19 March 2011: Rome Day Two.

It was a pretty restful night and neither of us has suffered too badly from jetlag. We were up and out of the apartment early and down to the local market (not more than 200 meters away) to buy some food for our dinner (well I am travelling with Michelle and the food is very important).

The local market is amazing and the produce first class. This is my first experience at observing Michelle weave her way amongst the people asking questions, negotiating price and participating in general chit chat in Italian with the local traders. It was first class entertainment observing the goings on and I must own up to a little bit of envy that I am ill prepared, language wise, to fully enjoy the banter. I reckon some of those traders were chatting her up too but I really wouldn’t know for sure.

Having secured our meal (which included unidentified, still living shell fish+ clams + organic salad + bread + fresh mozzarella etc etc etc) for the evening, it was off to the heart of Rome to explore. We decided upon a double decker, open air bus tour as our first soiree, we thought it would give us a good feel for the city and allow us to make decisions about what places we would like to have a closer look at.

The place is amazing (have I said that already?) and it’s hard not to fall in love with the sandy, pastel, ochre washed out buildings and apartments that line the cobble stoned inner city streets. I was completely absorbed in the place and said very little as we moved from one amazing site to another. It wasn’t that I had nothing to say, its just that this was one of those times when you just need to shut up and take in your surroundings.

The Fontana Trevi is one of those places that will take your breath away as soon as you see it. It may seem hard to believe to some, but I have never actually seen a picture of the fountain before seeing it in real life and I guess that just added to the splendour of it. Now officially one of my favourite places in the world, a must see again.

The tour then took us up and around the Colosseum pointing out historical buildings and monuments as we went. There was so much to see it was almost information overload and difficult to take everything in. We decided to leave the tour of the Colosseum until Tuesday, as the crowds were huge due to the fact that St Peter’s and several other places of interest were closed. Still, a stroll around the outer wall gave us a good idea of the majesty of the place.

We ended the day preparing our dinner from the produce purchased in the morning. I’m starting to get a real taste for Chianti, itsa beaut!