to dinner about 8.00pm. Our area of Rome seems to have heaps of restaurants to choose from, so we are hopeful of scoring some 8+ ratings.