Bella Roma!




Bret, me, and Chris in front of the Colosseum.

 

When Chris and I first moved to England we made a list of about twenty places we really wanted to visit in Europe, and Rome was in the top three.   Bret was keen as well, so we waited to go with him this past Memorial Day long weekend.   We had good weather for most of the trip (minus one afternoon that had us on our toes as thunderstorms swept through!) and between the excellent navigation skills of Chris and Bret, I just had to pay enough attention to not trip as I ate my gelato! 

We traveled on Friday after Chris was off work, so only arrived to Rome in time to split a couple (wood-fired, piled with crazy ingredients) pizzas and absolutely CRASH.  Saturday morning we had booked a guided tour of the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel because we heard getting in to the Vatican Museum was next to impossible.  Now having done it, I wonder if we should’ve just arrived 45 minutes before the museum opened and taken a chance, but that’s not important.  Our tour was… okay.  We seemed to spend a lot of time perusing items we weren’t all that interested in (the collection of Pope Mobiles, for instance, was worth a minute but not half an hour) but then not have enough time at some of the more fascinating rooms of art.

We half hoped to have our passports stamped as we crossed the border from Italy to the smallest nation in the world, but instead were just herded through metal detectors and to the ticket line for the Vatican Museum. We explored the massive museum for a few hours, admiring the Rafael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel of course, but also trying to not be overwhelmed by the millions of other works of art along the way. The most regrettable bit for me anyway was spending far too short a time in the magnificent St. Peter’s Basilica. By this time, though, we had been walking through the Vatican for five hours, it was 1:30, and we were all a little desperate for lunch and a beer!

Chris and Bret walking through the Vatican Museum looking at some of the hand-drawn maps lining the walls.

Raphael's The School of Athens, one of the many frescoes in Raphael's Rooms of the Vatican Museum.

Raphael's The School of Athens, one of the many frescoes in Raphael's Rooms of the Vatican Museum.

Michelangelo's Pieta (~1500 AD).

 

Stunning tile floor.

Laocoön and His Sons marble statue in the Vatican Museum (~100 BC)

 

Laocoön and His Sons marble statue in the Vatican Museum (~100 BC)

Bret and me standing in the Piazza San Marco with St. Mark's Basilica in the background.

 

Saturday evening involved a free walking tour of the city.  For us, the best part was learning about Bernini’s works and his ingenuity in ‘hiding’ the Sant’Ignazio Church with its gorgeous ceiling painted by Andrea Pozzo.  Our guide also gave us a great dinner recommendation, suggested a café in a working class neighborhood where each of us ordered a pasta dish and an appetizer, and each thought the others’ food was great but loved our own the most.  My pasta with porcini mushrooms and broccoli raab side was delicious!  Poor Bret was forced to share bites of everything… LOL.  

Bernini designed these three buildings opposite the Sant'Ignazio church, which from the back side appear to be one solid structure, a very convincing optical illusion!



Bernini designed the Sant'Ignazio Church, one of our very favorites of the trip.

Bernini designed the Sant'Ignazio Church, one of our very favorites of the trip.

The church ceiling was filled with an amazing fresco by Andrea Pozzo.

I should mention our hotel.  It was outside Rome’s city walls but extremely comfortable and really inexpensive.  For €60/night the hotel staff even started our day with a cappuccino and croissant!  It took us about thirty minutes by train to get to the city center.  Through most of the trip Bret acted more like a seasoned traveler than the absolute travel virgin he was, but the conditions on the train shocked him.  “I started the day clean and already feel so dirty” he’d say about two minutes into the trip.  “Wait, is there a hand in my pocket?!”  Hahaha.   We tended to catch trams and trains during typical commute times and as the PACKED vehicles arrived we’d channel the comedian Brian Regan and remind each other to “push and shove, folks.  Push and shove.”  The tram doors would pop open and we were usually faced with a wall of people, held in place only by the pressure exerted on them from their neighbors.  Once one of us committed, the other two just sort of pushed into the wall of humanity enough for the doors to close.  We felt bad the first time but a few stops later, no one having exited, we realized we were almost in the middle of the tram and people were still pushing their way in at every stop!  Bret was in his own little stratosphere up there and if stinky air didn’t rise, he would’ve been in a better position than we were.  I swear, every time someone coughed or sneezed I wondered again how we weren’t all dead from communicable disease.  It really is a wonder that we aren’t sick more often.  Touch wood.  (That’s British for ‘knock on wood’.)   Bret was getting pretty comfortable navigating through the subway by the end of the weekend – a skill that will get him through just about any other city he may travel to in the future.  Doors, however, gave him trouble from start to finish of the trip.  Chris and I would purposely hang back just to see what would happen at each door Bret encountered.  Push or Pull?  Wrong handle? Unable to unlock or open?  It never failed to amuse. 

