A funny thing happened on the way to the Pantheon...

Well, we have been too busy to post lately, so here is an update. We're now in Rome, staying in the apartment of a generous friend of my family, Manu. It's lovely to be here where we can feel comfortable and enjoy privacy. It's also great to be out of the center, as we have experienced a little of what the 'real' Rome is like, as opposed to the tourist traps around the sights.

We arrived from Florence on Monday, but it was very late at night. We hadn't realised how big the Roma Termini station is, so when we went to get our ticket to Vienna for Wednesday the queue took over an hour. Then the taxi ride took a long time and thus became more expensive than we had expected, but it couldn't have been avoided as the apartment isn't easy to get to at first, especially in the dark and with luggage.

Finally we arrived and got settled in, but there was certainly no time to go out or do anything before bed. The next morning we got up and took a while to get out of the flat. We ate breakfast at a cafe nearby, then finally set off to find a bus to the Pantheon at about midday. We wandered down the street to an area we had been told was well connected to the rest of Rome, but we still couldn't find the bus numbers we were looking for. So we kept walking. After a while we stopped for some sandwiches which turned out to be disgusting - never order a sandwich when you see that the ingredients are preserved in oil. My sandwich was just dripping with the stuff, it went on my skirt and hands and the floor and everywhere, and it made me feel so sick.

Anyway, 2 hours after setting off we still hadn't found our bus. At this point Meg realised her purse was missing, so we trekked back up to the cafe and she found it hidden under a magazine. While we were there, we decided to take advantage of the guy behind the counter as he spoke the best english we had encountered so far that day. He told us to get the Metro just round the corner, and get off at Spagna. That's what we did, and when we emerged we bought a map so we could navigate from there to the Pantheon.

On the way we passed by the Spanish Steps, but without realising that's what it was because there was no clear sign or anything. Then we popped over to the Trevi Fountain, one of my favourite monuments ever. Finally we made it to the Pantheon and had a look around. Entry was free which is always nice, and Meg listened to one of the audioguide machines and pointed out some details of interest to me.

After that we realised we still had some time, so we wandered vaguely in the direction of some of the monuments illustrated on the map. Meg was also on the hunt for an ice cream place as she fancied some more italian gelati. We found ourselves in a gigantic square, which turned out to be exceedingly fruitful.

The first thing I noticed was in the centre of this piazza was a railing, obviously to stop people falling into some precipice beyond, from which ragged columns were poking into the air. I convinced Meg to ignore a possible gelateria and have a look at the ruins with me, and when closer we saw there were a bunch of crazy bright pop art works and wooden structures mingling with the ancient ruins.

Then Meg pointed out a black cat way down below. I got all excited and took a billion crappy photos of this far off cat. Then we walked around a bit, and saw another cat. Again, I got excited, took awful pictures, and we moved on. Then we saw another cat.. and another... and another two together.. then six or seven cats in just one patch of this huge square. We started really looking and must have seen about 20 cats. We joked that this was like a really cool pet store where you spot the cat you want roaming around the ruins.

After a while we went off and had ice cream, then planned to go find the monument we had initially been seeking. However, we were drawn again to look at the cats, some of whom were much nearer. Then we saw a sign saying there was a cat sanctuary. We couldn't really tell where it was, but I saw some steps leading down to a garden type place and insisted that we go in.

There were maybe 10 cats in this tiny patio, some friendly and some shy. Then we went inside... WOW. Dozens and dozens of cats just roaming around, sat in baskets or on top of a microwave, in cages on the wall, or in a big room to the side with restricted entry. The ones in cages were kittens who weren't ready to be allowed to roam freely, very cute. Then an American woman came over and started talking to us. She was a volunteer, and explained about the cats and how it worked there. Everyone was volunteers, no paid staff, and the cats were clearly well looked after and well loved.

She took us into the restricted entry area which is for cats who aren't allowed to wander free for various reasons: illness, disability, runaways, or just cats who prefer it in the 'nursery'. She told us about all the different cats: this one has his eye out, this one has his ears cut off from skin cancer, this one was bit by a dog and has a big chunk out of its back. My favourites were these 3: Ramingo, a black fluffy cat with a neurological problem which made his walking really crazy like he was on ice and kept sliding around. Forrest Gump, an orange tabby who is deaf, blind, and has cat AIDS. And Ambrosino, an orange cat who reminded me of my dearly departed cat Spike, I think he was just shy and preferred the nursery. I stroked him for ages and he looked very blissful throughout. We chatted with the staff for ages and stroked many cats and it was wonderful.

After a long time enjoying the company of the cats and the friendly volunteer workers, we headed back to the apartment. On the way we kept an eye out for somewhere to eat, and we came across a nice looking, traditional Italian restaurant. We asked to see the menu and it looked a little expensive, but we decided to go with it and just have one course.

Then a youngish waiter came over who spoke great english. He was very funny and friendly, insisting that the restaurant was our home and we could have things how we liked etc. We explained that we don't eat meat, and he described how traditionally Italians would start with a room temperature bean soup, then a pasta, then a meat course, then dessert, but we could have just the soup and pasta. We asked how much it would be and he said €4 for the soup and €6 for the pasta, so it would be €10 total each. That is about par for our dinner budget, and great value for 2 courses. The menu had said the soup was €7 and the pasta €8 or something, so we began to sense this guy was giving us a nice deal, perhaps because he could tell we were stingy.

The soup was delicious and I am desperate to make it myself somehow when I get home. It has beans, and little squares of pasta, and the soupiness was thick beany goodness, yum yum yum. We each had a spaghetti with tomato and basil dish, only Meg had chunks of fresh tomato, and fresh chopped basil and parsley ('spring' pasta) while I had normal tomato and basil sauce and some cheese on top. These were also very tasty. Finally the guy came over and we decided to ask for the dessert menu as the food had been so good. The waiter explained that there were just 2 choices: a sweet wine with a biscuit to dip in it, or fresh watermelon. We asked how much the melon cost and he said it was a gift to us. Free watermelon! We were tickled pink to match our juicy watermelon wedges. Thus in the end we had 3 courses of delicious food for €10 - amazing! We decided to go back there on our last night, hopefully the experience will be repeated, as tonight we were forced to eat Chinese food which was extremely unenjoyable.

I will be brief about today as this is so long already: we saw the Palatine and the Colosseum. The entrance to the Palatine was not clearly marked so we trekked around for ages and got hot and bothered. It was great inside but without the audioguides (trying to be stingy) we couldn't know what most of the ruins had been. It is thus advisable either to shell out for some form of guide, or get lucky and hop on one of the free tours which I passed by after I had wandered around for an hour already. Also the Palatine is HUGE and Meg and I got seperated and found it very difficult to navigate our way back to each other. So try to stay together, or arrange a meeting point and time just in case. When you go to the Colosseum, do the Palatine first and then you won't have such a long queue for the ticket, as the Palatine has a faster ticket booth and the only available ticket is for both. And as with many other monuments with paid entry in Italy, residents of EU countries can show their passport to get a half price ticket, and that is a great money saver.

Ok, I want to go to bed soon so this is it for today. Tomorrow we will walk to the Vatican City and spend the day there, return to the restaurant for dinner hopefully (I worry that it will be too early in the day now that I think about it....), then we go to catch our train to Vienna at 7:10pm.

Mojo