The notorious no. 64 bus claimed another victim today when Bob McConnell lost his wallet from the secret pocket of his Tilley travel pants. While he was being distracted by a rather large man who kept trying to keep him from following Isa onto a crowded bus, an accomplice deftly picked the secret pocket. Fortunately, he cancelled his credit and bank cards before they were used by the thieves. Here are Bob and Isa shortly after the theft and looking no worse for wear.
This morning was bright and sunny but also cool and so windy that Lynne changed her mind about playing golf immediately after getting out of the car at the golf course. We can play for free in such conditions at home in Victoria. This limited our activity for the day to a 3 PM tour of the French Embassy which occupies the Palazzo Farnese. We arrived there after gelatos in the Piazza Navona and a visit to the market at Campo dei Fiori which was in the process of closing for the day.
The tour of the embassy, as advertised, was to have been in English. However, as it appeared that about half the assembled group were Italians, the guide decided to stiff the foreigners and give the tour in Italian. Fortunately she spoke slowly and clearly enough for Lynne and I to understand everything. Unfortunately the star attraction, the hall of the Caracci frescoes was closed for restoration work. We settled for looking at them on Google when we got home.
Otherwise the tour was quite interesting. The palazzo, in part designed by Michaelangelo, was another example of the landed aristocracy making out like bandits when one of the family became Pope and his son became a Cardinal. In one room of the palace were frescoed landscapes of five of the cities which were part of their fiefdom.
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