After breakfast at Luigi’s I packed everything and carried it over to Vivaldi’s BnB in two trips. It was only a couple of hundred metres, fortunately. There’s a lot of weight there. Gabriele was very helpful, said he would move it all into my room when the room was available. I wanted to tell Luigi how grateful I was that he had waited until 8:30pm for me two nights ago. He gestured towards his laptop and loaded Google Translate. Easy! Next, I walked around to Via Gagini to tell the people at the parking station I would pick the bike up tomorrow, domani. All set.
I decided to go back to the Catacombs first, but to try a different route through the maze of side streets, and found another serpentine street market.
About a minute after taking this photo, I encountered Fiona and Brian with their friends Silvana and Michael, also from Ballarat. Fiona reminded me about the concert in the Theatre that evening, that I was now able to attend because I had extended my stay. Then I tried a street branching from Via Cappuccini. That led me ultimately to a dead end, and I had to circle round and return to Cappuccini, but I was definitely in streets where tourists don’t normally go. There was a communal vegetable garden.
A couple of times I walked past small woodworking shops, with the smell of fresh sawn wood.
The Catacombs were quite interesting. I had not noticed the entrance yesterday, it was to the side of the Cimitiere in the corner.
It was probably open when I was there yesterday, perhaps hidden by wedding guests, no matter. Only €3 entry. Inside are corridors with “mummies” hanging on the walls and lying on shelves. Most were in an advanced state of decay, they were not really mummies at all, but skeletons in clothes. They were mainly 19th century, but one was dated 1695, and a 2 year old girl, well preserved, died in 1920. I eavesdropped on a tour guide. Apparently if you expressed a wish to be mummified, and your family could pay, you got to be left in 2 rooms for a year each, essentially while nature took its course. Then the family could dress what was left in finery, pay a yearly fee and visit them. Change the clothes every few years until nobody was left to take an interest. No photos allowed, unfortunately.
Back to the Royal Palace, but first, my favourite cafe near the Palace for a quick couple and some phone calls, email etc.
At one stage I was waiting for a car to pass me before crossing the street. She stopped and waved me across with a brilliant smile. That made up for the odd surly waiter and imperious Carabinieri. I think they are jaded by contact with tourists like me. I was learning that busy traffic on the main thoroughfares did not respect pedestrians so much after all. You have to edge out, allow a couple of cars to go by, then force the issue, behave as if you are fully prepared to die in your quest to cross the road on a pedestrian crossing. Don’t try this in Paris.
Anne mentioned that she had found a webcam showing the entrance to the Cathedral. It wasn’t far away, so I headed back there and called Anne. We established that she could definitely see me, 40 seconds late. I could not locate the camera.
The next access to the Cathedral roof was not for 25 minutes, so I returned to the Royal Palace and selected the €8.50 option to see the interior. The interior was definitely worth seeing, especially the 900 year old Palatine Chapel.
Then back to the Cathedral to climb to the roof.
After that I walked most of the length of Via Maqueda, saw a couple of interesting buildings.
And visited the Theatre to buy a concert ticket.
Then I had less than 2 hours to find dinner and be at the Theatre 30 minutes before the start of the concert.
Dinner was in a lane adjacent to the Theatre. Spruiker outside showed me the menu. Why not, the food looked great. It was just getting dark and the lights were going on, but it was really a little early to be dining.
I didn’t photograph the main course. The whole grilled fish on my plate looked distinctly unhappy, but tasted as if he had been swimming that afternoon.
I headed around the corner to change into my concert going clothes and was seated shortly after 8pm. The concert was Shostakovich’s Symphony #7, “Leningrad”. I don’t know a lot about classical music, and I had never heard this, but the concert hall was crowded and the orchestra played very well.
One of the temporary stalls along the street said Sangria. When I asked, it turned out that it was an artisanal gelati makers festival, and it was sangria flavoured gelato. They gave me a taste. It was good, can I buy a bucket of this? No, you need a coupon. It all seemed too hard, so I bought a gelato from a store that obviously needed my business tonight.