Elky: We’re staying in Bracciano will this train ticket take us there?
Tourist information guy: Where?
Elky: Bracciano
Tourist information guy: St Peter’s Basilica?
Elky: No Bracciano. (thinking- yes, we’re staying at St Peter’s Basilica? I didn’t know you could stay there!)
Tourist information guy: Is it in Italy?
Elky: yes…

This dialogue basically sums up our experience in Rome. We got lost. People who were supposed to know stuff didn’t. Public transport was useless.

We had heard that driving in Rome is dangerous so we aimed to find a campsite far enough away to avoid actually driving in Rome but close enough to have public transport into the city. The campsite in our guide promised both public transport and Internet. It did have public transport… but the bus to the train station only went every 2-3 hours and trying to park the van at the station was impossible. So we couldn’t get into the city till about 11am every day that we were there unless we wanted to get up at 6am (and we’re on holidays so no thank you!). The last bus back to the campsite was at 6pm and despite catching the train at 4 from Rome, we still missed it the first day and if it wasn’t for a nice Dutch couple who had driven to the station we would probably still be walking back to the campsite.

The two days that we spent in Rome we managed to see the Colosseum and the Vatican. We enjoyed the Colosseum, it was big and old and you could imagine gladiators fighting there and it was everything it should be. We were disappointed with the Vatican museum and the Sistine chapel, mostly because we paid too much for tickets (guess you can’t be a real tourist if you don’t get ripped off at least once!) but also there were just too many people which meant you couldn’t really appreciate it. We’re also not huge art buffs so I guess it just wasn’t our thing.

There were lots of things that we would have liked to see and do in Rome but with public transport the way it was it just wasn’t possible. We would like to come back one day but maybe we’ll stay in a 5 star hotel in the middle of the city and get a private tour guide. Haha, that would be nice wouldn’t it?

We hit a bit of a slump after Rome. Aaron got the flu and we started to get homesick/comfort sick. We’re missing our familes and friends and we’re getting a little bit tired of living in a van and having no space and things being confusing and difficult. We keep saying maybe we need a holiday from our holiday, haha. Well, where better to recover than the south of France?!

If all roads lead to Rome, we’re happy that they also lead out!