Whirlwind Roma and Pompei

The major sites of Roma were seen across a day and a half. Once we arrived and got settled on Sunday, we wandered around and saw some sights (see my previous post for details). Monday was spent being ferried from Roma to Napoli, then Pompei and back. Ben was in 7th heaven again and acted as our supplementary tour guide as we wandered around the ruins of Pompei.

Between all of us we took heaps and heaps of pics while I'll collate and post in albums once I get home. Tuesday was spent seeing the Roman Forum, Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Castel San Angelo (yes, the Dan Brown sites) then finally the Vatican.

 As Rick and I had already been through the Vatican museums and the kids were all museumed out, we gave them a miss. For some reason the lines to get through security for the basilica were really long and dad and I weren't remotely interested in lining up, so we decided to hunt down some train tickets to get back from Ottoviano to Termini. This was a royal pain in the arse and by the time we found an automatic ticket machine, it was out of order and Rick and the kids had made it to the beginning of the line to get through security. Rick rang me to let me know, so dad and I wrote off the idea of going into the basilica and wandered back to wait for them. We were hanging around the exit, which was doubling as a disabled entrance. Madi sweet talked the security guy into letting us in since dad had taken a tumble earlier and was not up to waiting in the really long line. Well, that was what she told the security guy anyway. Yes, the tumble part was true. Some douchebag had stopped dead in front of him and knocked him over. Dad, in true commando style, fell, rolled out of the fall and leapt to his feet. Awesome effort on his part. The security guy felt sorry for us and let us in. So basically it took me 5 mins to get through Vatican security where it took everyone else about 45 mins. 

Going into the basilica was the best thing of the day, in my opinion. Turns out that while we were at St Peter's Basilica, there was a celebration Mass for the Swiss Guard, with all their families in attendance. They all showed up in full dress uniform along with about 30 cardinals and priests. We stayed for the Mass, thinking that it was Pope Francis celebrating but it was actually one of the senior cardinals. A bit naive thinking it was Pope Francis but geez it sounded like him. 

Before Mass I managed to grab a pic of St John XXIII. He lies instate within the basilica itself. Most of the other popes lie within the grottoes. Yet again I was unable to get into the grottoes. Can't really complain though since we attended a Mass. 

Capping off the day we went back to the ristorante where we had dinner on Sunday night. The cook/owner and waiter remembered us and we were allocated a table downstairs in the piano bar section where we ate and sang the night away. All in all it was an absolutely sensational end to the evening.

Packing and redistributing weight amongst all the suitcases is the job for this morning as we fly out in five hours. Gotta admit, I'm looking forward to a decent bowl of weetbix for brekkie when I get home.