Purrfection

How lucky to be spending a birthday in Rome - my most favourite city in the whole world. Yes in the whole world! There is just something very special about the place.
It's even hard to describe in words - I think it's the combination of old and new. It's the fact you can walk around a corner and be faced with a building so incredibly old. There are surprises around every corner...restaurants, bars and cafes fighting for your attention...fountains, parks, gardens...gelati, cornetti and the best coffee in the world. So I woke up excited to be spending my birthday and last day of an amazing holiday with Shannon, in Rome. I was a little spoilt with some lovely presents...a gorgeous clock I can't wait to hang, some pretty glass earrings, an Italian map charm for my Pandora bracelet and a tiny Pinocchio to remind me of Rome.

Throwing a coin in the Trevi to ensure a return some day.

We decided to head out for breakfast for a change. I had found a great place online the night before that served a cooked breakfast, quite a rarity in Rome and Italy in general, where the norm is a coffee and a pastry. However when we got there, we realised it didn't open until 10am. We were hungry and weren't going to wait an hour and a half! So McDonalds it was! A bacon and egg muffin and hash-browns did quite nicely for a birthday breakfast. I had chosen a couple of places I wanted to see today and Shannon had a few things in mind too. Our first stop was Campo De Fiori - a lovely piazza that hosts a market where the locals buy their produce and fresh flowers. I have read this used to be quite the traditional market, but with tourism has changed to accommodate the throngs of people passing through daily. While there were still fresh produce stalls to look at there were also souvenirs, kitchenware, limoncello in all sorts of bottles and multicoloured pasta.

We sat at a lovely cafe and had a coffee and pastry and watched the people bustling about. Fuelled up, we wandered the streets and stopped by the turtle fountain and cat sanctuary. The sanctuary is home to many cats, which sits upon some ancient ruins. The cats are well cared for and survive on charity.

The turtle fountain

Pussy

As you may have read in previous posts, we have become quite good at catching the bus. We headed to the Trastevere neighbourhood. It is an area highly populated by students and is said to be trendy and the home to many eateries. We were clearly there at the wrong time of day, because most things were closed, but we stopped in an open cafe for a cold drink and stumbled upon a beautiful basilica.

Inside the basilica at Trastevere

On the bus again, we went up a huge hill (Janiculum) for sweeping views over Rome. A cold beer and toasted sandwich with the pigeons in the shade, was enough for lunch, before boarding the bus once more.

On top of Rome!

Waiting for the bus

Shannon had a little secret place up his sleeve. We walked in to a tiny shop and I laid eyes on the most beautiful cakes and pastries I'd seen. Everything is paid by weight. We chose two little pastries each and the four items cost less than a couple of dollars! Hhmm I wonder if they are open later...! We topped the afternoon off with a coffee at the cafe we had visited the other day and drank at the bar like Italians, before heading back to our accommodation for a rest and to pretend we don't have to start packing. But as they say, "all good things must come to an end." We will get stuck in to the packing later this afternoon and probably have an early dinner.

Hanging out with my mate Pinocchio.

Tomorrow - Arrivederci Roma!

Security, careful it can be thorough.

After a sleep in and realising we were a little tired, it was unanimously decided to reschedule the visit to Tivoli and in particular the Villa d'Este.  This would have been a lovely excursion but would have needed an hours train ride and then basically a day on the stair master as it has many steps.

So we caught up on the laundry and while that was happening the maintenance man arrived to have a look at the dishwasher. We reported it not working on Friday night as it just made wiring noises and when the drain was pulled on the sink, water would leak from under the dishwasher.

After no more that five minutes he also had water leaking onto the floor and another five minutes he turned to us and said "kaput, do not use" along with some "ItalGlish".

With the rescheduling of the Tivoli day (to 2016?) it was decided to catch the bus (did I mention we are experts at this now?) and head off to the National Museum of Rome. This time our bus was air-conditioned and had a couple of spare seats. However, before long the local Italian Grandmother Association must have been alerted of Australian tourists sitting on a bus and were all ready at the next stop. Once boarded we promptly gave our seats to them.

