Arrivederci Roma

19th April

A few hours on the train from Rome to Salerno provides an opportunity to bring the blog up to date.  This morning has been wait – rush – wait – rush!!  Our hosts put on a special breakfast for our departure, which was really nice. They have been fantastic.  Having caught the metro to Termini and sat around for 45 mins waiting for our train, expecting (stupidly) that the destination posted on the board would be Salerno, we then rushed around to the train to Reggio di Calabria, solely on the basis that it was the only train leaving at the precise time on our ticket, boarding our carriage and finding our seats about 1 minute before it pulled out 8-).
Yesterday featured the dreaded announcement “oggi c’e sciopero” – a 24 hour public transport strike. We had a fantastic day though, doing a walking circuit that picked up a lot of the “sights” so far missed.  Passing by the ENORMOUS queues at St Peters, our first stop was the markets at Campo de Fiori with lots of interesting produce for sale.
After a coffee in the Galeria on Corso Vitorio Emanuele, a quick revisit of the Pantheon.  Then a few steps to the Trevi Fountain and a few more to the Spanish steps. Hordes of people around but everyone in good cheer, so quite entertaining really. 
J’s note: The history of the Spanish steps is interesting. The land had been given away to a foreign power, but a deal was done to give the land back to Rome in exchange for building a set of steps up to the top of the hill. Before that, the only way up was to detour along a road that wound up the hill.
En route Jen tried four tabacchi before being able to buy stamps for postcards to Australia.

We climbed the Spanish steps and then kept climbing into the Borghese Gardens. The view from there is great, and the garden is a huge area of beautiful parklands where we hired bikes for an hour.  What a great place for a break from the bustle of the city!

Walking down from the gardens brought us to the Piazza del Popolo where we spent about 30 mins watching two very cute litte twin boys chasing and popping huge bubbles. Then we headed for home along the river, via the  Mausoleo Augusto and Castel Sant Angelo. 
Another great day in Rome.