Giving us some stunning views at every turn, we stopped a while at the top in a beautiful village, I think it was called Fiesole, gorgeous place.
A 5 minute walk through streets we were now familiar with and we were picking up our bags from the hotel, the walk to the station made me make a mental note that we needed to have packed lighter, however everything we had taken we'd used (apart from the suitcase with clothes for the second half of our holiday adventure). Ancient roads, crazy taxi drivers and bad mannered Italians made it hard work but once in the station we had a light lunch and drinks. I'm falling in love with Aubergine and courgette with olive oil. C doesn't know what to eat at a lunch time, as at home she tends to keep it simple with home made tortilla with cucumber (something I've not seen at all here).
A little treat for us on the train as I'd booked premium class, leather seats, electric blinds, quieter carriage, it was rather lovely, a gypsy lady saw me with the kids and helped us get the suitcases into the train, I knew I shouldn't let her but to be honest, there were 4 steps, 3 children, 3 suitcases and we now have 2 rucksacks full of stuff we didn't come to Italy with, so I was grateful for her help, five euros didn't make her happy, so I told her that targeting a single mum was never gonna make her rich, I'm sure she cursed me lol.
The train ride was relaxing; vineyards, farms, mountains, rivers, 3 sheep (yep the whole journey I saw 3 sheep) and lots of tunnels, a huge portion of the journey was in tunnels.
Once in Rome we took a taxi to the hotel, Marble floors and stairs, metal ratings and an ancient lift already gave us a good vibe, the hotels we've stayed in have been more like small apartments with breakfast rooms, this hotel had a front desk, however it's only manned when they are expecting guests, the staff are lovely, really helpful and the owner even asked the boys to take his card, in case of an emergency they could ring him and he would help them. I thought this was a lovely touch. Our room is lovely, simple, clean (beds a little springy but ok) and a large shower. We wanted to explore Rome but we were tired, so had an hour laid relaxing.
Once refreshed we went for a walk, it seems everywhere we go there's restoration work, within 10 minutes from the hotel we could see the colloseum, sheesh it's bloody enormous. I'd not expected it to take my breath away. 
We bought a couple of bottles of water and sat in the shade, looking and talking and our new favourite past time of people watching. Within a minute we'd been approached by 6 street sellers 'only one euro' 'half price' 'water, water', you name it they sold it; scarves, ornaments, sun parasols, African wooden stuff, bottled water, jewellery, sunglasses, hats and these blooming awful kids squeaky toys, if I said no they asked the children, one man trying to see if the boys had money in their pockets, if after saying no twice I realised I needed to not be so polite, although after saying no six times one seller was not taking no as an answer, he started to push things into the children's hands, so I waved my walking stick in his face and said no rather loudly and this time he got the message. The kids thought it was hilarious as did a few of the other street sellers who clapped me. We even ended up with a bit if banter with one water seller, laughing that we all reckoned B would make a better salesman that him.
We walked around the front entrance of the colloseum, seeing the large queues made us grateful that we had a tour booked already. 
Temperatures were now heading towards 30degrees and we were getting hungry so we decided to eat local to the hotel, in fact we went just next door. Nothing fancy, we are pizza and burgers and pasta. And headed to bed.
Today has been jam packed, we struggled to wake up, although knowing we had to meet our tour guide at 9am we knew we couldn't stay in bed. A quick breakfast and a taxi to Piazzo de Popollo to meet Chiara our guide for the day. She was lovely with the kids, ensuring they knew what we were doing and that their seatbelts on the golf buggy were secure. Being in a golf buggy on Rome's busy roads was one heck of an experience, the kids sat rear facing loved people waving and smiling at them. Our first stop was Trevi Fountain, again bigger and more spectacular than I'd imagined, unfortunately yesterday the area had been fenced off as they're doing restoration work and building a bridge across the water. Chiara told us how the fountain was erected once the Roman baths no longer needed the water coming in on the aqueduct, the fountain being the end of the line so to speak.
We saw so many places, I forget the order now, we visited the Circus Maximus where the chariot races took place, overlooked by the palace, in Audrey Hepburn style we put our hands in the mouth if truth. 
