Day 6 - San Gimignano to Rome

Today we got up, the boys had another early morning swim and then we were heading off toward Rome – 

 First stopping off in town for me to buy another wallet that I had liked….hehe! 

 We were then heading to Siena taking the scenic route for lunch on our way to Rome.  When we were almost in Siena I went to get the camera out of my bag – OMG – it was not there and I was thinking “I think I have left it at the vineyard” – a quick phone call confirmed this and we turned around to go and collect our camera.  Unfortunately I had left it outside after our yummy dinner……and we were unsure how it would be given the sprinklers come on during the night! I did not have a good feeling! Picked up the camera – yay – camera wet – not-yay! We left it to dry out during the trip :(

We drove to Siena a different way (just cause we could) and arrived there, and found a park just as there was a huge downpour! We waited it out and then hopped out to walk to the old city.  What a cool place, small old streets inside the fortified walls.  We found a great wee place for lunch where we had pizza and pasta (again – delish) and then headed back to our car.  Just as we were walking back to the car, Karl suggested that we hurry up as there was more rain coming.  Sure enough, we just got to the car and down the road 2 minutes and another huge downpour! Great timing!

Getting out of Siena and on the road to Rome was interesting.  We were following the signs to Rome (like a few others) and then the road was closed!  What……. Anyway we turned around, turned on the navigation and found a different route – Rome here we come.  Karl is great at driving in Europe………..we had a great drive, going through some really cool picturesque places before arriving in  Rome.  When we had told people we were driving into Rome people in France would say “you are not driving in Rome, it is crazy” – we almost changed our plans, but we needn’t have worried – Karl was a star – drove into Rome and straight to the rental car place with no problems……we then dropped the car off and took a taxi to our hotel! Yay – and it was only 5pm.

Our hotel, the Domus Nova Bethlem is amazing.  Given I went for a quad room and it included breakfast and was only just over 100 Euros per night we were a bit sceptical – but it is fab!  Really central, big, clean and just what we wanted.  It only has 24 rooms, full of families and is a fully refurbished building that overlooks the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and within the monastery of the Oblate Sisters of Baby Jesus. 

We relaxed for a wee while and then made a plan to walk to the Trevi Fountain – our first major site in Rome – yay!  Connor had done a power point on the Trevi Fountain and had lots of information to share and so this was the perfect start.