At Rome airport we found our taxi (organized by our AirBnB hostess) with no trouble, had a comfortable but fast ride to the city and our apartment. We were happy with the apartment as it seemed to have all the facilities promised.

After a nap we took a walk around the neighborhood and eventually found ourselves standing in a large crowd near the Vatican. We were not sure what the crowd was doing but eventually we got a 0.3 second view of the Pope as he flashed past in a small black car with a large police escort. After that, exhausted from the overnight flight we went back to our place for an early night.

The next few days were consumed with visits to some of the standard sights such as the Colosseum, the Forum, The Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. However none of these were entirely without their challenges. Forgetting for the moment the vast crowds of tourists there were a few other challenges put in place by our hosts the Italians.

Our initial attempt at the Colosseum on Monday 2nd June was thwarted by a large parade in the vicinity of the Colosseum which had the effect of closing the metro stations near the Colosseum, closing the Colosseum itself and filling the nearby streets with thousands of people. The parade was a celebration of Italy becoming a Republic in 1946.

We have also made three attempts to visit St Peter's Basilica. The first was prevented by those crowds on the first afternoon waiting to see the Pope. The second on Tuesday was impractical because of the enormous queue waiting for entry, and on Friday morning our early morning attempt (7:00 am) was thwarted as there was another celebration in St Peter's Square that closed the Basilica. The celebration was for the 200th year anniversary of the Carabinieri (sort of a cross between the police and military police).

Not withstanding the crowds and other impediments we have had a nice time in Rome.