The evening of day three, after having made our children walk everywhere (because I didn’t want to admit that I couldn’t figure out the transportation system) we purchased a two day ticket on a double decker tour bus (due to end the following evening). Not being able to figure out the transportation system wasn’t something I had planned on doing, but seeing we were tired and didn’t want to walk all the way back to the apartment I thought what the heck and went ahead and purchased them. That evening we went for a round trip of the city and the following day spent the WHOLE day on the bus going round and round and round driving past all the sights we were able to recall by name because we had suffered to visit them all by foot the day before; but it was good that we purchased the tickets (and even better that we stayed all day on the bus) because it showered intermittently throughout the day. Here are pics from day four from a top the bus:

St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City.

Ponte Vittorio Emanuele. The apartment we stayed at was on this street further down.

And all the girls they leave behind will be very sad.

The wall around Vatican City.

Towards the end of the day there was a demonstration along Termini Station. And what were they demonstrating? I don’t know but maybe the following sign will give us a clue:

Our bus driver had gone for a coffee break leaving the kids and I (and one other tourist) alone on the bus for a very long fifteen minutes. Basically we had a front seat to a spectacle but I was hoping to God that the crowd wouldn’t get rowdy because many were drink dancing (to music that literally made the ground beneath us tremble) and sipping from their fingers something smellier than the usual cigarette.

Elle réfléchit—Canon EOS 30D