Roma, then Homa -- Day 9 of Italy Trip (Thursday)

Well, Thursday marked our last day in Italy. While we were sad to see the end of our vacation, we were also glad to be heading home. Back to our soft, warm, squidgy kitties. Back to our soft, warm, squidgy bed. (I'm convinced that our bed in Rome was made from marble slabs leftover from renovations of a nearby piazza!) Back to closets and dressers and out of suitcases!

Thursday morning we took our time and packed our bags according to clean and dirty clothes (so one doesn't contaminate the other, of course!). We went down to the local Internet/Laundromat and spent an hour on the computers, then set out for one last shopping journey. I had read about two department stores, and I thought surely they would have more reasonable purchases! Dave had his book in hand, and we were off.

Our excursions took us past a few more monuments and churches, like this one:

Seriously, we were so very lucky with the weather. As you can see in this picture, I didn't get a single drop of sun on my legs (shame!), but it was gorgeous, and comfortable the entire trip. After my shopping failed me some more, we just wandered back to our hotel to pick up our bags before we left. I swear it was all uphill! Who knew a luxurious holiday to Italy would involve so much exercise!!

Stopping for one last gelato (part of which sadly ended up on my dress)...I decided to take Kelly's suggestion and try the hazelnut. It WAS very good! This was my first foray into gelato since the "motherload" incident from Florence, so I was skeptical, but sometimes you just have to trust the ice cream.

We got our bags, we got to the train station, we got on the train to the airport, we got to the airport, we got checked in, we read, we had a snack, we got on our plane, we flew, we got to Gatwick, we caught the train to Guildford, and we had trudged up one last hill with our luggage.

I think we got home around 9:30 or so, at night. Exhausted and sick of looking at bags, all we could handle was a little kitty-loving and sleep. The trip was over, but it was wonderful and worth it.