We have arrived with great enthusiasm, and can't wait to visit Rome and all the tourist spots. We are staying in a B & B for four nights in a little village called Ostia Antica, just outside of Rome. We need to organise a rental, further accommodation and a bigger travel plan of Italy. First impressions, great. It's so peaceful, clean and very relaxing, which is what we need after the last couple of months in India and Nepal. I went for a wander this morning to get something for lunch and found a wee market and purchased some bread, cheese and tomatoes - all set.
Tuesday 13th May
Had a successful day today booking the rental car, it was no mean feat as there are the usual obstacles with taking it through different countries and each company had different country exclusions. Unfortunately can't go to Slovakia, and this was on the wish list to visit Lydia, hopefully we can do a plan B. We are planning to do the loop and pick up and drop off in Rome. A bit of a pain, but we can't drop off the car in a different country from where we hired it from, not that we could sort out anyway.
We visited the Antica Ostia today, which are the largest ruins in Italy, similar to Pompeii, however i think Pompeii is much more interesting.
We caught the train out to the coast today to the beach area of Ostia. It was very quiet but you could tell by that it would be packed in the summer. The beaches were groomed and there were stacks of umbrellas and deck chairs for hire. Also little beach huts or cabanas that you hired to change in. Quite a pretty place, nice shopping centre. Jim is becoming quite the coffee drinker a short black arrived, you should have seen his face!
We got chatting to a retired American couple Ray and Sandy (who live in Italy), tonight at a wee bar, and ended up having dinner together, which was really nice. They have invited us to visit them in Lucca, which is about half way between Pisa and Florence. They have lived and worked in several places around the world and were interesting to listen too.
Wednesday 14th May
We travelled to Rome today, quite successfully I might add, as it was two train rides and a bus ride. Our B&B is an apartment three stories up and looks out over a street market in the morning and then transforms to a street of outside cafés in the late afternoon. Fabio our host is very nice.
We walked from the B&B to the Coloseum this afternoon and spent about two hours there. It has some new displays on the second level that I can't remember from my last visit, very good, not too wordy and informative. Very good value I thought at 12€ each. This ticket is also valid for two days and entry to The Forum.
We have found the iPad and Google maps worth their weight in gold, great for planning.
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