When in Rome.......

Monday Total: 7.7k
Week Total: 7.7k
Month Total: k
Year Total: 1223k

Time: 42.41min
Av pace: 5.29min/km
Av Temp: sunny, v warm and muggy (8.00am)
Rel. Humidity Av: humid

Ran alongside the Tiber River - amazing sights and not-so-amazing smells! There were people out walking their dogs (I have never met such placid dogs as I have seen in Rome), a couple of runners, cyclists and they've all been male. Also running along cobblestones has proven to be quite a challenge but so far I've not done a CJ.

We arrived in Rome Saturday afternoon after a 13hr flight from Singapore to Heathrow, a 6hr wait at Heathrow (and there's only so many times you can walk around the shops before it all starts looking the same particularly in a jet-lagged state) and then a 2hr flight to Rome. I upset one of the guys in Rome airport trying to get us a 'taxi' because I said I was going out to the taxi rank. We were told not to take a 'taxi' from them because we could end up paying a lot more than the 40euro flat rate from the airport to Trastevere, where we are staying.

Our apartment is gorgeous and the owners are just brilliant. We have a decent sized living area, kitchen, dining area, bedroom, and bathroom. Shelley, the owner, had left dark chocolate bars on our pillows (she won me over immediately!), a basket of snacks and fruit in the living area, and coffee beans as well as moka coffee powder in the kitchen, plus a complimentary bottle of wine. If you ever come to Rome, this is the place to stay.

Anyway briefly, Sunday we did the flea markets at Porto Potese - these are huge and we got lost. But I also managed to buy a cute bag and some casual shoes (tho when we got back to our apartment I discovered I had a size 37 and a size 40 - this meant a sprint back to the markets before they closed, find the right stall and swap them. We managed all of this!). The Pantheon visit was in the afternoon - amazing if you ignore the hordes of tourists, the stalls selling fake everything and the McDonalds. Before this we stopped at Torre Argentian cat sanctuary - these are ruins which are home to hundreds of Roman cats, all of which are sterilised and vaccinated. There are some big pussy cats in there.

Intervals at Circus Maximus

Tuesday Total: 9.2k
Week Total: 16.9k
Month Total: k
Year Total: 1232.2k

Time: 48.52min
Av pace: 5.16min/km
Av Temp: warm, partly cloudy
Rel. Humidity Av: humid

Ran intervals at Circus Maximus before breakfast. Getting there was interesting - nearly got run over several times just crossing roads. Once at Circus Maximus I thought it was the perfect place to do intervals becasue the track is roughly a kilometre long. The surface is uneven but hey, I'm getting used to uneven surfaces now! There is no shade so it was hot work after the first couple of intervals but I ended up doing about 7 or 8 of them. I saw a few females running today - I think they were tourists.

Then we did the Colosseum, Palatino and the Forum ruins during the day, or maybe that was Monday. I'm losing track of the days! I think we did all of the above on Monday and then on Tuesday we did the hop on, hop off bus tour to get a better idea of the city.

I won't even start on the eating - only to say that carbo loading is an ongoing thing here. The panini, pastries, pizzas, gelati - its all delicious!

Strewth and Mr B arrived ths morning - it was great to see them though the poor things are feeling a little weary! Can't wait to hit the shops with Strewth - there are some seriously goegeous shoes here in Rome!

Until next time.....ciao!