My morning started with this lovely cappuccino on the rooftop patio. The waiter came over and said he made this one special for me. Probably says that to all the girls but it still felt nice.  This city makes you feel beautiful.  Another blue sky day 27 degrees.

It is a free day today, so we woke up and took breakfast individually and were meeting in the lobby for 10:00 am.

Forget public transit, these ladies decided to walk to the Coliseum. Before we left, we went to the front desk to confirm our directions. Jo-Ann needed some duct tape for her suitcase. The man behind the counter was very helpful. As we were bidding him a good day, Jennifer wanted to know his name. Instead of saying, Como ti chiami?, she said Ti amo, which is I love you! The man said, I love you too, and we bust a gut when we realized what had happened.  Stellar! Off we went for another 15 minute walk to the Coliseum.  This one was sort of downhill. Before we made it there, we went to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and took pics of lots of ruins, and churches. We were marveling at the detail of the sculptures, the size of pillars, and what is still preserved. Quite amazing to see ancient Roman ruins mixed with modern day.

Being out in this heat was crazy! 27 degrees, no breeze, but no humidity. We looked for any opportunity to find relief from the sun by ducking into churches, galleries, etc.. Finally we made it to the Coliseum, snapped a few pictures and headed to the Tiber River and crossed the bridge to a section of Rome called Trastevere for lunch.

The concierge suggested this area for authentic Roman food, not touristy. It was exactly that. The business men and workers were eating here. It was simple, clean and they had cold beer! Jo-Ann was swearing off coffee today, so she had vini rossi, while the rest of us shared large beers with lemon soda. Sort of a shandy.  Very refreshing. Meals ordered, scallopine with limone, spaghetti with a tomato sauce, grilled vegetables with olive oil and garlic and of course spaghetti with cheese, oil and pepper.  I finished my meal off with an espresso and Jen had a cappuccino.

We all agreed that we had had enough walking and would hail a cab. We hailed and walked, and we walked and hailed.  The cabs would not stop. We were starting to get frustrated from being tired and hot, but fortunately one did stop and got us back to our neighborhood. We practiced our Italian with the cabbie, and he his English. It is amazing how you can communicate when you need to. We left him blowing kisses and ciaos!

We are going to take it easy until 7:00 pm and meet up for our last evening on the town before we head to Firenze (Florence) tomorrow by train. I’m sure that will be an experience.