A Walk from Trastevere over Isola Tibernina to Pyramide

The now usual late start with a light breakfast. Nancy isn't feeling well so she returned to the Monti apartment and I set off on a long walk "far from the madding crowd" as it were.

G.G. Belli monument

I again took the familiar route "back" toward the forums, noting what appeared to be a good restaurant on the way.  Then once again across to Piazza Venezia catching the number 8 tram to Trastevere.  There I hopped off just across the river and in front of the large monument to G.G. Belli who, I discovered later, "was an Italian poet, famous for his sonnets in Romanesco, the dialect of Rome." I just find it refreshing to see a statue in a top hat as opposed to a toga.

However this time I walked away from the body of Trastevere an on to Isola Tiberina, an island in the Tiber River in the heart of Rome. There is a sixteenth century hospital there, still in operation, and the church of St. Bartholomew pictured above. I had remembered a nice small park there but either my memory is faulty or the cinema event had overlaid it. So, I just crossed over and continued down the eastern bank.

Tempa di Fortuna Virile, the temple of manly fortune

Recalling from memory rather than notes, the temple of Victorious Hercules

Santa Maria in Cosmedin

High above the River what I presume to be part of the Aurelian Walls

This was a beautiful green walk from which I diverged from time to time to examine a temple or two; didn't spend much time at that. Santa Maria in Cosmedin was being renovated so I didn't bother looking for La Bocca della Verita, the famous bit of sculpture which supposedly bites off the hand of a liar; I daren't have risked it anyway.

Knights of Malta HQ

Along this path I also passed what I take to be the headquarters of the Knights of Malta, a medieval survival.  As I understand it, despite having no territory of its own it is sovereign, a stateless state that can issue passports, etc; very very Catholic.

Having wandered this far I continued on to the next bridge and rather than cross the Tiber turned the other way towards Pyramide, familiar from the other day. Being in the area I also again stopped at the Tram Station Cafe as repeated stops makes places seem more like "home".

I almost nearly figured out another tram. I actually did have it figured out and it would have dropped me off at the Colosseum but I let it pass when I second guessed myself by inadvertently looking at the night schedule sign and its distinctly different stops.  Sigh.  The next tram was thirty minutes away. I just walked up to the Metro; I mean, why not?

I called Nancy at the apartment on arriving back in Monti and we, unsurprisingly, had some gelato and went to buy a melon.  Thus endeth the morning and afternoon excitement.

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Back from dinner at the pizza joint noted above. Kind of nice. For a pizza joint. Then dessert on the piazza and home again.