Day 5 - First Day in Rome

‍‍‍‍‍‍Today we got to "sleep in".   We had free time until 2:15 pm.  Of course, John didn't want to start out until around 10 am.  Today is a holiday, so we had been warned that some sights might be closed.  But the upside was fewer crowds.  Our first idea was to see if we could schedule a Segway Tour, but the the tours were 3.5 hours and started too late for us.   So we decided to visit the Capitolini Museum. The Museum includes an impressive collection of statues and bronzes and a collection of Roman art.  The Museum is housed on 2 floors and is not very large, but it allowed us sufficient time to view all the exhibits.  Afterwards we headed for the top floor so John could get lunch (I was still full from lunch.

We returned to the hotel and then met the group for our two scheduled tours to the Pantheon and the Colosseum. We debated on whether to bring an unbrella, but decided not to since 1) the forecast was for no rain until evening and 2) the sky was clear & blue. 

We met our local guide, Ricardo, and then walked the very short distance to the Pantheon.  However, because of the holiday, the Pantheon was closed.  We were told we could see the Pantheon on Thursday.   Ricardo still told us a lot about the Pantheon before we got on the bus to travel to the Colosseum.  Just before heading to the Colosseum we stopped for a group picture.  At the Colosseum we got our tickets and headed for the entrance. Before we could ge,t to the entrance, the skies opened and it started to pour.  It was definitely a major storm with thunder, lightening, wind and rain.  Only one of us had an umbrella and one person had a rain jacket and there was no place to get out of the rain.  Finally, we got in and huddled in an area where we were somewhat protected.   Our tour director, Florence, went out to purchase umbrellas or ponchos for us. John & I and a few others decided to brave the rain (since we were already soaked) to see the Colosseum.   Then we were told we should head for the exit where Florence had ponchos for everyone. 

Once we all donned our ponchos we headed to the bus.  Once back on the bus we returned to the hotel.  But our adventure was not over.  There was water on the floor in our bedroom.  I called housekeeping and eventually a technician came to try to figure out where the water came from. The mystery was not solved, but the floor & wall were cleand up and we  showered and changed.  The rain stopped for our walk to dinner.  Despite the rain we were all in good spirits (helped along with prosecco, wine, good food and gelato).  Read more