Jeanette and Pat go to South America

We still have a day more in Rome. We will probably make that our Vatican day. The story so far......

We ended up at the airport in Barcelona way earlier than we needed to be, but had a bit of a rest in the Iberian lounge - no internet unfortunately. The flight was uneventful, but an hour late.

On arrival at Fumicino Airport, we got our luggage and quickly worked out that a taxi ride was going to cost way too much, so we bought tickets on the train. The train ride was pretty easy, and we got to the city at about 7:30pm. We knew our hotel was close by, but with our bags thought it would be just as easy to get a cab. We ignored the hawkers, and found the taxi rank, and the taxi driver seemed surprisingly happy that we were going to Hotel Universo (we thought as it was a short ride, he would be annoyed). We seemed to go the tourist route, and the cabby was happily pointing out various sites and chatting to us incessantly. I did notice his hand was over the meter but did not think too much of it. After a less than 10 minute (probably should have been about 3, but I thought it was our due for such a short trip) ride we were at our hotel. The meter read 26.7 euros (about $45 Australian)!!! Don,t know which planet he thought we had arrived from, but there was no way we were sucked in to that. After a quick exchange, Pat gave him 10 euros because we just were not into the fight! Not a great start to Rome unfortunately.
Our hotel then assigned us a room that was broken! Absolutely nothing worked, and after a couple of minnutes we made our first call on this holiday to housekeeping. Without too much ado they gave us another room - we relaxed and went out for a classic Italian pizza and red wine dinner.

Today we simply walked around Rome - the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Roman fora, churches, ruins, columns and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. All were very awe-inspiring and we definitely think Europe is a special place for anyone interested in culture and history.
Our favourite stop though was the Trevi fountain. We bought some pizza in a deli (an experience in its own right) and sat and watched the people. Tourists throwing coins, a couple of people stealing the coins! One had a stick with a magnet or something on the end - he just got one coin at a time. Another had a little net which he seemed to trawl the coins with. Then the police came, and they quickly disappeared. A little while later one of them was interviewed by the cops - a long and gesticulated conversation ensued and he got off!
We are about to head off to do some more quality control checking on the beer! Hard to believe we will be home in a couple of days, but we are really looking forward to seeing our kids (who have made us proud over the last few weeks home alone).
BFN!