This morning it was absolutely beautiful out - blue skies and a nice breeze - a relief from yesterday. Luckily the weather held out and gave us a few hours to actually enjoy being outside before all hell broke loose (more on that later). Andrea and Khuzema met us at our apartment to drop off their luggage and then we started our day at the Porta Portese Sunday market.
Only 10 minutes from our house, the Porta Portese market is the main flea market in Rome and while there isn't too much exciting stuff for sale (clothes, housewares, jewelery, shoes), it's the sheer size of the market that is worth seeing. We entered through the main gate and we saw a long line of stalls on either side of a walkway. Every time we thought we were close to the end of the market, we realized the walkway just curved and the market actually went past what we could see. At some point, we were satisfied that we had "experienced" the market - and we guessed we saw between 400 and 500 stalls. It wasn't immediately clear how to get out of the market though - so when we found a path that seemed like it would lead us to a main street, we took it. Instead, we found ourselves in the midst of an entire different section of the market - much bigger than what we had seen before. I would easily double our estimate - there was probably 1,000 stalls there! Finally we made our way to the main street and walked back towards our apartment.
Our next stop was back at St. Peter's Basilica - hoping for more success than yesterday. Instead of walking there we took a bus to get more of a scenic tour. The bus got off the major streets and took a route over the Gianicolo hill above Trastevere - there were great views of the city and no traffic. Once we arrived in the Vatican City, we grabbed some lunch and then were forced to re-evaluate. Apparently, Sunday is not a good day to go to the Vatican, especially when all the tourists who, like us, returned because they were turned away yesterday. The line to get into the basilica/climb the dome wrapped all the way around the piazza. You would have thought it was the middle of August! We decided it wasn't worth spending the whole day on line so we revised our plans, but at least we got to see what other cultures in the world consider their "Sunday Best".
Our new plan was to take our friends to Testaccio to see St. Paul's Basilica (If you can't have Peter, you might as well take Paul). Since we didn't have a lot of time, we caught the subway and got off just a block from the basilica. After a quick visit we got back on the subway to the Pyramid stop and paid a visit to our favorite Testaccio pastry shop. We sat down for a sampling, followed by gelato from the shop down the street. Then we made the walk home. At this point, the rain started but it wasn't too bad until we were just five mintues from the apartment. Seems that five minutes is all you need to get soaked.
Andrea and Khuzema gathered their things, we walked them to the bus, and said our goodbyes. We got home just in time. It started to rain so hard that water started leaking from our window and we could barely see across the street the rain was so thick. After about 90 minutes it settled down enough to run out to get some dinner and then back home before the next round of storms started. Yowsers!
Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:
Mike - Mandorla e Biscotti and Aranchide e Stracciatella
Aviva - Cioccolato con zenzero e limone (chocolate with ginger and lemon) e Cannella and Clementina e Cioccolato con Chili
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