ROME 8 Sept

We started the morning in the breakfast restaurant of the hotel where I discovered that the chickens that laid the eggs to be scrambled and served as a choice for breakfast were feed on fish meal or such like, as they tasted la little fishy! However the rest of the breakfast offerings including sugar donuts were delicious. Boarding the bus we drove first past the Il Vittoriano which our guide book described correctly as “architecture on steroids”. It is also known as the wedding cake due to its white marble façade and magnificent golden statues. Driving then around the Colosseum we were dropped off at the Forum. Wondering through the ruins of Caesars Palace (no not the Caesars Palace of Vegas fame) and then on to the centre of ancient Roman bureaucracy. There were plenty of broken buildings to feast our eyes on and a roman ruins cat that followed us as we wondered and would occasionally stop to sun itself on a warm path. We stopped to watch archeologist at work who our guide told us had just come down on the burnt layer from the time of the Emperor Nero who set Rome on fire as the houses surrounding his were not to his taste and made up some story about the Christians having done it. Any on with the tour of ancient Rome: next we walked to the Colosseum. True to our tour guides promise we were early into the Colosseum and did not have long to wait to enter the magnificent structure. Though our time was brief within its walls we got a feel for the sheer size of the spectacles that must have occurred within the arena. Once covered in white marble of which only a dozen pieces remain of the spectator seats must have truly gleamed in the Italian sun. A short bus ride and we were ready to see the other highlights on the Roman tourists list by foot including the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fontain, the most magnificent and for me most anticipated Pantheon. We ended our walking tour having consumed a good serving of gelato .

Old Rome is beautiful and again I found myself speechless more often than not. Rendered in lime wash in various warm colours, large windows framed by shutters, terracotta tiled roofs and planter boxes hanging from balconies spilling over with the last of the summer flowers describes many of the buildings in the old quarter. Ristorantes, Cafes and Bars with seats and tables squashed into the narrowest of street fronts. Shop fronts displaying rows of leather gloves, handbags, shoes and the latest fashion wear. There was not a local that did not look stylish and the women were wearing exquisite shoes. I suffered a great deal of style and shoe envy.