Rome 3.0

The next morning, we packed up our stuff and headed from our second Rome hotel (the Hotel Polo – bah!  No good!) to our third, a short distance away.  (The Best Western – much better!)  As we mentioned previously, we were bound and determined to see the Meridian Line at Santa Maria degli Angeli, and we knew that it was going to go off at 1:03 that day.  We dropped off our bags at the hotel, and hightailed it down to the church, using a cab for the first time in Rome since we had been there. 

We had missed this Meridian line three before, once by only a few minutes.  Today, we saw it.  And it was worth it.  It was a lovely sunny day, and the church had beautiful light streaming in.  An organ recital was just finishing.  A fantastic experience all the way around.  We made sure to email Sam, our friend from our first day in Rome, with the pictures.

From the church we made our way via city tour bus to the Campo di Fiori, an old marketplace dating back to the Romans and still in use today, although there was no market that day.  We also passed by the Area Sacra, another huge ruin of what they think are three temples, before heading to a shopping district we had discovered during our first few days in Rome.  Unfortunately, everything was closed, but it was fun to window-shop.

We had a quick Panini and waited forever for our bus to come again.  We finally got back to our hotel (far away on the other side of the Villa Borghese), where we changed for dinner and caught a cab back to the center of town, the Piazza Barbarini.  I had been planning to surprise Eric with dinner with our friends Dustin and Megan from Austin, who were also in Italy, but we had a mix-up in scheduling and unfortunately they did not get our message in time, so they did not meet us.  We made the best of it, going back to the Da Olympio Restaurant which was close by  and had been such a success our second  night in Rome, and sat next to a couple (obviously recently engaged and already stressed out about planning the wedding) and a group of tourists from Whittier (really, the SoCal contingent is out and about on the Continent in September!) who were groaning with pleasure over the pasta, just as we had the first night.

One crazy but exhilarating cab ride later, we were back at our hotel ready to update our blog and make travel arrangements for the rest of our trip.  We had reserved three days to either revisit a location if we wanted more time there, or to go somewhere new.  By now, we had spent almost a week in Rome, which was fabulous, but we had seen more than we thought we would get to.  We liked Florence and Capri both equally, but for different reasons.  Frankly, we were too monument/museumed out to go back to Florence, and Capri was too far away from Milan, where we were flying out of on the 23^rd.  A few days of rest and relaxation were definitely called for.  We had had a wonderful time, but our feet are (literally) swollen and our eyes are tired from taking in so many sights.  We opted instead for two days at Lake Como, followed by one day in Milan before flying out the 24^th to Paris.

Rome, take # 2

I never would have guessed that doing a tour would be so involved.  We have been having a great time, however, we have not been getting a great deal of sleep.

We were scheduled to do a walking tour of Rome, which was interesting because we got some historical background information about some of the things that we had seen for ourselves two days prior to the start of the actual Italy tour.  Antonia and I also decided to take a tour of the Vatican Museum later in the day.

During our walking tour of Rome we visited St. Peter’s Basilica, Piazza Nivona, the Trevi Fountain, and the inside of the Pantheon, which we had walked by on our second night in Rome.  This was a world-wind tour of many things that we had already seen, but we were happy to go again because there are so many details that one misses the first time through. For example, the tour only gave us about twenty minutes in St. Peters Basilica, but we learned a lot about the history and artwork.  Still we were happy that we had spent at least an hour in the church by ourselves earlier in the trip.

Once finished with the walking tour we quickly made our way to the Basilica St. Maria degli Angeli to see if we could catch the sunlight falling on the Meridian line.  I had mentioned that I really wanted to see and photograph this event, so Antonia really wanted to make it happen.  I don’t know if there is anything cuter than to see Antonia jogging up the street trying to get us to the basilica in time.  It was very sweet of her.  This was our third attempt and unfortunately we were two and a half minutes late.  Bummer….I guess we’ll try again on the 19^th when we get back to Rome.   After our failed attempt, we decided to grab a quick bite.  We  did the total American thing  and went to McDonalds in the Piazza de Republica.  I thought perhaps we could take advantage of free wi-fi so that we could do a little comparison shopping for hotels and update our travel journal.  Alas, I was wrong.  I found that one needs to set up an account and in Italy you need an Italian SIM phone to take advantage of free MacDonald’s wi-fi, as they text message your password to you upon account setup.  The trip to McDonald’s wasn’t a total wash though.  We tried an Italy-centric  McD’s burger (the “Mozzarillo”) that had a focaccia type bun, lettuce, tomato basil sauce and mozzarella cheese.  It wasn’t bad, but I won’t disappoint any of you by visiting McDonald’s for more food while in Rome.

