Currently it is 12:30 p.m and Nonna has "called it quits" (at least for the morning) and has succumbed to a Campari Spritz at which the young woman behind the counter at the bar on "our" corner looked at me somewhat quizzically until I said "Nonna รจ stanca" (which translates as "granny is stuffed"). I feel like I'm the only person in the country drinking at midday - but tough!
And I get the chips and curry nuts with it like we have had in the evenings. Go girl! (Great, especially as I didn't get breakfast this morning!).
Anyway, Sophie has been handed over to Mama for a feed. Kathryn is having a meeting with a staff member in the bar. They have been at it since 9:00 a.m. - no doubt having coffee rather than Campari Spritzes!
So, earlier, we (Sophie and I that is) attempted to pursue the old tramping grounds of Bill (my Italiano teacher). And it gives me a chance to "knock off" one more of those 'Seven Hills of Rome'!
Bill tells me he used to live off via Merulana. This is down near the Colosseum - so off we tramp again but via my favourite track hidden behind the oleanders from the monastery San Gregorio at the base of Monte Celio. This skirts along a tram/bus/taxi track above via San Gregorio to the Colosseum from the FAO near where we are staying, a track that has become well-worn by me now.
By this time, Sophie is asleep 10:10 a.m. Go Nonna!
Great views of the Colosseum up here but the Parco Oppio and ruins are very underwhelming; it is unkempt and frequented by unsavoury types.
I know Sophie is bound to wake soon - as she does - and she'll (possibly) take her time to get fully awake but I won't have long before I have to intervene so I "hot foot it" aiming to reach the other end of via Merulana which I find to be quite an interesting street. We pass the intersection with via Labicana enroute.
We do in fact reach the very large (but not so attractive, to my eye at least) San Giovanni in Laterano church at the other end of via Merulana. The light is bright and it is now that Sophie is getting tetchy.
Here I make my first navigational error since arriving. We walk down the very long via Dell'Amba Aradam and then turn along via Druso - or so I thought. In fact it was via Gallia, which apart from being wrong, has to be THE most unpleasant street in Rome: the footpath was full of pothole; cracks and bumps from tree roots; there was garbage; also poles in unhelpful places - you name it! A stroller pusher's nightmare.
We were forced onto the road which was unrelentingly busy and I had an increasingly tetchy Sophie.
A couple of helpful Italian donnas pointed me back in the general direction of where I should be headed.
I pulled Sophie out of the pram and carried her on one hip while pushing the pram with my one free hand (I didn't want her in the carrier today close to my face as I have a cold and I think hers is improving).
We stop along via della Ferratella in Laterano for a drink of water from her cup which she willingly accepts today. She even treats me to a show of holding the cup with two hands and helping herself - which mum says has been a work-in-progress until now - so, almost a new milestone on show for Nonna.
And I did in fact end up in via Druso after passing through the old city walls at Porta Metronio and down to the busy Piazzale Numa Pompilio and back via the dreaded viale delle Terme di Caracalla with its makeshift homes of cardboard and today even a tent. Mind you, it is indeed a reality check that, as a tourist, one crosses the path of the homeless; sure Rome has its sights (a ruin at every corner it seems) but real life continues irrespective of the tourists and it's not all "beer and skittles" - although it probably IS all beer for some.
So we stagger on Sophie and I - it's a long journey back past the Terme and the FAO and down viale Aventino with Sophie on my hip and pushing the stroller. She is crying for sure when we get to the bar on "our" corner and I happily throw her into the arms of Mama.
All is good with the world. But I still have the afternoon to go!
Kathryn has a unit meeting in the early afternoon with the ‘head honcho’ in the U.S. plus her local team (two of whom come to the house for the link-up) and staff in the U.K. and Senegal.
Afterwards, she has a lonnnnnng meeting with Tania.
I depart after 4 p.m. with a tetchy Sophie who falls asleep in the pram. We walk past the Terme (again!) because I had seen as we were coming back from our lost-and-found morning mission that the Celio parklands extend into more parklands beyond the busy Piazzale Numa Pompilio into via Claudio Marcello.
When we came back down, school was out - kids and parents everywhere. We crossed the road to Parco Egerio but couldn't find a way in. There seemed some nice establishments here but dogs with bared teeth patrolled the fence line - fortunately on the other side; but the barking woke Sophie.
She was as dark as the clouds looming over the Terme as we went past it (again) and the FAO (again) but by the viale Aventino she was asleep once more. We did a few laps of the viale until I couldn't stand doing the same walk any longer and I called into a bar and had a drink. Kathryn finally turned up about 6:30 p.m. Long days!
Apparently our landlord has called in with focaccia and cake. So we ate in. The cakes are from Forno Campo de' Fiori and they are amazing! (Eat your heart out, Tracey!).
BIG packing night tonight! Kathryn and Sophie and I need to go to the airport in the morning - early. Taxi is (finally) ordered for 5 a.m.
So that means I have "done" Aventino, Celio/Caelian, Capitoline, Esquiline. And I have sort of "done" the Palatino.
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