Shoes

Shoes are very important on a trip like ours. We have been walking about three hours a day on average. It is not all easy walking either. Rome has lots of sidewalks with cobbles, sidewalks made lumpy by tree roots and sometimes sidewalks simply in need of repair.


In the picture above you can see all the shoes I have with me on this trip. All of them have been worn at least once. However, the walking shoes (second pair from the right) are the ones I seem to wear most days. They provide the most support and I am less likely to have achy legs at the end of the day. Sometimes I wear the Skechers slides (on the right) but they have a tendency to slip off going uphill or on uneven terrain. One day I wore the Privos (second pair from the left) and got small blisters. I would wear them more but I really bought them to wear with my cropped trousers and they have sat in the drawer most of the trip. The slippers on the left are what I wear around the apartment. My favorite pair of shoes is the multi colored woven loafers in the middle. Sometimes I wear them when we walk to nearby restaurants for dinner. The walking shoes and slippers were already here in a bag of things we left with friends.

You might not guess it from this practical line up but I LOVE shoes. If I could stand to walk in them I would be in heels all the time. Unfortunately I have to wear custom orthotics (foot beds), and shoes that can accommodate them, all the time or suffer from Sciatica. It kills me that the shoes I am wearing most are the least attractive I have here.

Here is Rome you see a lot of women wearing heels. They can be tall spiky heels or flat wedge heels. Boots are always big in Italy and you can find them in every possible combination of heel, toe, height of boot, material and color. The open toe boots seem to have been a quick fad. Not many of them are in the store windows now. I have seen fabulous red patent leather boots and lots of boots that come up over the knee.

We have had a couple of lazy days. Yesterday was brilliant sunshine and quite warm. After doing some chores in the morning, it seemed like a good idea to take our books to the Borghese Gardens, sit on a bench and read. Our apartment has an outdoor patio but it also has lots of mosquitoes. The Gardens were beautiful and we sat there for about three hours.

Today we drove out to the beach at Lido di Ostia and had lunch. It felt good to be by the water even if it was brief. After lunch we drove south along the coast but for much of the drive you could barely see the water. Either there were wild dunes between us and the sea or endless “pay to play” establishments. It is very quiet out there this time of year.

When we got back tonight someone had parked in front of the gate to our parking spot. We honked the horn repeatedly but no one showed up. Finally Dom found a street spot and left the car. An hour and a half later we checked and the gate was clear. So we retrieved the car and put it in its locked space. Our landlord keeps telling us “That’s Rome” but we find the parking issues really irritating.