First of all, still getting used to being in a New Year. Second of all and wow - we're at the 9th already. We started the New Year with a guerilla shopping expedition on the evening of the 2nd when we'd finally had enough of our 'character building' mattress. All the experts these days agree that some padding is actually good for the soul (stuff the character). We had thought it would involve a 2 hour plus return trip to IKEA to buy a mattress topper. As it turns out there is a mattress factory in our very own town - so a 10 minute return drive. Suspect we may have paid slightly over the odds but anything to avoid a marathon trip to IKEA - let alone voluntarily going into that hellish maze. So we carted our memory foam home and proceeded to make up the bed with that all important factor... comfort. The next challenge of course will be how to bring it with us. But that's a couple of months away. Market day on Thursday 4 Jan saw the other end of the shopping spectrum altogether and I picked up a pair of jeans and a wool sweater for a euro each. Never underestimate the power of shopping with a measuring tape - especially when foraging through dozens of tables of second hand gears in the middle of winter - couldn't be happier with the style and fit of the jeans (and the price!!!) All these jaunts have slowly but surely used up a bit of gas so we finally pulled into the service station. Which turned out to be a no-service station (at all). It was one of those that runs itself with a machine to feed your card or cash into. Which is usually no problem. Usually. This time it refused to recognise the Visa card at all - perhaps it only likes Italian cards, in any event - had to delve into purse for the Emergency €50 (drumroll please). Main concern then was if we paid our €50 into the machine... would the tank be able to take that much diesel... Sigh... trundled off to the supermarket and almost got burned as a witch for daring to pay (or even attempt to pay) for €1 loaf of bread with a €50 note. James was almost whistling the tune from 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' - bit of a standoff there for a minute or so. But I stuck to my guns (and thanked god she didn't have one... honestly... for a major supermarket with ten checkouts you'd think I'd been asking the woman to take the money from her own pocket). But we succeeded - and ended up feeding the fuel-machine 2 x €20 notes - and filling the tank perfectly. Must remember to stash another emergency €50 into pursie.

This eventually brought us to Sunday 7 Jan - AKA the first Sunday of the month - and in these parts, that be FREE DAY - so off to Rome we went to visit as many expensive spots as possible and gorge ourselves on art, architecture and history. There is only one tiny downfall to Free Sunday falling on a Sunday every single time and that is the trains run every 2 hours instead of every hour. So to get in to town at a reasonable time we kicked off at 7.45 am. Brrrr. Worth it though as we were standing in front of the Palazzo Barberini by 9.30 am and 'lo - there were no crowds - no queue - no nothin'. All the other thrifty types were probably over at the Colosseum and Roman Forum. We certainly enjoyed our visit to this major palazzo. It holds half of the national collection of ancient art (the other half is on the other side of the Tiber at the Palazzo Corsini... maybe next month).

We can only imagine what this 17th century palace would have looked liked fully furnished in the olden days back when Bernini placed the finishing touches on it in 1633. It was once home to at least 2 popes but now stands empty, filled only with the exquisite art on its walls. We had to constantly remind ourselves to look up as we went through the rooms as the frescoes on the ceilings held their own alongside the wall based masterpieces. The art highlight was definitely seeing the Raphael, 'La Fornarina' painted in the early 1500s. On a monumental scale however, the 'Parade Hall' was incredible. The vaulted ceiling is full of Bernini sculpture and the original back drop/stage curtain from the opera 'Parade' was painted by Picasso. We almost put our necks out trying to take it all in.

From the palazzo we jumped on the trusty metro and headed to the Baths of Diocletian near Termini station. Terme di Diocleziano (now doesn't that look just so much more exotic) was ancient Rome's largest bath complex, covering about 13 hectares. It was able to cater to 3000 people - that should give you an idea of the size. There was a museum with lots of little things delving into the history of the Latin language... but we were here for the big things - the ruins of the baths themselves and, a surprise to us, a vast cloister constructed from drawings by Michelangelo. This was originally the cloister of the former monastery of the Carthusian monks. In the gardens in the centre of the cloister are the cypresses of Michelangelo. The four trees were apparently planted by the supreme architect when he was laying down the plans for the creation of St Mary's in the ruins of the baths. He died in 1564 and the cloister was started in 1565 (though not finished until 1600. The cloister is now lined with classical sarcophagi, headless statues and huge sculpted animal heads from antiquity, thought to have come from the Foro di Traiano near Trajan's column - they were found 'recently'... in 1586. 'Tis one of the joys of free day that we are often surprised by the wonders that we see that we might not have visited if we were coughing up €20 per site.

It was a great visit and actually took longer than expected. To finish it off we stepped into the church that was established in the original Frigidarium / Cold Bath in the 15th century (the one designed by Michelangelo). Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (St Mary's of the Angels & Martyrs) faces onto Piazza Republicca - or Piazza di Selfie-Stick-Flogger as it seems to have become.

The stunning Fountain of the Nymphs centres the piazza and is one of Rome's newest additions. It was constructed in 1888 to provide a suitably monumental view for what was once an extremely elegant street − via Nazionale. It was designed by Alessandro Guerrieri, who placed four plaster lions around the circular basin. The lions were replaced in 1910 with four works in bronze by sculptor Mario Rutelli, representing the Nymphs of the Lakes, the Rivers, the Oceans and the Underground Waters. The first time we saw it 5 years ago, the sun had set, the sky was sapphire blue and the lights glowed around the piazza - we are going to hang on to that memory.

We were running on empty at this point and about to head to our fave Asian joint for lunch when we spotted Palazzo Massimo just over the far side of the Piazza. Sigh... being a state musuem it was included in free day - so we nipped in for a quickie look about - nice sculptures, nice mosaics and, the highlight, wow... two very rare bronze statues that were discovered in an excavation of an ancient Roman Era building in 1885 - The Helenistic Prince and the Boxer at Rest. Many bronze statues were lost from late antiquity onwards as they were melted down and used for 'practical' things - like weapons and coins - so this was a huge find when they came across them 6 metres underground, beneath ancient floors and foundations and in the vicinity of the ex-convent of St Silvestro al Quirinale. Turns out they once decorated the Baths of Constantine around 315 AD. The baths are now lost, but were situated several hundreds of metres away. It is thought the statues were moved and buried to protect them from pillaging and destruction... and, as as is so often the case with buried treasure, they were forgotten - only to be found 1500 years later! We certainly both love a good buried treasure story. Chuffed to have seen such amazing sculptures it was undoubtedly time to move on to a leisurely lunch.

Usually 'lunchtime' is more than enough excuse for lunch, but this time around we were out to celebrate James's birthday and lunch was superb. We were (almost) at the point of having had enough sushi for a while - so we decided to venture into the Chinese hot food section of the 'all you can order' menu - and we were so glad we did. It's been too long since our last Asian meal in Ireland - so this restaurant has really earned its stripes... and will be getting another visit next time we're in Rome. We did consider more hiking/looking/hiking/wowing after lunch - but were pretty much stuffed. In the end we jumped on the metro and connected with the 3 pm train home - done and dusted by shortly after 4 pm (otherwise it would have been a dark and cold 6 pm home time). Next visit to Rome? In a couple of weeks - just for a casual look around Piazza del Popolo and surrounds - we will however be psyching ourselves up for the last Sunday of the month... free day at the Vatican Museums. Bring it on.