Rome - Day 6

Our last day. Packed and breakfasted, we headed to try and get a taxi to the Villa Borghese and Park Borghese. We eventually got a taxi but it was more expensive than we expected/should have been. Watch out for Roman taxi drivers! We did not let it spoil our last day too much though.

The Villa Borghese is an eye opening small and manageable gallery, which you have to pre-book for a 2 hour slot. It was the summer home of a cousin of a Pope, the Cardinal Borghese made the Villa into a mini Vatican Museum. Cardinal Borghese appears to have been a greedy and jealous man who coveted the power and wealth of the Pope and set out to copy what he had, and sometime bought what the Vatican rejected (Caravaggio’s). We managed to get on the 11.00am English language tour with a museum specialist guide, this is highly recommended and brings the whole museum to life. The most memorable exhibits in the museum were the statues, which the guide brought to life. You could see the hard and soft textures the artists were sculpting. The Villa is set in a peaceful park which gives you a sense of calm to walk through, even though these days it is now very much a part of Rome.

After a coffee and cake to refresh us (quiet expensive) we walked from the Villa to the Spanish Steps, thankfully down steps and not up, to lunch again at the Otello alla Concordia again. This time, remembering us, they offered us an outside terrace table, but due to the heat we preferred the tinkling water background of the air conditioned covered terrace. Again, we followed this with a wine at the (L’) Enoteca Antica.

Sadly we headed back to the Residenza for a final pot of tea and taxi to the bus station. If I was fitter I would head for a bus, but had to take the taxi instead. As the Residenza booked the taxi you pay from when the taxi leaves the office and due to the traffic he had 8 euros on the dial before he arrived! Although this taxi was less costly than our first taxi! I would, another time, look at using one of the taxi companies recommended on Tripadvisor, for 2 people we could have done a return to the airport for about 65/70 euros. Sadly, I think it is just a rip off world sometimes. In the heat and with my knees the taxi was the best option for us. We did leave it rather late though, and had missed the airport bus we should have got. The bus we took went a long way round via another pick up point and got held up by the slow moving motorway traffic, we only just made check-in but got assisted loading for the plane so were able to board the airport bus first. In the end up it made little difference, as they filled up the 2 buses and the second bus arrived at the plane first!! We got good seats on the plane because hubby dived straight on and beat the hordes.

The plane was held up, so we were about 2 hours late in departing (the children had been an hour late in departing, making their wait at the airport even longer). A good end to the holiday – the seat belt fitted without the need for a lap extension! All the walking I did had knocked pounds off of me.

Post Holiday

Would we go back to Rome again? Yes, without doubt. I would go back to the Vatican Museum for an afternoon entry, although hubby is less keen on returning to the Vatican museums but would love to return to Rome.

Guide books:

The AA Pocket Guide to Rome
Rome and the Vatican, Lozzi Roma edition (available in Rome)

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