Checked in and then had a croissant and tea. Went through security (we were flying via Amsterdam, so there's wasn't passport control here) and then waited in the lounge. Flew to Amsterdam, and then had only 50 minutes for our connection so rushed through the terminals and immigration to our gate, and boarded immediately.
The flight to Toronto was uneventful. Then we had to make it through Pearson. They've somewhat improved, but still rank near the bottom of airports in my opinion. Took us 80 minutes from landing to get into a taxi (about twice what it takes at the other end of the scale, e.g. in Singapore).
Overall I really enjoyed the trip. There's definitely more than enough to see and do in Rome over two weeks. We got a good sampling of Roman food, and saw the major sights (and lots of the lesser ones too).
My favourites, in no particular order, include:
- Midnight Mass at St Peter's Basilica with the pope
- Climbing to the cupola at St Peter's
- Seeing the Roman Forum
- Tour of the Vatican Museums
- Borghese Museum
- Palazzo Barberini
- Capitoline Museums
- Castel Sant’Angelo
- Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterno
We walked everywhere, averaging about 10-15km per day. We needed to walk that much, what with all the big meals we ate. We were very lucky with the weather. On average it rains about 50% of the days at this time of year; we did not get rained on at all. In fact, we only had a couple cloudy days. Rome is relatively crowded over Christmas, but it's easy to beat the crowds at major sights by going either first thing in the morning, or after 4pm.
And finally, for those counting (Gerry and Tanya), the Vatican is country #78 for me.
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