Venice marathon - freezing, stormy weather predicted

Rob is running in the Venice Marathon again this year. He has been regularly checking the weather forecasts on Il Meteo and they are getting worse by the hour :(







The Bora winds were predicted to be 50kmh but from the rain forecast posted this morning they will be 50 - 80kmh, with rain and the maximum is expected to be 8C.  That's running into a strong headwind, soaking wet and freezing cold. It will be difficult for the runners who finish in just over two hours but imagine how hard it will be for those who take near the cut off time of 6 hours.  I'm so glad I'm not walking!



The marathon starts around 9.30am but runners have to get to Stra for the start of the race. That means we will leave the apartment around 6 so that Rob can catch the bus to Stra. After that he will be hanging around outside in the rain until the start of the race.  He really feels the cold so it is going to be a very difficult race for him.

(copied from  Venice Marathon Facebook)

We went to Parco San Giuliano so that Rob could complete his registration and pick up his marathon pack, he also bought a few warm tops -I think that he will need to wear all of them at once.  There was a buzzy excitement at the place and everyone was extremely friendly. We listened to a presentation  about the course and the runners joked about the weather and the possibility of snow.  How bad the weather will be is an unknown, but no one is expecting conditions like last year.
Photo from presentation

Very few Australians go in the Venice Marathon and after Rob bought some merch we had our photo taken -it will go up on Facebook somewhere so I'll post the link when we find it.

Venezia, Venezia

We arrived in Venezia yesterday and all of us are happy to be here.  Our apartment is great, very comfortable and immaculate -a huge improvement on the apartment in Piazza Tuscolo in Rome which was grimy and needed a good clean.

Rob's cousins Rosaria and Livio met us at the station.  They are really lovely people and it was great to see them again and for Sarah & Paul to meet them.

Taberna Recina

On our last night in Rome before heading off to Venice we again went to the Taberna Recina for dinner. Even though a few of us were really tired we still had a good time and the food was outstanding.

Spaghetti alla puttanesca

Rigatoni alla gricia

Linguine dell Vesuvio alle cozze e carciofi

Tortilgloni del Vesuvio tonno fresco e zucca

Brasato di chianina al vino rosso

Zuppette di seppie, vongole e fagioli cannelini

Bistecca di chianina ai ferri

Rughetta e pomodori

Cicoria di campo

Campidoglio pt 2

Case Romane Del Celio

Underneath the Basilica of Ss Giovanni e Paolo in Clivo di Scauro, Celio is a Roman house complex dating from the 5th century AD.
Case Romane
The buildings have been carefully restored and have some painted rooms which are in good condition.  I hadn't heard about this site until we saw Prof Mary Beard's series "Meet the Romans".  It is really worth a visit. We had the place to ourselves and wandered around for ages. When we come back to Rome in a few weeks we'll do a tour so that we can learn a bit more about the place.
Thank you Mary Beard!