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Well we didn’t really want to leave anyway! We did the usual touristy bits during our first real break from starting our trip! Included in the tourist package was the extra 2 hour bus trip from Rome central at 1am to the wrong suburb of town – Not the suburb that contained the campsite with our cosy tent! It was just so easy to mix up La Giustianiani and Giustianiani – so not Nic’s fault really :p
Anyway it was nice to tour the city suburbs till 3am on a bus that seemed to go round in figures of eight till we eventually round up back where we started!!! At least the taxi driver knew where we wanted to go!
Next day we set off to traverse the city (the campsite was in the NE corner and the road we needed was southwest). However, a few miles in disaster struck as Nic’s gears totally locked up on an ascent alongside a bus – the passengers looked amused as he huffed and puffed alongside wishing the blasted driver would speed up and let him pull over – the driver was beaming back at Nic’s redening face and luckily couldn’t lip read!
Anyway… two cycle shops and four fruitless hours later the bike was still unfixed, so we decided to carry on relentlessly and followed the River Tiber southwards through Rome before it got too dark! But that was far too simple wasn’t it! Alas, the skies opened in biblical proportions and the roman roads turned to rivers, we made our way pass buses and cars stuck in flash floods and made it as far as Pyramide (Rome, southside) where we first took refuge in the station (where Nic waded through knee deep water to find a hotel for the night).
Next day the rains had subsided and the rain clouds replaced with blue skies – in fact hardly a trace of the rain was left… so with sunny skies and heavy hearts we made our way long the Via Appia Antica (the old roman road to the South of Italy) away from Roma.
