I’m not a big city boy and I really enjoy just getting out of town and into the more rural areas. And away from the crowds. That was the plan for today until they fell through yesterday.
With over 19,000 steps yesterday we were beat so our change of plans meant a sleep in and we opted to just take it easy and catch a hop-on hop-off bus and see where we went, if anything grabbed our attention we’d jump off and check it out.
A couple of things we checked out today –
The Circus Maximus – ancient Rome chariot-racing stadium with marble seating for spectators.
It is now a park but you can still see the overall layout. It would have been an impressive place that would seat over 100,000 spectators cheering on their favourite rider.
Basilica of St Maria – another church on top of a hill built over a previous structure.
When you go below the present church you see a mixture of the original structure and all the additional supports built to support the newer structure above. So you have to ignore the supporting structures and then imagine what the original building looked like.
We then found a nice little cafe close by to have lunch and just watch the craziness of Rome traffic. It’s very fluid and while it looks crazy it seems to work and no one was really getting upset.
I must say though – sitting watching the traffic, I’m getting itchy feet to go for a ride. While it all looks a bit crazy – it looks like fun. If I had another couple of days here I’d be on a bike for sure.
Mouth of Truth – a large marble face said to bite those who lied. It seems we were fine as we got away with our hands intact.
And the old church it is part of is a stark difference to the other churches we have seen.
Little cars are the way to go here in Rome with their narrow streets and limited parking, and they are everywhere. I’ve been surprised by the amount of micro-cars around such as the Smart car – and check out how they park.
And this one even thinks it’s a motorcycle.
Quote of the day from the bus audio tour when we got stuck in traffic – we apologise for the traffic congestion which is caused by an excessive number of cars on the road.
And for our last night in Rome this isn’t a bad location for dinner.
Zed14 
Beautiful church
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