UK and Med Cruise - Day 23 - 27 September - Return to England

First, some final comments about Rome - there's an amazing amount of history here; I think you could spend a lifetime investigating the history of just one street.  Everywhere you look there are ancient buildings with fascinating history - for example, our hotel is in a street called "Via di Santa Maria Maggiore".  This is because at the end of our street is the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore

and it "is agreed that the present church was built under Pope Sixtus III (432–440)"- although on the site of an even older building.  This is somewhat mind-boggling when you come from a place where - as someone said on our Ostia Antica tour the other day - if a building is more than 100 years old we're likely to stick a plaque on it.
Or, another example- on our walk to the Trevi Fountain the other day we realised we were standing on a corner where there were fountains in the corners of all four buildings.  This is the Quattro Fontane and they were installed between 1588 and 1593.  I had no idea that these fountains existed, and obviously with only three days in Rome we missed the vast majority of the visible history.
On the down side though, the city seems to be struggling somewhat when it comes to dealing with the sheer number of people who want to see these amazing old buildings and structures. Apart from the early hours of the morning, there are always people everywhere.  As a pedestrian you take your own life into your hands any time you leave a building; not just on the roads but on the footpaths too; people drive and park their cars and bikes anywhere!
I'm glad that we saw the little bit of Rome that we did- the ancient feeling of the old city is something special and even as a non-Catholic the cross border trip to the Vatican was a real highlight.  However, I doubt that we'll be back; overall between the heat and crowds I think that touring Rome is a young person's game!
Anyway, back to our travels.  We booked a transfer to the airport; the driver was due to arrive at 8:30am and I hoped we could be at the airport by 10am.  All those stories about outrageous amounts of traffic were true, but it didn't stop the driver from arriving early and getting us to the airport at 9:00.  So, we spent more time than we needed to sitting around, not helped by the fact that I completely misunderstood the signs about where to check in for British Airways, so we didn't go through check-in/ security/ customs until somewhat later than we could have.  Oops.
Had a somewhat uncomfortable trip back; we had aisle and middle seats but when we got there someone was already in the aisle seat.  He didn't want to believe that he had to move over to the window, not helped at all by the fact that I sat on his arm (quite unintentionally, but if I'd realised later how rude he was going to be I might have done it deliberately).  Once we landed at Gatwick everyone who could of course immediately jumped up and started to try to get their bags.  We waited for a few minutes and then he insisted that I must get out of my seat even though there was absolutely nowhere I could stand.  Someone in front of Paul took pity on me, but I don't know where the man thought he was going to go.  Anyway, we finally got off the plane and I have to say I was really pleased that it was over.
We had pre-booked a taxi to take us to Canterbury - it's well over an hour's drive and cost 87 pounds, but trains would have been almost as expensive and much slower.
Got to our hotel without too much drama - it's a Premier Inn which is a chain we have used before - at the low end cost and facility wise but with really comfortable beds and they always have a restaurant with completely predictable and acceptable food.