We’re losing weight in Rome, that’s for sure. Despite a massive daily intake of wine, Campari, cheese, beer, pizza, chocolate and gelato, over just three full days we have walked for around 21 hours. Jen is noticeably slimmer, and I’m pretty sure my head isn’t as fat as usual. Which is good, because in Rome there are no overweight people. We Aussies like to imagine all Italians as round, jolly people, but every overweight person in this town is American, German or Australian.
We’ve been walking so much that I can’t imagine anyone, not even somebody half our age, keeping up. All of that exercise we do at home, it seems, is finally paying off. It was especially important yesterday when I decided to find an alternate way home from the Colosseum. We’d taken Sam in his pram and I was sick of dodging the wide-load arses of loud-talking Americans. My intimate knowledge of the layout of Rome was about to pay off. Or was it?
After two hours of walking, and after twice confirming to Jen that I did, indeed, know exactly where we were (and twice refusing to consult the map, as I didn’t want to look like a dumb tourist), I came clean and admitted that I was lost. I asked a young man at a bus stop, “Dove Piazza Navona, Campo dei Fiori etc?” and he laughed. He’d seen us push a pram all the way up a very long hill and with a mixed look of guilt and amusement pointed us back the way we’d come. “After two kilometres turn left,” he smiled. We eventually made it home, and while Sam was amused by how dark it was when we walked through the door, Jen wasn’t.
Still, the walking has been effective. We’ve re-introduced ourselves to much of Rome already and tonight, over yet another bloody bottle of red, are planning areas to re-visit for longer and more detailed excursions. Sam is planning to spend every day on an open-topped, double-decker bus, which is fine by me – that way I can blame someone else when we get lost.
Here are some photographic highlights…
Piazza Venezia
Trevi Fountain
Piazza Navona, which in a few days will become a massive Christmas market
Jen & Sam on our street, Via dei Giubbonari
St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City (with Satan in foreground)
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