Day 26: a chill farewell to Rome

Today was our final day in Rome. I got up a few hours before S, with full intention of running. Instead, my ankle suggested I stay in. Yesterday, I slammed it into a pew in a church, and it was still smarting. Discretion being the better part of valor, I stayed in. Sarah took the morning off while I went out to do some shopping and start the day. I started off by hitting a lovely market in the nearby piazza (Campo de Fiori), but soon started wandering the streets, looking for things to photograph.

S and I met met at The Pantheon, which is one of my favorite places in Rome. She was less than thrilled, frustrated at the gross appropriation of culture and stuff that the early Christians did. Still, the building is magnificent. There's a huge open hole in the center of the roof, and if you position yourself just right, it looks like you're an angel! See:?:!!?

The rest of the building is also awesome!

After we met up, we grabbed lunch and then spent most of the afternoon shopping. Occasionally, we'd stop for a drink or a bite. Then, our last dinner in Europe! S had gnocchi with pesto (why mess with a classic?), and I had a great pasta dish with seafood (which was terrific, except for the fish bones, which seemed to be scattered throughout). Afterwards, gelato! We went back to San Crispini, the place we hit a couple of nights ago. S had chocolate again, and this time, I had a scoop of banana and a scoop of cinnamon cream. The banana was seriously the best banana ice cream or gelato or yogurt I've ever had. Wow!

At dinner, S and I had a nice talk about our favorite parts of the trip and what we would do if we found ourselves with another four weeks to travel Europe. Food for thought...

Tomorrow, we leave bright and early for Philly, then St. Louis! This has been a great trip, but we're both really looking forward to being back on home soil!

Day 23: Trastevere, old things, new things, and weird gelato

Today I ran Villa Borghese, a park to the north of the main historical center. There were lots of trees, a lake, some boats, and plenty of stairs. It was a nice run - much nicer than the run on Circus Maximus yesterday.

S and I got a late start out the door, but we made up for lost time with a long long walk. We started with breakfast right around the corner from our hotel. From there, we ran a couple of errands (finally got those Father's Day postcards in the mail!), found a lovely art shop, and hit a shoe store before crossing the Tiber into Trastevere, a neighborhood of Rome that feels more small-town-y. we wandered there for a while, through piazzas that look like this:

and like this:
... ducking into churches and shops along the way. I wanted to see Bramante's Tempietto, which is in Trastevere, so we sought it out. It's on top of one of the seven hills of Rome, and while we were up there, we found this big old fountain:

From the top of the hill, you can see most of Rome laid out in front of you.

The Tempietto was locked away, so we weren't able to get a good shot of it, but after we descended the hill, we continued through Trastevere, where we found a tailor who hand-stitched neckties. Some of his work was truly beautiful, and he was very generous in showing it to us. He didn't speak a lick of English (nor we Italian), but that didn't stop any of us from talking neckties and stitching.

We ducked into the church of St. Cecilia, which sits on top of some Roman ruins (don't look surprised - ALL OF ROME sits on top of Roman ruins). For a few bucks, you could descend beneath the church and have a look around (apparently, one of the ruins beneath the church is St. Cecilia's house!):

After St. Cecilia, we found a little modern bar to grab a drink and a snack. I had a compari and soda (mmmmm), and we were thankful for all of the modern art books that were laying around as a balance to the excessive history that we'd been seeing during the day.

From there, we headed back across the Tiber, past some funky statuary, past the Pantheon, past the Spanish Steps, and then to a small trattoria for dinner. We split a pasta course (cannelloni with ricotta and spinach) and each had a secondi. S's veal meatballs were incredible, but I didn't really enjoy my tripe. I've had it a number of times with different preparations, and I think I can confidently say that I just don't care for it. Still, dinner was good, and it set us up nicely for gelato at Il gelato di San Crispino, which came highly recommended on the internet. It lived up to expectations. S had chocolate (natch), and I had a half-and-half of whiskey and honey. All three flavors were delicious, and a new bar has been set for gelato!

Post-gelato, we stopped off at Trevi Fountain for a photograph before heading home. We passed by The Pantheon once again:

Tomorrow, we head north to Firenze to see the city for a day. We're meeting Liz, an old friend of mine from high school. I can't remember the last time I saw her, but it's been at least 10 years!