August 6 - Rome, Italy

fountana dei libri

The weather here continues to cool a bit and there continues to be a breeze. I saw a sign today that said 34 degrees. As Chris said today…even a little jaunt out for lunch and a drink kicks your ass – truer words…

We took full advantage of the hotel room’s black-out blinds and slept until 9:30 and then didn’t leave the room until 1…we are on vacation after all. We are definitely getting our fill of Italian music videos…and plenty of English ones. We like having some background music in the room and the Italian pop music is very interesting!

Our main objective for heading out today was for

the 'big salad'

lunch…we’ve had some hits, but definitely some misses as well, so we are becoming even more discerning than ever. Still the top priority is the heat, fans and misters are a must! The place we finally settled on was a hit! The location was great for people watching, the servers were party, food and drink were great and the price was good too. We were right in front of a fan/mister combo – good, but I was still in a lather…not sure when I’m not in a lather here. Chris had lasagne – delicious and I had what was described in the menu as the ‘big salad’ – definitely as advertised, for once it took me longer than Chris to finish my meal…eating a salad is hard work, maybe that’s how I worked up the sweat I was in.

The Piazza de Maddelena looked too inviting to pass by, so we stopped for a drink. This was a great spot…a beautiful church to provide the backdrop for tasty drinks, but not nearly as frantic as many of the other piazzas/squares – and they had fans/misters, of course.

Rome’s “fountain of books” or the “fontana dei libri” is right around the corner from our hotel. This is one of Rome’s many public fountains that are safe for drinking – this is one of the most elaborate ones we’ve seen, many are simple cast iron fountains about the size of a fire hydrant. Obviously, they are super popular during

St. Maddelena...Chris drinking beer

this heat wave.