When in Rome...travel log
So begins the tale of my adventures…
My trip started with an uneventful flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam on KLM on a Wednesday evening. I was not able to get my seat assignment in advance, so I ended up with “the dreaded middle seat”, which turned out not to be so dreadful at all. Our flight was not quite half full; this ultimately meant for me that the seats on either side were unoccupied. I had plenty of room to stretch out, sleep, etc. The vegetarian meals were surprisingly quite decent. The service was quite attentive, with my cute male flight attendant coming around every hour with beverages (sometimes coffee and tea, others water and juice) and every two hours with hot lemony face towels. After a 4-hour layover, I caught my connecting flight to Rome, which was uneventful and similar to domestic flights in the USA.
Day 1- Thursday. When I arrived in Rome around 2pm local time, it was raining. No worries; I pulled out my rain poncho and walked the three blocks to my hotel (the Beehive) after taking the train into town. I checked in and dropped off my luggage. I then headed back out to begin my adventures! After much frustration, I finally figured out where to buy a Roma pass (3-day bus and metro pass, plus 2 free museums and 50% additional museums) and promptly hopped the metro. I randomly got off at the Circus Maximo stop. I was greeted to the lovely and impressive site of Palatine Hill upon emerging from the station. I walked down one side of the Circus Maximo, which looks like a big dirt racetrack, where the public arena once was. I then walked back up the other side past the ruins of Palatine Hill, and over to the Coliseum. Since I had a tour scheduled for this area for another day, I continued walking for several blocks, until the wind threatened to break my umbrella. I hopped the metro back to my hotel, to be greeted with a message that my “Twilight Walking Tour” had been cancelled due to the weather. I headed back out and grabbed some pizza for dinner, and then decided to take a nap.
Day 2 - Friday. I awoke at 2am, wide awake. The rain had stopped so I decided to do my own night tour of the fountains. I headed for Barberini Palazzo. The streets were quiet but wet, and the atmosphere was wonderfully peaceful. I did have one man who followed me for several blocks, wanting to buy me a drink, keep me company, etc. He eventually called me rude after I said no for the gazillionth time and stopped. Upon arriving at the statue at Barberini, I ran into another young man, this one flirty and pleasant. We had a fun time trying to hold a conversation with my horrible Italian and his extremely limited English. After a bit, I said goodbye and he kissed my hands and cheeks. I continued on to the Spanish Steps, which were surprisingly smaller than I thought they would be. Moving on, I went to the Trevi Fountain. It was now 3am and I had the fountain all to myself, besides a discreet policeman on the far side of the plaza. (Policemen are assigned to all the major sites, it seems, since I saw at least one patrolling or stationed at each area.) Under a full moon, I wrote in my journal and marveled at being in Rome. I spent quite some time taking in the details of the fountain, which was absolutely amazing, of course! I threw my coin in the water, and eventually wandered back to my hotel for another nap before my busy day. I bought a bottle of water and some fruit for breakfast from a vendor just setting up his cart.
I had two tours scheduled for the day; the Scavi tour at 10:30am (the excavations under St. Peter’s Basilica) and the Arte Vaticana tour with Context Rome at 1:30pm(covers the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica.) The Scavi tour was excellent and was led by a priest named Stephen Giovanni from Connecticut. I was particularly impressed with how vibrant the paint still was on the walls; I also especially liked the mosaics and detailed carvings of the sarcophagi and cremation vases. I found it interesting that the Pagans who ruled Rome always cremated their dead yet built these elaborately decorated tomb chambers with niches to hold the cremation vases. A word to the wise for those who schedule this tour - it’s insanely warm down there, so wear lightweight clothing! The tour dumps out into St. Peter’s Basilica at the end, which is nice if you want to see it but not stand in the lines outside.
