What a wonderful time we are having! The local market was fantastic, a little square in the middle of tall buildings that was absolutely the real Rome. Stall holders set up every morning (except Sunday) selling fresh fish, fruit, vegetables, spices, flowers, meat, cheeses, souvenirs, clothes and all sorts of things. The cafes around the sides sell beautiful tea and coffee and gelati and wandering musicians play their instruments and add to the wonderful atmosphere. We decide we would have to come back the next morning and buy food to cook up a storm in our apartment.
The most puzzling aspect of it all is that I thought we were living on a back alley, but it is actually a normal street. Cars park on the side and people wander up and down and 1 car can fit along the road, you just have to dodge them. Millions of scooters shoot past you and every now and then there is a sort of square where everyone parks. It is all just so narrow, with 4 storey buildings each side.
We reluctantly left the market atmosphere and headed to the Pantheon. Another breath taking experience. We are lucky we are staying within walking distance of so many of Romes icons. The size and splendour of the buildings are amazing. We have taken over 500 photographs already.
From the Pantheon we headed to the Trevi Fountain. It's beautiful but I always imagined it was in a large area. It's actually in a small square, but beautiful none the less. A peaceful lunch in a street sidewalk cafe and we had had a long but enjoyable morning. We wandered back to the apartment with a little bit of spare time before Peter and Gloria arrived and five minutes later Mel and Andrew were on the door step. It was just so wonderful to see them, hugs and kisses all around and chaos and laughter at a noisy, emotional reunion.
We decided to re-visit the restaurant of the night before and had a delicious meal again with discount because they recognised us from the night before and we had brought more people. It's quite weird sitting at a table and eating your meal in the kitchen of the restaurant.
Yesterday we visited the market and stocked up on food to cook for dinner and then trekked across town to the Crypt of the Capuchins. What a weird place. The walls and ceiling are decorated with the bones of the dead monks. It has a crypt of the skulls, crypt of the pelvis's, crypt of the leg bones and thigh bones and then the crypt of the three skeletons. A really weird but intriguing place, quite creepy with the saying "as you are now we once were, as we are now you will be."
A light lunch across the road in a street cafe and we headed off on the metro to the Colliseum. Wow and Wow! What an intersting place, we had a tour guide for this, who was a real character and entertained us all. Photos were taken with the gladiator and then we did a tour of the ruins. The women were treated pretty badly, they had to go right to the very top level and did not have any toilets, like the men did below. They were given a doggy bag, which they filled as needed and then tossed it over the top of the wall. Look out below!! may have come from this although they were 150 metres up.
Our tour included a tour of the Roman forum across the road. Another amazing place, where we saw the funeral pire of Julius Caesar and the ruins of the Emperor's Palace. How massive was that!!! But look out guys, he was killed when his wife arranged to have him stabbed in the genitals by one of the freed slaves.
By the time we finished there it was time to head home and cook a beautiful dinner of pasta with the meat and spices we bought in the market and fresh fruit salad.
Today we ventured out early to beat the crowds to the vatican, phew! we only had to queue for ten minutes and we were in. It was amazing, we saw the vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel. The crowds are incredible, but it is worth it. Then around the corner to St. Peters Square and the Basilica. The square is absolutley huge, seeing it on TV just does not give you the concept of the enormity of it. All the marble seats from the Collisseum were used in the building of the basillica. It is huge in itself, much bigger than Notre Dame. While we were there the Swiss guards escorted a few bishops and some people into the church, we have no idea what it was about but we all stood behind the barriers and checked it out, we thought we might have got a glimpse of the Pope, but we didn't.
We headed off from there on the metro and a bus to see the Catacombs. This was really weird too. 500,000 dead people were buried in the catacombs, 100,000 of them were babies. It is just like an underground maze (20kms of tunnels and crypts) and it would be easy to be lost under there for a very long time. The guides tell you not to get lost all the time. 9 of the popes were buried there but they have been moved to St.Peters. We then came back on the metro to the Spanish steps, once again crowded and we managed to get photos of the centurion soldier without paying for them.
We walked back past Versace, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Bvalgari, Hermes and all sorts of notable designer outlets, obviously the most expensive alley/street in Rome. We wandered back through the squares and markets eating gelati, of course, until we got back here to the internet cafe.
Tomorrow we head to Nice for our next adventures.
