(D) So today we left the gorgeous Firenze and headed for Roma. After a quick breakfast and lugging our backpacks, (fortune and good planning thankfully meant it was just around the corner), to the train station we then had an extra 45 min wait as the train was delayed. Once we were on the train though all was good, I love the fast trains and can't help but think Australia is way behind the times in this area; they go 250kms an hour - amazing!

Once we arrived at Rome Termini, the main railway station in Rome, again due to forward planning it was only a short walk to our hotel to book in and drop off our bags. It was only noon but fortunately we were able to book in straight away and so we could quickly lighten ourselves of our load and then we were soon out again.... ready for the Churchill tour of Rome. My goodness we packed it in - the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps and a fabulously expensive drink stop in the Piazza Navonna, worth every penny I might add, all in a relatively short period of 5 hours - including all the walking!

I had been to all these places before last time I was in Rome but it was still lovely to see them again, most especially the Trevi Fountain which truly is a remarkable sight and one which you would have to be an incredibly jaded person to ever tire of!

Once again we were struck by the enormous police/military presence about the place, they really are literally everywhere - it seems just so bizarre though as Liane said it does give you a level of confidence. The other thing that really strikes you is the amount of "beggars" - we have found this all over Italy and I would assume it's part of the refugee crisis. They are incredibly personable and friendly and I've never felt in any way threatened by them but they are also very pushy and do refuse to take a polite refusal at face value so you end up having to be border line rude to get them to go away. It's a dilemma as on one hand obviously you want to give something to them and help them in that way but on the other hand you don't really want to be opening your wallet and handing out money on a crowded street - especially given the known pickpocket scenario and also of course there are just so many of them that where do you stop with the giving?

All in all today we probably walked an enormously long way if it was all calculated out but given we stopped and oohed and aahed and admired at so many places along the way it didn't seem too much of a challenge. I must admit though that as we made our way back to the hotel our feet, hips and knees were starting to complain but we soon found a lovely place to stop for dinner. We thoroughly enjoyed our last night time meal in Italy accompanied by a fabulous bottle of Merlot and finished it off with a stupendous Tiramasu and the final perfect end to any meal ever.... the best lemoncellos we've ever had!

(L) Train travel in Italy is very civilised, lovely clean carriages with lots of luggage storage and they're fast! Our hotel in Rome was right at the Termini station so within 5 minutes of getting off the train we had found our hotel... getting in was interesting because there was signs for about 6 Hotels over a locked door. It didn't take us long to realise we had to ring the bell for Hotel Max to have it buzz and click open, we walked in and saw another sign that told us we had to go to the 3rd floor... we pushed the button for the lift and waited..... and waited... Deb started walking up the stairs.... I walked up the first flight and pushed the lift button again, it came and went and came and went again but didn't stop... Deb meanwhile had continued up the stairs so I reluctantly followed her and arrived at the 3rd floor in time to hear the receptionist ask in a perplexed tone why we hadn't taken the lift!! 

Bags dumped we headed out to see as much of Rome as possible in one afternoon..... I must say we did remarkably well, even paying €13 each for entry into the Colosseum and having a good look around there, quite amazing thinking of the history of the place (well that's been the case all over Italy really)! Our ticket gave us entrance to The Forum so we walked around there as well - Deb commented on how totally "blow your mind" crazy it is to think that these are the streets, the actual stones on which Julius Ceasar and many before and after him have trodden.

We had a fairly early dinner and went back to the motel to blog.... we also had a bottle of wine we'd bought in Florence that we just HAD to drink because we can't take it home! 

Tomorrow we go home... I think we're both ready.