Roaming around Rome

Day XV, 14.6.2010

Lunch: Green Salad and Chicken Sandwich
Gelato: Vanilla + Nutella, Coffee and Biscotti
Dinner: (Bites out of)- Stuffed Tomato, prosciutto melon, chicken spiral cool thing, slice of pizza, fig pie….phew!!!

Piazza del Popolo


We go today to the Piazza Napoleone from where we had a spectacular view of the Piazza del Popolo- a square that I had seen and REALLY wanted to go to on the first day in Rome.
So we gazed at the Piazza for a bit, then went for a walk on the Villa Borghese gardens. Here too, sculptures, busts and columns generously abounded. The gardens were HUGE, so we decided to check out the zoo or Bioparc, as they called it. You can call me weird, (oh wait, you already do), but I LOVE zoos. I don’t really care for animals, but I just simply love zoos. They’re so cool. The animals were, well…the same but the Reptile House was really neat.

Facade of the Reptile House


For those of you acquainted with my sadistic etc self, this may come as little surprise, but I just LOVE stuff that creeps the life out of me. It makes you feel something, its an experience. What, otherwise, is so cool about anything at all if it doesn’t stir you?
So anyway, getting back to the Reptile House.There were all kinds of big (and mobile :O ) turtles/tortoises/whatyouwill. The place was set up in the most incredible fashion, with rickety bridges (that you could walk across) hanging over lakes with alligators wallowing in the mud etc. SO cool!! Beauty and skill of this sort makes me happy :)
Incidentally, while at the zoo, I heard a man call out “John Carlos” and looking sideways to see, I saw “Gian Carlos” inscribed in huge letters on his bag. Ha ha. I bet the Italians feel sorry for leaving poor ‘J’ out of the alphabet noww :)


A Road not Taken in Perugia


Having finished with our little sojourn in Rome, we set off for Perugia. Out hostess’s devraani came to pick us up at the station and since Pergia was a while off, we stopped at the town and had some good gelato :) Then, we roamed around the backalleys of this quaint little lake-side town and saw some ardent Italia football fans singing their anthem.

The Fans


Then, we went to Guilietta (our now-hostess)’s house (which was incredibly pretty). She teaches Italian, literature and history. She is also an INCREDIBLE cook and had cooked a million things (refer to Dinner above) and I could just keep eating all that all day. Her house is full of these incredible looking books, all in Italian. I could decipher the name of the book, but go no further and could only run a finger along their spines remorsefully…

Last Look

Category : Italy Travel Diary
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