And now for the long trip home!

We took our time getting ready this morning. After the hotel breakfast we checked out at 10:30 and stowed our bags with reception. We walked to Roma Termini to meet the bus for our trip to the catacombs.

We should have researched this tour as we kind of got ripped off. We spent 46 euro each, but if we had taken the public bus, it would have cost only 13! But we did have a private bus ride (nobody else on it) out to San Sebastián and we joined the 12 noon tour. There were 5 of us on the tour - can’t go down into the catacombs on your own or take photos. 

There are 7 km of underground passageways that were used to inter approximately 100,000 people from the third to the sixth century. The material removed (volcanic tuff) was used for building materials. It was a very interesting 35 minute tour. As well as the very narrow passageways and, now empty, niches where the bodies were kept, there is a small chapel. A bit further up are some Roman mausoleums that were only uncovered about 50 years ago!

The tour ended at the basilica of Saint Sebastian. We heard the story of Saint Sebastian who was a Christian soldier under Diocletian. He would not denounce his faith and was put to death by arrows. He was left for dead but found by someone and nursed back to health. He spent some time converting soldiers and when he went to challenge the Emporer about his treatment of Christians was beaten to death.

Very ornate carved wooden ceiling
in the church.

The remains of Saint Sebastian
in the altar above a marble sculpture
of his first “execution” 

Relics in the church including some
blood from John Paul II, part of
an arrow that shot Saint Sebastian and
part of the pole that he was tied to.

Bellini’s final sculpture 

We took the bus back to Roma Termini and decided to have a long, late lunch at Hosteria La Stazione, a restaurant near the station that we ate at last time we were in Rome. Thankfully it stays open 11 am to 11 pm. We had a lovely lunch - Ian had a cheese platter, while I had a pasta sampler for entree. For main, Ian had a steak and I had meatballs. With a bottle of Barbera d’alba to wash it down! Sadly no room for dessert, but we did have limoncello! We were served by a lovely Filipino water called Ariana, who laughed and joked with us, making it a fun lunch.

Ian with our waiter, Ariana

The pasta “sampler”

We walked back to the hotel to settle in and wait for our limo. The staff at this place were lovely - made me a cup of tea! The limo was scheduled to pick us up at 5:50, three hours before our flight, although I had booked it originally for 4:20. There was a heavy downpour and I was concerned that we might be cutting it fine for our flight. I had received an email with the name and number of our driver, so I got the receptionist to call him and he agreed to pick us up early.

As it turned out there was no real delay in the transfer and our passage through to the lounge was very quick! So we relaxed in the lounge before boarding our flight to Dubai. 

We arrived on time in Dubai, at 5:30 am, local time, after a 6 hour flight. We were flying on a Boing 777-300, which had full lay-flat seats, but without the space of the A380. Neither of us had slept much on that leg, so we were pretty tired. As we were getting off the plane, I realised that my iPad was not where it should have been. I had left it in the business lounge in Rome! We had to change terminals in Dubai but eventually made our way to the business lounge. I was advised to complete an online form reporting the loss, which I did - fingers crossed!! 

We had a long layover of over 4 hours in Dubai, so sat around in the lounge and had a light breakfast. The final flight was on an A380, so we were able to spread out quite well. After a nice lunch, we settled in. Ian slept quite well for a few hours. I got about 2.5 hours. We landed in Melbourne on time at 6:30 am. it was bedlam getting through immigration as a number of the kiosks were not working and a couple of flights had arrived just before us. We eventually got though and had no problems with Customs and Quarantine (declared our Tunisian spices and Sardinian salt). We met our chauffeur and got back to our apartment just after 8 am.

What a wonderful 7 week holiday! Saw so many great places, ate amazing food, drank lots of good wine....another unforgettable trip for us.

(Post script: it took about 3 weeks, but I did get my iPad back!)