When in Rome

Rome has been part of our childhood learning experience ,if we were told that Rome wasn't built in a day ,we were also told that all roads lead to Rome and that when in Rome do as the Romans do. For us it was a distant reference to julius Caesar or some Roman god but beyond that they just remains maximums to live by.

Today we decided to try out a few new things as we had finished with all the touristy things.  A long walk to find another hotel we need to see so we try and do some word association to remember the names of streets. Maps are in such fine print its next to impossible to read and as we are not on any local data plan the smartphones have to stay not so smart. We walk for a good thirty minutes through some scary downtown areas and find the place only to find that there are three other ways to reach the place and far less scary roads.....so all roads do lead to Rome. We ask for directions to a place we want to see and misunderstand the instructions thanks to still getting used to European s driving on the wrong side of the road according to us. We get into a bus and after an hour realise that we have gone totally in the wrong direction,but in the process we have seen many residential areas,have travelled the length and breadth of the Rome that people stay in as opposed to the touristy parts. Our journey is interesting in many ways,the Italians gossip non stop,talk loudly and are always greeting each other over someone's heard. The bus is crowded and we are packed like sardines and there are plenty of families,small children,mothers,old people all out and about. The buses unlike other European cities don't seem to have wheelchair access,nor does anyone get up for old people though we do as it seems only decent to do. The old ladies don't have any problem asking the husband to help them with baggage or ticket buying,so very much like India. We finally reach our destination and are trilled to bits as we have used the 100 minutes of our ticket validity thanks to getting lost.  Lunch is in a market called camp do fiori and it's an interesting place. All manner of things are sold her. The Italian street markets are place to be in. All kinds of tomatoes,garlic,cheese,vegetables are up for sale along with shoes,clothes and what not . All around the market there are cafes selling food. Everyone asks us to come to their place but the husband tires of looking at menus and we decide on one place. Striking up conversations is not difficult and when the food comes it's so outstanding we stop talking altogether. Osscobusco which was on my list of must eat foods was everything and more. I haven't a clue what they put in it but it was so full of flavour I licked my plate clean.

Lunch over,the husband decided to go to the gallery borghese which is actually a park but we don't know that do we. Searching for a bus is next to impossible here as they don't have many signpost s not are the instructions very clear. Everyone will wave their hands and tell you that it's all down the road and it may well be but for us it's not easy. The husband thank god is an excellent map reader. He can find the shortest route to any place and thanks to him map reading skills we can finds ways to places easily. When our feet scream in protest we set off on our long walk back home. In effect we have walked the length and breadth of Rome in our short stay here and like I told myself before the trip,roaming in Rome is a wonderful pastime. The good thing about the Romans is that they are friendly people. We have dinner at the place we went to two days ago and finally we get a spicy pasta which they call picante and the husband thought it was too spicy,we chatted with some locals in English and actually had a conversation and all in all our last day was more interesting than we imagined it would be