Day 31 – Rome last day
What a contrasting day….
First we travelled on the train into Rome to see the colliseum a little closer. When we walked out of the metro station we were immediately accosted by the ticket touts for all the different tours we could purchase. The cost of these tours ranged from €40 to as much as €80 per person.
We declined as we had limited time and wanted to include the Vatican as well. We wandered around the perimeter admiring the size and scale of the building. In its day it must have been even more impressive. Only 2% of the gladiators survived combat in the ring.
We then took a walk around the forum and an adjacent church. We then decided to use our tour bus tickets to travel to the Vatican where we could take lunch before we saw St Peters square.
Seeing these sights on the news and television you don\’t get any feel of the size of the places. It is so good to get first hand experience. Tina and I then decided to head back to the van.
On the way I stopped at a cashpoint and withdrew some money. We soon arrived at the metro where we purchased our tickets. A lady offered to help us …. She put my money in the machine… And then asked me for money for her services.
We then travelled up the line before exiting the station in readiness to catch the next train. It was at this point we realised that my wallet had been stolen….I had been pick pocketed. We now had no money, no cards and one train ticket to use for the two of us. We decided that we needed to register the crime at the Police station. After a 30 min walk we eventually found the place. Completed the form explaining what happened and an official stamp applied. We asked how we were going to get back to the campsite as we needed €3 for the fare and had nothing. The police mans response was to direct us to the British consulate.
The walk to the embassy was around 45 mins and even before we set out we were knackered and this just added to it. Arriving at the embassy we were told it was closed. The security guard did allow me to make a call on their phone back to the foreign office in the UK. They could not provide any emergency funding. They did put me in touch with our bank but again there was nothing they could do so we were in despair as to how we were to get back to the van especially as we had left the dogs.
The guard must have felt sorry for us as he gave us some Metro tickets which did allow us to get back. The next problem was the walk to the station. Both of us were now exhausted and hurting. The walk took about 20 mins and we were relieved when we finally got onto a train. About 45 mins later we arrived back at our end point where I then realised our tickets for the return coach ride back to the site was in the stolen wallet. Some kind Brit staying on the site paid for our tickets which was really good of him as we only got chatting whilst waiting for the coach to arrive.
It was about 7:45pm by the time we got back to the van. We left our friends at 3:30pm. We expected to find them there and worried about us. No signs of them…. 30mins later they arrive and told us that the other Colin had also had his wallet stolen and they too had been to the police station. What are the chances of that happening independently on the same day. Huge I suspect.
Spent the next hour phoning banks and cancelling cards. We are lucky that Tina still has her cards. Colin & Christina are not so lucky as Christina\’s cards were stolen in Spain a few weeks before. They have no money and no means of getting any. Their daughter in the UK will send the cards on to an Italian address which could taken anything up to a week.
Our plans have now changed due to the upset today and we will start our trip north tomorrow instead of visiting Pompeii. Happy days!!