Woke up to rain and it rained till mid-afternoon when it became sunny again. Didn’t get too wet, or let it put us off so headed out on the Metro. Of course, it is Sunday so things weren’t all open! It was also 2nd June, Republic Day, so things that were open were free! And very crowded!

The Vatican was shut so we walked to the Tiber and bought some tourist tat then queued in the rain for Castel Sant Angelo to see where Tosca jumped (no mention of it!) … queueing was entertained by fly pasts of helicopters and a low level display by the Italian Air Force! Climbed up to the top but we’re not great at heights so came down. Lunch was in a small cafe and very nice – no alcohol as Robert a bit hung over.

Next was the Pantheon, and another long queue! Very impressive and followed by ice cream … so that was 30 Euros gone! Thank goodness the visits were free.

Now sunnier so we walked to the Trevi Fountain and then the Spanish Steps. Decided on a coffee/tea in a “British” coffee shop – 22.50 Euro! Expensive seems to be the word of the day.

As we had some time we boarded a hop-on-hop-off bus to simply go around the city and see sights – we didn’t “hop” just cruised. A final meal (and beer!) and then Metro home before it shut down (21:00 because of maintenance work).

Three young (early teen?) girls tried to steal from Fran in a hustle getting on the tube, blocking Robert and cornering Fran. Managed to open her bag but we knew something was up so got rid of them empty handed … vile creatures, it was clearly just a game to them, probably after Fran’s phone. Back to our room (G&T).

Still no sign of Tsarine, it is eating in to our ability to enjoy the holiday as we are now getting pretty worried – our house sitters are doing a terrific job of hunting for her on our behalf though, nothing we could do by being home but being so far away hurts.