Mark woke very early this morning for a work call at 5am. When the rest of us woke up we showered (not particularly satisfying with tiny showers and very little water pressure but we got wet) and went across the road to Bar Gastronomia Twins for cappuccinos and croissants.
We had organised a tour of the Colosseum and the Forum as it is very difficult to get tickets now especially for the Colosseum without queuing for a long time for a ticket. It was also good for the kids to hear some of the history behind it from someone they would listen to, even if only for a while ?.
We found our group and got kitted out with our headsets before heading towards the Colosseum. Our guide, Angelo, was very knowledgeable and hopefully the kids (and us) learnt something. We went on the ground floor (where the fighting took place) and the second floor of the Colosseum and then onto the Palatine Hill and the Forum. The tour lasted for three hours by which time everyone had had enough (I think Greer switched her device off after about an hour).
We came back to the apartment, via a little sandwich shop for some lunch. Once we were back at the apartment, we charged up our devices, and got sorted for the afternoon including sorting out cards for the kids to do tap & go on the Metro (the Wise card came in handy here as we loaded virtual cards onto the kids phones (you can’t use the same card more than once on the metro). If you do any travelling overseas and don’t already have one of these I suggest you look into it – they are so handy and easy to use.)
We set off for the Metro and the Tap & Go worked perfectly. At our first stop, we went to a football store, Calcioitalia, to look for a Barcelona top for TJ and Mark wanted a Lazio top for the games they are going to. The store had football shirts from clubs all around the world (well those places that count in football terms).
Back to the Metro and onto Piazza Del Popolo where we exited and walked through the piazza and then down Via Del Corso for a stroll and some shopping. We stopped at Gelateria Mastrocono for a wee gelato – very good (not as good as yesterdays but very good) and continued on our way.
We ended up in Piazza di San Lorenzo in Lucia and it seemed like a good time to take a break and have a drink. We got a table at Vitti Roma and spent the next few hours having a drink, some snacks and people watching.
We had intended going to the Altar of the Fatherland today but sitting relaxing over a few drinks felt like the right thing to do so we’ll do that tomorrow.
We headed home on the Metro via a quickish stop at Zara.