This hotel was chosen from a list of suggestions from Airmiles.  Although a little way out of town, local bus services were good, and we used a 7-day travel pass, valid on all forms of transport, including the train back to the airport, in the Rome area.

As we have said so often before, watch out for the clamour for sun-beds at the poolside.  All of our meals here, except for one breakfast, were taken outdoors.

Once the local bus had got us into town, the frequent Metro trains got us to most of the major tourist destinations.  This was a welcome alternative to walking about in the searing heat .  The temperatures were around the mid-30s at the middle of every day.

For our last night, we got a bus into town and got off randomly at the first place that looked lively, and headed for the nearest decent looking restaurant.  Here, we had the best meal of our trip.

On our first full day, we visited St. Peter’s Square and Basilica in Vatican City.  Inside the Basilica, there was an  extravagant display of opulence and wealth.  (Blessed are the poor!)  This is a most impressive ‘must see’ building.

For our second day, we had booked advance tickets for the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, as we had been warned that there would be queues.  Inside, we saw a magnificent collection of wall & ceiling  paintings, statuary, and religious artefacts plundered from all over the  world.  Another ‘must see’.  A big surprise was the amount of green space within the Vatican City walls.