Shopping, washing, and relaxing
Thursday 23rd October
Poor Rhi has been battling a bit of a cold for the last week, so we took today as an opportunity between booked tours for a bit of relaxation.
Given we’re in Rome for 8 days, we decided that we’d go to the supermarket and get ourselves some drinks, snacks, and breakfast foods. We found a supermarket a few hundred metres away from our apartment, so plugged the address into Google Maps and set off. About two minutes later, we were standing in front of the Pantheon again; it turns out that we are staying really close. It was just as lively as it was yesterday.
We entered the supermarket, which looked like a little hole in the wall but, like most of Rome that we’ve seen so far, it was a maze of rooms that went deep into the wall where we entered. Fruit juice is about three times the price of soft drink! We stocked up on potato crisps, soft drink, water, bread, chocolates, and headed back to the apartment.
As we’ve been away for just over a week now, we had a bit of washing to do, so we put our shopping away and set off to the laundromat. This was about a half hour walk away from the apartment. Everybody’s been to a laundromat, right? Well, this one wasn’t much different, so we’ll leave it at that, save to say the dryer didn’t quite dry our clothes, so we have clothes all over the apartment drying at the moment.
When we got back from the laundry, we hung out at the apartment for a few hours snacking on our potato crisps and drinks, before heading out to Scusate il Ritardo for dinner, right in the Piazza of the Pantheon. It seems a common theme that portions for pasta in Italy is quite small, compared to what you get back home. We’ve put this down to the fact that we think you generally have an appetiser before a pasta meal here, so Rhi filled up on the flat bread we were served before tucking into her ravioli. Meanwhile, I had grilled lamb with roast potatoes. Food was great, the service was pleasant, and the atmosphere - along with the guitar-playing street performer - was amazing. It was a little cool, but we enjoyed ourselves. On our way back, we grabbed some gelati for dessert, which was delicious yet again!
Tomorrow we’re off on another full day walking tour - Vatican in one day!
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