Emerging from St. Peter's crypt to blazing sun and cold air again, we squinted our way along an old street parallel to the river towards Travastere, keeping St. Peter's at our back. We passed narrow lanes and high walls and decorative gates that hinted at treasures within, as trees laden with ripe oranges and lemons could be seen peeking above.
By the time we reached this very picturesque area we were starving, and concerned that we might be too late for lunch. Thankfully, Ristorante Sora Cencia was still open and we got a table outside in the sun, with a bottle of water and another of wine immediately plunked down in front of us.
A very good representation of Roman cuisine in three courses later, we meandered back home by way of the city's oldest bridge to the world's smallest inhabited island, Isola Tiberina, shaped like a boat and which has had a medical centre on it for centuries (now Fatebenefratelli maternity hospital).
Then through the Ghetto area (an area we'll explore further another day) where we passed the charming Fontana delle Tartarughe filled with carved figures helping bronze turtles (attributed to Bernini) reach water. 
We took the tacitly suggested sentiment "Festina lente" ("make haste slowly") to heart and meandered through the lanes before happening upon the Torre Argentina, an ancient square that held four temples and a theatre in its day and was rediscovered in the 1920s when Rome was in a period of reconstruction. What makes this place particularly interesting is it is where Julius Caesar was assassinated.
Conservation work, like almost everywhere you look in Rome, is still in progress, and it is possible to look down and see pieces of stone laid out in patterns with each numbered. Weeds grow up around and through the stones and the large excavation vehicles parked on the site, indicating just how casual the pace of the conservation is. That doesn't seem to bother the inhabitants of the place.
Within about 20 seconds of looking, you see movement behind a stone, then something else over there by that pillar, then something curving through a passage. Soon you are aware the place is swarming with cats. This is the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary, a no-kill shelter for Rome's cats of which there seem to be quite a lot.
Then home to spend the evening with our friends and hosts. Beyond our cosy and wine-accompanied conversation we could hear Rome's bells ringing as the light changed and the cold dark night slowly draped over us.
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