There is room on the train today!

 

Wait, what?! Hehehe, love this picture!

Moped gang honking in unison... awesome.

 

We walked SO MANY MILES over the course of the weekend and luckily all of us seemed to wear out at the same time, in need of a recharge via gelato or coffee.   Amongst the snacking we did learn a lot about Rome, for example that Romulus and Remus are fabled to have founded the city.  Another tidbit that will stick with me was that the Roman Empire grew for 500 years, was on top for 200 years, and then on the decline for about 300 years, conveniently for memory reasons from about 500 BC to 500 AD. 

The best gelato of the trip.

 

We marked our walking paths for the past three days...

Throwing coins into the Trevi Fountain.

As a city, Rome has a disproportionate amount of incredible buildings, sights, and art.  The Romans pretty much invented architecture… columns and concrete were both their idea!  It’s hard to say what we were most impressed with.  Rome is full of absolute gems but the Pantheon reigns king in my book.  Well, that and the incredible Trevi Fountain.  And Bernini’s Piazza de San Marco.  Oh dear.   

Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi on Piazza Navona. You'd think we were obsessed with Bernini.

Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi on Piazza Navona. You'd think we were obsessed with Bernini.

Chris fought long and hard to find us this farmer's market for lunch on Sunday and to his credit, the food was great!

We were fortunate to be inside the Pantheon while it was raining, allowing us to witness the tunnel of water as it came through the open ceiling and swirled around the floor into discrete drains. 

Bret and Chris in front of the Pantheon which has been in continuous use since, you know, before Jesus. Wow.

 

Vast, open interior of the Pantheon.

The oculus - a source of natural light in the huge concrete dome.

The oculus - a source of natural light in the huge concrete dome.

 

The Spanish Steps didn’t impress us as much, but the number of high street shops around them was mind boggling.  The whole weekend seemed to involve a lot of shopping, but let’s be clear:  I was the one holding bags and waiting while Bret and Chris tried things on.  In what world does that happen?  I swear Bret may originally have been ‘my’ friend, but somewhere in the past few years I’ve lost him to Chris… they get along so well, share the same style, can talk sports and stocks for hours, and seem to find joy in giving me a hard time. 

Sitting at the base of the Spanish Steps is the Fontana della Barcaccia by guess who? Bernini!

Sitting at the base of the Spanish Steps is the Fontana della Barcaccia by guess who? Bernini!

 

The best decision we made all trip was to spring €34 for the Roma Pass.  We not only made our money back (even just using one of the two free admissions included in the pass), but it allowed us to skip multiple-hour-long lines many times during the weekend.  Picture a line wrapping around the famous Coliseum.  Now picture us walking right to the front of it.  We felt a little like rock stars. 

Inside the Colosseum.

Looking down on the Roman Forum

The altar where Julius Caesar was cremated... or place he was buried depending on which guide you listened to.

 

We visited a couple lesser known sights as well, the most intriguing of which was Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappaccino.   The church contains an ossuary that displays the bones of thousands of Capucian friars, collected between the 1500 and 1800’s.    The bones are arranged in patterns and geometric shapes and are really quite striking!  I borrowed some pictures from the internet as we all three were rule-followers and didn’t take our own. 

 

Skull art.

Patterns from skulls, pelvises, clavicles, femurs, and vertebrae.

 All in all, I’d say our trip to Rome was an incredible success.  It was great getting to share that experience with such a great friend and excellent travel partner, too!