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.

Roma

We're back in beautiful Rome and loving it.  The weather has been beautiful, our apartment is in a great location and it's all good. Rain is expected next week so we're saving most of our gallery stuff until then. Today we wandered around the centro, walked around the Tevere and over to Cola di Rienzo just window shopping and taking it all in.

Trajan's column

Roman "gladiators" are everywhere waiting to have teir photos taken with tourists.  This one was authentically dressed in a matching jumper with gold braid on the sleeves :)

Area Sacra di Largo Argentina.  Julius Caesar was killed here on 15 March 44BC

A lot of excavation  work is being done at Largo Argentina and many rooms under the road are packed with found items.  The Area Sacra is also home to many stray cats.  There is a cat sanctuary alongside the excavated site and heaps of cats wander through.  They have a pretty good life and are cared for by local people and volunteers from all over the world.

In the Ghetto

We had lunch in the old Jewish Ghetto -fantastic fried carciofi, Rob also had pasta with carciofi and fish and I had pasta e fagioli.  Rob said that his pasta was really good but I wasn't that fussed with mine -still waiting to have the perfect pasta fagioli.

A sottopassaggio in the ghetto

The weather was beautiful and we walked along the Tevere

There were heaps of ducks around the reeds along the edges of the river

Ponte S. Angelo with Castel Sant'Angelo in the background

Friday afternoon must be the time for rowing- there were rowers all along the river -some of them were really fast.

Castel Sant'Angelo

Best wishes and good luck to Georgie and Cesar for a perfect day for their wedding.