Good dayyyyyy from Rome. Slept good....

Sooo...the night before me n Mike decided we is staying here for another night, we got a good rate at the hotel we are in...so kinda a free day to wander....ohhhh except for got to go to the embassy and hopefully all is good and get me a passport......

So we met for breakfast...the usual in Italy.....there is always eggs....scrambled....and some kinda boiled bacon.....and all sorts of cold cuts cheese and meats.....and of course....cappuccino.....living off it here...sooooooo good. We figured we would go the the Colosseum today and check it out...and all the ruins around it...the colossus...etc etc...and then get a ride in outside of town. So we had breaky and killed a bit of time till the phone call......it didn't come.....it was suppose to at 8....so I called me gal....it wanted to connect me to Ottawa......frig....8 here must mean 9....sure enough .....around 9 my phone rings its her......she says all is good.....come n get a passport...WAHOOOOO.

We get our stuff together...hop on da bikes n off we go....getting there was fairly easy only one nav error.....wish we could ride like this back home. The embassy was open.....they all knew us at the front and they waved us n...still had to drop our phones and stuff into lockers but really friendly crew. Popped into the consular section.....and...hmmm.....all sorts of people here now....and they all lost their passports. So I grab a ticket....I'm the next number. It was interesting listening to the conversations of how people thought it was to be done. One guy just lost his passport in March....and lost it again....once he said that the gal (who was soooo helpful on the phone).gave the ahhh yaaaaaa wellll here is the paperwork...good luck. So I grabbed a feed back form and was filling it out when me gal saw me and popped out....she waved and flagged me into the special room.....It was like we was best buds. The other gal was waving too....and she thanked me for the shoes....seems whilst she had my credit card she went shopping online.....funny gal. So walked by everyone....sat down...we chit chatted about life in Rome and laughed and I got me new temp passport....its white....looks special. I walked out of the room.....everyone stared at me..I waved me passport a weee bit....felt good almost like I had diplomatic immunity....they did stare at me....and we proceeded to leave ..... I had a grin on.... gave a good luck to all and off we went.

Colosseum here we come. It was actually easy to get there but its packed with buses and stuff so no where to park even a bike and the road I wanted to be on was closed for construction. So wandered along...saw a road that looked good went up it and it was on a hill across the street from it. We parked easy....no one around......and wandered down to it.
Wow....its pretty cool.......lot of history if the walls could talk.

So wee tried to figure out how to get in....and biggggg line....then a gal approached us...tour....no line...that got my ear. So we signed up....a few euros and a lil wait and the guide showed up and off we went.....inside. Its an amazing structure....lots of little tidbits picked up from the guide the only down side was that it was really windy.....almost lost me cap a couple of times. it held 60.000 and they could fill it in a matter of minutes.....seems that the use of whips on the crowd really motivates.....kinda like that idea. Anyhoooooo it wa Uber cool......found a chunk of it....and put it in me pocket to add to the collection.   

So by now its too late to go for a rip......so we decide to get some drinks and grub. We wandered into a little ristarante across the street.....plunked down. Ordered some large beers and the beer here is awesome...don't need a brand...just order a beer....it will be good. Geet ready for tip 3...... so remember we paid a stoopid amount for a beer a while ago. Well the gals in the embassy gave a tip. If its outside near anything famous that you can see from the chair .... stooopid price. You pay for the view .... double price. The trick is to go inside get a beer.....then sit down...so the gals in the embassy say. So the beers we ordered were huge.....and the pasta was great. I am digging the home made stuff. So we chilled for a bit.....we had done a lot of walking so far.

When the beers were almost drained...time to go. Back to the bikes....this time off to the Pantheon area...in the day time. I got us real close pretty easy.....we hopped off and commenced to wander around. Off we went and found it pretty easy. Its very spectacular in the daytime too. It was open and free to enter so in we went. Tres Cool....lots of folks wandering around. They all are snapping pics and forgetting that its a church.....Mike remembered to take his cap off. We wandered all around it....the dome is spectacular. Time to wander again......this time we found a museum, so in we went.

It was okay but not what I expected, not many statues... Mostly paintings..... Very impressive though. We finished that and sat in the plaza and sipped cappuccinos. All good

No matter where you walked something cool......and we decided to try to find the bikes and time to hit the hotel. Got a suggestion on a good restaurant....only a couple of blocks....off we went. Keep telling Mike I want pizza but seem to not get it. Lots of good pasta and this place was great. Pizza here by the way is real good!! Might have mentioned that....helped that the waiter was a card too. Either way we had a great meal and headed back to the hotel to crash. Great day!