Day 14 - Monday 25th September - Perugia to Rome

We left the apartment at around 9.15am and decided to walk to the taxi stand rather than call for one and we had plenty of time. There were several there so we were at the station in on time at all. John had a coffee and I went across to the supermarket to get some bread to have with our prosciutto for lunch on the train. We hauled our cases down the stairs up the stairs and onto the platform and waited for the train from Firenze to Rome. We left about 5 minutes late, passed Assisi along the way and several towns on the hills and arrived at Roma Termini around 2pm. We bought tickets for the Metro, hopped on the B Line (there are only 2 metro lines at the moment, a 3rd has been under construction for dozens of years but they keep uncovering Roman ruins so they then have to stop until the archaeologists do their bit and the route may even have to be changed, who knows when it will be finished). Our stop was Colosseo. We got off and as we exited the Metro station, there it was, the magnificent Colosseum! I had the screen-shot of the map to find the apartment and Andrea's instructions for when we arrived. We found the apartment without any trouble and Andrea was waiting for us at the door. Another gorgeous apartment with lots of windows and a view to the Colosseum from one of the lounge room windows. What a view! Andrea gave us some useful information and then was off. We just put the cases in our room and went out to explore a little. It would have been nicer if the sun wasn't so blazing! How spectacular it is to have the Colosseum right in front of us when we leave our building. We walked away from it and around the block to see what we could see close to us and discovered we've got several nice eating places in our block, as well as bars and the supermarket open 24 hours a day is just a few minutes away. We then headed back towards the Colosseum, past the Metro station and went to the visitor information centre to get some info on the Rome Pass. Got some kids maps and stickers for our littlies, some info on the hop-on hop-off bus and decided not to get the Rome Pass. We continued on after leaving the info centre to a viewing area for the ruins of what was a big temple. We weren't far from 'The Wedding Cake' building, the building that's a monument to Vittorio Emanuelle II, so we walked there to take a few snaps  along with everyone else in Rome. Once that was done we crossed the huge intersection and got a gelati. Then we went around the huge intersection and crossed where the policeman with white hard hat and white gloves directs the traffic very flamboyantly. We sat on some steps in a park to the side of the huge white building and people-watched, then started to head back towards home. Back past the Colosseum and to our supermarket. Decided to eat at home because we were both rather worn out.