Dave and mabel ...sorry out of sequence x

Monday 23rd November

Dave at the Colosseum.

Bella (beautiful) day in Rome today, after12 hrs sleep you would expect to be a little brighter...
Colosseum is massive but a little dated ha ha … and absolutely full of foreigners, most are fantastic but it seems the American government gathered all their most challenging people and sent them on a trip to Rome; I got Linda to contact the embassy to find out where they are off to next so we can go somewhere else.

Linda is about to tie a piece of cloth to a stick and talk in broken English to a group of Japanese, all she has to do is talk fast look excited and point a lot. They don’t learn much, but I have made 300 Euros.

They have a lot of men dressed up to look like old Romans and they pester you to pay them for a photo with them, only silly idiots get caught on this tourist trap. !!!

Seriously though, this place is amazing, the old roman roads and structures are huge, over 100 thousand slaves died to build the colosseum.( see I was listening to the tour guide) Got to go before Linda is arrested as she is laughing at two small Irish men who sound like hobbits….
Russ

Tuesday 24th November, early morning.

Too tired last night for my blog entry. Had a beaut day yesterday and LOVED the guided tour. The archeologist chap was so good and soo entertaining we thoroughly enjoyed the day. We have his details of his tour of the Vatican, Sistine chapel etc for when we scoot back to Rome. Way too much to absorb in a couple of days so will definitely need a return visit.
We dined last night at a ristorante again this time Russ had an Olive Bruschetta followed by a lasagna with porcini mushrooms and I had tomato bruschetta and then chicken scallopine with funghine( Chicken and mushrooms.) My mouth is watering just thinking of it. We both followed up with coffee, Nuts at that time of day for me to have coffee but we are so tired nothing would keep us awake! Russ tried his first gelati from a little store on the way home Chocolate flavour, and the verdict …not too bad. Obviously we need to sample many many more to get a perspective. lol
Brad & Trish (Russ’s brother and sis in law fly in from Hong Kong to day and we’ll venture to our home base in Introdacqua by train. Another adventure in itself the Termini train stazione is HUGE! Not sure when I will post again but we will write each day and of course the Rainman pictures from me. Can’t wait to show you some Russ has taken. In the meantime you are stuck with me hahaha.
The boys have emailed us photos of them caring for the house, eating well and being happy; all so staged it was hilarious. Good to see that they are ok and to have a little chat on gtalk with them each day.
Time to away and breakfast, and pack for our next part of the journey. Arrive derci!
Lin X