19 Days of Freedom - Days 2 to 5 from Trastevere, Rome

I am writing this post from our vacation apartment in Piazza Santa Maria, Trastevere.

Sunday, June 2
The church bell just rang twice, with two small baby bells following. It means it's 2:30 PM now. Greggy is sitting by the big window overlooking the square, with a glass of wine, watching the tourists and locals go on about their day.

See, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.... we were up very early this morning and found our way to Porta Portese market, the largest flea market in Europe. It's only held on Sundays and only from 7 am to 2 pm.

What a BIG HUGE market! It's a great place to spend a lazy Sunday browsing through endless aisles of goods.... listening to all the vendors shout in Italiano. I had to have my wits about me because all the crazy tourist reviews are saying this place is pickpocket heaven. Of course probably grossly exaggerated, we had no issues at all.

After a good 1.5 hours of wandering around and haggling with vendors who proudly say their items are "not from China... from Bangladesh!" we found a food truck selling various goodies. No hotdogs or burgers here... only the best porchetta and salumi sandwiches in rustic, crusty breads. We bought two sandwiches, a diet coke and a beer. A beer! Toronto can learn a thing or two about the food truck business in Italy.

Satisfied, we walked back to our apartment for an afternoon siesta.

Feeling refreshed after a few hours of rest, we headed out again at 3 pm. I planned a walk through the heart of Rome with my handy dandy street map. 4 hours of walking and we were able to cover:

- Campo de Fiori
- Piazza Navona
- Pantheon
- Palazzo San Ignazio
- Fontana di Trevi
- Piazza d'Arocoeli

Our hands down favourite was the Pantheon. Before we got there, we were just in awe, admiring the architecture, the tiny winding streets, a bit annoyed by the hordes of tourist, turned a corner and then... holy shit. Can't even describe the Pantheon. Truly didn't know what to say. It was like travelling back in time. The ancient Romans had so much more fun than we do now. I can totally imagine people back then saying "Hey, where are we going tonight? I'm so over the Fontana di Trevi, let's just hang out at the Pantheon instead!"

Beautiful, breathtaking. What kind of geniuses were they to be able to build such a place, with no modern tools... the thousands of slaves may have something to do with it.