rome the city of scaffolding

8/2/15

Today was our last day in Rome.  We slept until late, showered and packed up all our gear and excited our room for the last time.  We stopped in the kitchen for breakfast, home made cappuccino's and pastries.  

Our original plan was to leave our stuff at the hostel and go to San Giovanni church around the corner but by the time we had eaten, showered and packed it was later than we had planned.  So with heavy hearts we handed back our key to our room, took all our things and said our farewells!

The Mr Rome hostel was absolutely amazing.  Thank you to Marius (and his mum! She ran the place during the day and made the awesome coffee in the morning!) for all of your stories, the laughs and the competitions! Sorry, not sorry!

We headed out to the San Giovanni church, having the epiphany along the way that it was a sunday and there might be mass on.  We still went and had a look, we had timed it right, by some stroke of luck to arrive in between services.

San Giovanni in Laterano, or St John Lateran was the first church to be built in Rome.  Built by Constantine the Great in the 4th Century it is one of the four major basilicas of Rome.

After wards we slowly ambled up the street, Via Merulana.  We were heading in the direction of the Main Termini, to catch the train to the airport.  We shopped and went past several more old fancy buildings and ruins along the way.

 

Before we caught the train, we decided to have some lunch before and we stopped at a little cafe and had coffee and sandwiches.

Then we walked to the Main Termini and after awhile we figured out how to catch the train to the airport and to our plane.

Originally we were supposed to depart Rome at 2:40, however due to bad weather at the other end of the flight it was delayed 3:50 pm.  Rome was sunny and bright, of course, because it was the day we left!  In the end we didn't take off until about ten past four, which meant we didn't land til after 6.  Charlotte and I headed to the train station and bought tickets but there wasn't a train to Fruitgen until 7:13, so we had some time to kill before then.  Once more we did some shopping!

At quarter past 7 we caught the train from Zurich to Bern, Bern to Spiez, Spiez to Frutigen, then the bus from Frutigen to Adelboden Oey, from which we walked up the hill back to the Chalet.  As a result of all the delays we didn't get home until after 10, so it was straight in the shower and to bed!