Porta Tiburtina and SAID

The manager at the hotel we are staying at suggested that we try Said - a specialty chocolate place in 135 Via Tiberina, Roma The place is an artisanal chocolate factory and sounded like a place that we would like to visit. We decided to walk along the Porta Tiberina part of the Roman walls. It was an interesting walk despite the rain.  Once again we saw how people had used the walls for housing -it would have happened long go and people have been allowed to continue to use them - they probably own the spaces.

Porta Tiburtina

Along the Tiburtina wall

The walls are brick, narrow rectangular bricks.

The walls are massive -in height and width

Porta Tiburtina

Apartments built into the wall

These plants can't be doing the wall any good

Our reward at SAID for our walk in the rain, caffe, cioccolata calda and mignon -tiny delicious cakes

Forum of Augustus

Trajan's forum

The Forums of Augustus and Trajan continue to be excavated and restored, as are many of the Roman archeological sites. Someone has had fun lighting the Forum of Augustus.

Part of the Vittorio Emanuele monument at dusk.  The night skies are beautiful

Forum of Augustus

Forum of Augustus

Forum of Augustus

Trajan's forum

Forum of Augustus

Forum of Augustus

View of the Doria Pamphilj Gallery from Via del Corso, Rome

Napoli

Spent a day in Napoli, we haven't been there for many years and wanted to see how it had developed.  It was really sad to see the deterioration in such a beautiful place.  Napoli could have been one of the most beautiful cities in the world with its beautiful location, beautiful architecture and boulevards, fantastic food and friendly people, but it has lost the opportunity.

At present it is chaotic, noisy, dirty and there is a lot of poverty.  It is difficult to find a footpath that isn't full of holes or has paving stones missing. There is added traffic chaos because of building sites related to the construction of an underground railway. The pollution from the traffic was awful and I felt that I had to wash my hair as soon as we returned to Rome.

We remembered the the Galleria Umberto I and the area around it as having had a variety of great shops but now there are many shops closed in the Galleria and of those there, many were  Antonio Barbaro clothing stores.

The photos below are only of a part of Napoli. We didn't take photos of the backstreets or the crowded markets - we wanted to keep our cameras and also were squashed in with heaps of people and had to avoid dog poo and rubbish. We were walking down one street and started to feel uncomfortable/unsafe and so decided to go back to another main street.
We had been thinking of staying in Napoli but were so glad that we didn't.  There are many amazing things to see but it is just too hard.

Galleria Umberto I

The Royal Palace

A side street

Galleria Umberto I

Galleria Umberto I

Real Teatro San Carlo

Looking back towards Piazza del Plebiscito.  This promenade looks ok in the photo but there was dog faeces everywhere and the place stank of urine

La basilica reale pontificia di San Francesco di Paola

Palazzo Reale

Piazza del Plebiscito

Had a great caffe & granita at Il Gran Caffè Gambrinus -with a view of the Royal Palace

Lemon granita, yum!!!

A view of Vesuvius

Pizza with salsicce & cime di rape

Pizza marinara -delicious tomatoes, garlic and basil

Vesuvius from the train, don't know when we'll be going this way again

Piazza della Rotonda

The evening light is beautiful in Rome in autumn, a different blue from Australian evening skies. The Pantheon and Piazza della Rotonda are always magical at night -even with tourists buzzing around.

Scuderie del Quirinale: views of the rooftops of Rome

There is a fantastic exhibition about Augustus,  the founder of the Roman Empire, at the Scuderie del Quirinale which marks  2000 years since his death.   Taking photos was prohibited, which was a good because there were a lot of people and it meant that everyone just concentrated on looking at the exhibition rather than trying to get the best shot.
The walls along the stairway out of the Scuderie were glass and there were great views across the rooftops of Rome.