Walking, shopping and eating, sometimes all at once

Yesterday Sarah bought a cute pair of shoes from Altariva making Paul the only one to have not bought any from there, although he has hit the Geox shop a few times.  We all met up at Campo Marzo and got a few things there.

Sarah and Paul went off to Antico Enoteca in Via Della Croce for lunch. We have all had a few meals there - it is a relaxing environment, good food and they make a good Spritz Aperol :)

Rob bravely went to Poste Italiane and got some large boxes and bolletini to post stuff home.  It was relatively painless -hope that it is the same when we actually post the boxes today.

Rob, Jules and I went to Roscioli in Campo de' Fiori for a pizza top up -always so good there.  We then walked down to the river and along towards Isola Tiberina.  

I like this light in Via Della Maddalena

Rob and Jules wandering around near the Pantheon

This guy is a brilliant performance artist who can stay still for an amazingly long time while looking like he is speeding off to somewhere

The Tevere was in flood after all of the heavy rain and the pedestrian paths alongside the river where Jules was photographing a few days ago were under water as were the bottom steps of the stairs leading down to the river.  

 The low lying parts of Isola Tiberina were also under water.  The river was flowing really quickly and there were muddy whirlpools everywhere, we watched planks and other debris rapidly passing by. 

After never having seen Nutria before we saw several yesterday.  Some were being dragged along by the current and were unable to swim their way to shore. A large one had managed to make it to a stairway and was cleaning himself when we saw him.

Next we went to see the Bocca della Verita and the Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosemedin 

The mosaics are spectacular

Relics of one of the several Saint Valentines -this one isn't the one of Valentine's day fame, he was a martyr who ended up with his skull in a gold and glass box.

Wall constructed on Roman foundations with debris from the Teatro di Marcello site

Teatro Marcellus

A perfect day in Rome

Clear blue skies and 18C, a perfect day to be walking around Rome.

In the morning we had a coffee at a nearby bar then walked to Campo de Fiori and sampled some delicious focaccia  at Forno Campo de' Fiori for breakfast. After spending some time at the markets we went to Largo  Argentina to see if there had been any new excavations or rebuilds and also checked out the cats.

We passed by the Pantheon -not so many tour groups around earlier in the morning

It is such an impressive structure from any angle

The Area Sacra di Largo Argentina site seemed a little more organised than last year.  We also looked for cats -a bit like "Where's Wally", as usual they were initially well hidden

Chris, Sarah and Paul looking for the cats

Rob, Jules & I went for a walk along the Tiber in the afternoon on the way we stopped in to Roscioli near Campo de' Fiori for a focaccia snack

There are so many surprises along the streets of Rome -this fountain sculpture was not far from Campo de' Fiori

A perfect October day

Rob & Jules took the photos

While we were walking along we saw a group of tourists looking down to the river so we joined in.
One guy told me that what we were looking at was a large river rat.  It was huge but didn't look much like a rat to me.  There were plenty of rats running in and out of burrows near it and they looked quite different.

When we got home Rob checked online and found that it was a large  Nutria or Myocastor coypus
They are an introduced South American species and are commonly called  Nutria or Coypu
 They are supposed to have large orange teeth -none of us are going to get close enough to check them out.

You can get an idea of how big the animal was by the size of the backpack in the foreground

This guy was feeding the nutria and the many rats!

Jules went down to take photos- I stayed as far away as I could.  In the middle of the right of this photo you can see the nutria swimming away.  It was slow moving on land but really quick in the water

The nutria was much larger than the large rats that were running around.

Castel Sant'Angelo

The river was quite still

The sellers are back, fake bags everywhere. This time last year the bridge was clear. The police have a blitz for a while, the sellers go away for a while, then they come back.

On the way back to the apartment we passed by this beautifully decorated old building near the Teatro dei Satiri

We had drinks at La Buvette in Via Vittoria, 44/47. Enjoyed their chiccetti or snacks (can't remember what the locals call them. Well made drinks and very tasty snacks.