Today we spent the morning at the flat basically having a rest and recovering from the exertions of the last few days.
After lunch we headed for the Palatine Gardens. It was the day of the Rome marathon so there were hundreds of runner milling about. Observing a long queue that was for ticket holders only, we proceeded up the hill until we came to the Church of St Bonaventura. There we met a very nice man who for a small donation was running a guided tour of the church, attached monastery and its small garden with a spectacular view of the centre of Rome.
Mum then had the excellent idea of looking to see if there was another entrance and indeed a few hundred metres along the wall we found one which had a ticket office, almost no queue and bizarrely, unlike the other one, no x-ray machines. What on earth are they looking for with these machines? The roman palace and forum are huge and unlikely to be seriously damaged with anything small enough to lug in a bag. Guns? If one wanted to shoot people there must be 200 places in Rome that are more crowded and have no security at all. Wouldn’t you just go to one of them instead and save the entrance fee!
By the time we got in it was after 4pm so we didn’t have enough time to look at the properly. Dad was disappointed to hear that he wouldn’t have time to visit the museum until he discovered that it was closed anyway. After rushing round until 1900 and skipping some big chunks, Dad declared that one day he would have to return with a folding chair, pack of sandwiches and detailed guide book and would then be able to see it all properly in about three days.