The line outside of St. Peter’s Basilica was insanely long (like 2 hours to get in), so I was thankful that my Arte Vaticana tour started at the Vatican Museum entrance, which had about a 10-minute line. All I can say is “WOW!!!” Impressive collection of paintings, sculpture, etc. What I love most about the art here is the great attention to detail - not only in the “main” item, but also in the floors, doors, and even in the window shutters. Artistry is everywhere! Our guide, Eric, was informative while injecting a realistic but humorous look at the politics and egos relating to these historical pieces. I would absolutely recommend him (and Context Rome) to anyone who wants to do a tour of these areas - I got so much more out of it than I would have with just an audioguide. Our group was small too - they limit it to 6 people.
The only drawback was that this tour is long (I think it was 4 hours?) and my knees and feet were killing me. I sat down whenever possible. It made me thankful I did these sites now, since my knees will only continue get worse over time.
I then met up with Tom, a fellow traveler that was going to be in Rome at the same time as me, for dinner. Most of the restaurants were not open yet, so we wandered around the Santa Maria Maggiore until we ended up at a restaurant Tom had eaten at before. I had pasta primavera; it was decent. Afterwards we walked around some more and had some not-so-great gelato. We decided to meet up again on Sunday to explore the Trastevere area.
Day 3 - Saturday. I decided to eat breakfast at my hotel, which has a small café. I had fruit crepes, which consisted of kiwi, bananas, and apples - delicious! I then headed out for my scheduled tour of the Borghese Galleria. Another word to the wise - do not walk from the Spagna metro stop as the instructions say - it takes you through the entire park, which is a very long way. Instead, take the bus, which drops you off close to the entrance. Unless you want to walk, of course - the park is lovely and I saw many people there with their dogs and having picnics or just relaxing. It was a bright sunny day fortunately. You are required to pick up your reserved tickets half an hour in advance, although I have no idea why, since you will just end up sitting there bored, or walking around for a bit. Despite my initial irritation at this, it is well worth the wait!
What impressed me within the Borghese Galleria were the statues of “The Rape of Persephone” and “Apollo and Daphne”, as well as the duo-material busts (the head was one material, the bust another - red and brown marbles, sodalite, and multi-colored agate.)
Afterwards I walked back to my hotel, stopping on Via 20 Settembre to grab a slice of pizza with mozzarella balls and sliced fresh tomatoes on it…yum! Since it was so nice outside, I dropped my coat off in my room. I then headed out yet again to see the mosaics at Santa Maria Maggiore. I meandered around and eventually ended up at Palazzo Barberini, so I decided to visit Galleria Nationale di Arte Antica. Perhaps I’d just seen too many Jesus and Mary paintings in the last few days, because I wasn’t overly impressed with the museum. However, the very last room made it all worthwhile. The room at first appears empty, with a few large padded benches in the middle. I wondered if the displays had been removed. But then I noticed someone on a bench lay down and look up. So I looked up - and Wow! I had to lay down myself to admire the ceiling.
After I finished, it was 5:30pm. I realized I had meant to visit the Cappuchin Crypt on Via Veneto today, but that I would not be able to make it in time. Oh well, another reason to come back! (Like a needed a reason…) Instead, I set out on a quest for good gelato. I went to San Crispini’s, which is reputedly the best in Rome. I got pear - and I understood why this gelateria had its fame - it was so delicious! Despite the surly guy behind the counter that fussed at me for not having the correct change (I gave him a 5€ bill for a 3€ gelato…you would have thought by his reaction I gave him a 50€…), it was worth it. FYI, I found that everything in Rome is rounded to the nearest 50 cents or dollar; no small change needed here.
I walked over to the Pantheon, which is a fascinating mix of a Pagan temple exterior and Catholic Church interior. Despite my aching feet and bad knees, which constantly encouraged me to turn back, I pressed onward! Eventually I ended up at Piazza Navona and splurged on a nice dinner at one of the restaurants there. I had a nice table on the outer edge of the patio, so I was able to watch the crowds of people milling about. There were a large number of artist booths set up, as well as various musicians playing. Near where I was seated, a woman was singing lovely ballads in Italian and French, accompanied by a man with a guitar. I bought one of her CDs for 10€, and I’m listening to now as I write this up. Despite the large number of people, it didn’t feel crowded.
