Got up early to get the leased Peugeot back to the airport in Nice. The construction detours gave us trouble again as they did on the way to Villefranche, but we arrived safe and sound and a little ahead of schedule!

Lots of time to kill at the Nice airport, but our Alitalia flight was on time and went very smoothly. Just an hour and 10 minutes start to finish.

We got very lucky when we got out taxi at the Rome airport. Our driver was Eduardo, who has lived all 50 years of his life in Rome. He told us a lot about "modern" Rome, including the area called EUR built in 1942 under the direction of Mussolini who hoped to have a World's Fair type event to showcase the "wonders of Fascism."

He also discussed avoiding pickpockets, bribery and corruption in Italy ("only Greece and Bulgaria are worse" he says) and how to pick a good, non-touristy restaurant. He says he will take us back to the airport Saturday if we like.

We got groceries, found a nearby laundromat and met Joanna , the owner of the apartment we're renting. It looks like it's going to be a great base and has a beautiful garden we hope to take advantage of. It's located in the Monti district which has great restaurants and is near a lot of the important sites (Coliseum, Forum, etc.) with a metro stop only 2 blocks away. Very safe area too as the Italian Secret Service office is just down the street from the apartment!

We had our first Italian pasta tonight at "La Cicala e La Formica" (the Cicada and the Ant.) Very tasty and inexpensive.

Walked - 4.7 miles

Drove- 12 km (our last drive of the trip.)