Ho-hum... Another 60 degree sunny day

Yesterday we had to walk to Rome because you can only buy bus tickets at tobacco stores and these are closed on Sunday. Most Italians just get on the bus without tickets but we were afraid we'd get caught. Anyways we managed to get some views if St Peter's that you don't usually see in photos.

When we got to St Peter's, we saw the pope on jumbotron as he said mass at the audience hall in the Vatican. With the music of the choir of children being broadcast and the marathon passing just outside St Peter's square, the effect was striking. I took a video but unfortunately the format was set to high (and the file too big) for me to post.

From there we crossed the river and wandered through an area called Campo de' Fiori on account of the outdoor flower market there, which is now a sort of general purpose market. The street are even narrower than most with many squares and Palazzi: ancient homes of the wealthiest families of Rome which are now government buildings at apartments. The streets became tinier and increasingly mazelike until we reached the edge of a dead-end alley atop a small cliff overlooking the Theater of Marcellus. This was an outdoor amphitheater built in ancient Roman times but later used as a foundation for buildings, not apartments. It's another example of how Rome is layered up on its own past. In fact the Colosseum used to contain tenements just like this.

We had to walk halfway back to the house because the buses weren't running in center Rome on account of the marathon. We've been averaging 5 - 7 miles a day (on cobblestone streets at that) so we should be in great shape when we get back home.


 In the evening we went out again with Richard, this time to the Trastevere quarter of Rome, an area full of atmosphere that looks like the city slums but in fact has been gentrified and is full of high end apartments and condos. You look up into the window of an apparently decrepit building and see a chandelier... We had a great meal in a little restaurant in a little restaurant there.
 

St Peter's dome from Via Gregorio VII

This and the next are views of the dome above the Vatican City wall

 

The Pope on Jumbotron

Theater of Marcellus: note windows of apartments