So, suddenly it’s the last day of our holiday, needless to say the sun is blasting down from a cloudless sky.

We have no need to hurry as checkout isn’t until 11.00 so we wander down to a late and leisurely breakfast. Then the packing ritual; problem is what to pack where and what to leave accessible for later as our plane doesn’t leave until 21.25 this evening. Anyway everything went in OK and our bags are deposited at the hotel, so off we go.

Our only destination today is the Colosseum, please note the spelling as the way I have spelt it before is, apparently, wrong. Fortunately it’s only a short walk away and as first views go it’s not at all bad.

The only problem would be if you wanted to go inside, this is the queue at the individuals’ entrance, groups go in a separate way.

We had decided before we arrived that we would use this visit to see as much as we could but without paying entrance fees or queuing to get into places; I’m really glad that we did. The current admission for the Colosseum is €12 for an adult but you have to endure the queues that you see above, or you can pay around €35 per head for a “guide” and skip the queues and I have to say I’m not comfortable with that. It was exactly the same at St Peter’s and I just hate this two tier “unofficial” system.

Anyway we had a look at the outside and some of the other monuments and took a stroll up the Palatine Hill before we strolled away for lunch. Here are some views.

After lunch it was back to the 21st Century and the business of getting home. We had time to chill back at our hotel which was a great relief as Rome had turned into a blast furnace. Our transport to the airport arrived spot on time and the early evening journey through Rome traffic was an education. I have serious doubts about the ability of Alitalia to organise a sweet shop with two jars and allocated us two seats that weren’t together. The flight was delayed waiting for connecting passengers whose baggage arrived before they did, then there was a problem with their visas so that they couldn’t fly so their bags had to come off… but eventually we took off. Arrived at Heathrow and reunited with our car courtesy of Purple Parking and then a straight forward drive home and managed to get to bed at 02.30 this morning. It was raining.

8 July 2016