Roman Around

I joined mum and Bene for a morning walk in Park Borghese so was there to take a photo when we ran into mum’s new friend Philomena. It’s cool in the morning and the park is full of interesting things- birds, fruit trees, statues, a water clock, what we think is a mausoleum and some gorgeous buildings. Nothing is labeled, so we have no idea what we are looking at, but it’s all very old and makes for a great walk. 

Breakfast at the hotel is a buffet, and each day there are different cakes. Mum took a piece of the chocolate walnut one, and told the waitress how good it was, so she packed her up a couple of pieces in a foil box for a snack later. We had to hustle this morning as we were being picked up at 7.30 for our tour of St Peter’s, followed by the Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. 

We did a short gelato making class, with lunch provided while we waited for it to chill. None of us are quite sure if the gelato they served us was the gelato we made, or if it was a “here’s something we prepared earlier” affair. We had planned to split up and do our own thing for a while, but it was hot and we were tired and most of us ended up back at the hotel fairly quickly, giving us the opportunity to visit what turned out to be the highlight of the day - the Gallerie Borghese. It’s a beautiful building in the park next to our hotel with the most spectacular Bernini statues. We had a fabulous guide who loved the museum and the contents. He waxed lyrical about the marble of the floor, showed us his favourite pieces and laughed with us about the original mosaics with dodgy repairs and the statues with the wrong heads and hands. The Bernini statues were special. I’ve included a photo of one but it doesn’t do it justice. 

The final activity for the day was an after hours trip to the Vatican Museum. After closing, they let in three small groups for private tours (about 70 people in total). Our group was the nine of us plus three others. We had half an hour sitting quietly in the Sistine Chapel with our guide- a far cry from shuffling through with the thirty thousand people that visit daily. 

The tour was followed by dinner in the Vatican gardens. The food was so bad it was funny. Bene took a staged photo of everyone looking angry, which was hard because we had the giggles. A  custard tart with a big orange cube in it in it was determined to be the worst item, generating much discussion till a couple of brave souls determined it was rockmelon. I believe Josh and Flynn took a further nighttime excursion to MCDonalds, but I was exhausted (about 21,000 steps today) and went to bed.