This year was my wife Eileen and my 25th Wedding Anniversary, so we decided to go to Italy for 17 days in June - spending our actual anniversary in Florence.  I decided not to take my laptop with me, so I wasn't able to blog while we were traveling, so I am now taking the opportunity to tell the story of our "Italy 2008" trip.

This is our last day in Italy, we go home tomorrow.  We had thought of taking the train to Pompeii to see the Roman ruins there, but Rick Steves suggest that Ostia Antica (the port of Rome) is as good a visit – and its a free transit ride with our Roma Pass.

Its another hot day.  We had out to take the Metro to the “Pyramid” station on Metro Line B.  At the Pyramid station we transfer to the Ostiense Regional Railway station to catch the train to Ostia Antica.  There is a train waiting in the station, so we jump right on – not literally though.  We stand most of the way – there are a lot of Italian families with young kids heading to the “Lido” for a day at the beach.

When we get to the Ostia Antica stop it is a short walk to the entrance to the site.  Like the Colosseum it is one of the sites on our Roma Pass – so we get in for free.  (I have added it up and the entrance fees to the two sites alone is 19 Euro (11 Euro for the Colosseum and 8 Euro for Ostia Antica) and the pass only cost 20 Euro, so all but 1 Euro of our Metro and bus travel was effectively free).

Ostia Antica

Ostia Antica is not quite as weel preserved as Pompeii – but it is also not as crowded.  We decided at about 3 that we had walked enough – we had barely covered about a third of the site.

That night, we took a risk for dinner – a restaurant Rick Steves recommended that had no menu – you ate what was served!  It was a wonderful meal – a traditional Rome dinner.

Useful Links:

• Ostia Antica – Wikipaedia -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostia_Antica_(archaeological_site)

This year was my wife Eileen and my 25th Wedding Anniversary, so we decided to go to Italy for 17 days in June - spending our actual anniversary in Florence.  I decided not to take my laptop with me, so I wasn't able to blog while we were traveling, so I am now taking the opportunity to tell the story of our "Italy 2008" trip.

Today we are going back to the Vatican – this time as tourists.  I have booked a walking tour of the Vatican Museum with “Angel Tours Rome”, another of Rick Steves recommended tour companies.

We retrace the route we took yesterday, catching the metro to the “Ottaviano – San Pietro” station, and walking to St. Peter’s square where we are supposed to meet our tour group.  When we are all gathered, we are split into through groups of about 12 – each with our own guide  - Kenneth – a Scot is out guide.

The tour is wonderful, and Kenneth is very entertaining – sometimes a bit irreverent.  During the tour we “lose” 6 of our group – we get separated during one of the crowded sections – not sure where they went – but they had been concerned about our finish time, as they had another tour to get to.

Vatican

As we now only 6 people – Kenneth offered to take us on a tour of St. Peters after.  Technically, he was not acredited by St. Peter’s as a tour guide, but with such a small group, we could pass as a group of friends touring the Basilica.

St Peter’s Basilica

After our tour of St. Peter’s, Kenneth recommended a local restaurant – off the beaten track – not even in Rick Steves, and we all went there for a lovely traditional Roman lunch of Pasta, Salad and Pizza.  The six of us split the bill, and treated kenneth to lunch as his “tip”.

We were exhausted by then – our 2 and a half hour tour had been 5 hrs, so we headed back to the hotel for a nap, before heading down the Via Nationale for some “shopping”, followed by dinner at Restaurant Target – next door to our hotel.

Useful Links:

• Angel Tours Rome – the tour company we used for the Vatican tour - www.angeltoursrome.com

This year was my wife Eileen and my 25th Wedding Anniversary, so we decided to go to Italy for 17 days in June - spending our actual anniversary in Florence.  I decided not to take my laptop with me, so I wasn't able to blog while we were traveling, so I am now taking the opportunity to tell the story of our "Italy 2008" trip.

We wake up to the alarm this morning. The Papal Audience doesn’t start until 10:30 am, and even though we have “VIP” tickets – courtesy of the Anglican Centre interceding on our behalf with the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, we have been urged to be early as the seats are not reserved.  The Papal Council offices open at 8:30 so allowing for travel time we decide to leave at about 8am.

Its a very hot day today – we catch the Metro from the Repubulica station just round the corner from our hotel to the Ottaviano station, the closest Metro stop to the Vatican. 

The Papal Council’s office is at Via della Consolazione 5 on the 4th floor, but we don’t know which end of the street No 5 is.  Via della Consolazione is the street that leads from the Tiber river up to St Peter’s Square.  As luck would have it – it is of course at the “other” end.

Our contact in the office is a Canadian priest, so we chat briefly about things Canadian. We then make our way back up the street to St. Peter’s square.  When we reach the square, it is cordoned off and we have to show our tickets and go through airport-like security. 

We are directed to seats at the top of the steps, just in front of the basilica.  There are already quite a few people here so we get seats in about the 10th row (out of about 25).

The Papal Audience

Its really hot in the square – we get there at about 9am so there is still about an hour and a half to wait – good job we brought our umbrellas – they make good parasols.

The audience starts a few minutes late – its quite an experience as groups are introduced – the Pope even has groupies (groups of teenagers) who chant his name

After about an hour the audience is over, and we head back to the hotel to take a rest in our air-conditioned room – Eileen is afraid she might have sun-stroke.

As I mentioned before, I had to cancel a walking tour of the Colosseum and the Forum in order to go to the audience, so we decide that we should do them this afternoon – after all I have Rick Steves’ audio walking tours on my iPod. 

The Colosseum is one of the attractions on the Roma pass – a 3 day pass that gives 2 free visits and then discounts on further visits for most of the main sites (except the Vatican), as well as a 3 day transit pass, so we head over to the Termini station to pick up the pass, before catching the Metro to the Colosseum stop.

Ancient Rome

We spent the next 3 hours wandering around the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.  By the end of our tour in the Forum the shadows were getting quite long.  We finished our tour by climbing the steps up the Capitoline Hill, for some wonderful vistas over the remains of Imperial Rome, before descending the other side of the hill to Piazza Venezia, and the noise of modern Rome..

We wandered up the Via dei Corso looking for somewhere to eat – we find a small cafe in a Piazza off the main street.  After a long day, we catch a bus back to the Piazza Republica and our hotel.

Useful Links:

• The Vatican – for general information about Papal audiences – www.vatican.va
• The Roma Pass – www.romapass.it
• Rick Steves Italy Audio Tours - www.ricksteves.com/news/travelnews/0602/audiotour_menu.htm