Day 2
Tuesday June 11
The day started with a walk to the Galleria Borghesi in preparation for Thursday’s tour.
It was an easy 15 min stroll. It started of pleasant with a cool breeze, but the heat soon cut in. Nonetheless the reconnaissance was successful, now know how to get there and where the ticket office is.
There is a huge park that contains the Galleria, as well as Villa Borghesi (which is now a cinema) and multiple other items of interest.
One looks like the aftermath of a heavy night.
There are so many ‘tiny cars’ here, but none of them have a role as a taxi.
One of the locals demonstrated how to deal with morning heat:
Everywhere I go, I seem to run into this lady hiding among the flowers:
Next on the agenda is a quiet stroll around Rome, still struggling to shake off the tiredness.
On the wander, there was a tunnel with a speed sign that I interpreted as 30km/h. The Romans seem to see it as 30km/min!
After a very long, hot journey, we finally arrived at the Palace of Venice.
By this stage the heat was getting to us, so we did the ‘hop-on’ part of the Hop-on Hop-off bus, and did the ‘Stay-on’. I was upstairs with better camera angles and a cool breeze, Annie downstairs in the warm aircon. A lap and a half later it was 3 hours past Annie’s lunch time. All civility was starting to wane, and rather than risk a life threatening injury, did a ‘hop-off’ at the stop nearest our hotel. Fortunately there is a nice little cafe near the hotel, so a sandwich and coffee for her, and pizza and beer for me restored normality.
One value of a Smart car is that they can be parked in small spaces. This person decided that the traffic island in the middle of an intersection was suitable!
Orange trees abound, but the oranges themselves do not look appealing, or should that be ‘apeeling’? Picking them would be an issue anyway.
And this lady adds a whole new meaning to taking your dog for a walk.
