Roma! Post No. 4

I didn’t sleep much last night; I woke up about 3:00 a.m. and started reading. My book didn’t put me to sleep like I had hoped, and it actually got me revved up (Diary by Chuck Palahniuk) and I ended up finishing the damn book at 5:00 a.m. I slept about 45 minutes before the alarm went off. We got ready and took off, exploring the underbelly of Rome on their Metropolitana underground subway system.

This was our morning to visit the Borghese Gallery. Fortunately, we got our reservation about three weeks ago on the suggestion, no, the admonition, of Rick Steves. We were thrilled we spent our morning in this mansion of treasures. Lots of Bernini sculptures and paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael, and Titian. Wow! Admission is for a two-hour period (they only allow 360 people in at a time) - and no photos whatsoever, even had to check our camera, my purse, our bookbag.

After our allotted two hours were up, we went in search of a couple of flea/antique markets I had read about. Finding the first one was not an easy task and after much walking and a couple of rides on the underground Metro, we found A Piazza Mazzini – but we couldn’t find the market. Since we couldn't find the market, I resorted to picking up junk:

By this time, I was poppin’ Advil like a junkie in withdrawal, hoping to keep my feet and back in serviceable condition. Dear Howard was open to searching out flea market #2, listed as “Garage Sale, Rigattiere per Hobby,” and, of course, it was located in a completely different area of Rome, this one over by the Vatican, which meant another couple of Metro rides. (Fortunately, the Metro is fast, efficient, and frequent – and we had a three-day pass!) Between rides, we bought a few slices of pizza, sold by the gram, of all things. We both chose slices of caprese pizza: Thin crust, light coating of red sauce, Romaine lettuce, a few sprigs of arugula, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella cheese. Let me just say this: people walking by were eyeing our slices of goodness.

Onward we went in search of Piazzale della Marina. Ah ha! Success in locating the garage sale, but not much success in finding treasures. The things I did like, were more Euros than I wanted to spend, except for one sweet little saint, smaller than my thumb (and it was only one Euro)!

But our day wasn’t over. We hopped on yet two more Metros and got ourselves to the Colosseum! It was colossal. And magnificent. And did I mention it was really big? We had fun touring and pretending we could hear the roar of the crowds . . .






After our Colosseum visit, and a quick lookie-loo at the Forum, we were back on two Metros, ending up at Trevi Fountain to sip our afternoon caffe a lattes. First sip, ahhhhhh – BLAST OF WHISTLE. ANOTHER BLAST OF WHISTLE. The policia was blowing it at us! No food or drinks in the Trevi Fountain area. Sheez . . .