When In Rome...

Thursday, 5 July, 2012

Today we are Romans!  We left our villa in the morning and stopped outside Rome (in Tivoli) to visit two historic villas.  The first was Villa Adriani (Hadriano), the home of Emperor Hadrian (as in Hadrian’s wall in England).  It was ruins, but wow, what a complex!  It was a small city.  It had it’s own hospital, a park, several pools, a large bath and several small baths.  There were many surviving domes, arches, pillars, and statues.  However, the ruins weren’t marked very well so it was kind of hard to know what was what.  We couldn’t spend very long because we needed to meet the owner of our flat in Rome at 6:00 (or 18.00 as they say here).  

We also wanted to visit the Villa d’Este because Randy had learned about it in one of his historical architecture classes in college.  Unfortunately, Randy’s google map led us to a street we weren’t allowed to go down and the signs in the city led us in circles.  So we gave up and continued into Rome. 

On the outskirts, we stopped at the Hertz office to return our car (and pay for the mirror).   Randy said that the guy that checked it out just sighed when he saw the mirror.  I would assume it happens frequently with the small roads; we notice some parked cars with their windows folded in for protection.  And a woman we saw preparing to pass in a small area reached out and turned her mirror in as well.  

Then we took the Rome metro to the stop closest to our flat and walked the 2 kilometers with our bags.  We passed Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, and rested in the Campo de Fiori because we were a bit early.  We got gelato for the first time since our expensive gelato experience in Florence.  I opted for a lemon slushy instead (yum--very tart and refreshing!).  

Our apartment is indeed what we had nicknamed it--our hobbit hole!  It is in the middle of the historical center of Rome.  It has round windows that look out to a courtyard.  There is one main room with a table with four chairs and a couch.  About 10 feet by 10 feet.  There is an alcove for the bathroom (of course with a bidet!) and an even smaller alcove (4 feet by 6 feet) for the kitchen.  It has a small air conditioning unit over the main door which we are still waiting to cool us off.  By the door are two steep little staircases going up to lofts which overlook the main room--you could almost shake hands across!).  The girls share a double bed in one loft, Randy and I share the other, and Joshua gets the couch (I think it folds out).  Sometimes the children take turns with the extra bed.  

The owner left a map with the fresh food market, the supermarket, the internet cafe and four restaurants marked.  He even gave a short synopsis of the restaurants with the best things to try and prices!   He marked restaurants that actual Romans eat at (not tourists).   Very cute!   We’ll eat in today but eat out tomorrow for Annie’s sweet 16 birthday!  My first baby 16!!   Anyway, everything but one restaurant is within a few blocks from our apartment.  We’ll go for a short walk after dinner, then tomorrow is the big sightseeing day!    Some photos from our evening walk: