Back to Rome

We leave Lecce after three slow and lazy days. A long train journey back to Rome, again travelling via Naples, sees us back at Rome Termini by early evening. We are staying at the Hotel Smeraldo for three nights before heading home. The Smeraldo is around the corner from my old apartment, and its lovely (and familiar) to be back wandering the Campo and enjoying more wine and music in the piazza.

What to do with our last few days? We agree we'll take our time and savour the end of our holiday. On our list is the Crypta Balbi museum, little-visited but fascinating; another subterannean vault beneath modern Rome. We are fortunate to find the museum open: its had remained firmly closed during my month in the Via dei Chiavari. Today, we find we are almost in time for an escorted tour through the excavations.

The Balbi museum has the best chronological guide to Roman life I've seen thus far. Once we've sorted out the room order, we travel back through post-war, pre-war, renaissance, medieval and ancient Roman lives and times. There are some fantastic aerial shots of the Largo Argentina taken over the last 80 years or so, and we can see the maze of buildings clustered where the main street, the Via Vittorio Emanuel now cuts through. Difficult to imagine Rome without this noisy, traffic-jammed thoroughfare (but Oh! wouldn't it have been great to be in Rome before the vespa). We descend down to Balbi crypt with our italian-speaking guide, and as we are only three - two of whom have little italian - we try and make out the gist of the story from catchphrases and pointing. We see the surviving wall of a renaissance palace built above the ancient structure, and we are fascinated by the series of water pipes and cisterns that once trapped or released the water supply.

Other good things we do during our stay: daily gelato at our favourite gelateria near the Pantheon which gives us a great excuse to revisit the dome. This has got to be Jim's favourite part of Rome; he spends time wandering the outside of the structure tracing the original line of the building. It gives me opportunity to cross to the tiny adjacent square to look at Bernini's elephant outside the church of Sopra della Minerva.

It's busier now as the tourist numbers begin to swell and we are also finding it warmer. The days are longer too, and we agree mid-March is probably the optimum time to be here in Rome. It's still quiet enough to access most places of interest, and the restaurants seem to have tables available. We eat again at the Pantheon by night; a magical experience. It's also rather surreal as Rome is in the grip of soccer fever, and our dinner coincides with the first 'serious' match of the season: Rome vs Arsenal. When Rome scores a goal, we can hear car horns sounding all over the city. Unfortunately all gets very quiet as our dinner progresses, and we guess that Arsenal have won the match.

A final visit to the Campo on our last day to look at the superb produce. Things I again covet: the purple artichokes and tiny wild strawberries. We have a last coffee in the sunshine at the cafe in Piazza Farnese before our noon departure. In 20 hours or so we'll be home.