Campidoglio and the Foro at dawn

Jules and I went to the Campidoglio before dawn to get photos of the sun rising over the forum. Rob stopped in while he was out running.

Campidoglio

Campidoglio -statues representing the Nile, Rome and the Tiber

Looking out over the Forum

Rob & Jules

Still learning to take photos in low light with our Fuji

This little bird had a great view

The dawn colours were beautiful

Roman road

"V" carved into paving stone -we saw about 8

Strolling around

We're taking it quietly for our first week in Rome giving everyone a chance to recover from the dreaded jetlag. There have been clear blue skies and it has been quite hot -yesterday all of us got a bit sunburnt despite our sunscreen.

Rob and Paul went for runs and then we went  to Campo de' Fiori for breakfast. We wandered around surrounding streets and then spent some time in Piazza Navona. Jules, Sarah and Paul went to an exhibition of the machines of Leonardo da Vinci.
Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition

It was at the Palazzo della Cancelleria, an amazing, beautiful Renaissance palace which was also a welcome cool break from the heat
Palazzo della Cancelleria

Jules had a great photojournalism op in Piazza Di Spagna as there was a demonstration by immigrants on the Spanish Steps.  Lots of chanting, drums & flares.  

We didn't go to the other main demo yesterday, an orderly group of old age pensioners at Piazza San Giovanni  They have good reason to demonstrate with the pension cuts they've had to endure. The demonstration was markedly different from the San Giovanni demos last year -no tear gas or batons this time :)

Roma

After the usual long flight we arrived safely and have settled in to our apartment.  Rome is as fantastic as always and it is great to have our family all here together. 

We've been walking around old haunts and eating great food, drinking great coffee and of course the obligatory gelati - been to Giolitti twice as well as another place :)
Giolitti 

 The weather is perfect -mid 20s.The cameras have been working overtime and I'll post some photos asap -there are already 100s to choose from.

Last night we had dinner at Taberna Recina in San Giovanni, our favourite restaurant in all of Rome. The food and wine are always amazing and all of the people working there are incredibly friendly and welcoming. A great place -I only managed a few photos, we were all too quick to try everything.

 Five Greedy Australians are much worse than the Two Greedy Italians, no time for photos :)

This pasta looks simple but it was one of the tastiest that I have had in a long time -pumpkin and gorgonzola, perfectly made.  I ate all of it :)

Rob has already done a few runs, the rest of us have just been strolling around taking it easy. 

Near our apartment in San Giovanni, autumn is late and all of the trees still have bright green leaves

Inside the Pantheon -bag contains pjs, we packed a bit too light :)

The Colosseum always looks amazing

We're all doing our best at speaking Italian and all managing to make ourselves understood. In general Italian people are really patient when you try to speak Italian and we're sure to be having lots of conversations in 'broken Italian' and 'broken English' :)

Yesterday we spent a rather disastrous time on one of those 'hop on hop off' open tour buses.  There were demonstrations -who knows over what- and the bus was stuck in traffic forever.  We got off as soon as we could having seen very little. 

We're having a great time and I'll post some photos asap.
Ciao a tutti

Roma here we come

We're very lucky to be heading off for another break in Italy.  Too lazy to fix up my blog so tagging on to the end of my last entry last year.  Hope we don't bore you.
ciao ciao

Preparations for Christmas at home

I haven't posted any photos of Australia as promised as I have been frantically shopping for Christmas stuff and cleaning the house.  Most of the family will be at our place for Christmas lunch & I've been out buying food etc. I love cooking so am looking forward to making lots of things.
It won't be too hot on Christmas day this year, the forecast is for 31C so it will be quite nice -a big change from the cold in Italy.

I'll post some photos asap. Hope that you have a great Christmas.

Poste Italiane update

Of the eight boxes that we posted, five have already arrived -just waiting on three from Rome. If you are prepared for different rules at each post office and fill out the dreaded bolletini with the minimum info required then Poste Italiane is pretty efficient and they have very speedy boats ;)  our sea mail parcels took only a few weeks.

Arrivederci Roma e ciao Australia

Siamo a casa in Australia.  Italia: spero che ritorniamo subito!! 

My Italian is still as bad as it was, I just sound a bit better :)   For friends and family in Italy, I'll continue this blog for a while to show you what some of the other side of the world looks like and maybe you'll come here one day.

Il nostro penultimo giorno in Italia 2011 :(

Our second last day in Rome was just spent wandering around revisiting favourite places as well as stumbling across a few new ones.   We walked into the city centre rather than taking the metro as it was a really nice day and no rain.  We have been so lucky with the weather over that past few months and have had hardly any rain and generally fairly mild weather.  We were sad that our holiday was coming to an end but looking forward to catching up with everyone at home.

It was a public holiday in Italy for the "Feast of the Immaculate Conception" and the city centre was packed with people because the Pope visited Piazza di Spagna in the afternoon and laid a wreath at the statue of  Mary and also the lights of the Christmas tree in Piazza Venezia and also the tricolore Christmas lights in Via del Corso were turned on.

What more could you want: the Pantheon and  Caffe' Tazza d'Oro :)

The Christmas markets were packed

This busker could play pretty well and was making a bit of money

Waiting for lunch

ASRoma rules :)

Castel San'Angelo

Doing the tourist thing -we'll be back anyway :)

Christmas lights in Via del Corso

There were so many people we had to stay close so that we didn't lose each other

Campidoglio, Cineteca Nazionale and wandering around

So much to see and do and so little time! It's difficult to choose what to see -this time we've seen heaps of churches as we seem to have been around when they've been open. Churched out :)

Musei Capitoline - we've been to these museums a few times over many years.  There are always changes to the collections and galleries and always something spectacular to see.

http://www.museicapitolini.org/

Courtyard in the Capitoline

The size of these pieces of sculptures are huge.  The complete sculptures would have been enormous

The original Marcus Aurelius -the copy is in the Campidoglio

This foot has Morton's toe :)

Excavations below the Cineteca Nazionale  Rome
http://it-it.facebook.com/pages/Cineteca-Nazionale-Cinema-Trevi/56922676511- very close to the Trevi Fountain.   Roman buildings were found when the cinema was being built http://storiaromana.blogspot.com/2009/08/cinema-trevi-visita-sotterranea-ai.html

Anfore for storing oil

Below Cineteca Nazionale at 25 Vicolo del Puttarella  Rome

Fontana di Trevi

I don't know how the blue car was ever going to get out of this parking spot, it was firmly wedged in -but not the worst we've seen.