salerno to Rome

Tuesday 13 October

Roma

The trip from Salerno to Rome was quite fascinating – we travelled around Mt Vesuvius, then along the coast to Naples. From Naples we went inland through and around and between mountains, back to the coast and at Latina came alongside the Via Appia, the ancient road leading to Rome. As we approached Rome we saw the remnants on ancient (Roman) walls and knew we were almost there. We arrived at Roma Termini, negotiated the underground rail network and resurfaced near the Vatican.

With great excitement we crossed St Peter’s Square, marvelled at the immensity of the Basilica, and the enormous queue waiting to go into it and found our accommodation – a lovely two bedroom apartment 300 metres from the back of the Vatican.

We settled in, updated with Michael and Karol and our experiences of our separate adventures, discussed plans for the next few days and set off on our initial exploratory tour of Rome. We wandered around, walked across St Peter’s again, walked around Castel S. Angelo, crossed the Tiber and found a place for dinner. No one has been able to recommend good restaurants in Rome. All the places in Italy we have stayed in have had fabulous local specialities and we have enjoyed the local cuisines, but no one has been able to suggest great places in Rome –any ideas? We stopped at a square that was very busy, with several restaurants, people promenading, musicians playing, couples dancing to the music, all very good, except we had the most ordinary meal of the trip so far. We hope that it gets better!

As we wandered back to the apartment, we passed through piazzas, with beautifully lit fountains, monuments and buildings. Everything is big and looks important! We are really looking forward to the next few days.