I must really love the one or two of you reading these blog reports, because we've had no Internet access. I tap these out on my iPhone. Thank God it was my left thumb stung by a bee on Saturday, the day before we left for Italy. If I were left handed, something I can't even imagine, my swollen thumb would have hit three keys with each tap.
Today our travels take us (probably thru' rain all day) to St. Peter's (but not the Museum), to Piazza Navona, to the Pantheon, ending at the Gesu, the chief church for the Jesuit Order of priests. I offer this itinerary so you all can use Google maps to walk with us. But you'll be dry.
Speaking of walking, I'm an everyday volleyball player. Not a good one, but certainly an enthusiastic and active player. Even with my seven-day-a-week exercise, my legs hurt here. It's all the hills and steps, I guess. They demand muscles that the flat courts don't. We are staying near a very convenient Metro subway stop. An 11 Euro three-day pass lets me have unlimited use of the subway system and buses. We haven't used those passes. We have abused them. They are clearly the best travel value in Rome. But you see nothing in the subways. You just get from place to place fast. We have never waited more than four minutes for a train. Amazing efficiency for a pretty relaxed country.
Even so, once you get to your stop, you will walk. And walk. And walk. And sweat. Like yesterday. The Metro took us to Piazza Barberini. We walked up Via Veneto past the cafes made famous in "La Dolce Vita," past the American Embassy (Don't even think of aiming your camera at those buildings.), through the old wall and over to the Borghese Gallery. After that visit we walked through the Borghese Gardens (think Central Park) and down the steps (many) to Piazza del Popolo. Lunch there. Then we walked to the top of the Spanish Steps, down the steps to the piazza, past the the absurdly expensive shops on Via Condotti, and to a place where we could sit and enjoy water and coffee.
That's when I really became concerned with my thumb. It was seriously swollen. OK, "so swollen it would hit three letters" was a little dramatic, but plenty swollen, immobilized, and weeping drops of clear fluid from the stinger hole. I could see a pharmacy nearby, but I didn't know the Italian word for bee. A Canadian couple was at the table next to ours, listening to me complain. The guy said, "Ape."
He told us he had been studying the language for two months online. And the word for bee is easily remembered by thinking ape, but pronounced ah-pay. Two months online! This is my seventh visit to Italy, and my first one was actually living here and going to school. If he hadn't stepped in, I'd have been reduced to using buzzing sound effects with the pharmacist. Armed with that word, my stumbling Italian and evidence - my thumb - I had no trouble communicating. The spray-tanned pharmacist sold me a topical cortisone that put me on the road to full thumb recovery.
What? Just looked out the window. Not raining. Sun peeking through the clouds. Headed out.
PHOTO NOTE: A nice shot by Jack of a well-known fountain element on Piazza Navona.
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