Rome: Friday, November 14, a day of perfect weather...

After a beer in a local bar and another bottle of Novello with dinner, we are struggling to compose a post in a coherent manner.


This morning we decided to buy a 7-day bus/metro pass forgetting that the buses were on strike...  We managed to get a #70 bus down to the Nuovo Mercato Esquilino where we picked up some clementines and bread and took a bunch of photos, especially of the squirming shrimp.  It is the immigrant market with few Italians but lots of Indians (or were they Pakistani?).

Chinese Mobile Phone Covers

It was when we tried to catch a bus home when a man reminded us about the strike.  It really wasn't too far to walk and we enjoyed going past all the Chinese stores with mobile phone covers.  We showed Penny the larger SMA supermarket and we picked up a bottle of Novello wine, some ravioli, some coffee and butane lighter for the oven.  AND we visited the church, Santa Maria Maggiore, where we looked for Bernini's tomb unsuccessfully, but they had the best toilettes we've found so far in Rome, with toilet seats.

At the foot of Via Napoli we ran into a small open air market where Cathy picked up a scarf for 3 euros, red so that Fernando can find her.  Then we stopped by a Carrefour Express supermarket (we can't resist supermarkets) where we picked some mozzarella and another bottle of Novello.  Time to get home before we buy more than we can eat.

We stopped to pick up lunch -- pizza by the slice -- at the pizzeria downstairs.  Big Mistake.  Not quite what we expect from pizza:  too much bread and not enough cheese or flavor.  We have done our duty locally and won't have to repeat it.  Fernando improved his slice with a piece of headcheese.


Since Vibe was scheduled to arrive at the airport at 1 pm, it gave us time for a nap, much needed at our age.   She arrived via the Leonardo Express, which she thought was too expensive.  And she had no trouble with the strike whatsoever.

Vibe wanted to be a pilgrim so we visited a whole bunch of churches: Santa Maria degli Angeli (the old Diocletian Roman baths -- really monumental in size and initially restored by Michelangelo).  This was probably our favorite because of its enormity.  They also have a magnificent pipe organ and maybe we can catch a recital on Saturday or Sunday (although they say to watch for pickpockets).

Then we walked over to nearby Santa Maria della Vittoria where Bernini has his statue of Santa Theresa in Ecstasy.  The statue is nice but hard to see and the rest of the church is over the top baroque.  It would be horribly hard to dust.
Then we crossed over to San Bernardo della Terme which is made from one of the round towers of the Roman baths.  Finally we visited the little San Carlino church by Borromini, very plain compared to Bernini's baroque. 

Then we headed up the Via Sistina toward the Spanish Steps, stopping by the Tritone Fountain by Bernini, which celebrated one of the restored aqueducts.  Each time we visited a fountain we were risking our lives crossing the encircling streets to reach it.  Afterwards we had to stop by and get some Mephisto shoes for Fernando, but then his credit card didn't work.  Luckily he had a second one.

Penny took some twilight photos of Rome and also numerous shots of an Italian family for whom she offered to take a group photos.  After wandering through the streets, we found our way back to Via Nazionale where we stumbled into a wine bar and had a beer.  Fernando and I had Italian beers.  Penny had an Irish beer with no fizz and Vibe had something equally innocuous.   Then we came back and cooked more ravioli for dinner.  Peter would love our diet here in Rome.