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Published: December 30th 2007
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We again decided to sacrifice breakfast for an extra hour in bed but again the sun was shining and we were raring to go. As usual, the second day is harder as you have seen all of the easy stuff on the first day but we had a good plan worked out.
We again went past the vatican only this time we headed south to the Campo de' Fiori, via a tiny pizzeria where we purchased (yep, you guessed it) a really nasty, overpriced, greasy pizza. No, actually it was amazing but you already knew that. Campo de' Fiori is a traditional food market, which has a vewry widce array of meats, fruits and vegetables, we ate our pizza watching very well dressed Romans peruse and buy obscure vegetables for their fancy Saturday night dinner parties. After this we crossed the Tiber again on the Giuseppe Mazzini bridge into Trastevere. This is legendarily the most picturesque area of Rome and it was pretty nice, though not as quaint as we might have imagined. The best part was the beautiful Santa Maria in Trastevere, which is one of the oldest Christian churches in Rome. There was a service taking place and
The cats!
A square called "the cat sanctuary" where there are just hundreds of cats living in a one block square. Creepy. again, we were surrounded by well dressed Romans, so we marvelled at the incredible ceiling and then took our leave. Going via the cute Trasteverean back streets we crossed back across the Tiber towards Torre Argentina and the cats.
Mary had been very excited about visiting the cat sanctuary and was a little surprised to find that it was some Roman ruins in one of the less salubrious parts of Rome. Upon initial inspection it appears to be just like any other ruin but upon further inspection the place is full of well hidden, mangy felines. It was fun for a while trying to spot the cats but then it became more creepy as you realised that there were cats everywhere you looked. Martin hurriedly dragged Mary away back towards the Forum. We entered the Forum from the other side and had a quick look at the ruins from the other side and then headed to the Colosseum, we were able to enter for free before 1pm with our tickets from Palatine hill and bypassed the large queue. Inside was slightly underwhelming relative to the spectacular view from outside, not that one could really expect anything more from a
Inside the Colosseum
I'm sure it is more impressive from the outside sports stadium that had been routinely looted by goths, vandals, visigoths, catholics and tour guides over the last twenty centuries. After walking all the way round and reminding myself to rewatch Gladiator on our return we headed out towards Nero's golden house.
On our way up there we noticed that the park was less full of groups of tourists and more full of tramps, but as hardened northeners we persisted to the golden house. Well, this was somewhat of a disappointment as there were excavations going on and heroin addicts all around us (perhaps) so we took a detour round the park which was also a faulty move as the surroundings deteriorated, so we gripped onto our cameras and walked until we reached the 'safety' of the church of St Peter's in Chains, where we wanted to see the magnificent statue of Moses that is in there. It was a very modest church and was closed, but there was a very glossy photograph of the Moses statue so we were happy, sort of.
With our heads held high, we then headed back towards the forum and climbed Capitoline hill and found ourselves in Michaelangelo's Piazza di Campidolglio. This
is a magnificent renaissance square, with exquisite buildings, floor work and statues. We posed as thousands before us had done in front of the gigantic sculptures of Tiber and Nile and went round the back of the Palazzo Senatorio for the best view of the Forum (again!), we refused to pay the 10 euros to look in the museum and said 'ciao' to Castor and Pollux and left the square.
It was getting late and so we thought that we would try to find somewhere to watch the sunset. The timeout guide recommended the Quirinale and so we struggled our way up there only to find that there was something official going on and so we couldn't get into the gardens or stand in main square. We were tired and so we got in a cab - woo hoo - and headed back to the hotel, looking forward to the jacuzzi.
After refreshing we headed out to a well recommended restaurant, Matricianella, by way of a cool little wine bar (not 'Gusto which was raved about but unbearably cramped although I think we didn't find the correct bar!) it was very cramped and exceedingly busy but we finally
got our table and the food was delicious, as was the wine and dessert wine and desserts, even the pear was palatable to Martin. We left, very content and headed back, ready for our early flight the next morning.
For the full set of photos from this trip visit:
Flickr
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