Deadlines

So Sophie and I set off at just after 10 a.m. on a mission to go to sleep in the pram. 

It is Monday and Kathryn is meant to have a meeting but it has been re-scheduled as far as I can make out. In the meantime the Panama office has requested she look over some technical advice re a project - marked "urgent" (= today); something required for a ministerial briefing apparently.

So I leave her to it and venture forth. We retrace yesterday's initial steps past the Farmers Market and continue along via San Teodoro and the Foro Romano where we get good views in to the Forum on Palatine Hill (arches, temples, basilica, columns both standing and fallen).

Into via Consolazione (which makes me feel sad) and up the hill to the Capitol for even better views of the Forum, then more climbing up to the Palace Museum and other spectacular buildings with statues galore - and tourists.

We find a park balcony also with lovely views and enjoy the quiet.

Capitoline Hill is another one of the 'Seven Hills of Rome' - I think I have now walked up 2 of them: Aventino and Capitoline; and I have walked numerous times along the base of Palatino with its archaeological sites and where Romulus founded the original city of Rome - so I am going to count it (that makes 3!); and apparently Monte Celio doesn't count (POSTSCRIPT: In fact, I am wrong about this - see tomorrow's entry).

Capitoline is the smallest of the hills but the most important as it was the political and religious heart of Rome. As you come into it, you reach the beautiful Piazza del Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo, and then descend by the Cordonata stairs but we have to take the vehicular access because of the stroller.

Next door is the Santa Maria in Aracoeli (St. Mary of the Altar of Heaven), one of the oldest basilicas in Rome, which has a huge staircase of 134 marble steps built in 1348 and often called "The Stairway to Heaven" (I wonder if they play Led Zeppelin on the organ here?). I look up at them and decide we won't be climbing these with a stroller (!) so satisfy ourselves with a photo instead.

Further on is the gleamingly white marble Victor Emmanuel II Monument built as a tribute to the first king of a united Italy. 

From Piazza Venezia I find myself in the via Del Corso which is meant to be a shoppers' paradise. But this is not for us; so we detour off into a small lane and move towards Piazza Minerva and the Pantheon - the latter I avoid as it is teeming with people.

Through Piazza Sant'Eustachio and past the famous Sant’Eustachio Il Caffè there; My Friend and I have had coffee here in the past and found it expensive and "stuck-up".

Sophie by the way is still awake! Too much to look at I guess.

We have not made it as far as Piazza Navona but we decide to head back. I worry momentarily about getting lost but one just has to look at the skyline and the various landmarks give a good indication of where to go. 

We do an about-turn at the Teatro Valle and stop briefly at the Largo di Torre Argentina with its four Roman temples and the remains of Pompey's Theatre. 

There is a large cat shelter housed in the ruins here and run by volunteers. I swap Sophie from the pram to the backpack (really a front pack) and we talk to some of the cats and say "miaow".

She is very tired now but it takes until Circo Massimo before she finally nods off.

Hooray, at last the Roseto is open. I've walked through the Piazzale Ugo la Malfa numerous times and the rose gardens have been closed. 

The autumn opening hours are now in operation it seems and today is one of those days and hours - we take a break here. The lawns are being mowed, the gardener skilfully manipulating his ride-on between each row. Frankly I don't know why he doesn't use a hand mower!

Kathryn has booked near our neighbourhood (in the via del Tempio di Diana) for dinner tonight with friends of hers - plus a high chair (new word, Bill: un seggiolone; new word for me, that is!).

Kathryn has to finish a budget for a workshop being held in Malawi (Africa) tomorrow so Sophie and I exit late afternoon so she can finish it. 

We walk up into the San Saba area (where we have been before) on the other side of viale Aventino to where we are staying. 

The light is lovely and we walk to the old city walls (again) and through various back streets, returning along via Guerrieri and via Sal Rosa into Piazza Remuria where I can hear kids playing in the school yard; there's a small park where a group of men are playing cards and others are sitting on park benches either alone or chatting; the sun glows off the shutters of some of the flats and palazzi; people drop by to the little newsagent (edicola) set up in a dismountable on the pavement; the florist reassembles part of her display and a man is walking away with a bunch of flowers destined for someone; and Sophie and I talk to two black cats.

We arrive back, passing the bar on the corner where I am sorely tempted to stop but buy some groceries at the supermarket instead. Kathryn has still a bit more work to do on the budget, moving $236,000 somewhere. 

Thankfully she finishes and we head out to dinner at Ristorante Apuleius, arriving early but we enjoy a lovely prosecco out on the pavement while we wait for her friends to arrive. Over the course of dinner, Jacqueline (who has stayed with us in Albury) announces that she and her boyfriend GP are engaged.

It is a lovely meal but Sophie is over-tired so we have to go.

I have Sophie's raffraddore (cold) now.