Geoff Brock & Bruce Gamble
         
     
   
 
 
 

Lucca to Florence by car, on to Rome by train then a 6km sightseeing walk
Sunday, 19th May 2019
 
Sadly, it was time to leave Lucca after a relaxing few days. Our driver arrived to pick us up at the hotel at 9:30am and we were soon on our way to the railway station in Florence.
 
 
 
Florence station was very busy. We were impressed to find that there were several English speaking members of the different train companies wandering around and assisting passengers. We were fine. Our train was listed on the departure board and its arrival (from Turin) was shown as being on time.
 
 
Our train
 
We departed on time at 11:33am.
 
Our top speed today was around 250km/h and we enjoyed the journey.
 
We arrived at Rome Termini on schedule at 1:05pm.
 
 
 
 
We were very pleased with our large room!
 
 
 
After getting settled, we decided to go out and explore. We knew that we were going to have a more formal guided walk tomorrow, so we thought we would just wander aimlessly. This turned into a 6km walk and, quite by accident, we chanced upon many of the major attractions that Rome has to offer.
 
 
 
Piazza del Quirinale
 
 
 
 
 
The Pantheon
 
 
The Palace of Justice as seen from Ponte Umberto, across the River Tiber.
 
 
The dome of St Peter's.
 
The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as Castel Sant'Angelo.
 
 
The museum of the souls of Purgatory -
we decided to give that one a miss!
 
 
Mausoleum of Augustus
 
 
Piazza di Spagna
 
The Spanish Steps
 
Fontana della Barcaccia or "Fountain of the Boat" at the base of the Spanish Steps.
 
After all that walking, we enjoyed a glass of champagne on the roof terrace of our hotel.
 
From the terrace, we got some good views of the city.
 
 
 
We asked the concierge at our hotel to recommend a restaurant. He suggested La Bottega, a short walk from the hotel. We accepted and he made a booking for us. We loved it, so much so that we made another booking ourselves for the following evening.
 
 
 
©Geoff Brock and Bruce Gamble