Olwyn and Fred Tuesday 1st June

Tuesday 1st June; First day in Rome
The first night after flying half round the world is always interesting as many of you will know much better than me, but I think we scored very well. Our very kind hostess Isa had given us the quietest room in her establishment and even with the windows thrown wide open in the traditional Roman manner to let the cool night air circulate, the middle of the night seemed quieter than Cawthron Crescent!! (maybe our home neighbourhood is deteriorating!). I had some opportunity to consider this and snatch at all the other thoughts whizzing about after waking intermittently from 3.00. But, firmly telling myself to ignore the pigeons cooing on the sills, the seagulls squawking and the swallows chasing and calling as they whirled above the courtyard below our room as day broke with sparkling freshness and clarity at 5.00, I I continued to stack away good sleep till the sun burst into our East facing room and the 7.00 a.m. church bell tolled (thankfully they mute the tolling 9.00 pm till morning!)
We were both well refreshed (the monster king sized bed and lovely fresh, airy room had certainly helped) and the breakfast Isa brought us very good – a huge cup of tea (though we did use our own Dilmah teabags!), a packet of juice (peach was the flavour today and very delish), chocolate croissant, yoghurt and cake (to any grandchildren reading this; chocolate croissant and cake for breakfast is not going to be introduced at your place; though perhaps we should have one sleepover with a Rome brekkie……………?)
Our plan for the day was to orientate ourselves with a HOHO (Hop on Hop off) bus tour, so first thing Isa took us to the buy a ticket and away we went. Our first bus wasn’t open topped, so we hopped off at the second stop (the awesome Piazza Venezia) to explore and catch the next bus. On the next bus we managed to score seats in the raised back row with the best view on offer; can you imagine how stoked Freddie was with that little coup! Amazing driving around the historic area of the City with the ruins of Largo Argentina dating back to the 3rd Century BC, the Colosseum, Circo Maxima, then along beside the Tiber and across to the Vatican and back. Following the river we drove past the bridge across to Castel Saint Angelo and on to the magnificent Piazza del Popolo where we jumped off the bus to grab lunch before heading through the gardens of the Villa Borghese looking for the Classical Gallery for which we'd been upsold entry. After one wrong turn followed by a bad steer from an enquiry, I swear we managed to circumnavigate and criss cross the entire area before, hot, bothered and considerably less composed (and less kindly disposed!) we stumbled upon our destination later than the entry time on our ticket. Thankfully the very understanding woman just smiled and said something along the lines of "no worries, away you go". Phew!
And what a priceless upsell that was. The Bernini sculptures (and other amazing artworks) were just breathtaking and with a great audio guide to enlighten us we were enthralled for a couple of hours. My favourites were an almost translucent marble sculpture of Borghese's wife Pauline as Venus the Conqueror (I wanted to take a photo to show you Pauline, but it was a no photos place) and the strong but delicate depiction of Apollo and Daphne.
Back to the bus tour which we decided to finish by jumping off near enough to walk across the Tiber to the Trastavere sector of Rome which is more "everyday residential" with family owned restaurants catering for neighbourhood dining with authentic Roman cuisine. We had great fun wandering up and down lanes checking out menus till we made a choice of a place which looked busy and buzzing. We've found it interesting communicating with folk who quite often are making a great effort to use a second language for our benefit while we have only our one language to offer. In way of explanation, Fred has constantly worn a black and white NZ cap with silver fern on (thanks so much Phil!!). As we entered the ristoranti we were suddenly the centre of some very loud and jovial attention with much cajoling to sing a song or do a haka!!! It seems this restaurant is where one of the tour bus companies brings their patrons and provides entertainment in the way of a very competent guitar strumming singer; the group dining included a bunch of Aussies! What a fun night and all the better when the next bus tour group were all Italians!! The meal was great too - Pasta and Porcini mushrooms for me and charred lamb for Fred which was delicious with a cup of good strong Italian coffee to finish.