Lunedi

Windows open, Bialetti on, sun streaming in - nice start to the day!

Too hot for walking everywhere today so caught the Metro to the Colosseum and, thanks to my partner's organisational skills, skipped the massive queue to get in with our online reservations within a couple of minutes. A breeze! Three of us had been to Rome before but this was the first time any of us had been inside, and it was pretty fabulous I have to say. There did come a point however when we felt we'd been there long enough and seen as much as we could take in, plus we had a nice pasta lunch somewhere nearby planned before exploring The Forum in the afternoon.

The Forum was terrific as well, and the path out of it brought us to the quite ridiculous/impressive spectacle/monument that is The Vittoriano - one of those buildings that makes you think how they really don't muck about when it comes to making a statement in this city. It would be huge anyway, even without the massive statues on the top, the ones with the winged Victorys. About as imposing as it gets.

And, one of the buses that bustled it's way around the thronging streets of Piazza Venezia was the 628, the one that went all the way back to ours. Quite hard work getting on and off, a little on the busy side shall we say, but we managed - hurrah! The shop across the road from us sold pizza by the slice by weight, I dunno what all the little slices of the various ones that we ended up buying came to in grammes, but I do know that there was more than enough to feed all four us for fourteen Euros. It seemed like a very good deal for a restful night in. And with our windows wide open, there soon began all the noises of plates and crockery and fine smells of meals cooking from all the apartments over the ten floors of the surrounding courtyard. It all seemed *very* Italian.

Monday