Final day in Rome

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Well after two weeks traveling, lots of sights and adventure with cities, country side, lakes, mountains and ruins we are all exhausted and ready to return home (as you can see from the photo of Corban resting on the outside window-sill of the Hard Rock Café).  Our final day in Rome was a quiet one, we spent the morning packing up and arranging a picnic lunch for the ride home (12 hour car trip).  In the afternoon we went back into the city for a final look around, making sure we saw the Spanish Steps and Hard Rock Café (Nicolette favourite) which we had missed.  It was another hot day and of course another gelato, Italian ice cream is supreme!  Once again we have had the most amazing holiday, now back to work for 7 weeks before we do it all over again for our summer vacation, Scandinavia here we come!

Mt Vesuvius and Pompeii

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Another early start today for our drive to Mt Vesuvius.  Leo asked this morning if we would need a harness to climb the volcano (cute).  The drive there was so much easier than using Italian transport, but the GPS took us up some very crazy, bumpy, skinny mountain roads.  Climbing Vesuvius was relatively easy, it took us about an hour while we took photos and enjoyed the view.   It was fantastic reaching the top; the crater was massive with steam coming from the rocks.  At the top you could walk around the rim of the crater, like always dotted with little stalls to sell souvenirs.  Mt Vesuvius is most famous for the eruption of 79AD which buried the city of Pompeii.  The weather changed quickly at the top and we became covered in cloud and needed jackets to warm up.  After Mt Vesuvius we headed to Pompeii, although we knew it was a Roman city buried in ash we had no idea how big it actually was.  We spent from 2pm – 6pm walking through all the streets, amphitheatre, gardens, coliseum and forum; once again we didn’t finish everything as it is 64 hectares of streets and buildings.  We saw the people who were covered in ash and frozen in time.  The whole city is unbelievable with every turn offering something else to look at.  Leo and Corban did twice the distance as everyone else as they were busy running in and out of all the houses pretending they lived there.  Some of the houses were very well preserved and it was amazing to see the colours, paintings, designs/patterns, tiles that lined the insides.  All of the streets were named and numbered with accessible roads.  The city even had a complex water system.  There is written record of the eruption in 79AD but the city was left buried until it was rediscovered in 1599.  Even then it was not excavated for another 150 years until 1748.  Pompeii is a must see place!  We had also planned to visit Naples in the afternoon however we simply enjoyed our day so much we didn’t leave in time.  We did however go for a quick drive through on the way home.  The roads were the bumpiest we have ever driven on in a city and the people drive like maniacs.  There are no lines painted on the roads, no need to use traffic lights or even the roads, foot paths and tram track were also available if you wanted.  We are absolutely shocked that ‘Bessy’ didn’t get a scratch and we are all still alive:+)         

Vatican City and Pantheon

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Another day and more crazy transport we got up at 6.30am because we didn’t want to be late for our 9am tickets.  We made it by 9.07am and have decided that walking would probably be faster!  I was also a little disappointed, I sneezed in front of two nuns and a priest and none of them said “bless you.”  Once again Allan, Taylor and Nicolette think my humour isn’t very funny but it keeps me entertained.  Walking around the Vatican to the entry we couldn’t help laughing at the Swiss Guards who actually look like jokers and we couldn’t believe the cue for the people who hadn’t purchased tickets in advance, it was about 500m, 4 or 5 people deep and not moving!  But today was all about the Vatican and Sistine Chapel.  The world’s smallest state, centre of Catholicism and home of the Pope!  Plus the thousands of other paintings, sculptures and artefacts in the Vatican museums. The Vatican has over 5 miles of corridors filled with the most wonderful, bizarre and interesting stuff.  I guess some well known stuff that we saw was the statue of Rodin’s ‘Thinker’, The ‘Discobolus’ Greek discus thrower and of course the Sistine Chapel.  Every corner, hallway, stairwell or hidden room was filled with some kind of art or treasure.  Taylor was finished in a couple of hours (just like the Louvre in Paris) but we spent 7 hours and even missed the Egyptian exhibition.  We have seen plenty of Egyptian stuff and the Tutankhamen exhibition, so didn’t mind skipping this.  Our feet were sore, Allan took a nap on a seat in the garden but we continued on ...  Our last stop of the day was the Pantheon which we missed on Monday.  The Pantheon is the most preserved Roman building in Rome.  It is a circular shape and has large granite pillars and a central opening (oculus) in the roof.  It is pretty amazing because the height of the oculus in 43.3m and the diameter of the interior circle is exactly the same.  After 2000 years it is still the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome.  Originally it was built for all of the gods of Rome and more recently been used by the Roman Catholic Church.

Rome at Night

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Tonight we left the kids with Taylor and went out to explore Rome by night.  Thinking that we knew the transport better and had our route all planned, we thought it would be a breeze ... but then the bus broke down!  We were left on the side of the street and began to feel our way by foot to the Vatican.  After a few wrong turns we made it.  Night was great as there were only a few hundred tourists instead of thousands.  After the Vatican we made our way back to the Coliseum for a couple of snap shots.  Although we only walked to a few main sights, we needed to head home because the trams and buses stopped at 11.30pm and we wouldn’t have a clue how to get back if we were late. 

Santa Marinella – Beach

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After spending a couple of busy days in Rome we decided to have a more relaxed day and headed to the beach.  Rome is not famous for its beaches, but now that we live in a land locked country we like to get there when we can.  We googled the closest beach to where we were but the reviews didn’t seem very good so we opted for a beach that was a 1 hour drive.  Santa Marina was pretty average but everyone enjoyed the sand, picnic and swim.  The little kids were in the water first followed by Allan and Taylor.  It was nice walking along the beach and Taylor made the little kids into mermaids which they thought was pretty cool.  It was a nice day out and there is just something awesome about the Mediterranean that made us chat about last summer in Spain and the South of France.