Thursday afternoon and evening

The first part of our morning was at the Vatican, but our day certainly didn’t end there. It is an absolutely glorious day so we walked back to the hotel. We stumbled down cobbled streets and then crossed the Tiber river via a pedestrian bridge and then continued our walk along the river under the plane trees - a nice break from the souvenir stores which have some sort of magnetic draw for me.

Rome is laid out in some sort of shambled grid but somehow, with the help of a simple map, we’ve been able to (mostly) get where we want to go. I don’t know that we travelled the most direct route ‘home’, but we got here. 

Part of our route took us through Piazza Navone which we had visited yesterday. The fountains (all three of them) glittered in the blazing sun. Tourists and perhaps some Romans as well, perched on the edges enjoying the sunshine. There were several cafes around the square but we decided to have lunch closer to our hotel as the piazza Navone is more expensive $$

First a rest in our room, then lunch downstairs in the square (glass of wine and Fettuccine Alfredo). We sat next to a bunch of guys from Scotland - they were here following their soccer/football club and were drinking HUGE mugs of beer. It was no surprise when later in the afternoon we heard them singing…

After lunch we walked to the ‘Wedding Cake’ (a statue to Vittorio Emmanual II) - unfortunately we turned right when we should have turned left so we were pretty exhausted by the time we got there. Regardless, we climbed the steep stairs to the church (we thought we were going somewhere else, but gosh who could pass up another church!). 

More walking and we were back to ‘our’ square and more importantly, the coffee shop. I had something weird with ice - good, but next time I’ll stick with an espresso.

It’s 4:30 now - soon we’ll head out to walk around some more and maybe have supper somewhere.

View from our room.

Almost 8:30 and we are back in our room… lots more walking and so exhausted that we settled for sandwiches in our room and an early night. Whew!

I will not be losing weight… pasta is good here!