We had an early start today, ready for a long road trip day today. Leaving the hotel at 7:30 we are driving through the Italian countryside and will reach Rome at appprox 3:00 this afternoon.

It is a good day to be on the coach today, as our grey skies are back. The weather reports are showing fine and hot (28 degrees) for Rome.

Our journey south took us around Bologna and Florence, both of which we see in more detail in a few days time.

We stopped in a huge service centre for an early lunch at 12:00 (to dodge the traditional Italian lunch time of 1:00) I had a huge piece of pepperoni pizza

Checking into our hotel at just on 3:00 we had an hour to unwind before heading out on walking tour of the Eternal City 

Our local guide Paulo showed us the sights of Rome. He described what roman life may have been like many hundreds of years ago. We saw Egyptian obelisks that are over 3000 years old which were brought to Rome over 2000 years ago.

Unfortunately, the Trevi Fountain is under scaffold until December 2015, so we missed its full beauty, but we certainly did get its scale

We made it to the Pantheon, which is the most preserved building from ancient times. It is truly awe inspiring.

Lots more amazing building, fountains and piazzas, then we were free to explore and have dinner. I had the most divine Rigatoni Carbonara 🙂

Back on the coach, Bern noticed they were very few people at St Peters square. So we “did a dodgy” again and had a real quick 5 minute photo stop there. We all took photos of “one foot in Italy , one foot in the Vatican “

Back to the hotel ready for a 6:30 start to get to the Vatican to jump the queue and get in early.