Flying a budget airline such as Ryanair really is an education in human behaviour. We 've all got a seat on the plane, yet people insist on queuing as soon as they reach the gate. And once on the plane all you can hear is the squawking of “there's 2 seats together here”, and “come and sit near us, there is a 3 and a 2 here”. For god's sake, sit down and shut up. We are not flying to Australia, we are only making the short hop to Rome. You will see your friends soon enough. And you have to hand it to the girls of Liverpool. Its 6.30am and we are about to board a Ryanair plane and yet they dress as though they are about to step out in Puerto Banus. Easy on the make up, false tan, jewelry and heels girls. There will be no Premiership footballers on this plane. And Mr Rooney is lying low right now.
Give Ryanair credit, we got off painlessly and even arrived at Rome slightly early. Right on time for my first issue. I didn't get any Euros in England as I had counted on using my card in the ATM at the airport on arrival. What I hadn't counted on was the only ATM at Ciampino airport not working! I started to wonder how the hell was I going to get into Rome, a 40 min transfer by bus, without the money to buy a ticket.
That is when I remembered that I had a stray £10 note in my wallet that I could take to the Bureau de Change and get enough Euros to at least get me into Rome. And that's exactly what I did and this enabled me to get to where I am now, Hotel Canada, a short stroll from Stazione Termini in Rome.
I had forgotten quite how breathtaking Rome is, and it's only a year since I was last here. I took off on foot to explore all the old tourist favourites. Walking down Via Cavour, I started at the Colosseum, in all it's splendour such an impressive structure, even after all these years. Close your eyes, block out the hordes of tourists and you can almost hear the crowds roar as the gladiators are brought out, in the glare of the midday sun.
From here, i strolled along to the “Typewriter” building, Il Vittoriano to give it it's proper name, and up to Piazza Navona, of course calling in to marvel at the Pantheon. It seems that turn a corner in Rome and you stumble across something quite magnificent. Like walking around a film set. Talking of film sets, next stop, following a much needed shot of caffeine in the form of an espresso, was the Trevi fountain, immortalised in “La Dolce Vita” when Anita Ekberg took a midnight dip. I had been here before, but either today was especially busy, or as time passes you forget just how many tourists visit the fountain. Everybody hustling and bustling for the perfect shot. And why do so many people try and get their partners to get a photo of them in front of the fountain without anybody else in the shot? Do you think that if you pose, and your husband points the camera at you that everybody will magically disappear? No! It's not going to happen. Just deal with the fact that you will have to have a random chap from Halifax invading your holiday pics.
From the fountain, I headed up to the Spanish Steps, a familiar sight in many fillms, including one of my personal favourites, The Talented Mr Ripley. I even walked to the top of the stairs and pretended I was Tom Ripley, looking down on Marge as she sipped her espresso below.
Enough of the daydreaming and back to reality with a well earned gelato, Frutti di Bosco. So tasty it was beyond words. Eaten as I walked back towards the hotel, via Piazza del Republicca, picking up a couple of chilled beers for the room, in the Cormack holiday tradition. It's with these beers, and with Dean Martin singing “On an evening in Roma” on my travel speaker in the hotel room that I'm writing this blog. I'll wrap it up there for the time being, finish my beer, maybe have a disco nap, and head out for dinner tonight and maybe my first attempt at finding that “perfect pizza”.
Ciao!
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