Roma 1

My friend Chris has lived in Rome for about 12 years. I visited him ten years ago, and have been promising to go back ever since. Finally, courtesy of some refund money [a sorry tale involving KLM, zero customer care and 24hrs unwanted hours in Turin] we booked a visit to Rome for April. I proudly told Chris……… then he broke the news, he was moving back to the UK in February. To make it worse, he was moving to ………….. Wigan. Buto we decided to go to Rome anyway. A hotel was booked, our flight confirmed, all was set. Then the pope started ailing. Then he ailed, and the lying in state and funeral are slap bang in the middle of our visit. So it was with some trepidation that we set off from Leeds airport on Tuesday morning, having got up at 4.00am. But it has been fine. We have come across groups of Polish pilgrims but otherwise it feels pretty normal. This photo is of Danielle and Rowan at the Trevi fountain doing the "coin over the shoulder routine".