DAY 18 & 19 - Moscow to Rome

DAY 18 -

Village Church

A typical Russian cottage

Our last day in Moscow today, time to pack but first some photos of some cute little Russian houses and church in the nearby village.  Mark and Ana headed into the city this time for a last Russian hot chocolate and some souvenirs.

We met up with Mark & Ana at Chaihana lounge-café for dinner which specializes in Uzbeki, Turkmeni & Kazak cuisine.  A wonderful way to complete our stay with Sarah, Anth, Dan & Mitchell - LOVE YOU GUYS! We had a wonderful time with these guys as always and will miss them dearly.  We can't thank them enough for putting us up in their house and showing us around their beautiful country that they currently live in. Our first overseas experience so far has been wonderful.

Das-vi-danya Moskva!  (Goodbye Moscow)

Bye bye Prunsters & thank you!

DAY 19 -
Up at 2.45am to get dressed and pack the last minute things, car pick-up to airport at 3.30am. We get through all the security checks and now sit and wait for boarding our plane, this time flying Alitalia to Rome.

The plane left a bit late due to snow and only one runway open for take-offs and landings but we arrived in Rome in good time, the landing was so smooth.  It was wet when we arrived and the temperature I am guessing was about 14 degrees. Once collecting our baggage, we secured a taxi who somehow managed not to kill anyone whilst driving. I truly thought someone would die - either a pedestrian, us or someone in another car. At the point of Toby feeling car sick (and I for that matter), we arrived at our destination.

We needed to fill in time before we could use our apartment, so we bought some cheap umbrellas and walked around to get some coffee and food into us on our way to finding Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain). It was a big of a hike so we also sussed out the metro.  The first thing we noticed here were guards carrying guns - not just any gun but big "berretta arx160 assault rifle" type guns (had to look that up). The whole time in Russia we did not notice security guards carrying guns like this apart from some at the Kremlin.  I must say I expected to see Russian guards carrying guns like this, not Italian.
The metro system in Rome is no way as nice and clean as in Russia but still a much better system than in Melbourne.


Trevi Fountain

On the way to the fountain we ate lunch at a homely Italian restaurant - I had vegetable soup, which reminded me so much of my Nana's vegetable soup, not that she was Italian but definitely tasted so alike.  It had stopped raining by the time we finished lunch and we continued our journey.

We arrived at the Trevi Fountain, which had just reopened recently after maintenance, and I was quite surprised at the size of this beauty.  We all threw a coin in together then headed back to our apartment just to catch a few zzzzz's. Our next mission is to find some basic food/drink supplies from a supermarket.