2023 Italy Day 17

By travelerdon on September 27, 2023

To Rome, Thurs, Apr 6

We get up today and check out of our Villa. We point ourselves towards Rome. I have forgotten to turn ‘Avoid Toll Roads’ off so we find ourselves winding our way back through Pienza first. I suddenly remember and turn Toll Roads back on and it turns us around completely and we repeat the first half hour. Probably should have let it be. But we finally get on the Autostrada (Toll Road) and head towards Rome. A brief stop at another AutoGrille for a bite for breakfast. We love AutoGrille as it is not your average highway service store, but a full on restaurant with really good food!

Then something fun occurs! We spot a medieval city on top of a cliff and it looks so interesting that we leave the highway in search of it! It turns out to be the town of “Orte” and we finally get there after a few wrong turns because we don’t know the name until we get there. We drive up through very narrow medieval streets like several towns we have seen. At times we creep along at about 1 or 2 mph because the road is so narrow and we only have a few inches on each side and we even have to make a few ‘K’ turns to be able to get into some streets!

Bur we find a lovely restaurant at the top and have more authentic Italian pasta for lunch! If you have never eaten Al Denti Italian Pasta in Italy, you are missing out! The people are friendly and love Californians too!

But this was just a side excursion to use up a couple of hours and it was a fun one! We move on and make it back to the Autostrada and drive the last hour into Rome. The driving is somewhat hectic and I never thought I would be driving in Rome! But I only plan to drive in and park the car for 2 days until we leave Rome! We’re on foot from here! It turns out we find a parking garage only one block from where we’ll be staying and that is very convenient!

So we get into our place, the “Metronia Guest House”, and it is the tiniest place so far. It is a room in what appears like a boarding house. We do have our own bath but the kitchen is shared among 5 rooms! But it is clean and seems comfortable so all is good.

We are told it is walking distance to the Colosseum and now I am thrilled to have that Italian sim card in my phone as the navigator works for both driving AND walking! Sure enough, the Colosseum is less than a mile away straight down the road our room is on! We get there and attempt to buy tickets to enter, but alas! The first tickets that are available are for a week from now! Oh well, we photograph it from the outside and our cameras do not complain!

We then come across a vendor selling Hop On Hop Off Bus tickets and we purchase 2, good for 24 hours. We have to walk a half mile to the closest bus stop and wait about 20 minutes before a bus comes along. We get on and are told that because of the hour, the bus will not make it back to this spot but will end at the Rome Train Station! We get on anyway because what’s an adventure without lots of adventure? We get close up views of lots of old buildings including the “Wedding Cake” and it is a fun trip. We are on the top open air level and I left my warm hat in our room. Brrr! But it is nowhere near as cold as it was in Tuscany the last 5 days!

We walk around and find a pizzeria and we order a pie and a couple glasses of wine and all is good again! Then we walk across the street to the train station and navigate our way through the huge terminal, stopping and asking random workers how to get on the local train to the Colosseum? We finally figure it out and find a ticket machine that allows us to do our transaction in English! Whoopee! We buy another pair of 24 hour train tickets so we are good to go for transportation until tomorrow night!

Navigating the Metro Trains is not difficult and we can recognize the name of the station we want so we board a train in the right direction! We get off at the Colosseo Station (Colosseum) and sure enough, we are right there at night! The Colosseum is spectacular at night and our cameras are in their own element again! Too bad there is some form of construction going on for about three quarters of the way around the building. I’m hoping to do a little creative editing and disguise most of the construction!

Then it is a 17 minute walk to our room and it caps our energy for the night! So back in the room to get our photos uploaded and the words of this Blog written and it is time for slumberland! See you all tomorrow!

See you all Tomorrow!