We did start the day off together. After another startlingly early 8AM breakfast, we got ready and walked all.the.way to Trastevere. I stress the distance since according to google maps it's 7.6 km (around 3 miles) the most direct way. We did not take the most direct way. At all. Still it was a nice day and we got plenty of exercise. Man, that's a steep hill.
Pat and I figured out where his class was meeting & we parted ways. I headed in the general direction of our apartment (which we move into tomorrow) to check out the neighborhood. I should have stuck to the main streets. After one lady gave me bad directions (turned out I was so close to our street at that point) and I'd gone another 10 minutes, I broke down and bought a city map from a news-vendor. Luckily I also practiced my pigeon Italian on her and she told me about a shortcut up a staircase.
I walked down the street toward #17 and momentarily freaked out when it went from #18 to #16. Looking across the street to the odd (if completely not similarly spaced) numbered houses, I felt stupid and trudged on. Our house is not the prettiest one on the block. I'm going to leave it at that until we get in there tomorrow. Here's hoping!
But the neighborhood is cute. Lots of beautiful old villas, very green & high up on the hill so we can see far out over Rome and enjoy a nice breeze. I stopped into a wine bar to rest and met 4 women who teach at the American University and live in the neighborhood. They seemed to think we'd like living there too. I broke out my camera and took photos of the neighborhood before heading back.
Stopped into the Villa Sciarra and wandered around its pathways looking at the statues. Lots of students from AU there too. Gorgeous place - I'm happy it'll be so near our apartment. Also saw the street that went straight to where Pat's class met - the walk shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes from our apartment on a fairly flat route. S he won't have to spend the 45 minutes up-and-downhill it took me today. Anyway, I'm not bitter, just look at the park:
Walked down into Trastevere's commercial area but didn't explore much since my legs felt like they were on fire at this point. I did manage to make it to the B&B via a much more direct route than we took in the morning. I even took some photos of the outside of our B&B for the owners to use on their website. I think I'll email them once we leave - we've really enjoyed our stay here and honestly, their website had us guessing when we booked. It's much nicer than their online photos give it credit.
Hopefully Patrick will be home soon so we can get ready for tomorrow - moving day.
