Day 2 Rome

Day 2 Rome I woke very early, and had breakfast on my own upstairs and then hit the pavement....walked through the park and down to the river and grabbed a coffee in a local street cafe. Met this amazing girl from Lithuania who lives in Rome. Bonnie-you may have met her...she is advocating for open access of research particularly medical research in libraries. Unfortunately I forget her name and so can't add her on facebook, but somehow I am sure we will meet again. We had a very long conversation about how difficult it is for developing countries to get the research material and how expensive it is. She applauds Australia in our open access of publicly funded research and mentioned your university in particular. I explained about my kids and how I have and still do research into different things about autism and treatment programs. And that there are mothers out there that do read the papers and understand them and pass information on to other families.....she said I would make a great advocate for Open access. I decided to walk to see the sights.....oMG, I walked and walked and walked. Oh and a little shopping. I went into one dress shop, and they looked after me like a princess. If I didnt try on 30 pieces of clothing...found some beautiful clothes, so I lashed out on 5 nice ones....a couple of dresses, a pair of comfortable sandles, a skirt and two tops. Its so unlike me. (I was told not to shop for clothes on the coast as they are so much more expensive, and here is the end of summer sales) I bought another couple of dresses in another shop. Im set now for a new wardrobe for summer.. I walked and walked and walked some more, and then took a touro bus just for a rest. It was 36 oC and I was starting to feel it. Oh there was an explosion in the square near the place where italy was declared a nation while I was there.......silly tourists ran towards it, me, I walked the other way...apparently there is a very quiet war against tourists happening and it is kept very quiet so that people dont stop coming here. protests around information booths and things. Stupido italians who dont realise that their country needs tourists in order to survive the economic crisis they are facing. Look at me for example, I come to their country, I stay in the hotel, I eat at local restaurants, and choose locally grown food. I shop for clothes, choosing only those made in Italy...I buy shoes made in italy, and then I catch taxi.....without tourists, unemployment would be through the roof. Small businesses would not survive. Once again I got lost...my orientation here is pathetic....and ended up way on the other side of the old city....taxi again.....I just couldnt contemplate how to get a bus from there to the hotel. I would have walked 10-15km plus some for the day. Sat in the pool bar for a while, and chatted online to MJ..naughty girl...2am on a school night.....and messaged the Melbourne couple I met at cooking class. We ended up going out for dinner (very cheap..$20 each) and it was lovely. We then walked the city, seeing some of the sights by night..the coloseum, pyramid etc.. Had to be a little street wise as there were lots of hawkers and suspicious looking people around...everytime one approached I would say no not interested before they even got close....I am not nice to these people. You just dont know who is going to rip you off or pull a knife...so you just never let them get close. I left Ivy and wayne and caught a cab back to the hotel.....sore and tired feet with blisters, and bed beckoned. It was a lovely evening with great company..I am sure we will catch up when we get home.