This post will be short, as we gave ourselves a light day after the Pompeii excursion. We all stayed in our underwear until after noon. We decided that we would go back to Villa Borghese and rent another rickshaw and ride go-carts and bicycles. We packed a picnic and took the short stroll up to the park.

At our urging, Genene struck a Greek goddess pose.

After an hour in the rickshaw, we rented two carts and one bicycle. Greg was a gentlemen and rode the cart for much of the time. Those things were rickety and hard to get to go.

We came home at 5:00 PM or so, hot and exhausted as usual. We took our showers, and Greg fixed a great meal at home. He bought pesto at the supermarket and we ate a leisurely meal and sat on the balcony and watched the crowds go by.

After stumbling across last week's opera on the Spanish Steps, I read more about it via the magic of the internet. Turns out it is a weekly event in the summertime, so we decided to go back. The show was the same, but I still enjoyed it. The views are stunning, and this is opera as it was meant to be heard, in Italian by Italians. We were amazed at how many people were singing along in the crowd. If I ever figure out how to post up videos, I will send some of these out as a supplemental post. For now, I will just offer the still photos. There was also a dance interlude, Genene's favorite part.

One of the crowd favorites was Bizet's “Chanson du Toreador” from Carmen, and everyone was singing along. Of course, all I could think of was the “Gilligan's Island” episode when they all decide to do the musical version of Hamlet, and they set that song to different lyrics. I walked home singing, “Neither a borrower, nor a lender be. Do not forget. Stay out of debt…..” The earworm will be singing to me all night.

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