We left Hong Kong after sitting on the tarmac for over an hour…which turned our stopover in Helsinki into a mad dash to catch the connecting flight to Rome. We flew over the Alps, which was technically the first time the kids “saw” snow. Terry had booked us into a lovely apartment on the 5th floor of a building with a pretty courtyard. There was a fruit and vege shop across the road and Finn would take the elevator down with a few Euros in his pocket and come back to the apartment with whatever fruit he desired at that given moment. Not sure how that all panned out in the shop because they didn’t speak much English and Finn spoke even less Italian. We only had a few days in Rome so we checked out all the must-dos. Italians in general love kids so the boys, without even knowing, managed to wrangle a few good deals. The “gladiators” outside the Colosseum gave us 3 photos for €5 instead of the usual 1 and I’m sure the boys’ scoops of gelati were much bigger than any adults.  We saw a flash mob at the Spanish Steps. First for all of us (the mob and the steps!). I found Rome very dirty, smelly and busy and discovered that Italians in general really need to take a chill pill. Pushing the people in front of you isn’t going to make the crowd move any faster or further. ‘Hurry up and wait’ became one of our favourite sayings.