Good Bye to Rome!! – Life Is What Happens….

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I couldn’t post on Saturday because we were on the train
from Rome to Monterosso in the Cinque Terre region and there was no wifi.
Unfortunately our apartment here doesn’t have wifi either; but the kids found
an internet café very nearby so I should be able to get some posts up.

Rome near the Coliseum

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Friday being our last day & night in Rome, we just wound
down. We walked to a few favourite places – the market at Campo di Fiore and
up and down a lot of side streets in the area to just “be” in Rome. Really one
of the things I liked doing most was just walking and experiencing.

Rome also near the Coliseum

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We went back to a favourite restaurant in the Piazza Farnese
for our “Last Supper” there. It was lovely. Unfortunately a lot of the cafes
and restaurants tend to resist taking credit cards. If they say they do, you
then may find that their terminal doesn’t work or doesn’t work with your card.
This is just an aside.

The bus is advertising the movie After Earth

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I know that Europe has always tended to prefer cash,
however, now that a lot of countries are in dire straits, this may be a time to
press for more measures to control this cash only tax dodge.

I also noticed that what looked like a lot of independently
owned cafes and restaurants were actually part of a larger group of restaurants
controlled by one company or syndicate. This is just another aside.

Street Theatre – Rome

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However, the food was so amazing that we ate out every night
and once or twice at lunch. It was hard to justify eating in. Maybe if we had had a patio that overlooked
some fabulous site, we would have eaten in more, but we didn’t, because we just
wanted to be outside all the time!!! We had rain briefly one evening, otherwise
it was warm 21C and occasionally hot 25C and sunny. We walked almost
everywhere, except when we went to the Coliseum, where we took the bus and then
the subway.

Another type of street theatre

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All in all, I can’t wait for a time to go back to Rome!!! I
would definitely stay by the river. It was a great way to orient yourself and I
knew that the kids, who got lost regularly, as did we, could easily find their
way back home. On a return trip, I would go back again to all the landmarks and
I would plan to see the Sistine Chapel on a Friday night to reduce the
crowding.

I think that, if you go to Rome, you should basically, pick
your interest and follow it. Some people see all the recommended churches and
museums, others see all the Roman ruins. We didn’t actually eat in all the
restaurants J,
but we did read a ton of menus, walked down hundreds of streets, took in dozens
of Piazzas, explored four or five markets and walked along the river everyday.

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Arrivederci