Sunday 23rd March 2008

The weather was really bad again this morning with more strong wind and rain. Today and tomorrow are public holidays, so the public buses from the campsite doesn't run. Fortunately the campsite has laid on lifts to and from the Metro station and we left at 10:30 for the journey in to Rome.
Simon and Katie went to the Colosseum early to beat the queues and succeeded. However the rain started and came down very hard. They then had to make their way to an Internet café near the Cavour Metro to meet us at 12:30. The weather had deteriorated further with thunder and lightning and rivers running down the roads – they arrived soaking wet. We changed our plans and decided to have a long relaxing lunch. During a lull in the rain we checked out a number of nearby restaurants and chose a small fish restaurant. The service was slow (absolutely ideal!), the food was excellent and we left two hours later.
Simon and Katie were keen to change into dry shoes and socks so we went to their nearest Metro and Jane and I had a coffee in a bar whilst they returned to their hotel. The weather took another turn for the worse with more thunder and lightning, torrential rain and hail. You know how bars are in this weather – crowded, steamed-up windows, nobody leaving and new people arriving with the water pouring off them. Fortunately, the storm passed and Simon and Katie managed to return without getting soaked again.
We walked in the all to brief sunshine to the Colosseum and found one half of the road closed by two large trees that had come down in the storm. Further on we came to a restaurant where a very large steel-framed awning had collapsed in the storm. We were told later that there were many reports of storm damage in Rome. We walked on to (Emperor) Trajan's Column with its magnificent spiral reliefs showing his military campaigns. It was then time to make our way back to catch our lift back to the campsite, so we left Simon and Katie exploring the area around the Forum and hoped for better weather tomorrow.
Photos: From the sublime to the ridiculous, my lunch of 'Tubot in a potato crust', a real contrast to yesterday's simple wood-fire cooked chicken!