A last day in Rome - June 6th

A last day in Rome – Bernie is keen to see the colosseum – it has always slipped off her agenda in previous visits to the city.

Off for breakfast at the White Cafe nearby – greeted by a young Philipino – he recognizes the accent – talks of his parents coming to Italy when he was a child leaving him behind in his grandmother's care – “grandmother died” says he with a tear welling up in his eye – “I decided to come here – mum has died and my father is sick” says he – “I will have to stay for the time being”.

We head off on the 30 minute walk to the colosseum – the pedestrian traffic? - initially moderate – then something more than moderate – the pavement narrow and the battles begin!

Tour guide and entourage  after tour guide entourage charge towards us in a manner and with an aggression that clearly demonstrates their deeply held belief that they are the sole owners and occupiers of the city – they occupy the full width of the pavement – they surround any individual who happens to share the pavement with them and demand right of way even when there is no remaining pavement to render to them.

After the initial few assaults we find some free space in a Piazza to regain our composure – another tour guide arrives – stops immediately beside us and begins her spiel – suddenly we find ourselves completely surrounded by a bus load of her ear piece wearing followers – we try and we try to find a way out of the crush to escape certain suffocation! – her followers look at us as Intruders who have dared to walk through them!   - “how rude” says one.

The sun is strong – it combines with the tour guides and rough pavement to make arrival at the colosseum occur  later than expected – never mind – we have “skip the line” tickets – we arrive – lots of skip the line assistants – “what time is your ticket for?”we are in a line in a flash.

All good thinks I – not the case – everyone seems to have skip the line tickets – the line inches forward and inches forward some more – the roaming water sellers do a great trade.

We eventually make it into the arena – worth it? – of course! – could the experience have been better? – of course! – how? - justby preventing those  bloody tour guides causing traffic chaos at every turn – in the colosseum they do nothing that an audio guide could not do better yet they force the visiting population to move without the randomisation so essential to an effective highly populated environment.

We prematurely escape the arena – we walk to the roadway – an Italian taxi driver has had a premonition of our plight and have diverted his vehicle to coincide with our arrival at the roadway – we escape the pedestrian chaos and enjoy the relatives calm and goodwill of the motorists of Rome.

We lunch at Piazza Barbarinni.

I escape to the suite – Bernie would not countenance such a thing when in the city she loves – she visits the Spanish Steps – she shops – she stops for margaritas! – she suffers again from a space invading tour guide who is rendered the benefit of a lesson in good manners delivered in a manner that only Bernie could deliver.

We are to be deported from Rome tomorrow morning!