08 - 'Cause I've gotta have faith

I couldn’t write this blog in chronological order because I was far too excited to get to the main and unexpected event which happened on day two, 09.42am at 41° 54' 17.12'' N and 12° 27' 16.66'' E. 

James and I boarded the train from near our accommodation on Lake Bracciano and headed off to Rome for the day. We both visited Rome around the same time several years ago and loved it then, so couldn’t wait to go back. 

We arrived at San Pietro Station and toyed with the idea of visiting the Vatican, however neither of us are religious and the idea of lining up to revisit it made us groan. But just like that a nun appeared right in front of us and started hurriedly shuffling down the street. She kept muttering (in Latin) that she was late, late for a very important date. Suspicious that this might be our very own White Rabbit moment, we followed her.

We met a mass of people, otherwise known as a queue to the British contingent of our readership, and diligently joined it to have our bags checked. I could tell that James relaxed immediately with the familiarity of home upon him. To his disappointment the queue moved fairly quickly and we realised that we were being ushered into this other building that we assumed was the ticket office to the museum. I started to get annoyed because I’d lined up so I could go into the pretty square, take some selfies with my selfie stick, add another country to the trip list and be on my way.

As we entered the rammed building James yelled out in surprise - 'It’s the Pope!!' A few people turned around to give him the ‘no der’ treatment.  There he was up on the stage in all his Pope glory with people cheering and clapping at the great things he was undoubtedly saying in Italian that we couldn’t understand. We stood there for a couple of minutes to watch then turned away, pushing back through the crowd and past all the people who had been declined entry due to capacity constraints. Not many people can say they accidentally crashed the Pope's party. The sun shines on the righteous I guess...

Off we trotted for the rest of our day in Rome filled with all the wonderful things you’d expect, the Colosseum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and 4 Euro pasta and free wine from Pastaficio. This is a must do if you are ever in Rome on a budget. They only do two types of pasta so make sure you take someone with you so you can try both, or just have both. You only get the free wine if you eat in their store standing up. So do that. Even though the free wine is awful and reluctantly poured for you by the man behind the counter, it’s always nice to think you’ve got a little something extra. 32,000 steps later we returned to Lake Bracciano, pleased to be back in this little Italian haven only forty-five minutes from Rome

Our days on Lake Bracciano can only be described as delightfully lazy. We had the most amazing view of the lake from our Airbnb so we would wake up to a coffee and breakfast on our balcony, watch the yachts (no motorised boats are allowed except the public ferry as it’s one of the primary water sources for Rome) and drive or wander to one of the towns. James was able to play lots of his computer game. I felt that it was quiet enough that no one would judge me if I wore my Sydney Harbour Bridge cap that I kept from when I climbed it. Go there. It’s wonderful and relaxing and we loved it.

We did have a couple of heart racing moments though. We were walking back along the lake to our apartment and suddenly realised we were trespassing on about thirty private beaches as we did so. It was another one of those ‘we’re committed’ moments so we carried on while the locals glared at us from their beautiful lake edge homes. I think my cap helped as they probably felt sorry for us. Or sorry for James at least.

As we were checking out, we left the keys in the flat as we were instructed, got downstairs and realised we were locked between the gate and door. Now an expert at trespassing, I climbed over the neighbouring restaurant's fence to see if there was an easy escape. I couldn’t see one so James went to look and when he couldn’t see one, I went to look again. I heard him yelling my name, thinking that we may have triggered a security alert. Turns out he’d just found the very obvious button to release the gate. We finally got out, glad we hadn't knocked on another apartment window in search of help and we were back on the road towards our next stop, Sorrento. I've been looking forward to this one.

La Spezia to Lake Bracciano via Orbetello for lunch