the end of another day. We went over to downtown Rome to take in the souvenir shops; climb a bit on the Spanish Steps; go to the John Keats Museum, where the poet lived out his last months before croaking of t.b. in 1821 at the tender age of 25; head over to the Fontana di Trevi I believe it is, where visitors can throw coins over their shoulders in hopes that means they will return to Rome provided they have the money, which they won't if they toss it all in the fountain; and finally we saw the Pantheon, which is one hell of a work of architecture.
We also ate at a Chinese restaurant before hiking over to the Pantheon, but my nephew and his wife decided to have an argument over what to do. She wanted to go shopping, while he wanted to go over to the Pantheon. They decided to go their separate ways and do what they wanted to do, but what was funny was both of them met up back at the train station. The three of us assumed his wife would go on a separate train, but we all ended up returning to the apartment together.
Speaking of Pompeii the other day, it was very sad to see several dogs that had apparently been abandoned and rely on tourist handouts. It's disgraceful people can have so little regard for them. I was tempted to take them home with me.
There is this I found about the dogs, which live inside Pompeii, which in turn is part of Vesuvius National Park:
Nero was inspired by one of the many dogs that ingratiate themselves with the tourists of Pompeii. The notes at the end of the book explain that the many stray dogs in Pompeii are protected because they are believed to be descended from the dogs who escaped the eruption of Vesuvius around 2000 years ago.
There appear to be a few stray dogs hanging around Rome near where I am staying as well.
