Tuesday June 7, 2016. Rome

Tuesday June 7. Rest day for Mike. We were able to enjoy the breakfast provided by hotel. The previous day, we had to leave so early, we missed their breakfast. It was nice and good variety of american and european. We had plenty. Mike needed tbe day to rest and recuperate. I snapped at the front desk lady and let her know how unhappy we are with the lack of air conditioning in our room. And as soon as I came back, it was working!

I went on an excursion to find some change for my €500 bill. They paid my fellowship in cash Euros! I found a bank that required me to putmy finger in a fingerprint thing in a little revolving door plexiglass closet thing...but she would not admit me into the bank! I had stopped at an optomistrist office just before that, and he did have some €20 reading glasses I could have bought but i knew i would need change, so he was the one who suggested a bank...which wouldn't admit me even into the building. So I walked around until I found a different bank, and there was a man coming out of the teeny revolving door closet admittance door, so I asked him about how it worked. I put my hat, camera, bag, into the provided locker outside, was admitted, but quickly turned away "No, I cannot give you change, go to the place down the street for exhange." Well, there was no place down the street where she said, so I kept walking. I finally found a place, and she wanted to help me, but couldn't unless I bought something. Grrr. I didn't want to buy anything! However, we did decide  that I would eventually need to buy rail tickets to the airport on Thursday, so I told her that IF I could find her again, and IF I bought the tickets WHEN I got the flight info for our departure time, etc, THEN  I would come back and SHE would give me some smaller bills, please? What an ordeal. She showed me where I was on the map. I figured out how to get home. In the course of my wanderings I also found a laundramat. I bought Mike a few handfuls of cherries from a close by market, too. And then I got the airline info, packed up again, went back to the little exchange closet, bought my two tickets to the high speed train...not really. It is just the express. (The Leonardo Express, to be exact. It takes about 30 min from Termini to Airport.) Then I took the wad of money back to the hotel room, put it in our safe.

Then I got brave and and headed to the Metro to go to the crypt of bones of the Capuccian Monks. It was a nice museum. I made it there, found it, and made it back to my hotel without getting too lost. I almost got on the subway in the wrong direction, but discovered my error soon enough. I wish I would have remembered that I wanted to walk though the Borghese park area, as I was fairly close. But I have a one track mind and was just focused on what I had come to do (the crypt tour) and then made my way home. Then had a nap! Mike needed the day to stay off his foot. He has great reading material in the form of a Rick Steves Travel Guide for Rome. He said, "A person could be here for ten years and never see everything!" We had three days.

Later in the afternoon, we had planned to have a late lunch/early dinner out, but decided around 4 that the pizzaria that was closest would have been closed after the regular lunch crowd and we knew they didn't re-open for dinner until 7 pm (from our previous visit). So we ate a granola bar, some cherries, and I went for a walk down to the river area and back. I checked on laundry costs, planned to see if there was anything closer to eat at...and noted large numbers of police men all around tne front of our building upon my return from my walk!  Lots of them, coming and going, many in suits, others in different police attire. We did know that an investigation office share part of this building and they pass throught the hotel courtyard to get to their parking lot. But there were scads of people and they kept coming and going, gathering, talking...i thought it was an investigation. I asked. "A private event, nothing to be concerned about."  Turns out, it was a funeral something for the police supervisor person. We had to walk past them to go out to eat at 7pm. They were still there when we returned. A uniformed police officer was out front all afternoon until late in the evening.    

The other thing I tried to do today was get tickets for  tomorrow in the Colosseum. That was a horrible experience with online shopping. I still hate all kinds of shopping.  Both the activities require printed vouchers, but i cannot print from my tablet! I have one of the two from the front desk lady, Debra. I hoped the other is here by tomorrow morning when we need to leave.

But no. It was not. We ended up paying for the tickets twice. No printed voucher.

Some photos from my afternoonwalk to the Tiber River.

Neptune's Fountain

This piazza down the streen from us had a pine cone fointain or statue onit. We saw a similar pine cone starue (bigger, of course) in the Vatican Museums areas.

It is just so pretty everywhere around with all tbe old buildings and so many churches everywhere. 

there are lots of teeny cars. There are lots of well-trimmed pine trees that reminded me of the ones from The Lorax.

There were houseboats on the river. Lots of bridges. Many MANY steps down to the water, so I didnt bother to walks down there. It wasnt exactly an inviting-looking river. To me, anyway.&

Looking off in this direction, throught the tree leaves, I could see the famous statues on top of the big government building. They are hidden in the leaves, but zoomed in on the pix below. I had absolutely NO sense of direction in this city (what's new?) 

Truffala trees?