Rome - Day 5

At last I am getting around to completing my blog about Rome, after a delay which I attribute to my sudden need to organise and backup my entire travel photo collection, as well as my difficulties in remembering exactly where we went on this haphazard wander through the streets and churches of Rome. If I have forgotten the names of places, it's only because I didn't think to write them down at the time.

Anyhow, we began our day by hunting out the local supermarket, which was quite close to the hotel. We quite like to make time to check out supermarkets wherever we go, as each country has a different attitude towards them and it's interesting to see the differences. For example, some countries use them as their sole source of food (UK), whereas others eschew supermarkets altogether in favour of butchers and bakers and fishmongers (France) and other still rely solely on markets (Morocco).

I don't think Italians rely solely on supermarkets, but it was a very nice surprise to see a rather well stocked bakery and meats section, where they had a freshly cooked porchetta. We bought some, along with a few other interesting local treats (to take back to London with us) and we made sandwiches for our breakfast. The pork was amazing succulent and delicious.



We found a nice spot in front of the Santa Maria Maggiore to devour our breakfast and then made our way over to the Termini station to catch the Metro to the Ottaviano stop.

One thing I've realised about travelling is that if you stumble across a nice place once, it's worth going back before you leave - there are so many places around Europe that I get cravings for all the time. It is one of the perils of travel. So we went back to the nice 'stand up' café near the Vatican for a coffee.

Thus, set up for the day, we wandered down through St Peter's Square and then down the street that leads directly away from it, heading towards the Castel Sant'Angelo. We were waylaid by Santa Maria in Traspontina halfway down the street.

If you allow yourself to go into every church, chapel and basilica in Rome, you'll never get anywhere as there are more packed into the city than is remotely reasonable. To me, each is a serene and gaudy museum and art gallery, dedicated to some unfathomable image or icon that I don't understand with people wandering around inside performing rituals that I don't quite understand. I mean, I have heard of Catholicism and know a few key symbols, but I do find its mysteries and intricacies unfathomable.







We soon continued on our way and entered the Castel Sant'Angelo, which is an old fortification built on top of an even older tomb from the Roman times. It is joined to the Vatican by means of tunnels which allowed the Pope to escape the Basilica and take refuge in the fortified castle.



From the top of the castle there are impressive views of the city.



Afterwards we headed across the river on the Ponte Sant'Angelo.





This left us in the central part of town, where we wandered through every church and chapel we came across and did some shopping.









Sometime after midday we sat down at a café to rest our legs and prepare for the rest of the day, when a clown appeared on the street and started harassing the people going about their business. It's quite normal to see musicians and people trying to sell stupid pieces of tourist junk that no one really wants, but this was the first time on our travels that we were actually solidly entertained by a street performer. He snuck up behind people, stole their possessions, squirted people and just generally made a nuisance  of himself.

After this we saw more churches, etc.









One thing that I always regret doing is ordering anything McDonald's, which is usually because enough time has elapsed for me to forget how bland and awful the food is. But, it can be interesting to see how they try to assimilate local cuisine into their menu. So we tried the 'Vivace', which was really rather average.



We made our way leisurely towards the Trastavere next, hoping to find a nice local restaurant for dinner. We stumbled across the Santa Maria in Trastavere basilica, which has a stunning golden ceiling and columns pilfered from various ancient temples, as well as some of the most intricate medieval mosaic work I've ever seen.







We had dinner at a place in the Trastavere which was a wee bit touristy, I guess. Still the food was better than average and we enjoyed it. Kristen had the Ravioli starter and I had a risotto. For mains, I had the oxtail stew, Roman style and Kristen had the steak.









And this concludes our trip to Rome. The following day we were whisked away by plane back to London.