Day 3: Aventino, Testaccio, & a Lot of OLD STUFF

6:15 pm: Holy long day. Slept well again and woke up to my alarm at 7:45. Had brekfast and set out for the Aventine hill. I knew I could take bus 30 there, but somehow I kept walking around Largo Argentina in circles so I decided to hop on the (not-so-)Express bus 40 to the station, then the metro to Circo Maximo. Still a big empty oval. Set out to find the Aventine Hill - on a day like today I had to find the Knights of Malta Keyhole - famous for perfectly framing St. Peters's dome. Pretty amazing stuff. Also wandered through this lovely orange garden (with equally lovely views) and saw the peaceful Saint Sabina church. Descended the Aventine in the direction of Testaccio to find the famous covered market. Yummy food wonderland full of fresh fruits and veggies from all over as well as lots of meat and fish and bread (and pet food and toilet paper?) stands. I found the one thing at which California beats Italy - the strawberries.




Wandered around a while longer. I had wanted to try this "famous" pizza by the slice shop but it was early so I sat for a while and rested in a nice cool church. At noon, the place was still not open. I waited til about 12:15 and they finally opened, then I went inside and it didnt look that impressive. So I wandered back and found another pizza by the slice place and had a slice of margherita there. Also wandered in the Volpetti deli, which is basically a food emporium.

Set off down Viale Aventino and found Il Gelato, which came highly recommended. It was a small portion as far as they go, but it was also less expensive (only 1.80). It was, also, the creamiest and best gelato i've ever had. They had several kinds of single-origin chocolate, so I had the... Tahitian or Trinidadian combined with gianduja (chocolate/hazelnut combo). God damn. God damn!!!!

Walked around and made it to the massive complex of the Baths of Caracalla. Simply enormous and hard to believe looking at these ruins that over 1600 people a day came for their social gathering and bathing routine. Now all that lives there are birds and moss.

after an unnecessarily lengthy wait, caught the 118 bus out to the Ancient Appian Way - aka the world's first superhighway? wandered the pedestrian path from the bus stop to the Catacombs of San Callisto. Very neat. over a half million people were buried here and you only get to see one small part of it. You go down about 12 meters and it's basically freezing there. Still very cool stuff.

then went further down the path to a teeny historically important church and caught bus 218 to San Giovanni in Laterano which was significantly larger and more impressive than I thought. Spent quite a while in there looking around and taking photos. Tried to catch bus 85 to nearby San Clemente and ended up getting on it going the wrong direction. After figuring it out I righted the wrong but it was close to 6pm so I figured I would hit that church on Thursday because it's down the street from the Colosseum where I will be.

Now I'm back at the B&B to rest the increasingly tired feet and decide where to eat dinner. A note that Day 1's pictures are now labeled: http://www.flickr.com/photos/debstah1/sets/72157626563382329/

10pm: Back in hotel after delicious dinner in Trastevere at Zi'mberto. Lovely little cafe with mostly outdoor tables and mostly italian spoken. Had pasta alla gricia, one of the main traditional Roman pasta dishes - it's with pancetta and pecorino romano and black pepper and lots of yum. Of course, after taking a picture of it, I proceeded to spill my wine everywhere, but that's ok :P

Got a gelato - nocciola and chocolate - at Fior di Luna, another one of the recommended places. This marks the first two-gelati day, but they were both small, and cheap. I saw a place called the "T-Bone Station: American Steakhouse" (or something like that) but all the TVs had the Rome tennis tournament on the TVs. Ain't no American steakhouses showing tennis, I assure you of that. Trastevere is quite the hopping place. Full cafe after full cafe and people all around.

Came back and there was a group of drunk teenagers on the tram. The locals on there were NOT pleased and everyone was staring at them. Anyway, back at the B&B I did some laundry. If I leave it til there's a lot it takes forever and I have to stand for a long time so I figure if I do a little bit every 3 or so days I'll be ok.

I would like to add that I was spoken to in Italian on the street no fewer than 3 times today. Of course the first two I told them I couldn't speak Italian and had no idea what they were saying but they apologized. The third just asked me to take a picture, so maybe I fooled them :) 

Tomorrow's plan is lots of wandering, back in Trastevere and the Ghetto, before a late afternoon Borghese reservation!

Pictures coming as sooooooon as I can get them uploaded. I may have to tinker with my flickr settings to upload at a smaller resolution because each set is taking hours and hours.