Goodbyes - and time alone

So up at 1/4 past 4 in the morning to go to the airport. I don't think anyone slept much although Sophie is now soundly asleep! She didn't settle till late last night and it was after midnight when we got to bed.

Kathryn miraculously packed last night. Difficult enough for yourself let alone with a baby. Hope the taxi arrives! I have visions of myself running out onto the viale Aventino at 5:00 a.m. to hail one.

Anyway, it does arrive - early. I had already taken up the big (read "enormous") suitcase, plus stroller, small suitcase as carry-on, duffle bag, car seat. That left Mama - and Sophie in the carrier/"back" pack.

I made as best I could of conversation in Italian with the taxi driver while we waited for Kathryn to drag Sophie out of the cot.

We were underway and when we hit the autostrada to the airport, I can't say I was particularly happy with the 140km/hr speed.

The queue for check-in was huge and alarmingly slow but fortunately Sophie was very good.

We had just dismantled the stroller - wheels and all - and packed it in its transport bag (with car seat) when the check-in girl kindly told us we had to check it in at the oversize luggage counter! And no help or trolley offered from anyone (this would have been fun alone!) so I dragged the bag along the corridor, round the corner and down another corridor and heaved it up onto the scanning table. Great design isn't it to have an oversize scanner on a normal height bench?

All done plus a nappy change and through the gates and they disappear from view. Sad - even writing this brings a tear.

I look for the exit to the train and finally find it and in fact board the wrong train - to Termini; I want to go to Ostiense so am quickly put right by the conductor before the train leaves.

As I write this, it has just gone 7:30 a.m. and it is daylight as we head back into the city. I notice people are sniffling and sneezing; no wonder we all caught colds!

On a whim I got out at Trastevere it being so early; and I enjoyed a coffee (I am definitely sleep-deprived!) along viale di Trastevere then climbed the stairs up Scalea Ugo Bassi, savouring the use of the camera and relishing the freedom from the stroller but missing the girls when at 1/4 to 8 or thereabouts I thought of them boarding their plane.

Walked through various parks, some desultory in the Italian way - where people mostly walk their dogs it seems; but nevertheless delightfully peaceful from the traffic outside. These old parks even have their own street names (!) - and mosquitoes!

It is incredibly humid - it was last night too - and the sun is out intermittently with dark cloud; I am in and out of long sleeve tops. In and out of city walls also. I come to the Porta San Pancrazio at the top of via Garibaldi. On a park bench in texta is "Alessio and Cristine for ever"; I wonder if they are?

Nice-looking places around here, some of which I can get only tantalising glimpses through the fence - the top-end of town I would say - like Villa Spada; some are embassies I note.

And indeed I have climbed but alas this is not one of the 'Seven Hills of Rome', so it doesn't count. 

We (woops! "I") walk past the Porta San Pancrazio where it meets via Garibaldi, past the lovely Villa Aurelia (I peer through the gates) and into the Giancolense park.

Amazing views here. My Friend would be in his element here doing his panoramic shots. 

I pass one of the ubiquitous gelati/drink/junk stalls you find at every popular tourist stop and there are plastic bags of dummies - several to the bag. I think of Kathryn and Sophie - a long way to travel on your own. I don't envy them; I'm not looking forward to the flight back either but theirs is tougher. I feel a long way from anywhere up here at the Passieggata di Gianicolo; even a little disorientated.

I descend via the Rampa della Quercia; should have turned right into via di Sant'Onofrio but charge on straight and then down; and noticed on the map that I was quite "close" to the Vatican so I thought "Well, I should ..." even though it wasn't part of my "plan" (did I have one??).

So I head away from Trastevere from the bridge crossing the river (Ponte Pr. Am. Sav. Aosta) up Borgo San Spirito into the Vatican City.

And I duly spent an hour here moving in and out of the crowds. It is now very hot. I think the Pope is doing something in St Peter's Square. It is being shown on a big screen. There are lots of guys in purple robes and some in yellow and red clown suits (could be the Swiss Guards?). Maybe he does this every day? Yep, here it is: when he's in Rome, he gives a Papal Audience on Wednesdays. This is to give "pilgrims and visitors the chance to see the Pope and receive the Papal Blessing". Good to know ...

Up the Onofrio steps - why not?! In fact these don't give me the exit I expected so I have to come all the way back down. Uffa! 

