Overnight our ship sailed south along the Italian west coast from la Spezia berthing early this morning at Civitavecchia. After breakfast we were directed to our coach for the 90-minute trip into the centre of Rome. As is my usual endeavour on tourist coaches, I grabbed the front seat behind the driver as it is the best spot to get a clear view and photographs of scenery along the route. Sharon was a little embarrassed because the seat had a reserved for handicapped or elderly sign on it. I told her to relax, she may not think I’m elderly, but at 81, I reckon most other people on the bus would.

Both having seen plenty of Rome previously we weren’t too fussed about what we were to do today, so simply signed up for a hop-on-hop-off bus tour that on a circular route visited 11 of the major Rome tourist attractions. Our coach from the ship dropped us at Circus Maximus where we were to wait 15 minutes or so for the next hop-on-hop-off bus. However, there were at least 100 other tourists waiting for the next bus. Accordingly, I reckoned it would be more sensible to walk to the first major sight and connect with the buses afterwards when hopefully it might be less busy.

So, we headed for the Roman Forum via the adjacent Colosseum. As we approached these iconic sights we were shocked to see huge crowds everywhere, the queues to get into the Forum were at least a 100 m long and wait times enormous, whilst the size of crowds waiting at other hop-on-hop-off bus stops were similarly off-putting. Accordingly, after spending some time viewing the Forum from its exterior and visiting the fabulous Musei Capitolini, we decided we would bypass the bus service and walk to the main sights.

The city was so busy, walking in the crowded streets had its challenges, but we managed to slog it out and visit the Pantheon (didn’t contemplate going inside, the queues were unbelievably long), the Trevi Fountain (absolutely sparkling in the bright sunlight and not too crowded), Piazza Navona (disappointing as two of the square’s beautiful fountains were being repaired and were surrounded by hoardings), and the Spanish Steps by which time we were extremely weary from the exercise battling all the crowds. Earlier we stopped for lunch in a very pleasantly situated restaurant in a shaded oasis somewhere after visiting the Trevi Fountain. The food and wine were good and were served by a very friendly waiter who judging by his perpetual smile was clearly enjoying himself.

To get back to the collection point at Circus Maximus for our return coach back to the ship, we opted for our one and only ride on the hop-on- hop-off bus from the Spanish Steps. The streets were so clogged with traffic that this was a painfully slow and uncomfortable trip in the now extreme heat of the afternoon, justifying our earlier decision to walk rather than ride.  

Along with about fifty others we were forced to then wait for the coach in the heat with virtually no cover for about 30 minutes. I took advantage of the delay. I was dying for a pee, so adventurously descended the sloped side of the Circus Maximus and then out of sight of the others hid in a small group of shrubby trees to thankfully leave my mark in this historic location.

Everyone tried to sleep on the journey back to the ship, but as Sharon and I were back in our usual front seats, this wasn’t made easy as our youngish enthusiastic local guide was standing with the microphone in the aisle right beside us and was determined to keep rambling on in guide type language, until he finally got the message that silence is golden!

Was good to see Rome again, but we both felt  we really don’t need to go back again. If we did, we’d have to be accommodated right in the heart of the city so we could tour early and late each day to avoid being forced to share it with the extremely off-putting hordes of other tourists.