Last day in Italy

Tuesday March 15, 2011 Day 258

Today we abandoned any idea of an agenda and set out as leisurely tourists. Roger circled several places on the map which were on tourist agendas, and we set out to explore some of them. First, as we walked down the street near our hotel, we came to an open-air market. I have to admit that I ADORE open-air markets. They are such a profusion of food and flowers and clothing and shoes and pedestrian items and handcrafted items. It is the latter which particularly draw me. I bought two rings at this one.

Our goal was a vegetable and flower market in Campo di Fiori, so our first objective was the metro. In the subway station, as Roger collected our tickets, I paused to take flash pictures of some wonderful modern mosaics lining the walls of the station. As I took the second picture, I realized that one of the metro personnel was shouting at me, apparently to stop taking photos! I shrugged, walked through the turnstile and headed down the escalator. He did not pursue me.

My "illegal" pictures

This gentleman and his contrabass were riding the subway with us

We emerged at Spagna, the Spanish Steps stop, then walked from there through the fashion district of Rome. I am not a fashionista, but I really do appreciate Italy’s fashions. They are springy and delightful - the kind of clothes I would wear if I were 30 years younger and 30 pounds skinnier! 

We arrived at the market and wandered around a bit. I came upon some lovely glass pendants on fabric or leather straps for three Euros each. They were really quite charming - they hint of Murano glass without the price. So I bought a few. In the meantime, Roger was over checking out the hats. He bought a plaid one, light blue with darker blue stripes. This morning we bought our only souvenirs of the trip. We also indulged in some nuts and dried mango to snack on.

Charming cakes in a bakery window

More cakes

Still more cakes

We walked on a bit and paused in a small park, where we sat on a park bench and relaxed, ate nuts and mangos, and watched a small beagle chase pigeons. Then we rose and headed toward another small square to see a fountain. Before we left the park area, however, we dropped into a souvenir shop and bought Roger a Roma pin for his hat, one with Romulus and Remus suckling at the she-wolf. Then it was on to the square, where I was delighted to see that there were about 15 art students sitting around drawing various aspects of the fountain or of other scenery in the square. Indeed, I barely saw the fountain, walking around instead to inspect the drawings of each student. It made me long for an art class.

Check out this door handle at a Chinese restaurant!

From the art class we walked down a street to the river, and discovered that we had apparently ended up in the artist’s quarter, as there were two or three artist workshops lining this particular street, and I suspect there were others in the area. We entered the Jewish quarter and saw a haunting depiction of the holocaust on a wall.

Holocaust memorial

Jewish memorial wall

We had lunch in a street café - then continued to explore along the Tiber. We made our way slowly back to our hotel and retired for the evening. We are getting old - almost every day we were happy to return to our hotel a bit earlier than we did the afternoon before, worn out. Sigh.

Roger awaiting lunch

Dessert after lunch - yum!

Italy cannot be considered to be a modern country until it can put toilet seats on its public toilets, offer separate toilet facilities for men and women, and get rid of squats. Toilet tissue would be nice, too. I learned on our cruise, however, to stuff two clean tissues in my left pocket every morning before going ashore. The rule was never to use them except for toileting purposes, and nothing else went into that pocket - a precaution that I take here in Italy as well. Sigh.