Rome; Sunday, 12 November, 2017

I had a bit of a lie-in and a leisurely breakfast before checking out of the hotel and heading on into town.

I’d see the previous day that the same bus that ran past the hotel also ran into the very centre of the city so rather than taking the metro I picked up the bus and headed down to the Largo di Torre Argentina, the largest remains of Republican era Rome and more famously home to many feral cats.

Due to the cat sanctuary you can’t actually go down into the remains, but you can get a good view of them from the pavement above, so I had a long look round before crossing over the road and heading back in towards the city centre, stopping off at the stunning Pantheon.

There was quite a queue to get into the Pantheon, but it was moving quickly, and it was well worth it to take in the stunning view of a nearly 2000-year-old unsupported dome that is the key attraction of this site.

Having taken in the Pantheon I wandered a bit further through the old town before stumbling across the Trevi fountain which was absolutely heaving with tourists all attempting to chuck coins over their shoulders whilst avoiding the countless people trying to sell selfie-sticks and mobile phone chargers (they never show that in the films…)

I found a little café in a side street away from the fountain for a light lunch before heading back over to Piazza Barberini. By now the clouds that had filled the sky were starting to rapidly leak their moisture and it was turning into quite a grey and damp afternoon. Thankfully the open-top buses weren’t – they all had roofs pull across them, so I boarded one of them to take the tour in the daylight around the city. I did a full circuit and stayed on the one extra stop onto Termini where I got off and headed down into the Metro.

I caught the metro back to the hotel and picked up my bag before wandering over to the bus stop and taking the bus back down the hill to Tiburtina station to catch the train back to the airport and my flight back home.