GHOST

We arrived in Porto Turistico Di Roma yesterday afternoon but had to wait until 3.30pm to check in (when the marina staff return from their lunch break!) and by the time we were organised it was late to head into town so we chilled out on the boat - Brad visited the chandlery and I did some washing (love the new washing machine!).

This morning we headed off early, catching the bus to take us to the train into town - all in all it only took 30 mins or so all in and was all nicely air conditioned! We started the day off with a visit to the beautiful Trevi fountain depicting Neptune's chariot being drawn by 2 sea horses - one wild and one docile reflecting the various moods of the sea, very apt!!! We then headed to Piazza Venezia with Rome's most dominating landmark, the Vittoriano (referred to by Romans as the wedding cake). After climbing up for a good view of Rome we headed across to the Colosseum. Luckily the guidebook had advised buying a multi-day Roma Pass to save money and avoid queues so we headed straight in with audio guides for an informative tour. We then visited the Spanish steps with the fountain at the bottom depicting a sinking boat and after, as we were wilting in the heat, we headed indoors for an air conditioned lunch.

Post lunch we headed across to the Piazza Navona with its three fountains - the most stunning of which is Bernini's Fontata dei Quattro Fiumi (fountain of the four rivers). We sat in the shade cooling ourselves in the fountain until the guards started blowing whistles and ushering everyone away from the water. After that and trying to find something different for Brad to do (yes he's been here a lot too!) we decided to cool down and watch "The Time Elevator" show - a 5D tour of Rome's history. Well the guide book said it was naff but lovable, but it was actually just naff! After that we headed to an exhibition titled "La Mente di Leonardo" at the Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia. It was certainly a beautiful setting for an exhibition which featured Leonardo's study diagrams and mock ups of his models and experiments in the stunning array of subjects he was interested in - from human anatomy, flight, nature to science. Even I was flagging by the end of the visit though so we decided to leave the Vatican to tomorrow and head back to the boat to recover...