Buon giorno amici!

It’s Wednesday, and our only full day in Roma. And, of course, it’s raining. Never mind, on with the raincoats and off to the Paletine, Rome’s ancient ruins and the place where Julius Caesar (and many famous others), walked the walk , talked the talk and came to grief in the Forum. History at every turn. Wonderful buildings, statues, Latin inscriptions carved into massive pieces of marble, and a multitude of soggy tourists sweating under ridiculously bright cheap plastic ponchos. It may be wet, but the temperature and humidity are still high.

The local street vendors are right onto it. Is it a sunny day? Then out come the cheap sunglasses and cheaper still hats and baseball caps. Selfie sticks abound, and you can even match them to the colour of your mobile. Is it raining, like today? Then out come the umbrellas and plastic ponchos. They seldom miss a trick, and can be extremely persistent. If you ignore them, they follow you up the street calling by turn in a multitude of languages, trying to guess which country you’re from. They’ve never heard of Latvia, my parents’ home land, so I happily confuse them by chatting away in Latvian. They soon give up and go searching for more easily conned tourists! Es nesaprotu ko tu saki!! Eij projam. (ask Dale Howe for the translation!)

We also visited the Palatine Museum, partly to see the exhibits, but mostly to get out of the rain for a while. Then we called it a day and wandered home, buying lunch at the supermarket on the way. Fresh tripe omatoes ( actually fresh ripe tomatoes. We just had a small earthquake and I missed the keys), prosciutto, buffalo milk mozzarella and a chunk of sour dough bread. Simple and delightful. A couple of hours of down-time (zzzz) and we’re ready to go out to dinner.

Tomorrow we’re off to Siena by bus.

Ciao. Ilze