After a quick(ish) journey to Luton Airport Parkway we were soon at the airport getting ready to join the easyJet flight 2418 departing Luton at 1135 to Rome Fiumicino (FCO). The flight, taking just under two hours and fifteen minutes was, as expected, rather uneventful although seeing a rather unusual cloud formation following the river close to Rouen in France was quite interesting.

You could tell you were in Italy from the moment you stepped into the airport terminal when trying to get a ticket for the Leonardo Express train into the city centre. The ticket machines were not intuitive and even though they appeared to be at the station entrance they were not - you still had a bit of a hike to the actual station. Tickets had to be scanned to get onto the platform and then separately validated before getting on the train - needless to say we just missed one service trying to sort all of this out. The journey into Rome Termini took around 30 minutes and even though dubbed 'express' it did seem to trundle a bit. Things just seem slightly more chaotic, less organised or maybe they are just more relaxed in Italy.

Our hotel, the Welcome Piram, was just a five minute walk from Rome Termini station. Normally areas around stations are not the best but there are lots of decent looking hotels, bars and restaurants close to the station. The hotel was just over €70 for a night (room only) and apart from being a bit too warm was pretty good. The location of the hotel also allowed us to walk to the Colloseum and Forum area of the city (about a mile away) without needing to use the metro which was a nice bonus too.

Having seen the Colloseum and Forum from the outside there was just enough time for some fabulous gelato and to stock up on a few snacks for our rail journey to Sicily the next day (a ten hour journey with no refreshment facilities) before having a drink at a local bar, including complimentary nibbles, prior to dinner. Given our limited time in Rome a reservation for dinner had been made at Centro which came highly rated on TripAdvisor and just a stones throw from our hotel. It was a modern place serving an interesting menu that did not seem to include the staple of pizza and pasta dishes that you come to expect. The porchetta starter was very nice, the mains of beef cheeks with potato puree and a caeser salad were both good (but not stunning) and the local Syrah wine at €18 a bottle was quaffable. The place had a bit of a Carluccio's feel about it although was far more genuinely Italian.

With the exception of getting some breakfast at Termini station ahead of catching our train at 0726 the following day that was our rush around Rome completed. Our next stop is Catania on Sicily, a ten hour journey with Italian Railways, which includes the train being loaded onto a ferry to gain access to the island from the tip of the boot that is Italy.