Tour De Roma

My day began with a short 7 min. walk to the Piazza del Popolo and the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Popolo. The church is lined with tiny chaplets along both walls each with a different theme--Jesus, the entombed body of a saint or major public official, work of art from a biblical story. They had started mass shortly after I arrived, so I sat in to see what kind of service it was. Turns out it was a communion one and I got half of Jesus in bread form. Better than no Jesus at all. From here I wandered through a lovely park area called Villa Borghese and lounged on a tree stump. The grass was quite green though a bit damp and there were no flowers to be seen. They seem to only reside at flower shops in town.

The Spanish Steps were next which were apparently named for the Spanish See (papal seat). Without the trademark red flowers they felt a bit bare, but it is still a lively spot for rowdy teenagers and lazy tourists. The sinking ship fountain was very cool. And so began my tour of the fountains of Roma. First stop was the Fontana del Tritone in Piazza Barberini. I checked out the four corners fountain which is literally a fountain on each corner of the intersection. Fontana di Trevi was quite exquisite and large. One could spend a good hour here and not notice time had passed.

After the Trevi fountain I came across some lovely watercolor work by a man named Dumo (Doomo). He was born in France and has spent the last 15 years in Italy. For a small piece--roughly 2"x3"--it takes two days to complete. I'll have to find a way to keep them from getting bent or wet from no until June. A teacher from the US happened to stop at his corner the same time I was there and we had some lively discussion about how the Euro hasn't been very good for the Italian people. With the Lira you could buy enough food for two weeks for about 100,000 Lira. Now with E50 you're lucky to afford a couple meals, a coffee (sort of a requirement in Italian cuisine/culture) and an afternoon snack. I learned something new today about the global economy.

I passed by Adriano's Temple, St. Ignatius Church, Palazzo Venezia, Chiesa del Gesu, Area Sacra ruins, Campo de Fiori with the statue of a monk who was burned at the stake for heresy in that very piazza, Piazza Navona with the Four Rivers fountain and finally the Pantheon. Talk about a gargantuan building. The dome is an amazing architectural feat. If built out of concrete, it would have collapsed ages ago. It's design with the occulus at the top distributes the force of the walls evenly throughout the ceiling while providing light and fresh air. Like most things in Greece and Italy they are being reconstructed during the low tourist season.

To finish my long walking tour I planned to hit a gelateria around the corner from the Pantheon. It was E2.50 for a cup 1.5" in diameter so I opted to hoof it to the Old Bridge gelateria where I could get 4x as much for E2 or less. It was a long walk, but essentially on my way back to the hostel. Definitely worth the effort! I sampled Amaretto, Pineapple and Dark Chocolate. To die for!! I don't know what makes gelato so different from ice cream, but it's wonderful and something I need to investigate for future creation. Much contented I plopped on my bed with some Mika music and relaxed. Dinner was leftovers from yesterday though still quite tasty. I went for a walk in the neighborhood because I was craving some kind of dessert. Most things were closed by 8pm, but I managed to find some cookies and a pastry. Tomorrow will probably be a trip to the Roman Forum to see the ancient ruins.