Into Trastevere along Lungotevere in its variants then off into via Penitenzi which brings me back full circle out on the Lungotevere again - opposite the Palazzo Corsini which I have seen before.

It's really weird being able to walk where I want - no stroller! But sad too. I see that cheeky little face.







Into Trastevere proper - via the Porta Settimiana, past the church of Santa Maria della Scala. And then the sky blackened, the wind picked up; and the heavens opened. As luck would have it, I was near a gift shop so I spent the duration of the storm buying prezzies for Al's birthday.

I then found the cafeteria nearby that the gift shop people recommended and I think the rain has stopped? I sit there watching the staff of the shops waiting in their doorways for the tourist to return (the streets are deserted) - smoking ... I wonder how many a day they smoke here?; it seems incessant! 

Most expensive coffee so far - 2 Euros: tourist prices; what a ‘rip-off’.

Yes, the rain HAS stopped and it is back into hats and bright sunshine and blue sky. Things have freshened up immeasurably and it is a lovely afternoon.

On the way out of Trastevere, in via San Francesco a Ripa, I come across a tiny weeny pizzeria (I Suppli) full to the brim with people either eating in the street outside with their pizza balanced on whatever they can find (including vespas and cars) or taking away large portions wrapped in glossy paper. It is cut to the size you want and it is costed by weight: yummy (though it could have been hotter). I haven't eaten all day - including no breakfast. I could have eaten more but it has got even more crowded as I stand there - if that had been possible.

The only way out of Trastevere to Aventine, where the AirBnB place is, is across the river by one of two bridges: one would bring me back into Circo Massimo and the other is by way of Testaccio. 

Frankly I've walked "my socks off" and could do with just going direct but there is no choice so I opt for Testaccio and have a break in the piazza there (again). However, the seats are wet (!) but I use my newspaper and rest awhile.

I have been past E. Volpetti (a gourmet foodies' haven) in via Marmorata several times and it has either been closed or crowded; I don't really need anything as I still have food to use up. But if I was here longer I would be very tempted - the food looks wonderful.

Now back at the AirBnB having had a nice shower, washed hair, tidied kitchen, put on a load of washing, checked under the beds, cot etc. for anything left behind - all good it seems. And now enjoying left-over cheese and bikkies from the farmers market we went to on Sunday and some of the Sicilian red wine I bought in the supermarket and which we opened a few days ago. Boy, is it quiet here!

Had a wonderful time this afternoon after my sit-down in Piazza Testaccio; I visited the Cimitero Acattolico near the Piramide. I had popped my head into here the other day. Bill gave me the "heads-up" on actually paying a visit. Thanks, Bill. What a place. So beautiful - and the bonus was I got to go to the loo (too much information, I know! - but this was worth the donation entry fee alone!) and just an amazing place - and a close-up of Piramide as well.














The following information comes from http://www.italyheaven.co.uk/rome/cemetery.html:
Keats (1795-1821) lies in a quiet corner in the oldest part of the Cemetery, his simple tombstone graced by a sad and bitter epitaph:

"This Grave contains all that was Mortal of a YOUNG ENGLISH POET, Who on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his Heart at the Malicious Power of his Enemies, Desired these Words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone. Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water. Feb 24th 1821."

Next to Keats's tomb is that of the artist Joseph Severn (1793-1879). Severn was a close friend of Keats, and was with him in Rome when the poet died. He was responsible for the design of his friend's grave. Later in life Severn held the post of British Consul in Rome.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) spent the last few years of his life travelling around Italy with his wife, the author Mary Shelley. On the 8th July 1822, while living at Lerici (near La Spezia), Shelley drowned in a sailing accident. After his cremation on the beach, Shelley's ashes were brought to Rome for burial. The Shelleys' son is also buried in the Cemetery, which Shelley had described as a spot so beautiful "it might make one in love with death, to be buried in so sweet a place".

This photo is for you, Al (but I don't think you are reading my blog?)

Cats stroll in the shade of cypresses, where gravestones remember, among hundreds of others, Shelley's friend Trelawney, Goethe's son Julius, R.M. Ballantyne and Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci.

A lot of British and US expats buried here. I noticed graves of relatives of William Wordsworth.
















This one is for you, Bill - you mentioned it in your email!