Rome's Top 10 with the Manchester's Top 3

Yesterday, I met some Brits on the bus trying to find their way to the Colisseum. I was headed that way myself later that day, so I told them which way to go. They seemed like a fun trio and as I headed off to sightsee on my own, I was wishing I had been a little more outgoing. But I thought to myself, if it's meant to be...I'll see them again.





That afternoon, I did my walking tour with Peter's friend, Chris. He gave us a brief history of Rome and took us by Circus Maximus, to some temples including the Pantheon, through the old jewish ghetto, by the imperial palace (Palatine hill), past the forum and finally to the Colisseum. It was a great tour, though we didn't go into the Colisseum, so I think I will try to do that on Friday.

This morning I was supposed to get up early and meet Chris's colleague to do the Vatican tour at 10am. I didn't make it. Must have just missed them at the meeting spot. I hopped on the bus to the Vatican and thought I would try and catch up with them there. I knew the pope was speaking today and that was the first thing they were doing. I got there and it was packed. It quickly became obvious that trying to meet up with them (even with his cell phone number) was going to be a logistical nightmare. I decided to just walk into the crowd and hope that I might see someone I recognized from the tour the day before. I picked a spot to enter the mass of people and started walking in and the first person I saw was one of the Brits from the bus the day before. He saw me at the same time. They said they came to see the pope today, but were coming back tomorrow to do the Vatican. They were on a mission to see the Top 10 of Rome in the 3 days they had. I ended up joining them. We only made it to 1.5 of the 10. Turns out you need a reservation for the Galeria Borghese, but it's in a beautiful park and we ended up napping in the sun and off-roading in a bicycle built for 4, instead. (They should put that in the guide book.) We're planning to head out to the Vatican at like 7am tomorrow, but they have dinner plans at 9pm, so we'll see what happens...