We chose to spend the day in the park around the Villa Borghese. While we would have to wait until the next day to see the wonderful things within the museum, we could wander the park and enjoy the beautiful day. We got another late start, so only started our wanderings around noon. The park is actually quite big and has many smaller museums in it, along with fountains, archaeological ruins, walking paths and ... a zoo. We saw that the zoo was open and Fiona agreed to indulge my child-like fascination with zoos. I love everything about zoos, except, of course, the concept of putting wild animals in cages. The better the zoo, the less conflicted I feel about enjoying myself. This one was about average. There were a few really good enclosures, where it was clear the animals had everything they needed. But there were also a few that clearly needed a little more TLC.
Our favourite was the small monkey habitat. Monkeys themselves are quite adorable. When you shrink them down to the size of your fist it just amplifies the effect. We did also spend quite a long time viewing the macaques and a pygmy hippopotamus that really seemed to be taking too much pleasure from his mud bath. We did our usual competition of 'spot the animal' in the reptile house - I think it was a draw.
Post-zoo we decided that instead of walking around the park we would try another mode of transportation - a two person bicycle, or bici as they are called here. We hopped on and I soon found out that the small electric motor that kicked in when the rpm's of the pedals got too low was a blessing indeed. Once we found the right balance of pedal power and motor we were zipping all over the park. We had quite a good time on our 'day off' in the park. I'm glad we had the time in the schedule to do it.
After a quick cool down at the famous Harry's Bar where we managed to put away a couple of nice cold mojitos, despite the 18 euro price tag, we made our way to the only other Roman attraction that we hadn't seen and was open on Monday - the Spanish Steps. While they were quite lovely, I hesitate to suggest when might be the best time to take them in. Clearly it wasn't on Monday afternoon. It was crawling with tourists and while it was still a scenic spot, it wasn't like in all the books.
We did find a Lacoste store nearby which was both significantly less busy and air-conditioned, so we spent some time going through it and picking out some new polos for me to wear in Amalfi. After that we went back to the hotel and freshened up for dinner, which we had just down the street from the hotel. I think this may be the one piece of advice we give to anyone coming to Rome. Seriously think about booking a hotel with a restaurant in it. After a full day out on the streets you really want to come back and shower before dinner. The problem is, once you're all cleaned up, you really have no desire to go back out into the hustle and bustle again.
After dinner we packed up our bags and set an early alarm. Our tickets for the Galleria Borghese were for 9am and we had to be there at least a half hour before, so our string of sleep-in's would be broken. Oh well, everyone says that the Galleria is a must-see for art lovers, so we're pretty confident it will be worth it.
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