Three coins in the fountain...

Now guess where we have been - here flying over the Alps.......

Does this give you a clue?   Note the little Smart car nestled in amongst all the Vespas and Lambrettas

And if that doesn't tell you, what about this...

which was an invitation to a general audience with

THE POPE !!!

Yes, we were in bella Roma for five days and quite co-incidentally when we went into the Vatican we got the opportunity of seats for the next day  at a public audience - not bad for three C of E's and a Greek Orthodox.  It was an opportunity not to be missed and it was surprisingly moving, watching the reaction of the mainly Catholic crowd.   Behind the compound of chairs the rest of St Marks Square soon filled up with thousands of tourists and it was all very impressive.  The Pontiff arrived and got into his popemobile and drove all around us in the seats so we had a really close view, then he went up to sit under the canopy as you see here and I understand that he mentioned the names of a lot of the people who had come specially from afar for this audience.  Some bits of the ceremony were in English (and other languages) so the whole process was quite longwinded and I have to confess that when we noticed other people getting up to go when their 'bit' had been done, after 3/4 of an hour we too decided that the heat was too much for us and we needed to retire for a restorative drink.   It felt very rude to walk out, but no-one knew who we were!

Rome was beautiful, heavenly weather, marvellous food, good wine and history at every turn.  George used to go to Rome on business but I had never been before so I found it very exciting.  In a narrow little street, the Via de Cappellini, we saw this mirror on the wall and people were taking photographs of themselves - what a clever idea!   See George holding the camera up between us?

I think we look a bit like an Old Master (and Mistress)

I am always fascinated by shop windows when I am abroad and the shops in Rome are to die for.  Clothing and shoes, oh my.  I did buy two pairs of shoes - I'll take a photo of them later -fortunately George is a retail animal and enjoys the shops as much as I do.  I really liked one of the shelves in a wine shop, the labels pictured Mussolini, Stalin, the Pope, Hitler - I mean, who wants to drink Hitler wine?

We stayed at a lovely hotel, very centrally placed, and it had a wonderfully old fashioned lift as well as a very modern one.  We liked to clank up in the old one as it seemed a real adventure, but the modern lift was made by 'Schindler' - and it amused me greatly to be in Schindler's lift !!

In the Compo del Fiore there was a super flower, food and vegetable market - I have to tell you  that I took nearly five hundred photographs and that most of them were of quirky things like this man sitting demonstrating kitchen  gadgets which peeled and sliced and cored and coiled. What did he do with all those vegetables?  Did they go into one of the restaurants to make minestrone?   Only a quarter of my photographs are of classical views, but then we all know what the coliseum looks like, don't we?

But who could resist taking a photograph of this little fellow with

his golden wings, tastefully placed fig leaf  and rather strange harnessess!

And this is what we came home to ! Down to earth with a bang.  But lovely as it was to have (another) lovely break in the sunshine, it was oh so nice to get home again.  Then we had that glorious rain which has done wonders for the garden - and we have Open Gardens in our village on Sunday which George organises and at the end of the day all the garden owners come to our house for a drink - and so of course, our garden has to be a bit spick and span as well.  What with that and the Safari Supper on Saturday, it is going to be a  busy time and Rome already seems a long way away.  And yes, I did throw three coins in the fountain of Trevi !