Last Day in Rome

We are staying less than a minute’s walk from the Campo de’ Fiori in Rome. During the day, the square is a giant outdoor market, with stalls selling everything from food (vegetables, cheese, meats) to clothes, to flowers, to toys, to souvenirs.

Sometime around 4:00 pm the market starts to wrap up. You can hear it when it starts – something about the bustle changes. Around the edges the vendors start packing up their wares and breaking down the stalls. And then they cart everything down the side streets to small storage spaces in the buildings.

Then the street cleaners come out…

And by the time it is dark, all the market stalls are gone, the square is clean and filled with people. This picture is early evening. Later it is much busier.

And then the next morning, all the stalls are set up again, long before I’m ready to get up. When I head out to get cappuccino I’m greeted by this.

After a busy week, we were tired and opted to relax in the apartment all morning. After a light lunch of arancini we decided to explore, with no particular agenda. I suggested we head toward the river, and then enjoy the sunshine.

We stopped for a gelato because what else would you do walking around Rome on a sunny day. We came across a number of restaurants displaying fresh artichokes and advertising traditional Roman recipes.

A table was set up with the artichokes trimmed and ready for cooking.

We weren’t looking for Roman ruins today, but it is really hard to avoid them in Rome. Jan found a museum (unfortunately closed today) about the history of the Jews in Rome. It was in the area that had been the center of the Jewish ghetto in Rome. I also discovered a walkway at what had been street level during Imperial Rome. Of course, now it is well below street level. It starts at the Portico of Octavia, which was where triumphal marches began, and goes to the edge of the Forum. Two things that we will need to investigate on a future trip. Here is the Portico of Octavia.