Palm Sunday: Parades and Open Air Markets

Chocolate Truffle Gelato

This picture is left over from last night. Per Johnny's recommendation, we went to Tre Scalini on Piazza Navona to get the chocolate truffle gelato and some coffee. Delicious.


Since we've been walking 5-6 miles a day and have achy joints, today we decided on a leisurely walk inspired by one of the walking tours provided by our host. We started at a small piazza close to home and discovered an outdoor market. For sale were cashmere sweaters and blankets from Nepal (the vendors said "good quality for low price"), purses, homemade pasta and other goodies, and clothes. We both chose purses to buy and tried to get a reduced price for buying two but to no avail.

From there, we were headed to the Jewish section and ran into Piazza Quericia where there was a crowd gathered, complete with tv cameras. We waited around for a little while to see the procession as people left mass.  Only a few people had palms; everyone else carried what looked like olive branches. There were three large planters outside the church and everyone felt free just to tear off a branch of whatever the plant was and go off with it.

There were shops open going toward the Jewish section of town. I lost a sweater yesterday so I'm looking for a new one but the clothes in these shops were far too hip for me. When we got to the Jewish area, there happened to be an Anne Frank exhibit at a small museum so we went in to see it. I think it's a reproduction of the posters that are in the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam although I don't remember seeing so many pictures of her, taken at various times in her life. At a nearby restaurant there was a picture of Anthony Bourdain, complete with his quote that said "the artichoke here is delicious." We weren't hungry then, so we passed it by.

Walking through that area of town takes you to the river. We didn't know there was an island in the middle, Tiber Island. It's very small and has a beautiful church, St. Bartolomeo, dedicated to 20th century martyrs. We got a glimpse of the inside with another beautiful ceiling but we couldn't go in because it was packed with people attending mass.  We didn't walk down the stairs to the river, but we saw people biking on a bike path, fishing, and boating. It was a warm day so a lot of people were walking by the river.

Bridge over the Tiber

The Tiber

St. Bartoloseo

After seeing the Tiber, we walked back toward our neighborhood and stopped to eat at a square, Campo di Fiorini. We are eating all meals outside because that's what you get at most restaurants, but they have heaters so it's comfortable. We had one of the signature dishes of Rome, amatriciana bucatini. It is spaghetti with bacon and red sauce. It's a great dish.

Then we did laundry. There are no dryers in Rome and the washing machine here is small but we have a great system of washing clothes and then drying them on the heated towel rack. The washing machine is downstairs in a room off the first floor bathroom. The towel rack is part of the second bathroom, next to the sink which is down 3 stairs. So doing laundry is labor-intensive, involving much walking up and down stairs.

For dinner, we went to a neighborhood cafe and had a seafood salad and "cold cuts with cheese." It was a great change from all the pasta.  We had wanted to eat in the local Japanese restaurant but were scared away by the fact they didn't have a single customer. We met a table full of American girls who are on spring break from their study abroad in Barcelona. They went to St. Peter's today and just saw the outside of the church. They have until 4:00 tomorrow to see the rest of Rome and figure they can see the Colosseum in that amount of time. From the looks of how much they were drinking, we're guessing they might make it to the outside of the Colosseum.

We see dogs being walked everywhere we go, at all hours of day and night. Not once have we seen any dog poop on all these cobble streets. It's surprising because it seems unlikely that every single person in Rome cleans up after their dogs. We think about this sort of thing, of course, because it is the main topic of conversation on Nextdoor Northside. Perhaps there's a huge fine for not cleaning up after your dog in Rome although we haven't seen any dog police.

Tomorrow we're going to the Vatican. Wish us luck. It should be packed unless everyone went today.