The 'Burbs, No Haircut, & More

Spent the morning, other than drinking coffee and staring, making reservations for Ravenna. Nancy's friend in Perugia emailed saying that she had a couple of opera tickets for Sunday the 24th that were ours if we wanted them; we did. We had planned to drive diagonally across the country to visit Ravenna and its fabulous mosaics so next Thursday we'll be off doing that, spend Friday night in Ravenna as well, and then Saturday and Sunday nights near Perugia, and then back to Rome for our last week.

So it was again around noon before I set out. I had planned to get a haircut but the line at the local was too long and I really wasn't too comfortable about getting a trim at a shop called Machete.

A Metro station mosaic; you'll see a number of these

What I had decided to do was the plan from the other day, take the A train to the end of the line, the Anagnina station; a bit of sociology don't you know.

A view from the parking lot side mostly to show (what memory tells me are) the Alban Hills

This was much further, more Metro stations, than I had psychically planned for and the train was packed all the way to the end. I suppose that's because there was a large parking deck at the station.

On arrival I took the opposite direction which disclosed a semi-busy road running beside the autostrada above (the Metro exit tunneled under it). This had a very run down gas station, and only slightly more thriving mercato and a bar called Tex that featured a slot machine room. Walking away from this however exposed some adequate to nice apartments, the nicest of which are pictured above. None however of the urban/village amenities of nice restaurants and mercatos on your block

My theory of mass transit is that in the suburbs were autos dominate, housing close to the station is lower class. The more urbanized you get the more that proximity to a station becomes a plus.

I got back on the train headed back but stopped at a station called Ardo di Travertino, the marble arch. There wasn't one. There were these rather bleak looking apartments which is really more what it looked like at the end of the line.

Rather than go all the way in I hopped off again at Re di Roma, king of Rome. This is a short walk to the next stop, San Giovanni, and an area where I had noted affordable rents; I wanted to take a look. It was very pleasant, very urban, and very undistinguished; this latter probably a plus for its tourist repellent quality. Anyway, a nice walk.

Which led me not surprisingly to the gate by St. John Lateran and its Sancta Sanctorum with the Triclinium Leoninum mosaic shown above.

Antiquity peeps out everywhere

Santa Maria Maggiore (again)

I had planned to walk all the way back up the hill to the Termini station but the legs were giving out; I made it as far as the next station, Mazzoni, where I rode up to Termini. But from there however, as it was downhill, I walked down Via Cavour, past Santa Maria Maggiore then paused for a gelato.

While paused I tried to decrypt the bus map and finally decided that the H bus would take me from Via Nazionale to Trastevere but I wanted to walk over to Nazionale to view the sign to confirm this.  I turned down Via Panisperna and my legs once again reminded me that it was time to go home so I ducked down the charming alley shown above, got to the piazza at Monti, and called Nancy who joined me for a coffee and sweet.

The children were having a great time playing in the piazza.