Day Tripping: Rome And Monet

  Johnny always needs to buy some art supplies when we arrive here in Italy. There are decent stores in the area, but the places he likes best are in Rome and Florence. 

  Since there is also an amazing exhibition of paintings by Monet in Rome right now, we took the early train down for the day for supplies, a show, and lunch. Perfection.

  We planned the trip for a day without rain and it was beautiful all day. Nice!

  We always take the really early train, so we arrive in Rome around 8:30. There aren't many tourists around yet, and it's nice to just cruise around the city a bit, slowly walking to wherever the wind blows us.

I want to return to get a photo of this with all it's leaves out...

I got a kick out of this street art.
The bike is one of the grab and ride bikes, which are all over Rome now.
I would be totally freaked out to ride a bike in rome, though!

  It was so nice to see and feel the sun. We thanked our lucky stars. It's been pretty grey and wet since we got here over a week ago.

  Sun makes all the difference for photos, too-

Thanks, Sunny-Sun, for making an appearance!

  We like to stroll through the Colosseum area, just because it's there. On this day, there were no people around yet. I mean zero. I think the weather, and early time of day did the trick. 

  Normally, it's a zoo around here, with tons of people, lots of various 'street performers' doing their thing, cars, taxis, buses...chaos!

  We had the whole joint to ourselves on Friday morning.

Sigh.
We are so lucky to be here.

  The Monet show opened nice and early at 9:30, so this was our first stop. We were there with about six other people. 

  We were so fortunate that the show has been extended until sometime in June, I think. It had been slated to close on 11 February.

  Good for us!

  I plan to do a more extensive post on the exhibition, but here are just a few photos from our visit there...

We love seeing displays like this. The actual palette, pipe & glasses of Monet.
Wow.

Monet watches Johnny as Johnny watches a video about Monet...

  If you are in Rome, it's a must see:

  Monet at the Complesso del Vittoriano.

  Afterwards, we had some time to kill before our lunch reservation, so more strolling was in store.

  I love how easy it is to walk around Rome. You can be anywhere you may want to be in twenty-thirty minutes. Taxis are all around, too, and not too expensive. We like to walk, though, weather permitting. 

  It helps work off the food and wine we (over!) consume all day.

  Just a few more strolling shots, on such a lovely afternoon...

  The Tiber river was way up...we were shocked to see the friezes/murals by artist William Kentridge under water a little. The sidewalks along the river were all underwater, as well.

  We enjoy visiting the work, created in the spring of 2016, each time we are in Rome, to see how nature has effected it. It is meant to slowly disappear over time, so it's always interesting to see. I just hadn't thought about high water and it's effects.

  

  Then then headed into Trastevere, an area on the other side of the Tiber, for a pre-lunch glass of wine, afterwards we hiked back over the river to our favorite 'hole in the wall' for fried artichokes and pasta 'cacio & pepe'.

  I've posted about this place many times in the past, but here's a plate of their pasta for your viewing pleasure, anyway:

All that walking...we built up really good appetites
just for this. It's what we're here for, right?

  After lunch, a walk over to the art supply store, and then a taxi (yes, a taxi....we were beat by this point) back to the train station. Best ten euros we spent all day, that damn taxi.

  The train was warm, our bellies full, we were pooped...hence, the photo below.

End of a very long day.
Trust me, I totally conked out, too.
He just didn't get a picture of me, thank god.

  Stay tuned for a post on the Monet show, coming very soon. Especially since it's raining, and I'll have all the time in the world to create it. Sigh.