We’ve explored so much of Rome! Sunday afternoon we took it easy and went and enjoyed the sun and festivities in the Piazza de Santa Maria right around the corner from our apartment. There were performers out entertaining the kids and people eating gelato and just relaxing. The cutest thing we’ve seen so far is a little boy who was trying to be a street performer. He was standing very still and put a cup out so people could give him money. His parents were sitting outside nearby cheering him on and getting it on tape. He did this for the entire time we were there (at least an hour) and managed to collect some money!
Street performer in training
Monday (today) we slept in and recovered from our miles and miles of walking. When we checked into the apartment, they told us that there was a grocery store right around the corner but we haven’t been able to find it. This morning we were on a mission to locate it. We missed our American coffee! We kept asking people on the street “supermarket, grocery store?” and pointing to the word in the dictionary. One person would point right, so we’d go right. We’d get to the end of the street, ask another person, and they’d point left so we’d go back in the direction we came from. The store was clearly between person A and B but we couldn’t find it! Finally someone said it’s O-V-S. I’m thinking, “obvious? “ That it’s not. We walked back down the street and saw a department store with clothes in the window and the letters O-V-S in the name. Turns out the supermarket is on the bottom floor. We’d walked by that place no less than 10 times! We are now stocked with coffee and breakfast food (and know where to find more!)
This afternoon we followed a walking tour listed in my guidebook. It took us to Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish steps. The book said the tour was a mile long – I think ours was longer due to all the wrong turns we made! However, we made it to every stop and even explored some churches that weren’t on the list. I just asked mom and Aunt Cindy their favorite place we went today and Aunt Cindy said the Campo de Fiori market with the food and wine samples and mom said the gelato place named Giolitti. Clearly food outranked the centuries old sites we saw!
Wine tasting in Campo de Fiori
We nearly lost Aunt Cindy today due to pigeon panic. We stopped for a glass of wine near the Pantheon so we could rest and map out our route. There were pigeons everywhere so Aunt Cindy didn’t stay seated for long. She’d run back to the table every now and then and drink a few sips of wine in between pigeon visits. We even had the hostess standing by our table trying to scare them away for us! Even though the pigeons were running her off, she still managed to finish her glass of wine – she’s such a trooper!
It was a great day of seeing the sites at our own pace and wandering the back streets of Rome. Tomorrow we are going to go to the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel and are searching for a must eat restaurant to go to tomorrow night. Wednesday we’ve booked an all day trip to Tuscany – should be fun!
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