A bumpy start to be sure. I ignored all 'travel' do's and don'ts and ended up with a stolen bag, passports, cards the lot. Rome was therefore a bit more subdued than expected, having to deal with indifferent Polizia and the very efficient embassy staff to do what was needed. They've all seen it a million times before, unfortunately. Thankfully, Dad was arriving 2hrs after me so moral (and financial) support was not far away. I can't imagine how I have harder it would have been without them.

The sights, however, did not disappoint. We knew we were going to take is slowly and not try and cram too much in and we pretty much stuck to the plan, Police and Embassy visits aside that is.

First up, The Vatican. Mother's big wish was the Sistine Chapel - so we moved quite quickly through to that point as we were getting a later start than planned. It was busy, but manageable. Believe all the write ups that say to buy all your passes online, it really does safe a LOT of time. Lines were pretty heavy everywhere for those paying on the day. We ended up on a bus that dropped us by the metro. So walked though St Peter's Square which was very impressive and very heavily crowded. We could not believe the length of the lines to get into the church and were relieved to find out they were not our lines!

Vatican gardens were looking lovely and not at all crowded.

Day 2 was the Colosseum - short walk from our apartment and it also did not disappoint. It's truly amazing to look at these structures and just imagine what was. More logistics to work out on the missing stuff - made a little more stressful by the approach of `hurricane Irma to home. The Trevi fountain was next, and was amazing. Beautiful at night - crowded, but good natured. We had a yummy gelato here.

Day 3 - our last day, we headed back to the Colosseum to see the FORUM - fabulous views from the Palatine hill and a nice end to what was a pretty stressful short time.