sunset, Friday 26 February...

We had walked through the Villa Borghese and reached the edge of the Pincio, in time for the sunset, or in the Italian 'across the mountain' - tramonte, light filtered through trees...

From the edge of the cliff, to which Helen advances above, we took this photo, the cupola of St Peters half hidden behind the spires of a nearer church.

When we had reached the wall at that clifftop there was a young Japanese couple in close embrace there - we had thought we were approaching a solitary figure... We then found we were following these two happy people, whose feet scarcely touched the ground, along the road below, towards Trinita dei Monti. They in fact turned that next corner and, running down below us, looked up, shouting, smiling and giggling "paparazzi, paparazzi!"

From this road, as we went along, the horizon made odd combinations, including here the chariot of the Victor Emmanuel Monument and the figure atop the column in Piazza Mignanelli, celebrating the immaculate conception, see whole item below.

Here we were, then, at the top of the Spanish Steps, before the Chiesa Trinita dei Monti, with sunset upon us...

It was a wondrously warm evening, we have no recording of the voices lifting from the stairs, full of the music of Italian language. Yes, some tourists, but also a high proportion of Romans out to take in the warmth and beauty of the end of the day...

... and this was the view back up the steps...

From the Piazza di Spagna above we turned left and immediately were in the Piazza Mignanelli, with the column, with Elena asking: "How did those flowers get up there?"

... Up there, see? (below - click to enlarge if you wish)

Good question. They may have been put there by someone particularly excited around the time of the annual papal visit. (How extraordinary the internet, that link courtesy of the Nigerian Federation of Catholic Students!)

"And, and," we ask, "Who put the flowers on the police car?"

Yesterday in Rome

From here in Soriano nel Cimino it is an easy half hour run to the huge car park at Orte railway station (Euro 1 for the day) and then Euros 9 each for a BIRG A-D ticket to allow use of public transport throughout the Lazio Region (including Rome) for the day.

I carried from Australian and as first obligation in this visit to Rome, took along my worn Borsalino Classico, thirty years in the wearing, sure in the belief that the Borsalino shop at Piazza del Popolo 20 would be pleased to renovate it, as I was pretty sure the tiny shop in Largo Arenula would have done thirty years ago. But now the world has changed, of course, and I was received with a measure of disdain at imagining such a thing. Alas...

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Here some photos, of diverse attractions.

Here a gentleman walks into an archway from the most exclusive shopping street, the via Condotti.

Here Helen examines interesting festival attire.

Here is the Barcaccia created by Bernini father and son in 1627 at the foot of the Spanish Steps - the steps beginning in the left of the picture. The English poet John Keats died in 1821 in the house at the corner of the steps, now a museum. Out of sight to left is the house on the other side of the steps in which Bertolucci's wondrous 1998 film Besieged is set.

and this is just a nice photo of motorini (motor scooters) and a man running in the rain...