We got up early and finished our packing before Salvatore’s wife (the whole family clearly gets involved) came to collect the keys from us. We left the house just before 8am and got on the road to Brindisi arriving around 9am.
Once we had handed over the car, we checked in for our flight and went in search of coffee. We found a nice one near the check in desks and sat and killed some time for an hour or so before heading through security.
The flight to Rome was smooth and before we knew it we were back on the ground. We had some wait time as we couldn’t get into our apartment until 3pm so we decided to get lunch at the airport before heading into town as it made it easier to deal with our bags. Before long, we were on our way into Rome’s city centre with our driver, Leandro who gave us a bit of a guided tour in our way in. We arrived at our apartment about 10 minutes early so just waited outside for our host to arrive.
Unfortunately when we walked into our apartment it was obvious it had not been cleaned – it was a disgrace (it is truly unbelievable the state some people leave places in). We did the paperwork and then left for a walk so the cleaners could come in and get it ready for us.
We are staying very close to the Colosseum so we started there. The kids were actually in awe at its magnificence and were truly blown away by the size of it. We are visiting it properly tomorrow so we just walked around it and took some photos.
We continued walking until we got to Piazza del Quirinale where there is, inter alia the Palazzo del Quirinale (the home of the King between 1870 and 1946 and since then of the President of Italy) and the Dioscuri Fountain.
We continued on until we ended up at a gelato shop, Mancuso Gelati Italani dal 1920. It looked pretty good, so we gave it a go and we were not disappointed. I had salted peanut which was delicious – it definitely rivaled our current leader in Otranto, although TJ disagreed. Surprisingly, the prices were not much more than we had been paying in Puglia despite being only steps from the Trevi Fountain.
Once we had finished our gelato we went to the Trevi Fountain which was crowded. We managed to fight our way to the front for some photos and to throw our coins in to ensure we come back (it has worked every time for me so far ?). It was cheap entertainment watching everyone posing for their instagram posts.
Next stop was the Spanish Steps – we walked to the top and took some photos. You are no longer allowed to sit on the steps, or eat or drink on them. This was instigated in 2016 when they cleaned them up and it is actively enforced – we saw and heard numerous police officers telling people off for sitting. Apparently there is a €400 fine for eating on the steps
We did a spot of shopping before heading back to the apartment which had fortunately been cleaned up and looked a lot better.
We had a quick charge on of our devices, shower and change of clothes before heading to our dinner reservation at Vecchia Roma Trattoria.
https://www.trattoriavecchiaroma.it
When we arrived, there was a bit of a queue of people waiting for a table but as we had a reservation we went straight up. There was a bit of confusion initially as they couldn’t find our name in the list but Mark found our email confirmation and he then believed us and found our name hidden under the clip. He quickly apologized and took us to our table. Service was very quick as they clearly like a fast turn around and the place is clearly popular.
We enjoyed our meal, although as usual the pasta dishes were huge and impossible to finish. On our walk home, we went back via the Colosseum to get some nighttime photos before the kids had a gelato (very average).
