Rome

As I write, it's absolutely quiet around us. Half an hour ago we heard somewhat alarming yells next door and horns honked and dogs barked all over the valley. It occurred to me there might be football (soccer) on, and sure enough Italy had just scored a goal over Spain. And as I think about it, the nightly trio of fireworks at the castle, regularly at 6:30pm, went off ten minutes early. I wouldn't be surprised if that chore had to be taken care before the game started or in during a handy timeout. The quiet tells me that the game is still tense.

While we wait for the next goal, I'll take a look back at our first couple days in Italy. We landed early in the morning at the Rome airport and had two days there to recover from jet lag and get our feet on the ground, which worked out beautifully. We dropped our bags at a B&B in Trastevere (Il Boom, we liked it, go there) before a room could be ready and started walking.

Trastevere is a good neighborhood for a few days in Rome, close enough to get to the core of the city but out of the fray. We shared the rooftop terrace at breakfast with cats, parrots, even a few small tortoises lurking around the edges.





Wandering in Trastevere kept us well entertained and well fed, but we also made it over the river to some of the main sights.





And as you can see, fray there was aplenty. Getting into the Pantheon involved a shoulder-to-shoulder crush. Here's as close as we got to the Trevi Fountain.



A neat surprise was coming across this pair of hip guys making direct positive photographs on a street lined with others doing portraits in pencil and crayon. Harlan and they had much to discuss, of course. These guys had made the camera and the box for developing the prints.









They were so happy with the result they snapped a photo of it for their own files (with their phone of course).