Today we took advantage of some nice weather and went exploring the parks up in the hills above our neighborhood. First we checked out the river and the water has receeded about halfway - we can now see the walking/biking path, but its still high compared to a few days ago. Then, we took two buses up the hill and started our walk from the middle of the Villa Doria Pamphilj, which is now a public park. We visited the Pamphilj palace a few days ago, and we'd have to guess that this park was the backyard of the villa they had for when the family needed to get out of the city.
The park is located beyond the extents of any maps we have and they don't have any maps posted to let you know where you are (which you might think is important when the park is 450 acres), but luckily we had plenty of time to meander our way through the park. There were many nice walking paths, a few fountains, a couple mansions / churches with manicured gardens, and a big lake. Many people were out running or riding their bikes and we just had a good time soaking up the sun. Occaisionally we would stop and test our skills on the various exercise equipment located throughout the park. The big lesson we learned is that we are no longer monkey-bar champions. Apparently we've been neglecting whatever muscle group is responsible for making monkey-bars easy.
Mike somehow managed to navigate us to the exact exit of the park that we wanted and we walked around the surrounding neighborhood until we found a good spot for a quick lunch. Then we continued down the hill through the Gianicolo park that we saw the other day on the bus to St. Peters. We found a terrace with great views of Rome (and the looming clouds in the distance). We snapped a few shots and then continued on the road that eventually made it's way into Trastevere. We made a quick stop at home to rest our legs and then went out for a drink and to read our books for a while. Then we went for a walk down Viale Trastevere before meeting up with Layla and Giulio for dinner one last time before the end of our trip. We went back to the "Morgue" tonight and had some more delicious pizza. Our Roman guides then took us to the oldest gelateria in Rome (and possibly Italy). In operation since 1880, the Palazzo del Freddo is still dishing out some tasty gelato. Back in the day they even delivered all over Europe - to France, Spain, etc.
For our last stop of the night, we went up the hill behind the soccer stadium for a great view of the entire city. A soccer match had just gotten out so we also had a great view of the traffic - much more fun to see from above than from within. Winter seems to be settling in here, and since it was much chillier tonight we didn't need much coaxing back in the car to our apartment. We have a couple more recommended sites to visit over the next two (!) days.
Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:
Mike - Cassata e Pistacchio
Aviva - Cioccolato Bianco e Menta
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