RAIN DAY

1. Let it be noted that Andrea was out of bed by 8:15 am, although I cannot verify that since I was down in the fitness center. I will confirm that when I returned to the room after 9:00, there was no Andrea; just a note saying all the bath towels had been used and to meet her for breakfast.

2. The weather today was pretty much as advertised: coolish, gray, overcast and eventually rainy. Apparently Maria Sharapova was able to play and beat Li Na, but the Rome Masters Series tennis match between Andrea's Rafa and the guy I have to root for, Nole, was cancelled due to rain. Might we score tickets to the match tomorrow?

3. We mounted the 12:00 hotel shuttle bus to Piazza dei Tribunali. It departed promptly on Italian time at 12:20. Using the 110 Open bus tickets the kind woman gave us yesterday, we took the double decker bus from St. Peters Square and disembarked at Via del Tritone. From there we walked to Palazzo di Doria Pamphili. This old mansion near Piazza di Venezia is huge and holds works by many well known masters: Rapahel, Titian, Caravaggio, Guernico, Garafalo, Lippi... The family has been amassing works from the 1400-1700's, including a Velazquez portait of a descendant who became Pope Innocent X. My personal favorites were the Jan Breughels. People still live in this gargantuan palace. In the port cochere, I noticed a father taking his kids out for a drive. He had to open by hand one set of doors, drive the car into the port cochere, get out and close the first set of doors. Then he had to open by hand a second set of doors leading from the PC to the street, at which point he had to get out again to close those doors behind him. I guess that is a small price to pay for living in such an elegant, well-heeled residence!

4. After viewing the art and sculpture of this 400+ works gallery, we went into the tea room for afternoon refreshments. I had a cafe macchiato and a 3 chocolate pastry while Andrea ate the "obligatory whilst in Rome" spaghetti carbonara (don't tell Reb Michael!)

5. From there we meandered through the rain, photographed Marcus Aurelias' column and waited for our bus to take us to the Museo Nazionale Romano in the Palazzo Massimo near the train station. Another huge palace full of wonderful antiquities, including the frescoes of Livia, at which Andrea was totally thrilled. Both of us were surprisingly blown away by these ancient works and how well they have held up over time. Will our era ever leave behind for future generations anything quite so beautiful, important and telling of the way we live, especially in our ephemeral, digital age?

We closed the museum and ended up at Florian's Ristorane for supper. Good enough to satisfy our tired, hungry bodies, but not as good a dining experience as our previous culinary adventures. By the time we finished, we had to hail a taxi to run us up to Tribunali to catch our hotel shuttle bus. We entered our romm shortly after 9:30.

Tomorrow, we have Villa di Farnesina, the old synagogue/Hebrew museum, and Piazza Navona to conquer.

PS: some of you may heard about an earthquake here in Italy. While I read about it this morning, it had absolutely no affect on us here in Rome. We are quite happy and safe, and hoping for all the best for those who may been impacted by another Italian disaster (either natural or man made, such as yesterday's school bombing in Brindisi.)

PPS: No photos to upload today.