Posted on July 01, 2009 by sonjabarrie

Well, I’m getting bored with this now so I can only assume you guys are too! I am lumping all the rest of the days together, adding photo’s and comments and then I’m done. The only other thing I might do is put up a post that details all our learning’s from Italy, just in case any of you are thinking of going there. Thursday 11th and Friday 12th June 2009 (Day 16 and 17) Today we woke up wondering why we had decided to come back and spend another two and a half days here in Rome. We had already seen the major sights when we were here before but we had booked this ages ago and at the time thought it would be a good idea. I think we were wishing we had gone straight back to the UK. Not that we want to do a whole ton of extra stuff for mum but it would have been nice to have the time to see some friends. Ces’t la vie, we’re here now so we might as well make the most of it. We took to walking around the city and taking as many photos as we could, there really is nothing else to do, we tried to find a nice park to visit but after walking for ages to what was supposed to be a park on the map we realized it was nothing more than green trees lining regular roads with steep steps up to each road. Weird. Me in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier The Tomb is quite grandiose but dirty. Tim and a view of Rome from the top of the Tomb View of the Colosseum and Roman Forum from the top of the Tomb. Having a Smart Car does have it’s advantages. The length of the car is equivalent to the width of a regular car and you can park just about anywhere! This will give you an idea of what the streets of Rome are really like. This is what looks like a nice narrow Roman road. This is the same street looking to the left! and this is looking to the right. This is normal, we saw it wherever we went, not just in Rome. Must be a national pastime to deface the city where you live. The graffiti along with the garbage everywhere made it ‘interesting’! Tim was hot so he decided to take a bath in the fountain! Now that’s the way to cool off, sitting at a cafe in the shade watching the world go by. Beautiful bougainvillea, notice the graffiti and the state of the walls. Fabulous! Another fountain, another chance for Tim to play in the water, boys! The white building is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier I’m not saying Tim has a bee in his bonnet about garbage and graffiti but here’s an example Graffiti on the base of a monument Taken from the bus on the way to the airport Our last night in Rome and I finally have something I can really get my teeth into, Indian Curry and it was fabulous. Thoroughly recommend the restaurant, it’s called Sitar and the address is Via Cavour, 256A, Rome. Saturday 13th June 2009 (Day 18) Today we fly back to the UK so after packing we wander over to the station to get the 12noon bus back to the airport. I have to say getting on the plane to come back was not as I had been told. We had paid extra to get ‘Priority Boarding" but had been told by other passengers in line with us to come to Rome from the UK that it was usually a mad scramble and "Priority" meant nothing. Well RyanAir did get one thing right and they boarded priority first which made the extra cost well worth it. We flew over the Alps on our way back, cool! We arrived at Stansted around 6pm. picked up another lawnmower although this one did have a bit more power than the last lot and drove the 2 hours to mum’s, I don’t remember much of the drive because I fell asleep! Not something I normally do but I’m getting old, what can I say LOL Sunday 14th June 2009 (Day 19) Spent the day gardening and doing washing, Tim had to replace the shower head as the old one was too fierce for mum but she still complained about the new one even though it was better. She has a complete phobia about taking baths anyway, I’m sure of it, she refuses to believe she sweats and takes a bath once a week whether she needs it or not! Mum always used to fill her front yard with annuals and as she is well past her sell by date I went and bought a flat of flowers and new shrub for the center of beds and put all of them in and a bunch of Dahlias she had grown from seed. I asked if she wouldn’t have preferred them in the back as that is what she can see more than the front but she told me that "she wants to show off so having all the color in the front was much more important" go figure! Here’s a typical Sunday afternoon in England scene for you. This is not far from mum’s house. And a nice country lane near mum’s Monday 15th June 2009 (Day 20) Results of my blood test Had another appointment with the eye Dr and my eye is still OK thank goodness. He also had the results of the blood test and he was concerned about a couple of things, for starters my Platelets are low, 72 when the average is between 150-400. Apparently I would still clot if I cut myself but if it goes any lower I might not. Weird. My Neutrophils (Abs) count is 1.5 and should be between 2.0 and 7.0 and my Total Protein is 61 and should be between 63 and 82, not too bad but it flagged as low. Now what all this means I have no idea but the UK Dr said I need to see a blood specialist so I see my regular MD next week and we’ll see how it goes. I’ll keep you posted. As for the rest of the day, did more washing and stuff round the house, also went to ASDA and bought some gluten free stuff I can’t get in the states like pitta bread, YUM. Bought some Cadbury’s big chocolate bars for gifts too, the stuff made by Hersheys under license to Cadbury in the US is just NOT the same, even all my American friends will attest to that. They love it when I bring them the REAL stuff! In the evening we went to the Marriott at Heathrow to spend the night as we had an early flight in the morning and facing rush hour traffic before a flight is not my idea of fun. Tuesday 16th June 2009 (Day 21) I have to say Terminal 5 at Heathrow is a dream, you check in via self service kiosks though there are lots of staff to help if you need them. You take your luggage to the desk where they put the flight labels on them and they actually checked our luggage right through even though we were flying Delta from NY to Salt Lake City. NICE, that saved us the cost of paying Delta for the suitcases. We checked in at New York’s JFK at a Delta Kiosk to get seat assignments and because our bags had already been transferred outside customs we were able to say no bags to check. Now I wish I had been able to take an extra suitcase as that would have been really cost efficient! Now if you get the impression from this that I am as tight as a ducks arse you would be right! I hate spending money and that includes shopping, strange thing for a woman to say but it’s true. I have to really need it and it had better be worth the money before I will buy it! And I have to say it is soooo nice to be home!!!! .