Roma, Day 1 and 2

Due to the morning bus strike, we had a leisurely departure from Montepulciano, and enjoyed a morning coffee in the main square - sitting in a sunny spot against a stone wall, protected from the cool breeze, watching the town gradually coming to life. We felt sad to leave, so we bought a calendar of Tuscan hill towns to look at and enjoy once we get home.

We had some concern that the strike would be extended past 12.30, but no, the bus drivers were all milling around the bus stop, and the 12.40 bus to Chiusi did leave on time - due to arrive in at Chiusi station at 1.30, for us to catch the 1.45 train to Rome. Tight timing! Because it was the first bus to run for the day it was jammed packed, and stopped at every stop - I calculated at least every 100m in towns and every 1km between them. Our progress was painfully slow. The driver knew he was under pressure though to make that connection in time, so every time he was moving it was at break-neck speed - I've never been in a bus with such incessant rapid acceleration and decelerration. Michael and I kept looking at our watches as we jerked through the final bit of the trip, then we flew off the train, into the arrival hall to look at which platform, then down the underpass, up at platform 4 just right on 1.45. With a satisfied sigh of exhaustion we fell onto the train (after waving our tickets at 2 people sitting in our window seats - who reluctantly got up and left - I'm not sure where to) and ate our mortedello and percorini cheese rolls the lady in the Montepulciano deli had made for us (after I'd pointed to the rolls, cheese and sausage and said in my best Italian "mangiamo treni". Luckily she realised we didn't intend to eat a train, but instead made 2 rolls and wrapped them beautifully).

Arriving in Rome, we had just over half an hour to make it to the rendez-vous at our apartment with the owner's son, who was going to hand over the key. We decided that it was wiser to just get a taxi and get there on time, rather than using this as an opportunity to acquaint ourselves with the Rome public transport system - with our luggage, a deadline looming and knowledge of bus drivers striking that day.

The apartment was lovely - larger and lighter than it had looked in the photos. 2 good bedrooms, large lounge/dining room, balcony with table and good kitchen. Unfortunately we were so busy in Rome we didn't hardly have time to spend there.

Michael had been feeling poorly all day with a head cold, so he settled in for a rest while I joined the Verweys for an exploratory walk to St Peter's square (about a 15 minute walk away). We later had a quick, cheap and reasonable meal at the Chinese restaurant round the corner.

The next day we set off to explore Rome. First stop - Castel Sant'Angelo (Hadrian's tomb turned castle, prison, papal refuge and now museum), then walking on to Piazza Navona to see the beautiful fountains there and a coffee in a cafe nearby. We were trying to track down a guide book on Rome by the infamous Rick Steves - the tourist information centre had directed us to a big book shop near Largo Argentina - and sure enough there was a copy in English. Michael was delighted and the book rarely left his hand or bag for the next 4 days (and I'm still using it now to check on spelling of names of places).

Next stop was the Colosseum. We had already bought a Roma pass at the Castel Sant'Angelo, so we were able to bypass the queue and walk straight in. It is a mighty structure - an incredible monument to Roman engineering skill. Although I could appreciate the feat of amazing construction that it was/is - I felt quite upset the whole time we were there thinking about it's purpose (as Rick informed us in great detail) - to watch killings. It was built for spectactors to watch the killing of both animals and people - hundreds of them - as a sport. The subterraneum chambers you could see - where people waited, not knowing if they'd live or die in the next few hours. The whole idea is so horrible that I couldn't wait to get out of the place.

We needed a good sit down and rest after that, as Michael was really struggling with his cold. So we had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the coloseum (shared pizza and salad). We then soldiered on through the Roman Forum - again ably instructed by Rick on the different buildings, before trudging off to find some bus companies to try to book a day tour to Pompeii. We tracked down 2 bus companies, but the tours were 115 Euros each - so we thought we'd do it ourselves by train instead (as advised by Rick anyway). We jumped on a bus back to St Peters square and poor Michael almost crawled home to our apartment. We had dinner that night with the Verweys at a good little restaurant/pizzeria just near our apartment - full of locals and a waiter who thought Dick looked like Clint Eastwood.