New Year’s Eve…

After surviving the, at times, 140kph ride from Rome airport to our hotel, and seeing a few ancient Roman sites blur past, and remembering to celebrate the Aussie New Year’s Eve at 3pm as we passed the Roman Baths, we found our hotel doorway (that was all it was!) and climbed the two flights of steps – with bags – to the hotel reception. We found the hotel to be great by Rome standards, and in a brilliant location. It was built in the 8th century, apparently.

We went for a walk and checked out the Spanish Steps. (I think there may have been steps there; you couldn’t see them for the people.) and the Trevi fountain. What a sight! – we knew we’d be back later.

We decided to spend a quiet New Year’s Eve (NYE) with 10,000 other Romans at their equivalent of Southbank. At one stage, Sue got separated from the rest of us as a sea of people moved in the opposite direction. Let me tell you, no one does NYE fireworks like Australia. Our Brisbane celebration, let alone our Sydney spectacular, simply dwarf what Rome puts on. But, we have never experienced so many champagne corks flying, and champagne spraying ever before as we did in Rome. And the fire crackers. These guys are maniacs!! There were rockets being fired, large crackers exploding, and all sorts of fireworks being launched – from the crowd!?!