The Eternal City
By late morning we had reached the railway station in Florence and were about to board the express for Rome. We left about midday and in an hour and a half we were arriving at the main station in central Rome.
We had no accommodation booked, but soon found a hostel on the other side of the street from the station, which turned out to be very convenient. We could watch the traffic and the people in the streets from our windows, and were close to the shopping centre which occupied one floor of the station between the ground-level platforms and the metro station two floors below.
We were up very early the next morning for our breakfast at one of the street-side cafes, and then caught the metro to Vatican City and stood in a short queue for the Vatican Museum around 8 30 before the crowds arrived.
The art treasures in this institution blew us away, especially the ceiling in the gallery of maps and the treasures in the Sistine Chapel, which we saw with hundreds of other tourists.
After our tour we strolled about St Peter's Square watching the crowds and the queues of tourists for a while, and then took the underground back to the Trevi Fountain (above).
Then we walked to the Spanish Steps, where we encountered a demonstration of teachers protesting about budget cuts to Education. We learned all about it from a couple from Florence, who explained it all to us in perfect English.
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