Well, now is our time to actually live the expression. We'd had a few hours sleep in the most comfortable beds with cloud-soft pillows and the first part of the morning we spent really settling in to our apartment, ie, trying to find exactly where we'd 'carefully placed' a few items and making sure that we found a new logical place for them. Then we all went down to our local cafe for breakfast. The array of foods available was stunning. We could either stand at the bar inside and eat, or sit outside (slightly more expensive outside) but we justified our outside seating by saying "when in Rome ..." and of course it worked.
Over breakfast we all decided that we'd take a picnic lunch with us, so our next stop was the supermarket. This was another whole new experience. I'm not talking about the usual aisles for tinned and packaged foods, but the deli section - it was hard to decide between everything on offer. We managed to get everything we needed for the picnic and basic supplies for our apartment and I was amazed again at how reasonable it all was.
Then we headed off on the bus, and this time we went part of the way into 'town' and then decided to take the Metro down to the Colisseum. It did seem strange coming up out of the Metro station and right across the road was the Colisseum. The weather was perfect and we had a very enjoyable lunch. Then we had the luxury of time to just walk around - queues were far too long to go inside, so we'll leave that for another day. We headed off to the Forum, then up to the Wedding Cake, the Pantheon, a wonderful church and in and out of some wonderful alleyways.
Leanne had company today in the shopping stakes, and after they'd both succumbed we finally managed to find our gelato bar for today. Yesterday I was good, only having a small cone, but I'd been carefully watching the customers in a range of gelato bars, and so "when in Rome" I left with a cup of 3 delicious gelatos. Yum! Don't worry - we walked it all off and found more wonderful alleyways and piazzas teeming with arts and artists.
Luckily, I can continue the blog with elephant photos ... this one in a small piazza just down the road from our gelato bar
lunch at the Colisseum (of course)
There are some wonderful small cars here in Rome, and so I've started a collection. This gem makes the Smart cars look like an American Thunderbird, and so we took a few pictures of it (across the road from the Forum). It seemed that I started a trend, because we just stood and watched as passers by noticed us taking photos and then they did too. It was quite funny really - I said to Roger that I should start passing a hat around to the other people taking photos, and if the owner came back I could split the takings with him or her.
Sue and Leanne are now both the proud owners of new leather handbags. A fraction of the cost of one in Sydney, and even Sue commented at how reasonably priced things are here compared to France.
I started with an elephant, so it seems fitting to finish with one. Just near the bus stop on our return, there was an eclectic mix of small displays along a railing. This one of course was easy for me to spot ...
By the time we got back home, it was nearly 8pm (still daylight, with twilight starting) and so we had a quick change because we were due over at Pat & Mimo's place for dinner. This was a truly wonderful evening - they had some of their large extended family there, their son cooked and we spent hours at the table eating a wonderful meal and talking.
Buona notte.
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