Rome, Italy

The start of our Italian vacation: 3 days in Rome

Our flight was an early morning arrival, 6:30am, and combined with wheelchair service we were through immigration, baggage collection and customs in no time at all. We arrived downtown Rome at 8:00 but that was way too early to check in. So I left Mom in the comfy lounge and headed out to locate the pick up point for our Rome OMNI cards which grant us head of the queue entrances to The Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St Peter's Basilica, the Colloseum and most other sights. Also free use of the ChristianaRoma hop on hop off tour bus and all Rome public transit. It is a fantastic service.

Finally we were set to head out and get our bearings. We found the near by stop for the hop on bus. I headed up to the open air section while Mom stayed in the closed lower area. Beautiful sunshine, blue skies, and just warm temperature. We used this first tour to remain on the bus for its full circuits of stops to get the overall layout of Rome's historical centre. We then headed out to a local restaurant for pasta for lunch and back to the hotel around 3:00pm. I did a quick trip out for some wine, rum, cheese and crackers for our afternoon social hour and we then retired early to catch up on jet lag. Oh and by this time the rented wheelchair had arrived and was going to prove very worthwhile.

Day 2 was our day for the Vatican. Once again onto the hop on bus and 45 minutes later we were at the ORP office at the Vatican to get our stickers for the skip the queue entrance. This office is at the left side entrance to St Peter's Square. The guide led us from there all the way around the right hand side and to the back of the Vatican where the entrance to the Vatican Museums are, and snaking along most of 1 or 2 kms were people queued for entry.... As promised we entered in directly (given the distance to get there the wheelchair was a must). We had audio guides to listen to commentary as we wandered on our own through the museums. We concentrated on making our way to The Sistine Chapel and joined the crowd there for quite some time, then onto and through the library before entering and outdoor square, and finishing off in the hall of statues. The exit was not too far from the entrance so once again back the long queue line to re-enter St Peter's Square. We were there to get our next sticker for skip the queue entry to St Peter's Basilica. Once again with audio guide. First sight was the statue of the Pieta. But then the chapels, statues, inlays, artwork, was so overwhelming that I skipped several of the commendation but it still took us 2 hours to go around the church. Pizza for dinner and early to bed.

Day 3 started off heading to the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major for Mom to attend mass. This is a huge church, gorgeously decorated, with fantastic acoustics. 3/4 were set with seats and the final 1/4 was open. An all men's choir sang for 15 minutes before service which was in Latin and took 1.5 hours! During the service locals trekked in to collect olive branches, and tourists were in and out taking photos and video - quite a busy place.

Then old Rome: Colloseum, Palantine, Roman Forum. Once again a head of the queue to enter the Colloseum but the a nature call involved a very long line for the ladies facilities. No matter on again to the elevator to the top tier of the Colloseum and it's views across the vast expanse and down to the floors below. From there we carried on across the square to one of the entrances to the Palantine. Early going was not too bad for the wheelchair but by the time we reached the Roman Forum Mom had to walk as the stone cobbles were way too uneven for the wheelchair. We remained in this quant rant and did not head up onto the Palantine hills and made our way to the exit near the Imperial Museum. Luckily a nice gentleman helped me lift the wheelchair over the walled barrier as the exit was a narrow full height turnstile! Ice cream in the square as a rock band warmed up and that was it for the day.

Day 4... Pack, get rental car and head out for the 5 hour drive to Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast.

Italy2014:Rome