Our time's up in Italy

Our final full day in Rome was a big effort. Firstly we decided we needed to see aquaducts. They have a park dedicated to this so we travelled via metro to a stop nearby and located the park. It was cool. A Saturday morning in the suburbs of Rome, Italians walking dogs, riding bikes, exercising (one elderly gentleman without pants), yoga, picnics and possibly only two tourists taking photos.

Because this was such a success we decided to try the same approach with the ancient Roman road, the Appian Way. There is also a park dedicated to this. I now see where things may have gone wrong for us. It's the second largest park in Europe and with the assistance of google we arrived in a corner of the park that was below our expectations. Just dirt tracks, unkept green space, and not enough people to make you feel safe. We persisted and eventually found the heavily visited area of the park with all it's historical points of interest 

Kieran walking on the ancient road

There was a festival on at the Circus of Maxentius which is part of an ancient property on the road. Full Roman soldier apparel was on sale. A once in a life opportunity missed

Having expended so much energy finding the road, we possibly under invested in the opportunity to explore what was on offer, including the catacombs of St Callixtus which we could see was on a lot of people's to-do list.

Not content with that Kieran decided he wanted to visit the tomb of Caeser Augustus. Somewhat surprising as he hasn't shown any previous interest in Augustus.

Rome gives you tourist Fomo. In the old parts of the city, you can't walk 100 metres without stumbling across something you feel compelled to investigate. After our first public bus ride in Rome we were back in central Rome heading for the Mausoleum, which is just in a public space. Enroute we noticed heightened activity near a church (San Luigi dei Francesi). We had to investigate. Sure enough, one of the Chapels included three well known works by Caravaggio. You couldn't get close enough to truly enjoy them but it was a stunning church.

We made it to the Augustus Mausoleum, which we knew was closed, but what we didn't know was that it was surrounded by a six foot fence. Maybe next time. 

Plan B. This Egyptian obelisk near the Mausoleum from circa 1200 BC, which was brought to Rome in 1 BC on the command of Augustus. The oldest one in Rome. There's always a photo opportunity on offer.

And that was pretty much it for Rome (and Italy). We really enjoyed Rome. It's an awesome place to visit.