L'ultima giornata

Saturday was my last day in Rome and I still can't believe it. I keep thinking this is just another trip and I'll be going back. I will be going back, but only to the airport and then straight on to Toronto and the exotic land of New Jersey. I had to leave my huge beautiful apartment at 7 AM to catch a shuttle with my roommate to Fiumicino. While they were all catching planes back to Stati Uniti, I was looking for luggage storage, which I was told was going to cost me €3.50 per bag per day. Liars. It is €6 per bag per day, so in essence I am putting my suitcases up in a fancy hostel for the week. But that doesn't even matter because the point is Rome is over and I cannot accept that. After the extortionists at the airport took my bags I caught the train back to my ancient city and had a pasta breakfast with Lindsey while she packed. We met up with Vivi and Danielle and even though it was pouring down rain we decided to go back to Piazza Navona and enjoy Bernini's fountain one last time. Wouldn't you know there was a nice little tratoria with heaters nearby where we were able to eat our weight in pizza.

After lunch we walked to the Pantheon and had a little photo shoot out front since there were barely any people out in the bad weather. This is where Danielle and I tried to drink from a fountain and we both underestimated the power of the flow of the water and it shot up both our noses and all over my forehead, all of which was captured in the most embarrassing of pictures.
The Trevi Fountain is not far from there so we headed in that direction and stumbled across a store that sold nothing but various versions of Pinocchio. They had a life-sized Pinocchio sitting on a bench and we obviously could not pass up an opportunity to have a picture with him which led to some awkward faces. The Trevi Fountain is beautiful by the way. It is set back in this tiny piazza and it so huge in comparison that ts overwhelming but in a good way. Salvi really knew what he was doing. In fact he placed a marble vase on the side because rumor has it that his critics used to sit in a cafe on that side so he wanted to block their view of his progress. There are over 25 different species of fauna and 30 different pumps for water. But decide for yourself.

We were on a roll with the whole hitting up all the iconic tourist sites so we walked to Piazza Venezia and caught the 44 to La Bocca della Verita and in the style of Gregory Peck I pretended to have my hand bitten off, but no one bought it. I guess they've seen that trick. As a bonus, inside the church was the skull of St. Valentine which hadn't been on display since his feast day in February. It's amazing what we humans venerate. Across the street is the ancient temple of Hercules so I had this song stuck in my head as we caught the 44 for the last time back to Trastevere.
Somehow we made it to Ciampino Airport where Vivi miraculously dropped her suitcase from 29kg to 15.5kg so that she would not have to pay €20 per kg for everyone over 15 (the extortionists are everywhere!). We are now safely in London with Bethany, posts to follow.