Checking out the neighborhood and a little exploring......and more walking!

Pretty good sleep last night.......and a bit lazy this morning.  Got up around 8:00.  The sky was clearing from what was a series of late night showers last evening.  Forecast is for sun again today!

shifting today.......Andrea is writing and I am picking the photos.  In this one, ASC has headed to the shower after a yoga session.  She is really much better at this than I am.  She uses a belt!  which I find very funky.......

There is this strange parking arrangement on some of the streets surrounding the Academy.  Apparently this is one of the places that Romans can park (and leave) their campers and RV's........very funny as you walk by!

view out the window in the stair hallway

We headed around the 'backside' of the hill this morning into the Monteverde neighborhood of Rome and found a new breakfast bar only 5 minutes away - Caffe gli Archi - which has delicious pastries and cappuccini. Italians are not big on breakfast and that is basically it.

Caffe Gli Archi for breakfast

Afterwards we continued walking deeper into Monteverde  - passing cafe upon cafe. Eventually, we came upon an open air market in full mid-morning bustle and came upon a wonderful stall "Alimentari Carlo", which sold cheeses, charcuterie. wine, bread, etc. The owner, Carlo, was so friendly & helpful. He gave us his card so we could like him on Facebook!

Carlo!

We wandered back up the hill towards the Academy, stopping to buy some strawberries along the way.  We were so tempted to buy artichokes, which are in season right now and look amazing, but will save those for another day.

Andrea is off in the shadows here!  The flowering trees along the streets of Monteverde, particularly Via Carini, are quite amazing this week......just beautiful. 

Arriving back at our apartment, we settled down a bit (Andrea did some laundry)!  The necessities never go away.  We had a great lunch from the shopping we did at the open market.  The prosciutto, cheese, bread and strawberries were incredible.  We enjoyed lunch and then succumbed to the obligatory siesta.  Around 3:00 we reemerged and mobilized for a trip "alla citta."

a 'small' part of the laundry......ASC wanted the photo to be discrete! 

This meant jumping in the car and figuring out how to find our way into the heart of Rome.  Suffice it to say that the traffic is crazier than one could possibly imagine.......very few rules and thousands of mopeds and motorcycles passing you on both sides.  We tried to be cool about it all.

After a somewhat stressful ride into the depths of the ancient city, we finally emerged at the top of the Spanish steps and by a stroke of good fortune found a parking space.  It is no exaggeration that we nearly killed two motorbike maniacs who passed us on the right side of the car as we were trying to park.  We have never come this close to actually colliding with other mobile humans.....terrifying!

The Spanish Steps were a destination for us (as they are for all Roman tourists) for a variety of reasons.  It is quite an amazing urban space and is always filled with people.  This time of year, however, it is special as the steps are filled with 3,000 azalea plants.  We had seen this once before many years ago and were excited that we were in Rome at this time in late April.  It was truly spectacular.  The only drawback is the hundreds of other people in the immediate vicinity!

After the descent of the Spanish Steps it was time for a refresh.  We headed over to the Caffe Greco.  This was an old haunt for us (not too frequent as it is a bit of a tourist trap!), but absolutely fantastic as it is a Roman landmark.  Keats & Byron drank coffee at the marble tables of this celebrated, richly-ornate 18th-century cafe.  We stopped at the bar for a quick cafe espresso.   Nearby, Signora Crowell nearly got into some trouble.......a serious shopping district.......but she came to her senses!

tempted.........but resisted!

From here we headed over to the Trevi Fountain.  This is probably our favorite "sight" in Rome.  While it is touristy, it has real social and architectural merit.  It is quite an extraordinary assembly of the 'sacred and the profane'.......what a marvel of natural, man-made and cosmic forces elegantly assembled in an unexpected collaboration of forces.  Maybe this is another, more mystical interpretation of the current term of "collusion."  These guys knew how to put an act together!

The experience, however, comes along with the beneficence of the masses......I think Roman crowds are part of the ecclesiastical value proposition!  It was very crowded!

the lucky coin goes into the fountain!

Once we decided it was time to escape the crowds, we started to wind our way back to the car.  Along the way we found a nice 'supermercato' so decided to do a little shopping.....although not too much as we did not want to carry a lot of additional weight up the crazy stairs!

We made the trek, thoroughly pooped and fortunately our car was ok and we did not get a ticket!  We jumped in and headed back to the Janiculum.......with about 10% battery left on our phone.  I think this is the point where we admit that it is impossible to navigate Rome without Siri and Google Maps!  To make matters worse we were heading into rush hour traffic.  About halfway there we were down to 5%.......and panic was setting in.  This is not an easy feat of navigation.  In the end, we pulled up in front of the Academy parking gate with 1% left......so why were we worried?

Crashed after that stressful return and headed out for dinner around 8:00 to a local trattoria.  It turns out that this hole in the wall place was visited by Joe Biden 4 times.  We thought the waiter was kidding, but he went back into the kitchen and came out with a heavy medallion which he claimed gave him free entrance to the white house at any time!  It looked real to us!  In any case, it was a very nice meal and he brought out complimentary glasses of limoncello at the end of our meal.  These are the gestures that make our travels so special.......it is all about the people.

11,196 steps today......4.62 miles!