Day 16 - Wednesday 27th September - Rome

We didn't dawdle this morning because we wanted to use our 24hr bus ticket which was still valid, to get us to the Spanish Steps in Piazza Spagna. Walked around the back of the Colosseum to the bus stop, hoped on when the bus came and got off at the appropriate stop. Walked to Piazza Spagna to the Spanish Steps, took photos and couldn't resist getting some roasted chestnuts to eat on the steps. They were delicious, but as we were enjoying them while sitting on the steps, we got told off by the local polizia and told it was prohibited to eat or drink on the steps!  Clearly this is a new rule because we ate or lunch on the steps in 2009 with Sophie. So we trudged to the top and ate them at the top.  I nearly choked on the way up because I had a mouthful of chestnuts and was huffing and puffing and may have breathed in at the wrong time so I had to stop and have a drink before continuing. Waited to catch our breath, finish the yummy castagne and then walked to the Villa Borghese Gardens. It seems that since I hurt my foot all the places we've been have been full of steep streets and LOTS of stairs. Huffed and puffed up another hill to get to the gardens, walked through for a bit and then headed for il Pincio, a scenic lookout at the top of the hill we were on looking out over Rome. It was a gorgeous view. Time to go in search of toilets which led me to some portables near il Pincio but they were all disgustingly full to overflowing!  We're still left with the same impression from 2009, that Rome is a very grubby city with not much pride in keeping it clean, emptying bins, picking up rubbish,  cleaning the streets and footpaths. In the gardens we'd seen a beautiful old villa which was now a restaurant and reception centre and as it was time for lunch decided that would do and they were sure to have nice toilets. We ate at the cafe called Caffè del Pincio. We ordered 2 chinottos, which came with the traditional Italian plates of little snacks and I had Eggplant Polpette and John a Foccacia with roasted veg. Yummy. After lunch we walked around the gardens and passed some bike hire places so we decided, to give my foot a rest from walking we'd hire a 'Big Cart', which was like a two person go-cart but with pedals, for an hour. Of we went, John steering and both of us pedaling. We discovered very quickly that we had to keep to the asphalt paths because it was too hard to pedal on the gritty paths. Downhill was great, except my dare-devil husband kept telling me off for putting the brake on to slow us down a bit. We pedalled way into the park and saw a sign to the lake so we headed in that direction. Lovely ride down a big, long hill and when we got to the bottom we discovered the were barricades so that the carts couldn't get through!  They could have had signs to tell us!  So now we had to somehow get this thing back up the long, long hilly road. Not an easy feat! It would have been faster to walk,  I'm sure but we eventually made it and by then we were both tired and sweaty and I just wanted to take the cart back. So we rested for a while and then started our slow, but pleasant trip back, stopping to listen to a trumpet playing busker. We got our machine back without any problems and headed to the gelati truck nearby, bought gelati and enjoyed them on a bench unset the trees. Whew! Refreshed, we set off to the Spagna Metro stop and caught the train back to Colosseo. We decided we'd go to visit the Colosseum tomorrow and get there early, so we headed to the ticket office and bought our ticket for the following day so we didnt have to queue up. The hard ride up hill had made my foot worse so we then headed to the supermarket and home. Dinner home tonight because I couldn't walk any further.