At 3pm we met up at the tour company, boarded the bus and headed over to the Vatican Museum.   If you ever get an opportunity to go to the Vatican Museum, go and definitely do it with a guide.  One of the many things we saw was the Sistine Chapel. It was so beautiful and awe inspiring.  To think that one man painted all of it was just amazing.  It was also interesting that Michelangelo, who was an amazing painter, but disliked it compared to sculpting, dropped all of his sculpting projects to work on the Sistine Chapel for nine years.  Imagine nine years of painstakingly detailed painting  on the ceiling of a structure like the Sistine Chapel. MADONNA!!!  But, when the Pope says jump, I’m not sure that there are too many people in Italy who would ignore him, especially in Michelangelo’s time. 

One of the funny things that I experienced on the tour was witnessing our tour guide, a fantastically knowledgeable and beautiful woman, deal with a nagging American tourist.  Our tour guide handled this other woman with such grace and ease and even though the American tourist complained the whole time about the speed of the tour, and the accent of the tour guide, she ended up tipping our tour guide at the end of the day. I guess patience is rewarded.  (The other interesting thing about our guide was her extraordinarily long eyelashes, which she was constantly grooming.  We sat next to her on the bus and watched her stroke and separate them constantly.  She had beautiful blue-green eyes and dark hair in a sleek bob, and was wearing a lot of eye makeup.)

We closed our day out by visiting the Spanish Steps  and going to eat with some friends from the tour, George and Michelle.  We ate at the restaurant that we visited on Day One with Sam.  I had a wonderful carbonara and Antonia had a chicken and mushroom dish.  Here’s to new friends, good food, and a great day.  Buena  Norte Tordos!

Classical Rome

We were up early ready to check out of our hotel by the train station and transfer to our next hotel by the Villa Borghese, where we would start our 10 day tour. We decided to do “Classical Rome” today since I did not want to be creamed by my dad, the ancient history professor, when we returned.

Leaving our bags at the hotel, we first made it back to Santa Maria degli Angeli  to catch the Meridian Line for Sam.  We thought that this would happen around noon, but in September the phenomenon occurs around 1 pm, and we did not have time to wait another hour.  Foiled again!  We will be back in Rome once during and then at the end of our 10-day tour, so we were confident that we would see it.

From Santa Maria, we made our way via metro to the Coliseum.  As we exited the metro, we found a reasonably-priced tour that took us throughout both the Coliseum and the Forum.  We had two good  guides, and enjoyed both locations.  The Forum is one of the other Seven Hills, and is considered to be the birthplace of Rome.  The oldest ruins of the city can be found there.  In addition, almost all of the Emperors of Rome had their residences there.  I wanted to take a tour of the villa of Augustus while we were there, but it was getting dark and we had a long walk back to our old hotel so that we could check out and get across town to check into our new hotel, north of the Villa Borghese.

At 4:20, we were back at the Metro station, experiencing the Roman Underground.  In Munich, we used the undergrounds all the time, and they were fantastic.  In Rome, everyone shoves into the cars as tightly as possible, and the smell is, frankly, profound.  We missed our first train by not being aggressive enough, but squeezed into the second train 10 minutes later.  I was concerned at first that I couldn’t reach a pole to support myself, but you are squeezed in so tightly that it doesn’t matter if you are holding on to something or not; you don’t move.

We emerged, relieved, two stops later and stopped for a pizza before picking up our bags and climbing onto a city bus at the train station to make our way uptown, basing our trip on the vague directions to our second hotel which we found online.  Our trusty map, now pretty worn out, did not show us this neighborhood.  After a moment, we realized that Italian buses do not announce their bus stops, and the bus stations are not well marked, so we had no idea where we were going.  Fortunately, three women from Belgium were sitting in front of us and overheard our conversation.  They introduced us to a Philippine woman who lived in the area, who not only told us where to get off, but got off the bus with us and walked us to our hotel.  Thank God, because we would never have found it otherwise.

