Athens to Rome

Hi All,
We left our lovely Athens Centre Square Hotel at 8.30 in the morning. We could not take the Metro as it was May Day (Labour Day), a public holiday and the Metro was not running until 9.00, so we called a taxi to take us to the airport. Apparently there were to be street marches, demonstrations, protests and rallies all over the city. Virtually nothing was open and we were advised that it would be a good idea to be out of the centre of Athens before 10.00 as the streets would be impossible to drive through after 10.00. We had a lovely taxi driver who pointed out lots of interesting buildings and told us about how difficult life is in Greece at the moment. The 'Financial Crisis' and the EU bailout has made the tourism industry the only business that is earning Greece any money at all.
We got to the airport at 9.30 and checked in at the EasyJet desk. Shock/horror, we could only take ONE piece of hand luggage on board! Some hasty rearrangement was in order and we obviously rose to the occasion. There was no weight restriction on the one piece of hand luggage so Andi and I ended up with hand luggage that was the right size and weighed well over ten kilos each. The flight took off on time and landed in Rome a little early. We caught the Leonardo da Vinci Express into Rome and found our way to our hotel fairly easily. It was opposite the Doria Hotel where Andi and I had stayed in 2009.

Rome was incredibly full of people as it was the Beatification of Pope John Paul the Second. There were pilgrims EVERYWHERE!! Priests, nuns, brothers, fathers, sisters, youth groups, church groups etc from all over the world. You could be an amazing range of souvenirs - Tshirts, postcards, notebooks, coins, envelopes, stamps, hoodies etc. The place was packed!
 
 
We slept well and went out early. We wandered around Rome took millions of photos - slight exaggeration (but not much). Had a lovely day and got back to our hotel about 4.30pm. Tomorrow we will pick up our hire car and Brave Andi will drive us to Pompeii. Sadly the weather is not so good for the next couple of days. The forecast says rain for the next two days so we will need raincoats again.

Will be in touch again, soon.