We listened as Chiara explained a little of Italy's history, using us as different eras. I, of course was the ancient period, M being the period of the church, B being the kings and C being post war and the change to being independent. A lovely way to remember a countries history. We saw the balcony (actually stood under it) where the king told the people that they were now at war. We saw so many places I've no idea what the huge white building is nearby, but it has a statues of a dude on a horse, Chiara showed us a picture of people say inside the horse, it's that big!
A bumpy ride, which the kids found hilarious, found us in a quiet car park, surrounded by churches, she told the kids she had a secret to show them, she pointed at huge wooden green doors and said to look through the keyhole. A direct view through a tree lined garden, with the centre point being st Peters. Unfortunately taking a photo was pretty impossible as the sun was shining too bright.
The Pantheon was so amazing, again quite breathtaking,
Amazing to see such a building in great condition, Chiara explained the changes the buildings decor had undergone throughout the centuries, showed the kids what happens when it rains through the hole in the roof, the tombs of the kings, and how the Margherita pizza got it's name.
A stop for gelato and a bumpy ride through the streets we were at the end of our 3 hours. We were dropped near our hotel and Colloseum area and agreed to meet in 2 hours time for our afternoon tour.
A small bite to eat and a lay down for an hour in the hotel was all we needed to revitalise. A short stroll to the colloseum we met Chiarra and she took us inside the Colloseum. Or as it should be called the Flavian Ampitheatre. Omg!!! The place is spectacularly stunningly bloody amazing. 
The mornings were filled with animal fights, chickens pitted against lions, crocodiles against bears etc. In the afternoons the people would have been there all day, having eaten, played games, even had their hair done whilst sat surrounded by marble, the afternoons were the exciting part, the gladiators would fight. By now the kids were getting tired but Chiarra was amazing. She kept them enthralled with the stories. We then travelled by special access lift to the first floor, open to the public, and walked a quarter of the way around to a set of stairs, at this point Chiarra offered to take the children up to the third level as I was not able to go up those stairs and no lift was available. 
We leaned how all the holes in the marble (yep the majority of it is but in marble!) were caused by people chiselling out the marble to get to the metal pins used to hold the blocks together.
We had private access to the arena floor, walking out the way the gladiators would have gone before us. Stepping out into what would have been filled with 50,000 people, looking around imagining what the atmosphere would have been like. There were only 9 of us allowed into this area, us and one other family with their guide. It was something really quite special.
Special access for us to the underground section had the kids excited, they were encouraged to stand on the floor lights, blocking out the light to show how dark it would have been, we saw the mechanisms for the lifts and trap doors, the tunnels the animals were brought through, the 'waiting rooms' for the lunch time executions, which were usually in the form of plays, where the main character was killed, and in fact was killed for real as he was a criminal.
The kids learnt more about gladiators and loved every minute.
You see those people on the floor level? That's where we stood.
Two and a half hours and C was struggling so we agreed to not take the last half hour/hour tour through the forum area (if we have the energy we have the tickets and can go tomorrow).
We said our good byes and we found some shade and a seat, although the seat was in fact a marble column fallen from the colloseum during the earthquake which caused the upper layers to collapse around half of the elliptical shape.
My friend the street seller that wouldn't take no for an answer started to approach me, realised it was me, scowled and walked away, only to be followed by another that would not take no as an answer so again I waggled my stick in his face and suggested that the policeman behind him might be interested in where he'd stolen his merchandise from. His face was a picture as he realised I wasn't kidding about the policeman and he ran, alerting the other sellers who also ran. Much to the amusement of others sitting in the shade with us.
After a shower and a fresh dress and mascara we headed to dinner, keeping it light with a little Spagetti Pomodorro, we were entertained by a guy playing the accordion, although again they should think twice before expecting a mum with there kids to be able to offer more than a euro or two as a tip.
Before bed we walked to the end of the road and along some ruins. The area looks so different at night, less people, less traffic, less heat, a pleasant stroll. 
And now bed. The kids are snoring, I won't be far behind them. No alarms to wake us tomorrow. I'll update soon on what else we get up to.
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