Marathon!

Woke to beautiful sunshine peeking through the shutters on the windows at the hotel again, and after breakfast headed down the hill to our seat at the Caffe de Marzio in the Piazza de Santa Maria in Trastevere for a quick coffee and check out the map to plan our route over to the Villa Borghese where we had a slot booked at 1pm to see the exhibits in the stunning Galleria Borghese. You only get 2 hours to walk round the house and only 200 people allowed in at a time. Cameras and rucksacks have to be handed over in the cloakroom, and legs went a bit wobbly handing over my precious camera...

It was roughly a 5 mile walk to the Villa, set in one of the biggest parks in Rome, but we had a few pit stops along the way, taking photographs, more coffee, enjoying the surprises of what was round the next corner. Rome's like that, you are never far from some historical artefact or beautiful little square with a fountain or sculpture in the centre of it. You can be in a busy street, crazy traffic, but a couple of streets away you can be sitting in a quiet little Piazza with only a couple of scooters passing through, sipping a nice chilled glass of wine or even better (for me) a delicious ice cream:-) watching people walk by

With it being holiday time in Rome, the park was pretty busy, but that meant lots of activity going on! It was lovely sitting on the bench in the sunshine outside the Galleria people (and dog) watching :-)

Started to head back to the Trastevere, 5 miles away! Took our time, sat for a breather on the Spanish Steps, contemplated hopping on a tram, but decided just to walk, and walk and walk. By the time we reached Trastevere I felt like I couldn't have walked any further! But after a nice meal and drink, felt revived (well kinda) - headed back to our hotel and checked out just how far we had walked on Google Maps. Ten bloody Miles!!!

(This dog was enjoying a meal out with his mistress at a table just down from us. I like how dogs are able to come into shops with the owners here in Rome, not left on the pavements. I think dogs should be allowed into cafe's if they are well behaved. Don't understand this hygiene nonsense! Dogs are cleaner than some humans ;-)