Sat, Sept 20th

Roman Day II. Despite our adventures in Roman Day I, we'd left ourselves with plenty of ancient remains to see on our last full day in Italy.

We started out in a (contemporary) flower market and roamed the 16th century palazzios and the old Jewish Quarter on our way to the Roman Portico d'Ottavio, the Theater of Marcellus, and the Campidoglio. At the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin we placed our hands into the Bocca di Verita, which is absolutely guaranteed to bite the limbs off liars. We are both still typing with two hands apiece. After this rash gamble with Fate we walked by the Circus Maximus on our way to spend a couple of hours exploring through the Baths of Caracalla. These are big. Very very big; big enough for 1600 bathers. Also relatively new, since they were built in 300 AD and only opened to the public in the last ten or twenty years. That's the great thing about Rome; if you stick around long enough there'll always be a new ancient ruin to see!

 

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Sun, Sept 21st

All done. The trip home was mercifully uneventful (that is, after we figured out how to purchase tickets for the express train to the airport, which was unexpectedly obscure). After our fraught experience getting our flight to Italy we had anticipated a difficulty or delay with our flight home, but our flight was there when we needed it, and got us home on time. And when we finished the long trek back to our house by train, plane and automobile, we found those perverse Roman gods had shown us further mercy: the hurricane had left it unscathed.

Back to the beginning...