After breakfast and then checking out we walked down the stairs to the cafe and a cup of cappuccino. For some reason the wi-fi wasn’t working for me so I took the doggies for a short walk around and took a couple of final photos of San Venanzo.

The route we followed when leaving was mostly on quiet back roads and the countryside was very beautiful – many olive groves in mid-harvest with large green nets at the base of the trees. The first larger place we went thru was Orvieto, where we took the wrong road out and had to back-track a bit. Much of the town is on a high rock cliff that you can see for miles.

We kept heading southwest to the town of Bolsena, on the shore of Lago de Bolsena. The lake was lovely and the town looked, even in October, to be quite touristy. We drove along the eastern shore, and stopped at one point so I could take some photos. There was a war cemetery and the memorial indicated it was for Commonwealth soldiers. During WWII the Allies landed at Anzio to the south of Rome and I guess this was where a big battle or something happened a while later. There was also a monument to Piero Taruffi, an Italian motorcycle and race-car driver.

After leaving the lake we passed thru Viterbo, then Vetralla, and eventually could see the Sea in the distance. The countryside wasn’t quite as nice – mostly very flat and with more industry, and the weather had changed from sunny to overcast.

Passed several portions of old an Roman aqueduct along the way to the actual seaside at Civitavecchia, which has a harbour for large ferries, etc. We drove south along a secondary highway and eventually passed the airport en route to our destination of Lido di Ostia.

At one point only a few km from Ostia the traffic slowed to a crawl, and it wasn’t just regular rush-hour traffic, but an accident. One car was bashed in on the side and had swung so it was completely blocking an exit to another highway, and another car was further along our road right on its side. Police had just arrived and were trying to sort things out – didn’t see an ambulance but don’t know how it would have gotten thru anyway.

We managed to find a parking space close to the hotel that Colin had booked online, but no one answered the buzzer. There was a phone number so he called it but got no answer, although a few moments later Daniele pulled up in his car. He let us in and showed us the room – one large bed, but it looked like it could be pulled apart into two small ones. We went back downstairs to retrieve the rest of our luggage and the dogs, and when we got back up Daniele said – ‘oh, you wanted two beds, didn’t you – here, take this room instead’. It’s really nice and large with a double bed and a single one, a table and chairs, lots of floor space and a nice tiled bathroom. Outside the room there’s a complete kitchen for our use – fridge, stove, everything.

We got settled a bit and used the wi-fi, which is pretty fast with a strong signal. After a bit we took the little ones out for a walk and to get them some more food. By now it was almost dark, and the streets were getting very busy with people all over the place.

The hotel is very well located – only a couple of blocks (thru a park) to the sea in one direction, and 3 or 4 blocks to the metro station in the other – it has a shuttle-bus every half hour to the airport which is great – it’ll save Colin having to drive me in for my flight.

Had a fairly early night – didn’t even turn the tv on.

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