The Eternal City…

….remains eternally hot and a couple of oldies were starting to feel it today but nevertheless we mapped a different area of Rome to walk to today.

It didn’t take long after we started to realise that I had left my cap in the apartment but there was no turning back as there are many souvenir shops selling them. We stopped at the first, a street vendor just outside the square and I asked how much was he selling the caps for.

The exchange went something like

€20

Thanks and we start to walk away 

€15 as we were a few steps away

€10 he called after us but we kept walking 

Around the corner was a shop selling caps for €7.90 and it was they who got our custom!

After stopping for lunch at a restaurant just off Piazza del Popolo we then headed for Villa Borghese which in tourist guides is touted as one of the best parks in Rome and while it was “nice” it was nothing startling and didn’t draw us in for a long stay, though it gave a great view of Piazza Del Popolo and also in the distance the Basilica 

The Basilica is the nipple sitting centre on the skyline

 

and this is her in close up

Some shots of the park

We left the park through Piazzale Brasile 

 

 and went down via Vittorio Veneto which housed some of the city’s grander hotels as well as the US Embassy

And in time (but no longer in step) we reached Piazza Della Repubblica which was the area we stayed in, in 2011 but the area lacked the atmosphere that we thought it did on that visit - memory is obviously deteriorating!

As we could see the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II in the distance we decided that rather than take public transport to get us home we would walk down to the monument and follow the route we had followed yesterday to home. At times on the way we did query why we had chosen to do so as the limbs were very weary but keeping as much as possible in the shade we took our time to get home, with the pedometer for the trip clicking over the 700km mark!

One full day in Europe remains.

Kms driven to date 5389

Kms walked to date 702.5

Spent on Diesel €340.53 (estimate before trip €479)

Highest price paid to date for diesel €1.84/L Matera

Lowest price paid to date for diesel €1.479/L Freiburg

Spent on tolls €118.40 (estimate before trip €103.00)