Day 4 - Mon, April 22 - More exploring

Our wakeup call for today at 8:15 a.m. was a dog (in the hotel!!!) howling to be let out. We were up for the day after the din went on for over 20 minutes.

We took it easy after breakfast, opting for the 11:30 a.m. shuttle into the city rather than the 10:00 a.m. one. The shuttle dropped us a shopping centre. We booted up Google Maps (since we were out of the area shown on our paper maps) and plotted our walking route into the old part of the city. Our walk took us through some of the less glamorous areas of Rome. The city, outside of the main tourist areas, has a bad, bad litter problem.

We eventually found ourselves at St. Peter's Square where I and 120,000 fellow pilgrims celebrated the canonization of Mother Teresa in September of 2016. That was a beautiful moment for me that I will cherish forever. The square was very busy, with many people pouring out of it. I found out later that the pope celebrated mass there at noon. We walked over one of the many bridges crossing the River Tiber than runs through Rome and made our way back to Piazza Navona. We had lunch in a little café and did some serious people watching. There were light sprinkles of rain - much better than the major downpour that had been predicted.

Note - I thought that we were in Campo de' Fiori yesterday - nope, it was Piazza Navona. Have done some judicious editing and fixed the captions on the photos on yesterdays posts.

From there, we walked a few minutes to Campo de' Fiori, a place recommended to us by our driver from the airport on Saturday. In ancient times, this was a pleasant meadow - literally a "campo de' fiori" - a field of flowers. Dominating the centre of the square is a statue of Giordano Bruno, an intellectual heretic who was burned on this spot in 1600. Today, the campo was full of vendors selling dry pasta, spices, fresh fruit, t-shirts, pashminas, flowers, vegetables and all sorts of other bits and bobs to the throngs of tourists. The place is rather like a cross between a farmers' market and the Toronto Exhibition.

We doubled back through the Piazza Navona and headed west, past the Italian Senate (more armed guards) and down narrow streets lined with more vendors hawking their wares. We slipped into a gelateria for an afternoon snack. Yum..... for me, one scoop of Snickers flavour topped with a scoop of Dulce de Leche. I'm going to be at the gym a LOT when I get home..... We found a little supermarket and picked up some yogurt with muesli for dinner chez hotel room. We have some peanut butter that we brought with us and we scooped some melba toast at breakfast. Also bought salted caramel cheesecake for dessert. Yum. See comment above about the gym.....

More narrow streets. We found ourselves in the Piazza della Rotonda. Here is where the Pantheon is located. It's a Roman temple dedicated to all (pan) of the gods (these). The original temple was build in 27 B.C. by Emperor Augustus' son-in-law, Marcus Agrippa. It was made to look like a Greek temple, with Corinthian columns, crossbeams and a pediment. We'll be touring inside the building on Wednesday with our tour group.

We followed the throngs of tourists and finally found ourselves at the Trevi Fountain. To quote Rick Steves, "it is the ultimate showcase for Rome's love affair with water." This over-the-top example of Baroque design was built in 1762. The figure in the middle is known as "Ocean". Water gushes from 24 spouts and tumbles over 30 different types of plants. Winged horses represent waves. They are led by Tritons, blowing on their conch shells. The fountain is one of the oldest water sources in Rome, with water being brought into the city by its great aqueducts. In ancient times, there was a fountain here where locals came to get their water. We got close enough for a selfie, but not to toss the traditional coin for good luck into the fountain. According to legend, tossing one coin into the Trevi Fountain means you'll return to The Eternal City (Rome), tossing two coins means you'll return and fall in love, and tossing three coins means you'll return, find love, and marry. Luck or no luck, your money goes to a good charitable cause. This is another spot we will visit with the group on Tuesday. Coin tossing will definitely happen then!

We were touristed out once again, and Doug was doing his gimpy walk, so it was time to head back to the hotel. Doug had a knee replacement 3 months ago and can expect some residual discomfort for another year or so. He's sure better than he was pre-surgery! We've both gotten our 10,000 steps in over the past two days. We found a taxi stand (thanks for marking them on your maps, Rick Steves!) and came home. It will be nice to have my homework done in good time this evening. More time to watch Netflix.

Tomorrow, we have to meet up with our tour group at 3:00 p.m. in the hotel lobby. We will be heading into the city for a walking tour. We are going to simply veg until then. We have seen and done a lot in the past couple of days. At this age, we have to pace ourselves!Read more