To Rome

We were able to have a leisurely start to the day and had a taxi pick us up at 10:15 to take us to the station.

A final look at that view!

Our train left at 11 and it was an uneventful fast trip to Rome. I had booked us into Hotel Varese, only 7 minutes walk from the station. We were upgraded to a larger room (I think because we booked direct and not through a hotel booking site).

We did a little unpacking and headed straight out. We stopped for a very poor lunch at a cafe - both ordered lasagne which was quite awful. No meat at all, swimming in a cheese sauce with a hint of tomato and a bit of pasta! 

We walked to the Reppublica and bought public transport tickets. We then caught a bus to near the Pantheon and walked the rest of the way. We couldn’t believe the crowds! We would hate to be here in the peak season!

Last time we were here, in 2014, you could just walk in and take plenty of time to absorb this amazing building. Now you have to pay after standing in a huge queue. Just as we joined the queue a woman came up to us and said she had two places on a tour about to start - no need to queue. So we said yes. It was quite a good 30 minute tour and we learned quite a lot about the Pantheon. It cost 20 euro each (normal entry ticket is 5 euro), so it was OK.

Raphael’s tomb

Pantheon selfie

We had a coffee break at a cafe in front of the Pantheon then headed back to our hotel on a very crowded bus!

We unpacked properly (but not fully - only here 2 nights) and rested before heading out to dinner. While we are not in a major tourist area there are a couple of quite cheap, but nice restaurants a short walk away. So we ate at Ristorante Romano La Lupa. We were quite hungry so had pasta (Ian had carbonara and I had Cacio e Pepe) which were lovely, but large and a bit salty. Then Ian had pepper steak and I had saltimboca ala romana. They weren’t bad, but too much food! After finishing our bottle of wine, I decided to have a small lemon sorbet, which was fabulous, and we both had limoncello.