Outside the Walls and a New Way In

Woke up this morning to loud, and I mean loud, banging. At first I thought it was somebody emptying the trash bins but it kept up. Then it sounded like people throwing debris down a chute at the building being restored across the street. It turns out however it was workmen putting up scaffolding across the front of our building, ground to roof with us in between. Kind of creepy having this outside our windows.

It did however motivate us to get going which we eventually did, down to the piazza for the usual. There was once again a 12:45pm meeting which Nancy walked to and to which I rode the Metro. Despite both of us going to the wrong church we got there in plenty of time. There was one guy who asked me if I had ever been to Madison, Wisconsin. Well, yes, but forty or more years ago. He was flummoxed, being certain that he had seen me. Perhaps it was at his winter home in Bradenton, Florida? Talk about coincidences. Bob and Susan were the names. They knew most of the folks we knew, our orbits touching but not overlapping much.

After the meeting Nancy and I had a coffee and then parted, she to go back to the apartment and do some beading and me to do, well, I was undecided.

I walked towards the Metro passing the usual military presence. I photographed the guy above not to document their presence but to document his cool hat. Some units wear these long red floppy beret-like things ending in a long cord terminated by a bright blue tassel. As to their presence, they are indeed everywhere, probably pointlessly. However should there be an attack and the military not be deployed there would be criticism that we weren't being protected. This means that the terrorists are winning, the point of being a terrorist being to inflict terror resulting in a repressive fear response.

So I got on the Metro fully intending to ride to the end of the A line, Anagnina, where a lady at the Friends of Rome meeting said that she and "real" Romans lived.

Almost at the last minute, thinking probably about the predicted rain, I got off at San Giovanni which puts you just outside the walls and the gate named thereafter. Above the first photo shows the wall and gate, the second one of the towers with the basilica peeping behind. The first also shows the COIN department store into which I entered and exited; much like Macy's with famous for being famous brands like Tommy Hilfiger.

Then on a whim rather than pursue my original objective of seeing the basilica I decided to walk along outside the walls, trying to get a little lost. I succeeded. I came to one of those pop-up mercatos just breaking up where, just to see how low you could argue these guys into, I bought Nancy a purse. Originally thirty-five euros; I got it for ten and could have gotten it for less were I willing to stand there all day.

Anyhow this led me through a district of middle class apartments and finally out into an intersection with a main road. All this time the wall had been arcing northward and my streets southward so I had a bit of a stretch of the legs to get to what is the next gate, Porta Metronia, seen above.

This would eventually lead me, after climbing a long hill, up to the "back" side of the Colosseum, lovely views along the way. All the way up to the point where the Colosseum was actually in view this area remained what seemed to be very natural i.e. not touristed.

And back to the apartment to give Nancy her new purse; she generally makes her own so we'll see what happens with that. And then out for gelato, where we found out they don't have watermelon and the do grapefruit which was odd but delicious, and then coffee.