Today was our "free day" to do what we wanted in Rome, so Kathy and I, Sam and Virginia, and Elaine and Dave started walking around. Ended up back at the Campo del Fiore area where the merchants were all set-up in the square. I bought some small souvenirs.

We ended up walking around looking for a gelato shop (like there isn't one every 10 feet), and we ended up at some ruins in the middle of town. There were a lot of cats milling around and Sam joked, "looks like a cat-house". Well, it literally was….a cat sanctuary where you could make donations to save and feed the stray cats of Rome.

Ended up having lunch at the same place Kathy and I had dinner our first night in Rome, the Isolate Ricci. Nice light lunch of antipasto and Fanta!

We walked back to the Piazza de Navona and took some more pictures. Then, found a gelato shop (Blue Ice) on the way back to the hotel.

This evening we met up with one of Kathy's friend's acquaintances, Tony, who teaches English in Rome at the American University. He picked us up in his little silver car and took us up to Avertine Hill, which is a great overlook for most of Rome.

The Basilica of St. Sabina historical Church is there and there were several brides having their pictures taken on the beautiful grounds called the Giardino deli Aranci (Garden of Oranges). We actually "crashed" a wedding in progress; it was OK, the priest let us in! It is said that the first depiction of Christ is carved in the upper right-hand corner of one of the wooden doors. One the floor is the tombstone of Brother Munoz Zamora, who died in 1300.

There was a hole in the wall where you could see one of the original orange trees that populated Rome. It is said that tree was brought from Spain by St. Dominic, and is claimed to be a miraculous tree because it still bears fruit through it's descendants.

We went down the hill to the Hotel for an "aperitif", and to wait to see if we could get in line to see "St Peter through the Keyhole" at the Knight's of Malta Hall gate. It IS actually a keyhole in the gate, and when you look through it you can see a statue of St Peter framed by orange trees. The lines were too long the 3 times we checked, so we never got to look…next time.

Tony took us to the old Roman Jewish ghetto section, which I had wanted to see. Very interesting area. And we wandered over to Tiber Island to see part of the original stone bridge. Very interesting tour! Back to the hotel at 930pm to PACK, as we are leaving for the airport at 7am- boo hoo.

No time for dinner, so Kathy walked back to Il Vicolu de Caruso for some take-away bruschetta. Yum.