After a moving visit, we now need to travel to the Rome Ciampino airport (the small one) to return this rental car. Being lunch time, we stop at a Carrefour Market not far from the cemetery to grab something for a quick, road-trip lunch. Some focaccia bread with tomatoes, cheese, chips and a cold drink hits the spot. In about an hour, we arrive at the airport. We battle some traffic to locate a gas station for a final fill-up. Then we are at the Hertz parking lot outside the airport terminal. No delay or problem returning the car but now we have to find the shuttle bus to get us to the terminal. Hertz guy points us across the parking lot. Having no clue when this shuttle bus will arrive and being in the hot sun with a load of luggage, we decide to walk across the street where we spot an orange TAXI sign that typically signifies a taxi stand, Here we find a taxi driver who is happy to drive us into Rome to our guesthouse. Phew! We are pleased to be sitting again in an air-conditioned vehicle. 

It takes maybe about 40 minutes for the taxi to arrive outside the Top Floor Colosseo Guesthouse which will be our home for the next 3 nights.  

After we check in to our room, we decide a rest in this wonderful a/c is much needed. Being tired and hot, we ask the gal at the desk to make our dinner reservations. She is happy to help. Before dinner, we head to the Colosseo metro station to buy our transportation passes for our stay from a machine. Rome is busy. There are a ton of people. Then we hop on a tram to take us over to Trastevere, the neighborhood area across the Tiber River. We walk through Trastevere to our restaurant, Sette Oche. The lemon linguine is just as delicious as I remember from last summer. Sue went back to basics with a spaghetti and tomato sauce. We also enjoy some vino and little snacky-snacks they brought out as well. After a nice meal, we begin a wander back to our home in Rome. It’s actually a bit of a trek but we make some small stops to look at things along the way. We walked across the bridge and little island in the Tiber River. We walk through the Jewish Ghetto and on through to the Largo Argentina area for some gelato (me= anise & raspberry; Sue gets a tiramisu). We look at the cats down in the Roman ruins where they have the cat sanctuary. Then we make our way to piazza Venezia where we see the Vittorio Emmanuele monument. Walking down the via dei Fiori Imperiale we hear some beautiful music. It’s opera! We stop to be amazed by a violin player and two wonderful opera singers. Pretty magical! 

By this time at night, we are tired and are glad to make our way past the colosseo and on to our nice, cool air-conditioned room for some sleep. Good night Rome!