Monday 29th November: Rome

Fiumicino airport was, to say the least, unspectacular after Dubai, but having made our way through an almost deserted gate lounge, corridor and even customs hall, we were finally on Italian soil. Here we were assailed by privateer taxi drivers offering special deals to the city. Ignoring these we took the conservative option and climbed into the standard white taxi at the head of the rank Wow! What a trip. The woman driving it was obviously a fan of Michael Schumacher. As we rocketed down the freeway and then narrow cobbled side streets at speeds in excess of 120kph, she was on her mobile having a chat to one of here friends. There and then we got an instant education on Italian road etiquette and the differences with Australia. For instance, there is not a lot of money wasted here on stop signs, traffic lights and the like, rather Darwinian rules apply, and the fittest survive.

Thanks to our over enthusiastic driver, we arrived in Rome in about half the time we had been expected to take and to my great relief there was actually an apartment at the destination address with a landlord who was expecting us. Not surprisingly our first day, or afternoon, in Rome was not very active. By the time we had unpacked it was late afternoon so we took a short walk up the road and found a small restaurant were we had dinner and by 6.00pm we were back at the apartment and nodding off to a sound jetlagged sleep.