Today we had three things to do.
1 – Go to the Lazio football shop
2 – Visit the Vatican as it is close by
3 – Catch a plane home
In that order

I wanted to get my son a football top from the Lazio shop. It seems to be a “thing” with him, he likes to wear football tops from other teams. Over the years he has accumulated different club tops, some retro, some modern, domestic UK teams and from abroad. I just wanted to get something special as it was his birthday.

First, we had to check out of HiSuite, and left our bags in a holding room. They gave us an access code to enable us to get the bags whenever we wanted. This was a good setup for people who wanted to go out for the day without worrying about leaving bags at reception etc.

We left at about 9am and then headed off to the Lazio Roma Shop, situated on Via Leone IV. To get there, we crossed the Ponte Sant’angelo, a bridge that takes you to the Castel Sant’angelo. The bridge is actually stunning but unfortunately it looks as if it is being renovated at the moment, as it was fenced off and scaffolding was everywhere. Nevertheless, we could see the Castel Sant’angelo where the tomb of Hadrian is situated.

Sant’Angelo bridge | Turismo Roma

After a half hour or so walk, we arrived at the Lazio shop. The place was full of Lazio gear, not just of replica kit, but lots of memorabilia. There were posters of former teams and players, and flags stuck on the walls. There were hats, pennants, keyrings, bags, lots of other items with the Lazio branding on. It is an interesting place for any football fan. It was definitely worth the visit judging by my son’s reaction when he received his new shirt after we arrived back in the UK.

Once I had made my purchase, we decided that we should eat. We weren’t that far away from the Vatican, so we just headed towards that area before finding a lovely little café called Raffaeolo’s Bar. It wasn’t so much breakfast anymore but brunch, so it was ideal that the café sold fresh sandwiches, gelato and other pastries. We went for a mortadella sandwich which the server heated up for us. It was delicious with a cuppa.

After being fed and watered we went to Vatican City, the smallest country in the world. We headed down the Via Della Conciliazone, where you can see the imposing St Peter’s Basilica ahead. I recall the last time we were here, there was filming going on for the James Bond movie, Spectre. Quite a bit of the area had been fenced off with equipment, presumably for filming the car chase down the road. Thankfully this time it was all clear so we could see everything.

We just wanted to go there, take a few snaps and then go on our way. We did what we had come to do and then took a leisurely walk back in the direction of our apartment. We stopped off at a café bar, the Ristorante Tucci, in the Piazza Navona, just for a drink. I just want to warn anyone who wants to eat or drink here that it is very expensive compared to other parts of the city. A coca-cola was more than 6 euros.

Once we’d finished our drink we went back to the holding room at the apartment to collect our luggage. It was then a short walk to the taxi rank, so that we could get to Roma Termini train station. Our hotel receptionist told us to pay no more than 15 euros for the trip, which was cheaper than when we had arrived in Rome. Nevertheless, our journey cost less than that, so we were happy.

Termini is a very big and busy station but we knew where to head. We hadn’t pre-booked tickets as we weren’t entirely sure which service we would need to get back to Fiumicino Airport. We found that the Leonardo Express was running every 20-30 minutes or so, and the timings worked out perfectly. I just had to quickly book the tickets and get to platform 24 before the departure time of 13:50. This gave us about 15 minutes to book and get to the train. However, the technology of the internet had other ideas. I went right through the booking process on the way to platform 24, only for it to crash and I received a message stating that there was a problem with my booking. So we had to go back to the ticket office for Trenitalia, however we were in the wrong queue. JC joined the other queue and waited….and waited…..he was just about to ask for two more tickets for the following train (we didn’t have time to get back to platform 24) when my email flashed up to say the booking for the 13:50 had been successful.

We couldn’t believe it, we had literally two minutes to run to the entrance to the platform, scan our tickets and get to the train. We got on the platform with one minute to go. JC tried to open the train doors but they wouldn’t work!! I then realised that there were two trains and we needed to run to the front train. I could see the conductor and I shouted to John to ask him to stop the train. It didn’t matter though, he was still letting people on. This is the beauty of being in Italy, people often work on Italian time. Thankfully this was one of those occasions.

We got on the train, and stood the whole way, getting our breath back after the marathon sprint we had just done. At least we made it without having to buy a second ticket.

When we arrived at the airport, it was very easy to navigate and get through security, even though I had jelly legs from running. We spent some time relaxing before getting on the plane. We left pretty much on time and landed at Heathrow at about 18:00. The next and final challenge was getting home, diverted off the M1 because the Ouse Bridge was closed. Four hours on the road and we were still back earlier than expected and went straight to bed.