Firstly, a BIG happy 80th birthday to my dear Dad, who has been so supportive over the years...and is still doing helping us keep track of documents and paper work from home while we are away for a year. Without such help, a trip like this would be really tricky. I am led to believe that he is enjoying having 4 out of 5 of his children over the weekend to help him blow out the candles! Once we are home, we can continue the celebrations and keep eating cake, no doubt!
Tim and I trotted off to the indoor market that Karl discovered yesterday and it was fabulous! Fruit, vegetables and meat, cheese, wine and pasta: this is where the locals go! Mini zucchinis for 1 Euro per kg, and yellow and red pepperoni for the same price, clementines and oranges with leaves, assorted exotic looking mushrooms, artichokes and plenty of tomatoes - all colourful and splendid. Before heading out we spotted a bakery and bought some limon crema and nocciolata mini croissants and some flattish bread. I am trying hard to speak some Italian when I can so markets and delicatessens are the good places to practise! The deli prices where everything is sliced fresh and just as you want are cheaper than the prepackaged goods by a long way.
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| Ingresso Mercato |
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| Mushrooms! |
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| Wild strawberries |
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| Wine by the barrel (stainless steel) |
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| Fairly typical Rome accommodation! - We are SO fortunate in Australia |
Just as we got back to our apartment,
the rain started and continued fairly heavily. When Annika, Tim and I
went on a mission to check out a shop Annika had seen, the rain was
bucketting down and the autumn leaves had all been washed off the
trees! The pavements were carpetted in leaves and the trees were nearly
bare!
Now
that it was raining, the selfie-stick sellers had changed their ware
to umbrellas and ponchos and were on every corner. They really must
struggle to earn a living and in the rain, it would be very miserable.
We saw an old tramp, for want of a better word, with a black plastic
garbage bag draped around his shoulders, knocking on car windows as they
stopped at the traffic lights. His shadowy presence and dark covering
could hardly been seen in the dim light; a very tenuous existence.
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| Autumn leaves everywhere |
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| Carpet of leaves! |
At my request we walked around the top
end of the Largo di Torre Argentina to check out the poor cats who live
there in the rain AND we found the sanctuary gate open! It is open 12 -
6 PM for visitors! We couldn't resist a look and will take Luke back
there. The volunteers look after 180 cats under the old ruins and the
cats are cared for well, fed and available for adoption. Some of the
cats are so pretty and tame that it is a puzzle as to why they ended up
in a cat sanctuary.
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| "Nero" king of the cats! |
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| Cat sanctuary! |
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| Feeding the cats is illegal! |
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| Some of the 180 cats being fed! All have names! |
Annika
and I then spent some time in Tiger which is like a Typo or Smiggle
shop at home so that was a bit of fun. I think Tiger is a Danish
company.
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| First signs of Christmas in Rome |
Walking back in the rain was sort of fun and it was so dark, even at 4 PM. The hordes of people had all retreated to the cosyness of cafes or homes and turned in for the night by the look of things. We really do have an advantage of staying here for a while and not just being in Rome for the weekend in the rain. The historic buildings look drab against the grey sky and the river looks dirty. The yellow sodium lights reflect on the wet cobblestones to give a eerie glow, still beautiful, but when you've seen it all on bright days, you have seen Rome at its best.
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