Thursday, March 3 - Last Full Day in Rome

Tomorrow I catch a 1:00pm Ryan Air flight to The Netherlands -- where I'm excited to be reconnecting with friends and family over the next 6 days. This will be my 4th trip to The Netherlands and I've blogged before about the Dutch family/cousins I have there - first visiting in 2009, then again in 2011 and 2013.   Similarly, I've enjoyed repeating the story of how a seat-mate on the 2009 fight to Amsterdam led to me adding a another Dutch family to my life -- such that they even visited in Portland and we took a driving trip together down the coast to San Francisco.  I'm thinking I won't have much time to blog as I'd rather be visiting.

The cold, rainy weather returned today to Rome -- but there were two neighborhoods I still wanted to try to get in on this trip -- and for which Rick Steves has an audio tour on the app I've mentioned before:  the Jewish Ghetto and the now popular/hip area Trastevere - both adjacent to the Tiber River. Here I'm on the bridge over the Tiber which connects the two areas.

In order to get there, I navigated (gotta love Google Maps transit options) and took a city bus (after studying how their fare system works -- easy, same ticket as used by Metro).

On my walk to the bridge/starting point of the audio tours, I happened upon a church with a stunning altar display, Santa Maria in Campitelli:

Churches are literally everywhere you turn here. Just now I did a Google search to learn that there are 900 churches in Rome.  And the few that I visited are each unique and interesting in their own way -- whether it be the display of wealth, statues, art work -- or even the trinkets.  Once again my thoughts of "what would Jesus think" spun around when not far from this beautiful altar, I saw this -- a coin operated vending maching:

I completed the two audio tours -- and picked what appeared to be a nice lunch place -- but my day got cut short when the meal  -- or perhaps something else I had eaten recently -- didn't agree with me.  I'll spare you the details but suffice to say that not every day is perfect bliss when traveling.  I involuntarily left some of the lunch in restaurant's toilet and some on the Tiber River bank, and headed back to my room which seemed to take forever!  But I'm happy to report that now, just a few hours later, I'm back to myself, finishing this posting and getting ready for my trip tomorrow.  I do often talk about my travel motto: If I haven't had a bad meal, I haven't been pushing the adventuresome-eating envelope enough -- but by "bad" I intend to mean one that doesn't taste good to me.  In this case, everything I've been eating tastes great -- but that's no guarantee that my stomach will agree with my taste!  Of course, I share this part of my journey just to remind readers that every day on the road doesn't go perfectly!

Anyway, it's been an amazing 6 nights here in Rome and I do hope to return someday as there is plenty more to see and do.  "Yet knowing how way leads onto way, I doubted if I should ever come back" (Robert Frost) -- after all, it took me almost 65 years to get here the first time and my bucket list remains full of places -- including here in Italy -- I still want to visit.