Day 20- en route to Rome

Surprisingly, we managed to get up when our alarm went off this morning (a huge
change from previous days of hitting snooze 5 times before turning the alarm off)
and we left for Rome at our agreed time of 10am. Neither of us were looking forward
to the trip downhill to La Spezia, given how scary and dangerous the trip uphill
was. A fortunate mistake had us miss the almost invisible left hand turn that La
Punta Caro wanted us to take, instead we stayed on the SP370 which was a wide and
divided road that took us safely and comfortably to La Spezia - bypassing the
nightmare! I honestly have no idea why the GPS didn't take us up this road in the
first place.

Driving through La Spezia, Carl and I agreed with would be a nice enough town to
stay, with easy access to Cinque Terre using the train system.

Next stop: Pisa! It was a relatively quick and easy drive, about 1.5 hours, until we
hit the traffic coming into Pisa. We had to stop at a hotel to ask for directions to
the tower, and were happy to find out we were only 3 blocks away and could find
parking easily (helped by car guards who expected you to pay double for the €1,25
parking ticket - seeing all the change in Carl's hand, he demanded €4, and we were
happy enough to pay due to the close proximity).

While ridiculously hot (41 degrees) and packed, the tower and surrounding
attractions were absolutely worth the detour. I laughed at the hundreds of people
posing, pretending to hold up the tower, and of course, did it myself! Alas, my
camera died as if on cue, and Carl's camera battery had drained unbeknownst to us,
so all I can say is thank goodness for iPhones!

We were deliriously happy to get back into the car's air conditioning and set off
for Rome.

Towards the end of the 4 hour trip from Pisa, Carl was getting antsy to give the car
back to Hertz and finish driving. As team navigator, I kept assuring him by letting
him know how many minutes we were away from our destination. I, too was eager to
take the car back as it was past 5pm and I was not sure what time the car hire
office closed. As we reached our destination, it was obvious that La Punta Caro had
taken us to the wrong (although identically named) street, we clearly were not at
Termini station, and sadly we had another 30 minutes in the direction we had just
come, to our destination.

We got through it, and although the Hertz staff were not friendly or impressed by
the paperwork we had caused by our car accident, we were soon car-free. I
congratulated Carl on his driving and he congratulated me on my navigating, and we
agreed we made a good team.

We were completely ripped off on our 3pm cab journey to Hotel Forum, at €25 (when we
challenged it, they said it was an €8 bag fee). Unfortunately, there was nothing
much we could do about it as there were four cab drivers at the taxi rank
surrounding us. Looking back, we may have been able to avoid that by hailing a cab
from the street, but never mind.

Hotel Forum was a lovely touch of luxury, directly opposite ruins and icy
air-conditioning welcoming us in the foyer. The Renaissance inspired interior was
just divine, and our bags were taken to our first floor room for us. Strangely, to
get to our room, we had to take the elevator to the second floor, then a short walk
to a different wing and another elevator down to the first floor. Perhaps there was
another way but we searched and could not find it, which was a shame as I prefer
stairs to elevators.

After a rest, we had our welcome drink at the American Bar on the rooftop, which had
gorgeous views of the ruins, and headed out for some dinner. We went to the Glass
Bar for a delicious Cesar salad, grilled chicken, cheeseburger and the tastiest
chips. We then headed on to the unknown city, past plazas and ruins until we struck
gold at a little cocktail bar overshadowed with al fresco restaurants. We sat at the
bar and had some of the most impressive cocktails of our lives, about €8 each and so
potent they had us slurring. We watched a music show, which filmed radio presenters
live presenting their show, and showcased some Aussie girls poorly representing our
nation as Italian man hungry ;)
However they requested some good songs including Chilli Peppers 'Under the Bridge'
which had Carl and I performing some pretty impressive air guitar.

Somehow, we found our way through the cobblestones back to our hotel, and so marked
the end of our first night in Rome.

Day 21 - Rome

This morning, we took advantage of the first included hotel breakfast, and weren't
disappointed with pastries, cakes, fruit and yogurt.

Our first stop was practically on our doorstep- the Colloseum - and as we agreed not
to wait in the 2 hour line, we circumnavigated the monument as Carl gave me a
history lesson involving Gladiators and prisoners. He basically talked me into
watching the movie Gladiator when we get home. We jumped on the Metro to the Vatican
city, and were again thoroughly disappointed by the throngs of people in lines and
the fact that (as far as we could see), to get to the Vatican city you had to walk
through the museum after paying a fee to enter. We did, however go to the Square in
front of the Basilica.

On the way back to the metro, I stopped in a little dress store and, upon finding
out that their smallest size of gorgeous dresses didn't fit me, the shop assistant
whipped out some sewing pins and offered to tailor them for me that day. It was an
incredible service which I took advantage of! At a fee of only €8 per dress (each
dress was Italian made and excellent quality at only €35) the shop assistant took
off the extra inches I needed for a perfect fit. I love Italy!

Carl was keen to follow the advice of one of his clients, who raved about "La Boca"
and said it was opposite the Hard Rock Cafe. Fortunately, the Hard Rock Cafe was on
our little tourist map and easy enough to get to by Metro. Upon arrival, we quickly
realised that we were mistaken, and after asking for help at a nearby hotel they
directed us to La Boca- right back near out hotel! All was not lost, we stopped for
lunch at a restaurant (requesting to eat inside because of the extreme heat- where
we sat alone in blissful air conditioning!) It was fortunate that we stopped here,
as it was possibly the best meal we had had thus far, fresh homemade pasta and pizza
with the toppings of the pie completely separated.

Carl wasn't feeling well after lunch, possibly heat stroke, so we headed back to the
hotel for rest and a little sleep.

Unfortunately we never got to see La Boca, as when we finally made it at 7pm the
doors were locked.

Defeated, we admitted that "Rome wasn't built in a day" and therefore, we could not
expect to see it in a day.

Still full from lunch, we sat in our hotel room away from the heat, and drank red
wine until we had built up an appetite. Dinner, was a casual affair at the little al
fresco restaurant around the corner from our hotel. We spent the night talking about
our holiday, how happy we are that we made it all happen, reminiscing about when it
was just an idea and proud of how well it all came together.

It's sad that we have reached the end now, but we couldn't have had a better trip.
Tomorrow is the beginning of the long trek back to Sydney via London and Beijing.

Although our trip is coming to an end, the adventure of Carl and Emma is just
beginning.