05.10 - Day 264 - Silvignano to Rome, ITA
Saturday 5th October - Silvignano - Roma, Italy (Day 264)
By 9:30 we’re driving away from Casa di Luca Pietro and on our way to Rome. Driving itself has actually been fine though we do comment that google maps makes it so much easier.
Accommodation options for Rome were either very expensive, very bad, or very far away. We were looking at staying in Orte, a 45 minute train ride away until Kate suggested a Monastery stay that she’d heard about.
It’s still pricier than our average Europe rate to date (175 euros vs 80-100 euros) but the Figlie Della Presentazione di Maria SS al Tempio is just a 20 minute walk to Vatican City. The actual room - you say austere, we say pared back - is also actually two twin rooms, so the kids are happy to have their own room. No TV, no fridge, kettle or cooking implements but we do get breakfast and you can check in from 10:30am.
With only two nights in the capital we head on out … into the rain and into the crowds.
We caught a short bus ride to the east of the River Tiber with plans to catch a second bus to the Colosseum. But the second bus arrives, faces squished up against windows so we adapt and encourage Sienna and Seb to walk in the light rain with a McDonalds milkshake, which they think is a very fair trade (focusing on the now and not how far they might have to walk).
Piazza Novona, a former arena, has determined tourists sit outside cafes but we walk on to the Pantheon. Seemingly all the buildings are ‘only’ 6 or 7 storeys high which means you turn a corner and are confronted by the giant columns of the Pantheon looking over the piazza, along with snaking queues trying to gain entrance.
The rain restarts and we seek shelter under a cafe awning. The sellers of ponchos and umbrellas are doing a brisk trade.
Thankfully as quick as it started, the rain ceased so we walked on to Trevi Fountain which is even more impressive than I expected. The ever transient nature of crowds means we easily get to the front to throw in a coin, or 4.
Along the cobbled streets we meander, arriving at the top of Scalinata di Trinita or Spanish Steps which provide views to soak in now the rain is long gone.
After snacks (always with the snacks) we head to the park of Villa Borghese, where there was a plan to hire bikes to cycle around.
But our attention is piqued by a line of small gazebos with crowds with balloons, so we amble over and end up spending an hour and a half absorbed in various activities, where the sponsor has a loose theme of sustainability.
It’s seemingly mostly sponsored by various models of electric cars but with varying activities from making seed bombs in little clay balls, to colouring in, to colouring in a car, as in colouring on the actual car, to wooden games like pinball or walking on 2 person skies or games involving balancing balls or battling balls.
The kids happily jump from one to the next, Seb ecstatic when he wins a Scalextric race, and equally pleased with his free Corriere della Sera white hat which he wears non-stop for the next few days.
By now the sun is starting to set and we make our way back to the metro and a 10 minute walk back to our Monastery stay. Despite the early rain, in the end we had a pretty successful afternoon experiencing some of Rome.
