We had a few POIs on the agenda today.
First up a memorial to Wladyslaw Anders, Polish General commanding the Polish troops in the successful capture of hill 563, Monte Cassino in May There's also a museum. I have never seen it shown as open, so made no plan to visit. It was open. Maybe another time.
Next, the Archaeological museum and the main attraction the Amphitheatre. We shan't be doing the Colesseum in Rome, so this was a decent substitute. Mind you it was so hot Grizzly decided not to walk down into the arena.
Next, was a trip up Monte Cassino to the monastery and the Polish war memorial. The monastery wanted us to pay to park the bikes. That's a no-no in our eyes, so we turned around and went to the Polish memorial a few hundred metres down the road.
The Monastery from the B&B.
The Polish war memorial is a fitting memorial to those men who made the ultimate sacrifice. General Anders is buried with them, though he didn't die in battle, but in 1970.
Thw best shot of the memorial would undoubtedly be from a drone.
The day had started out around 30 degrees. It would hit 39 before the day was out. I was looking for a drinks stop but being Sunday, most of the garages with shops/cafes attached were closed up. After a while I spotted a sign for McDonalds and went off route in search of the golden arches. What a wild McDs goose chase that was. We never found it. Eventually, we found a garage with an open cafe, so Grizzly was able to boost his coffee reserves, an Americano being his preferred cup.
Our next 2 stops, still on the WW2 theme were the Anzio beach and the Beachead cemetery. 2312 lay in the cemetery, just one of those in the area.
I wonder if the people on this beach ever have a thought to what happened here all those years ago.
Lest We Forget.
With a fuel stop to come, some miles later than planned, due to a couple of detours, Grizzly was confident of making it. His faith in the Shadslow was repaid. We'd clocked about 15 miles above the usual 150 target.
Fuelled up we had a fairly clean run into Rome. The highlight for me was riding the Via Appia Antica or the Appian Way, the oldest road in Rome. Grizzly hates cobbles, so I made sure to explain the significance of those on which we had just ridden.
The hotel wasn't too difficult to find up on Aventine Hill. We have secure parking, which is always a weight off of the mind, especially in cities.
We popped out for a walk and a bite to eat. Just up the road was an old Alfa Romeo, surprisingly right hand drive. In the back, a bride and her father. We walked up to the church to see her arrive.
Not the first wedding we've been at on tour!
Just along the road was a queue of people, waiting at a gate. At that point I remembered the Aventine keyhole. The view through the keyhole is a row of shrubs with a domed roof perfectly framed in the middle. I queued to see it. Grizzly, wasn't interested. He can be a miserable fecker sometimes. I tried a picture but it didn't come out well.
You get the idea. Google Aventine keyhole Rome, if you are interested.
We walked down the hill, to some more sights close by. The Pyramid of Gaius Cestius, built in 12BC and the Porta San Paolo.
From there we headed back to find a bar/pizzeria I had found on Google maps, where we had dinner.
I learned my lesson from Scilla!
Back at the hotel we had another couple of beers and now it is bed time. Tomorrow we have a sightseeing day. Hopefully, using public transport Grizzly will not want to bail out at lunchtime like he did in Palermo. I know he wants to go to St Peter's Square, so we may head there first, then work our way back towards the hotel.
Ciao
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