A day in Rome

We had breakfast in the hotel - it was included and was quite good although they have limited seating so you have to book a time the night before.

Ian was keen to see the Roman Forum, as we had last been in 2014. So we took the metro to the Colosseo station and came out into the crowds! We didn’t intend to go to the Colliseum and they only have timed tickets and we didn’t want to go with a guide. There were lots of people trying to sell us tickets, but we would have paid more. Again, enormous crowds and queues to even buy tickets, but I heard a tourist talking to a Carabinieri who told him about another ticket office a short walk away. So we went there - no queue and could go straight into the Roman Forum area.

It is a fascinating place and we really only saw parts of it in the couple of hours we were there. We also went into the ramp, only opened eight years ago linking the forum with the residential areas.

We worked our way back towards the Colliseum when we heard a voice saying “they don’t let Aussies in here”  we turned around and there was my second cousin Gavan and his wife Beth! We last saw them in Florence in 2015! We had a good chat with them and even remembered to take a photo this time. They were just heading into the Roman Forum and we were leaving.

Gavan, Beth and us!

We found a touristy restaurant fairly close by and had a very nice lunch of lasagne (Ian) and pasta with beef ragu and peas (me). Much better than yesterday’s! We took a bus back to Roma Termini and ended up booking a tour to the catacombs for tomorrow. 

We walked to our apartment and repacked and rested before heading out for dinner. Tonight we went to Ristorante Donati, just down from last night’s dinner location and obviously a competitor. A lovely waiter who recommended their homemade pappardelle with bacon, mushroom and tomato sauce. We started with a shared bruschetta and then had the pasta - it was wonderful, probably the best in the past two weeks! Enjoyed with a bottle of Barbaresca. I had lemon gelato and we had a couple of limoncellos each to finish off. It was a lovely dinner.