Our Roman adventure

So the kids and I hit Rome today … After a 13-hour sleep … Under strict instructions not to go anywhere near the Colosseum because my ex and SSF are taking the kids there next Sunday.

We kind of glimpsed it on our travels … I hope that doesn’t break the rules …

I have this thing about walking places if possible … Actually it’s more a phobia about tackling public transport in strange places, but don’t tell anyone … so I took the kids on a hot, sweaty epic journey through the city. We walked and walked and walked in the 30C heat.

(The eldest dolefully informed me last night that it was a 16km trek after checking the app on her phone … Impressive!)

The historic centre is pretty amazing, you just keep turning corners and stumbling across ancient ruins.

Our major destination was the Trevi Fountain, where we joined thousands of other tourists for a little selfie action before treating ourselves to our first gelato of the trip.

We wandered past the Pantheon and various other crumbling things before collapsing at a table in Campo de Fiori for cold drinks and a delicious pizza with tomato mozzarella and some strange spicy spreadable salami on it.

I was also informed by the youngest: “Muuuuuum, saying things in English with an Italian accent won’t make people understand you!”

I’ve officially become an embarrassing old person.

Then we hauled our way back through the sweltering streets to the hotel and collapsed in bed to suck the hotel’s wi-fi dry.

The kids refused to head out again – our hotel is in a residential part of town a bit far from the action unless you aren’t scared of tackling public transport in a strange city.

So we just went to a jumping place around the corner called Guerrini Bar for dinner: plates of spaghetti and a glass of wine for the matriarch. Then we tottered to bed to sleep off the jet lag again.

We’re on a train to Naples today then a ferry to Capri – lucky us!

Here are some Rome happy snaps: