Roaming around Rome

Thursday 8-10-15 
We were up early today for a 7am meeting with the group and Ben. We were heading to the Vatican for a guided tour and an early start meant the crowds would not be so bad. It did mean we were in peak hour for the public transport but Ben was confident it would be fine. We caught a bus to the train terminal. When the bus pulled up it already looked full. Well another 30 of us had to squeeze on. We were packed on with no room to move. There was no way you could validate your ticket . Luckily the train ride, although busy was not quite so bad. The Vatican tour was brilliant. Our tour guide took us to areas that the general public didn't go into as well as helping us by-pass the long queues. She gave us special insight into some of the great artists and the masterpieces housed in the Vatican. I think like everyone, the Sistine chapel was the highlight but it really was hard to pick.
 Following our tour we met Ben in St Peters and hopped on a train to the Spanish Steps. Here we had time to shop and stop for a bite to eat before meeting our walking tour guide for the city of Rome. She was an Italian woman and very passionate about her job but unfortunately although she could speak English she had a very heavy accent and you had to really concentrate to understand her. She also went into too much detail about everything. Still we did manage to see all the highlights including the Spanish Steps (under renovation), the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain  (under renovation),  Roman forum and many others finishing up at the Colosseum.
After our 3 hour afternoon walk we were feeling pretty tried and so we found a great little cafe where the boys had 1 litre glasses of beer. They were very happy. We met up with some of the rest of the group who had been doing their own thing for the day and they joined us for dinner. More beer was consumed. After dinner we walked around the Colosseum as it was lit up. We went for a short walk back to the Forum as our guide had told us it was lit up at night but it wasn't. Time to go home. A trip on train and bus with some people who were desperate for a loo was quite entertaining.