But more on that later. On a more “serious tourist” note we started the day walking across town to the Castel San Angelo. The line was very short and after showing our CDC cards and passports we bought our tickets and began the spiraling climb through history. Hadrian began this uniquely cylindrical mausoleum for himself and his family in 135AD. But many rooms had been added later by the popes of the time.

Not being much of a history buff, I enjoyed the visit but mostly for the views and the special show of sculpture by Pietro Guida called “Life is a Show”. His works are scattered around a few of the levels and have a wonderful feeling of utter joy in reality. Here’s one :

We both really liked a special pope’s room, though I’m embarassed to say I don’t remember who it was.

:

The views from the bar level were so perfectly framed.

But the views from the roof top were a real thrill. You can really see all of Rome from up there, and I appreciated the maps that tell you what you’re looking at.

We came down and listened to a couple of electric guitar players covering Stairway to Heaven–I had to chuckle. They were pretty good!

We walked up the road to just look at the Vatican. Always amazing. The line was quite long and I knew we had a substantial walk home ahead of us.

We crossed the bridge and walked north along the river for a while wherever it was we turned into the city I saw a bar with business people and construction workers lining up for panini so we got some really decent sandwiches and sat on little stools outside to have a proper people watching lunch.

When we got home we had a long visit from Gino and his sister who told me a good place to go to find the apron would be OVS (it’s like Target) –no dice. But Anna on Facebook had mentioned a linen shop right near the Pantheon that looked promising. We had an early, 7:00, reso at Armando’s so off we went. The linen shop, pictured below, was the perfect thing! I had been looking for kitchen shops instead of linens–biancherie. So I found an apron! 3 Cheers!!! I’ll put a photo of it in tomorrow’s blog.

We had just enough time for a nice visit inside the Pantheon, Ken’s favorite.

Our dinner at Armando’s was the first less than excellent one we’ve ever had there. I loved my dishes–guinea fowl/faraona with a rich mushroom and olive sauce, and the Sicilian red wine really enhanced the flavors. But Ken’s grilled lamb was way too fatty for him to enjoy it, and the staff on duty that night was off. However, we made friends with two women from Ohio at the table next to us and chatted the night away.

We had a nice brisk walk home in the chilly air.