Slept in this morning. We had planned an easy day of sightseeing to some of the traditional sights of Rome.
First stop Spagna, the metro stop for the Spanish steps and Borghese gardens.
The Borghese gardens are extensive public gardens where tourists and locals come out to stroll, cycle, picnic, walk the dog or hire a pedal car on Sundays. The gardens have beautiful mature trees and a number of buildings including museums, galleries, a zoo and even a reproduction of the Globe theatre.
We then walked beyond the city walls into a quieter and more expansive suburb with people out for lunch. There were more people the closer we came to the Spanish steps.
Anthony was disappointed that the steps were not as he remembered them and flower lined – now there was only one way up and down, and the central area was closed off.
As we headed towards the Trevi Fountain there were more and more people.
We stopped at a cafe along the way for lunch. We were tempted in by a waitress standing outside with a small dog on a leash. She spoke English very well and said the food was all cooked fresh on the premises. We sat at the front table and had a tasty lunch of pasta with wild boar ragout, Roman style spaghetti with cheese and pepper and a mixed salad.
Great spot for people watching and being watched across from shops selling sourvenirs
The Trevi Fontain was close by and not at all as I imagined it. The fountain is huge, very white and very crowded with people posing for selfies and throwing coins. We did manage to pose for our own selfie and throw 3 copper coins into the fountain, not as tradition would have it, over our shoulder, but forward over three tiers of people as it would have taken us too long to make a way to the front.
We will come back one day, if the tradition is true
Other sites we saw during the day included the Pantheon, now a church which had been built around a circular basilica to all the major Roman gods. It was free entry to this beautiful building. A particular feature was the central opening in the roof which lets on the weather and thecentral altar to our lady of Czestochova.
We also went into the Museum of Rome which is housed in a beautiful building around a small square.
Unusual exhibitions – one a photographic retrospective of Mario Giacomelli, a well-known Italian photographer. There were confronting photos of people in nursing homes and on the way to Lourdes, an interesting group of photographs inside a seminary, photographs of everyday life and some landscapes.
And a special exhibition featuring snakes in the decorative arts. They had some costumes that Elizabeth Taylor had worn as Cleopatra but I liked the large knitted snake the best.
Very long day but we had seen another side of Rome further away from Terminii station.
Tomorrow we head to Pompeii.
Travelling with Teresa 