Hello from Rome!
It's been a busy few days with no time for posting and internet challenges, I will catch you up now.
KLM fights
I was a bit underwhelmed by KLM. The lounge at YYZ is small and the food selection is minimal, however most of the food we tried was tasty. The flight was delayed about 30 minutes. Boarding was smooth, having BC seats we walked right onto the plane. This aircraft was an A330 with 2x2x2 seat configuration. GS and I had the first row with the extra leg room. DH was in a center aisle a couple rows back. GS enjoyed discovering all the seat gadgets. There is not a lot of storage space in these seats, however the extra footwell space in row 1 helped. The food service was super slow. The menu was different from what I'd posted before and was a teriyaki chicken or tortellini. GS had the chicken and said it was good. I had the tortellini and it was not good. Since we were the last people in BC serverd, the tortellini around the edge of the dish was dried out. The pasta that was in the sauce was good, but 25% of it was rock hard. I can't say anything memorable about the food. For food service, they started well after take off and on the right hand aisle. Since we were seated on the left, we were literally the last served. Orders were not taken like I’ve seen on most BC flights, this was served from a cart. Breakfast was not much better. I had crepes, but it was a bowl full of crepes - narry any fruit to be found anywhere. The seats were not the most comfortable for sleeping. If a matress pad were provided, I think it would go a long way to improve that. I did manage to sleep about 3 hours and felt reasonably human the following day. The staff were all super friendly and lovely. We each had our pick of.one of the collectible dutch houses KLM gives to each passenger as a gift. These are all based on real houses in Amsterdam.
Our transfer in AMS was smooth and although we were in the smaller KLM lounge (the European side and not the larger Internationallounge), it was a huge improvement over the YYZ lounge. Great selection of food, drinks and various seating options. The boarding at AMS to FCO was ridiculous. We were delayed and there were horders of people slamming the small gate area.k The food on the second leg was a cold pasta salad with tuna, which no one in my travel party ate. It looked good, but I don't eat tuna. It was accompanied by some rice crackers and macaroons. Both of those were good. Besides the usual beverages they also served a small bottle of strawberry juice. Seats are just regular seats with the middle seat blocked. And, again, the crew were lovely. After deplaning, our luggage arrived with minimal delay. Our driver met us at the exit and we had a pleasant ride to the hotel.
Rome Hotel
Tours
We were in Rome about 20 years ago. I was prepared for the heat and the crowds due to the Jubilee. As much as you can prepare for either of those. The crowds were not as bad as I was anticipating and the heat, well, I don't do heat well. Even though the temps had cooled down from the previous weeks, the heat and humidity was hard to take. Temps were in the low 30's, but I was still dripping sweat every time I walked out the door.
We did 3 tours in Rome. There first was the Colosseum. Our tour guide was great. He trained as an urban planner and was very much into the history of Rome. He did not like the sun or crowds, so he was always hearding us to a spot in the shade as he pointed things out. I booked another tour for the afternoon and in between tours we stopped for lunch. Q and I shared a pizza, DH had a colossal Gelato sundae that we all shares. DH bailed on the afternoon crypt tour. Our guide was hilarious and we went to three different crypts, each depicting a different era in Roman history. It was cool in some of the crypts and we had an air conditioned bus for transport between the crypts. PRO TIP: Does not book more than one tour in a day, - it is just too hot and exhausting. We had dinner at our hotel the first evening. It was very good; excellent service.
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Veal and Gnocchi
The last day in Rome, we just wandered around in the morning. Went to.the Parthenon, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps. We stopped for gelato near the Parthenon.
Gelato Menu
Our last tour was on our last full day in Rome. I booked a Basilica tour and audio guide directly from the Vatican site for 6 pm. We took the metro there. Our hotel desk clerk gave us excellent directions. No problems getting there. You need to arrive for your tour about an hour early to go through security. We were there 2 hours early and went for a bite to eat. Q had a fruit plate, I had bruschetta, and Pat had fettuccine Alfredo. And it took FOREVER for the fettuccine. It came 10 minutes before we had to check in.for.the tour. DH wolfed it down...said it was good. We we able to almost walk right into the Basilica with the tickets we had. The audio guide was terrible. None of us could follow it. No markings for each station, etc. The Basilica was very crowded and they were setting up for a mass on Tuesday. We walked home, as once you go through the Vatican you are on the other side of it on exiting so the metro was quite a hike. The last.part of the walk home involved walking UP the Spanish Steps! Pat barely made it between his knees and his asthma.it was a challenge.
Colosseum Arena Floor
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