Our intention was to check into the hotel and go back into town to our little shopping street, but we were too exhausted.  Instead, we repacked our bags for the next four days (we are going to Assisi, Siena, Florence and Venice, and then coming back to Rome for a few days, so we only took our small bags with us), and then Eric went out to see if he could scrounge up some food.  He was gone for quite a while, because this second hotel (Hotel Polo) is in the middle of residences and, it appears, people who do not need to eat.  He finally returned with a Panini and gelato. (Our favorite combination so far is pistachio – but not the bright green stuff! – and cherry.)  Technically, the Hotel Polo is a three star hotel, but we missed our Hotel Ariston, which was cheaper, friendlier, and in the middle of everything.

Onward to Vatican City

After a late start (hey, it’s a vacation!) we decided to go to walk to Vatican City via the Palatine.  We made it to the Palatine and looked at the ancient Roman ruins from a distance, but somehow got turned around and ended up by the Circo Massimo.  We crossed the river quite far south of the Vatican City, and made our way north along the Tevere River.  We figured that if we just keep going uphill, we would eventually make it to St. Peter’s Basilica, and elected to take side streets, which took us through a small university area (John Cabot University, an American liberal arts university)  It was nice to be away from tourists and making our way up the narrow streets.  We also stopped for some excellent gelato, sold to us by a vendor that did not speak English.  Fantastico!   (We had the real pistachio, a light green, not a bright green one.)

For part of our journey, we walked behind a young couple, obviously just getting to know each other.  He was British, she American.  He was doing his best to impress her with contrasts between U.K. and U.S. culture, and we caught the moment when he brushed her hand in the hopes of holding it, but was, alas, rebuffed.  A subtle transfer of his water bottle from his left to his right made the best of the awkward moment.  Still I hoped that a beautiful September day, lovely surroundings, and his accent would lead to success for him later in the evening.

While lost on our way to the Vatican, we found a great view behind the Children’s Hospital, across the rooftops of Rome. 

Finally, we arrived at the Vatican (terribly complicated, have to go through a parking garage, blah blah.  If you go, we recommend going with a tour).  St. Peter’s Basilica is exquisite.  Every single surface is decorated with bas-relief, mosaic, painting, etc.  The detail is overwhelming and you could look for hours, which we did.  Two and half hours, to be exact.   Still, I preferred Santa Maria degli Angeli, which is more intimate.

Unfortunately, we did not have time to go to the Vatican Museum on this visit, so we headed back down the hill and over the river, crossing the bridge at the Castel Sant’Angelo. There was an opera performance going on which we could hear but not see.  As we crossed the river and looked down, we saw that the Rome Film Festival will be starting in a week or two, and they were hard at work setting up meeting places along the banks of the river. 

As it got dark, we made our way down the Via del Giovanni Vecchio, which had some intriguing stores.  They were closed as we passed them, but we resolved to come back that evening and take a look (we later discovered in our guide book that this was THE place to go for good deals).  We also took the time to see the Piazza Navona and the outside of the Pantheon, which we will also see on our tour in a few days.  They were both lit up at night and were quite striking.

Walking up the Via Corso towards the Trevi Fountain, we passed a small covered side street with an altar to the Madonna built into the wall.  It is thought-provoking to be in a country where religion is so integrated into daily life.  As you can see from the photo, people light offerings to the Madonna on a daily basis.  While we stood in the alleyway, trying to get our camera to focus properly, a man came down the cobblestone path, crossing himself as he passed the altar.  I have never felt more like a dorky tourist then in that moment.

Desperate with hunger at this point, we ducked into a small restaurant just off of the main street.  Inside, we were greeted by a cheerful Asian man, who ushered us into a back room.  As with many things in Italy, one often struggles with the concern that you might be taken advantage of as a tourist.  However, the presence of one other young Italian couple, clearly on a date, made us feel more confident.

