Monte Esquilino

I feel that this blog is rather more mundane than Camino days - I seem to just report on walking round and eating! But walking round of European cities, particularly one like Rome, is walking surrounded by history, and that is what makes it so magic and special….and we do clock up many kilometres….almost as much as some Camino days!

So today we set off around 9am. The dire weather alerts (as so often happens) did not eventuate. The 100% rain and thunderstorms happened during the night, and this morning was very pleasant, working up to quite warm and sunny by midday. Walked down via Cavour to the area of all the fora ruins, climbed up Victor Emmanuel to the tomb of unknown soldier, up the hill to Marcus Aurelius on his bronze horse, then along to our favourite coffee shop for our morning fix.

Then we walked via Piazza Navona to the river which we walked alongside, in the shade of the plane trees which are starting to shed their leaves…very peaceful. Being Sunday morning, the huge crowds not yet out, but there were many tour groups being herded along. So we went along to Castel St Angelo and turned in towards St Peter’s. Now there were crowds of course, but that is what happens when you want to enter the basilica. We found the queue and snaked along for about 45 minutes in line, but it is always worth it - such a huge amazing building, peaceful and overwhelming - and big enough not to feel crowded at all.

Next we returned back along the river, past where we had come out before and walked as far as the Piazza del Popolo where we walked in and had a break at a caffe, a very welcome sit down! Amr had a glass of house wine which he said was Hartley or Paul worthy. I was not yet ready for wine and had a coffee…By this time the wind blew and the clouds gathered and a very light rain fell. When we set off again it was still slightly sprinkling and we actually used our umbrellas..walked up the path to the Borghese gardens above the Piazza, lovely view down and we walked a bit there, but not the day to spend hours in the wet. So we walked in a direct line from there - to Trinità dei Monti, along via sistina, quattro fontane, and the street that continues along after via nazionale but I’ve forgotten the name - till we got to our via Cavour…such a direct route home! We have already walked about 14 kms today, and that doesn’t count going out to dinner soon…

Well now back from dinner and it is quite a story…Amr had read about an interesting good restaurant he wanted us to try…said it was quite a long walk, so that was ok - we do walking…so we set off, following the Google instructions on Amr’s phone, walking in a direction we’d never been before….we walked and walked, through unknown parts, not terribly upmarket, and I was wondering how it would be returning later in the dark, though most was ok..we passed important looking ruins and wondered where on earth we were…finally we came to the restaurant - quite small - to find it was fully booked and no chance for tonight…annoyingly they wouldn’t even take a booking for another day - said we needed to do it online (Amr had tried before and had difficulty)…so we trudged back, the upside being that we knew the way and it wasn’t late enough to be spooky! And after all that we ate at a little trattoria down the road from our hotel. And with great difficulty we did manage to book online for Sunday Oct 9 when we are back in Rome and the last night before we fly to Cairo. It had better be good!! One last thing - I looked on the map and found that we were out beyond S Giovanni Laterano, and some of the ruins were the porta s Giovanni and the city walls. This evening stroll took up our day’s total to 20 kms!!Read more