I ate at a restaurant named 4 Fiumi. I ordered hot chocolate, a bottle of water (everything is bottled here, no fountain drinks!), caprese salad, and eggplant parmigana. The food was fabulous. As I was soaking up the atmosphere around me, I started crying. I just wanted to shout, “I’m here! I’m really here! I made it!” Towards the end of my meal, the lady singing left, and another musician starting playing old Eagles and Pink Floyd tunes. While enjoyable, it changed the mood significantly. After I finished eating, I watched the firespinner on the other side of the plaza for a while. Just to be a glutton (because I was absolutely stuffed from dinner) I stopped at Bar Tre (another reputedly excellent gelato place located in the plaza) and got a scoop of kiwi gelato. It was wonderful, but melted faster than I could eat it
I decided to brave the bus system, which I never did manage to figure out. Note to self: don’t ride the bus after you’ve just consumed a large volume of fluids. The speed of a vehicle traveling fast over those cobblestone roads is horrible on bladders. I had to get off and find a bathroom. I then hopped back on the bus, where I got into a nice conversation with Rufus, a man from Africa (I forget which country he said he was from.) We discussed our experiences and impressions of Italy thus far. I hobbled back to my hotel room to call it a night and nurse my blistered pinky toe.
Day 4 - Sunday. I once again had breakfast at my hotel, this time French Toast. I headed off for my scheduled Forum, Coliseum, and Palatine Hill tour with RomeWalks. There were only 3 of us in the group, which was really nice. Our guide was Daniela. She did a wonderful job of creating scenes of what all these ruins were like during their prime. I was very impressed with the peacefulness of the Coliseum, given all the death and injury that had occurred there. Perhaps it is due to the way of life and death at the time, thus an absence of grief. Or maybe it was due to the high occurrence of cremations as opposed to burials; it seems to me that the spirits of those that have been cremated move on faster than those that have not. I bought a souvenir book that has pictures of the ruins as they exist now, with transparent layover sheets with recreations of the scenes at time, to help me remember the visualizations.
I then met up with Tom at 1pm for our visit of the Trastevere area. We stopped by the “cat sanctuary” - Piazza Venezia, I think it was? - basically, an area of ruins that has a bunch of stray cats. The neat thing is that there is a charity of some sort that feeds and looks after the cats that live there. We only saw about 4 or 5 cats though, all tabbies except for one black cat.
We stopped for gelato at some random place, which tasted more like ice cream than gelato. We then went around the corner and decided to eat at a restaurant, where the food was okay but the service was horrible. After meandering the streets some more, I opted to eat yet more gelato, this time at Ice Blue, which also has a great reputation. Coconut, this time - it was delicious! Eventually we headed back to the Coliseum area, where I said goodbye to Tom.
Somewhere between the Coliseum metro stop and the Termini metro stop, my wallet was stolen. I have an idea of when it happened - the train was very crowded, and several young men in succession bumped me. My wallet was inside a zipped middle section of my bag, with a buckled flap over it, but when I got off the train, I noticed the flap was twisted. Sure enough, I went through my bag and my wallet was missing. However, it was the end of the day and all I had in my wallet was about 10€ and some change, plus my driver’s license. I refused to let it bother me or let it be my last memory of my time in Rome. All those things were easily replaceable - now if they had taken my camera or my journal, I would have been upset. I had all my important stuff (ATM card, credit card, passport, etc. in my goes-under-clothing money pouch belt thingy.)
I went back to the hotel and grabbed up my dirty laundry. The Laundromat was about 2 blocks away, 6€ to have someone wash and dry a load, with internet access for 1€ for half hour. I checked my email and whatnot, then headed back to the train station to purchase my train ticket to Florence for the next day. I was glad I did it then, because there were only 3 seats left for the train I wanted. (I could always have taken a different time, of course, if it was sold out.) I ate dinner (mushroom and carrot quiche) at my hotel café, then went back to pick up my laundry. Afterwards, I packed my bags for my next adventures in Florence.