The Museum was quite good, in fact they are so concerned about the artefacts, they have in house security with  x-ray for bags and body scanner, just like the airport.  We placed our bag on the x-ray scanner and the operator pressed a button, without even looking up from his smartphone. The bag passed through the scanner to the other end and he still hadn't looked up from his phone to check the contents on the screen.  We then proceeded through the body scanner one by one and both of us set the alarm off, neither had taken coins, cameras and phones out of our pockets. As the security guards hadn't responded to the alarm or looked at the screen of the bag being x-rayed, we collected the bag and entered the museum.

The Museum contained many mosaics and these were just fascinating.

The evening was left to the magic of tourists invading the Spanish Steps or as we overheard one American call them, the 'Spanish Stairs'.

Shopping, night and day

Tomorrow - 32

The other Rome.

Ever wondered what is outside the central area of Rome? Is there anything past The Vatican, Colloseum, and Trevi Fountian? Today we wondered this question, and it was also one of the reasons why we chose to stay in Rome for 6 nights, to at least spend one day exploring the other Rome.

We thought one way to do this would be go to a shopping mall to see the real people going about their lives, without answering the needs of every day tourists. So we boarded the bus to Porta di Roma shopping centre. This is on the outskirts of the city just inside the ring road and is one of the few large centres. The bus ride was interesting. The ride took one hour, and wound its way from Trevi fountain area in a general north east direction.

Initially we passed areas similar to where we are staying but without the souvenir shops and constant gelato. Then it changed. There were more and more nine to twelve story condominiums and the conditions were not good. It appeared that at one time these large areas would have once been nice, but now it is not somewhere we would like to get off the bus. We don't know why the conditions were like they were, could it be government cutbacks, we didnt know.

The areas had more grafitti, long grass, and rubbish than was expected, with many of the childrens playgrounds being unsafe, dirty and a genreal appearance of being broken.

At the end of our hours bus ride and seeing this different side to Rome we were happy to dissembark and see a practically brand new shopping centre.  With over 220 shops it was pretty big, but nowhere as big as some we have seen in Melbourne.  There were many clothes, jewellery and perfume shops along with a share of food and a large cinema.

We wondered the two floors of shops for a few hours and saw what we wanted to see. Normal, non tourist effected Rome. There were no pushy men trying to sell counterfit bags or watches, the teenagers were being stupid just as they are in Australia and families were browsing and the parents telling the children no to everything they selected.

After our shopping fix, we returned to the main area but not without a detour to the Giardino Zoologico, or Zoo. Still on track with doing as the locals do, this place was not filled with Americans, Australians or any tourists for that matter. Well it may have had Italian tourists but they all looked local to me. Once again we saw the Roman way of life in fact there was one event I will mention Katie and I saw while we were taking a rest and cooling off with a gelato.

We saw two couples each with a three year old child.  The mothers were walking with the children and the fathers pushing the empty prams.  As they were walking along the children and women were distracted by an animal in its enclosure. Somehow at this point both of the men realised this distraction and they were no longer the main attraction in the womens eyes. With a blink we saw them both fast step along the path and as if synchronised divers parked the prams with a push against the wall. Both Katie and I were interested in what had grabbed there attention like a piece of iron to a magnet, so we hopped up and discreetly walked around the corner to see the Bar.

Bars are different in Italy, they sell many things from gelato to sandwiches along with soft and hard drinks. Within less than one minute the men were back outside both with a bottle of water, from our observations we can't be sure but we suspect they may have ducked in for a quick Grappa or two and were using the bottled water as a cover.

After this we had a look around the Zoo, here are the highlights.

Katie loves elephants

And some evening shots, can you guess where dinner was?

Rome street at night

This is out the front in the street we are staying, our building door is the green one to the right of PANE

Tomorrow - Stair master