Finally, we’re in Rome. I say finally as if it had taken a long time getting here, it didn’t. We did stay a night at Arlanda and took a quick detour to Frankfurt on the way down, just long enough for a beer and a Branca. When we got to Rome we took the buss in to the termini station and a cab to the hotel and then a cab to the hotel (not a typo).

We had been in central Rome all of fifteen minutes before we got pulled over by the police. Passports out, smiling, trying to understand the cop who didn’t have a firm or even loose grasp of the English language. What we could gather from his few words was that we were in no trouble but the guys driving the cab were. We had suspected that the cabbie might have been unlicensed and our suspicion was confirmed as soon as the copcar came up behind us. The cabbie said – my name is Roberto and my colleague is Pino.

He also said he was sorry for the misunderstanding and he was treating us to the fair. If he drove us for free it wouldn’t be illegal. The cops pulled us over and Roberto said something to the effect of Aiaiai and sighed loudly. After a while we decided to get out of the cab and talk to the cops.

- Noche, no problem for you (points to the curb and we move) no problem for you.

I ask if we can go get another cab and go to our hotel and he says -  no problem for you miister.

This goes on for a while and after some more strained and tedious attempts at communication they let us go. We get a new cab and got to the hotel which proved to be a big surprise.

We had been checking out a whole lot of hotels before going down here as we were supposed to be around ten people including kids. We needed a hotel that worked for everyone’s budget, was close enough to the centre and was reasonably kid friendly. What we got was this really cool, funky, modern and fun hotel. The hotel is of  modern 70:ies retro style and has the feel of a cool cruiser. It’s kinda eclectic in a cool way, will post pics when I get a better connection.

We went down to the bar for som late dinner and  a quick beer and headed for bed soon after.

When we woke up we headed down for a quick brekkie and left the hotel. We have this really cool park next to the hotel that was unfortunately closed so we headed to the next park instead. We had been there six years ago but didn’t go the the “park” itself which we quickly remedied. We went to the zoo which was a hoot, had a beer went to Piazza Popolo and headed towards a restaurant Em had been to a couple of years ago, missed the target by fifty meters and an hour and had a nice dinner at a restaurant next to it instead, it was still closed when we got to it hence the other restaurant. We had a beer at trinity, a nice Irish College like bar where we met a couple of American guys a few years back, they ended up in Luleå the next summer.

The Pantheon was close to the restaurant so we went there as I had only been during daytime and wanted to see it with the sun setting on it. Fontana di Trevi got visit from us as well as it was another place I had only seen at day, it’s so much nicer at night.

After that we headed home as it was getting late and we had don mile after mile after mile anyway. I’m guesstimating a little here but 20-25 sounds about right, will confirm with google earth later.