While waiting for our food, I looked around the restaurant at a few newspaper articles.  One small clipping was a letter from Gourmet magazine from 1979 saying that one of their readers had visited the restaurant and had written a letter to Gourmet extolling the virtues of “squid ink pasta”.  The magazine was requesting the recipe.   Unfortunately, we had already placed our order and couldn’t try it, but our food, when it came, was delicious.  Eric had the gnocchi gorgonzola (it beat Trader Joes hands down, with a much smokier flavor), and I had the waiter’s favorite dish, a pasta with tomato sauce and ham, among other mysterious but delicious things.

Ahhh Roma.

We were up early in the morning to take the train to the Munich Airport to catch our flight to Rome.  We had to take the U-Bahn to the main train station, and then transfer to a train to the  Munich airport.  After a week abroad, we were already running out of travel toiletries, so my brother Sam suggested that we buy some in the Hauptbahnhof (main train station).  We found a treasure trove of cool European toiletries. (Eric particularly liked the Nivea deodorant we bought.)  All of our purchases ended up in my carry-on, which elicited a search at the security checkpoint in the airport.  (We learned after that to divvy the toiletries up in four plastic bags, one for each carry-on, and we were ok after that.)

We arrived in Rome’s airport from Munich and were immediately struck by the comparison (to Rome’s detriment) between German and Italian transportation.  The Munich airport has been voted “the best airport in Europe” for the last 5 years.  It is spotless, efficiently laid out, with well-marked locations.  In Rome, we had to find the train to the center of town.  A train station in the airport – should be easy, right?  Ha!  Finally, after wandering through multiple levels, “directed” by uninterested security guards, we found the correct train, which stood in stark, grimy contrast to the German U-Bahn and StraBenbahns.  An unshaven, rumpled conductor took our tickets.  As I said to Eric, the Germans gave us the freeway, and Italians gave us spaghetti.  Basta!

We arrived at the main train station, and, after getting turned around a few times, found our first Rome hotel, the Ariston, which was modern, hip and comfortable.  After getting settled and receiving a cheap map (now our well-worn “bible) from our hotel, we set out on our first Rome adventure, around 1 pm. 

We made our way down one of the main streets, Via Cavour, learning early on that it is easy to find your way around Rome as long as you consult your map every two blocks or so.  Just past the Santa Maria Maggiore Cathedral, we consulted a street map posted on the corner of the block, and met our new friend Sam, an Armenian by way of Glendale.  Sam is a media artist and was in Rome for a few days before he went to the south of Italy for an exhibit of his works. (Check out his website at www.samsaga.com!) Sam had to go to the Armenian Embassy in the Piazza della Reppublica, and then find the Geghosian gallery in the Quirinale, and he graciously allowed us to join him and explore the city together.

We took a circuitous route to the gallery, passing first the Santa Maria degli Angeli, one of the four main Basilicas in Rome, along with St. Peters.  Mass started while we were there, and the singing was beautiful.    Inside, the cathedral had a very interesting exhibit of the relationship between Galileo and the church.  We spent a considerable amount of time here, looking at the frescoes and the exhibit. Santa Maria degli Angeli also has a meridian line in the floor, which captures the light at a certain time each day and illuminates a design on the floor (those of you who have read the Da Vinci Code will be familiar with this).  We were too late to see it that day with Sam, but we promised to come back to the church and photograph it for him.  Little did we realize what a commitment we had made…..more on that later.

From there we made our way down the Via del Quriinale to the Quattro Fontane.  At the intersection of two streets, there are four fountains, one on each corner.  We also found the Fontana del Tritone, a fountain of Triton, which we came back to several times during our wanderings.  Rome really is “the City of Fountains”, with one seemingly on every corner – each one beautiful.  We also passed the Trevi Fountain, and resolved to return at night, when it was lit.

Eric and I have become dependent on having a cappuccino around 4 pm – essential after walking all day.  We stumbled upon a small café in an alleyway around 4:30. My stepmother had given us strict instructions NOT to sit down at any cafes or the prices would double, but we were so exhausted (it was raining) that we found ourselves sitting down with coffee and a Panini before we could help ourselves.  The price was very reasonable, fortunately, and we were able to see some of Sam’s artwork, which he had with him and which was lovely. 

We ended our day with a walk down the Via Corso, a main eating and shopping drag, and had a delicious dinner at the one outside table at a café.  At the Piazza del Popolo, we said good-bye to Sam, but are looking forward to seeing him again in L.A. and having one of his famous Armenian omelettes!