Rome

Ahh Roma, my love, I missed you so… what? You’re mad at me? But why? I didn’t want to leave you I promise… no please don’t make me sick… again!

Yes if you haven’t guessed, I have been stricken to bed again, but don’t worry all is fine now. You know for all of the joy I find in Italy, I sure am tired of being sick whenever I come here. The first day in Roma went well, we arrived and met the owners of our hostel (two great guys named Monti and Benji). The hostel, called RetRome, is a retro-themed joint with all kinds of lovely 70’s and 80’s stylings. After that we wandered around the area surrounding Termini and went to the church (Santa Maria degli Angeli e Martyr) adjoining the Baths of Diocletian (sp), which was refurbished by Michelangelo.

For the next couple days I had a bad fever and we stayed in mostly… thank god we planned plenty of extra time here! So on Wednesday we attempted to go to the Vatican Museum, which has of course changed its hours effective Jan 1, 2007, and screwed us royally by closing before we could get there. So we went through St. Peter’s instead. As typical the Pieta was swarmed by tons of Asian tourist… scary… but the rest of the church was fairly navigable. Stunning as ever was the Baldiccino by Bernini, and the piazza outside with its colonnades by Michelangelo. After this we followed il Passeto (secret pope escape route) to the Castel Sant Angelo, otherwise known as Hadrian’s Mausoleum. We then of course went to Piazza Navona, and my favorite place in all of Roma, Campo di Fiori, more on it later. Afterwards we went to my favorite pub in all of Rome, the Abbey Theater. There we watched the Roma game, which was exciting even though it ended in a scoreless tie. Of course while we were there we sampled Abbey’s awesome burgers and had… well a few beers. Afterwards the buses had stopped so we hopped a taxi ride back to Termini.

Thursday we spent wandering through the rest of mid-town. Which of course means we went back to Campo di Fiori for the daytime market and gelato… mmm… gelato. Then we went to the Pantheon, which is still my favorite building in the city. Afterwards we wandered back home and stopped for a beer and hot chocolate at the Nag’s Head. That evening we had dinner near the hostel at a trattoria called Dell’ Omo… it was absolutely awesome, even if our waiter disappeared down the street for 20 minutes or so, I mean hey its Italy… it happens (by the way this place has the best Tiramisu in all of Roma, I garuntee).

So Friday we went on our ill-fated quest to attempt to go the Vatican Museum again… let’s just say the line went all the way from the museum doors, around the city walls, and to the gates of Piazza San Pietro… yea… hmmm… 2.5 mile long line… or go explore… it’s time to explore! (by the way this was the line that formed before the doors even frigging opened, since everyone’s guidebooks said it opens at 8am when now with the new rules its really 10am… awesome job by whoever made that change…yea…) So we made our usual stops at Campo and the Pantheon, we also went by the U of A Rome Center but Davide, the director, was out with the students in Florence for the weekend. We had lunch at the great restaurant just behind the Pantheon that is called, Miscellania. Anyone who is familiar with my last stay in Roma, will know this restaurant as the one which we went to for everyone’s birthday, and yes the food and beer are just as good as ever… oh yeah and that fragola frizzy stuff is still tasty too. Then we went to St. Ivo (the church with Borromini’s spiraled dome), and on to the Capitoline Museum and the Tabularium (which has an awesome view of the Forum). Finally we went to Trinity College for beers, which were terrible and had leave so they could seat a group of people… it was the most disappointing bar of our whole trip so far.

Saturday we went to the northern chunk of central Rome, which includes Piazza de Popolo, the Spanish Steps, Via del Corso, Agustus’s Malsoleum, the Ara Pacis (Richard Meier building), and etc. We had a great time wandering through all of the shops and boutiques in the area and Jeannie finally got to go the church at Piazza de Popolo that has the Carravaggio paintings and Bernini sculptures. That evening we went to the Hard Rock for dinner and meandered our way home. This area is especially fun on the weekends because the streets are largely bare of cars and pedestrians take them over and the streets are so busy it feels like half of Rome is right there walking shoulder to shoulder and shopping.

On Sunday we continued a tradition that started back during my first stay in Rome, and went to the Porto Portese for world’s largest flea market. On the way there we went to the Pyramid in Rome (yes it is real, basically some rich guy back in the day went to Egypt, saw a pyramid, and wanted one for himself when he passed on… hence the Roman pyramid), got lost, made our way to the Circus Massimus, and went into Trasteverre for Porto Portese. Porto was as packed as usual, although there seemed to more clothing vendors than I remember, and incredibly fun just to wander through… you don’t have to buy anything, the fun is just seeing all of the people and the ways that they interact with each other… although bartering there is a ton of fun, and truly an art that seems lost to most Americans. Afterwards we wandered through Trasteverre, and grabbed a bit for late lunch. Then back to Circus Massimus, the Mouth of Truth, the two old temples nearby, the arch of Hercules, and Teatro de Marcelo. That evening we cooked pasta at the hostel that damn near as good as some that we have been having at some restaurants, and notably better than some. Also Monti and Benji have great taste in wine, as all of their suggestions turned out great.

On Monday we were hoping to go to Siena for the day, but it just didn’t work out so we did some things around town that we just didn’t make it to. We of course went to Campo again and went to visit Davide, for all those interested: he is doing well, Emilio and Bruna both just had babies, and Francesco is going to go teach at Miss State next year while David “Biggie” teaches at Auburn’s Rural Studio! After Davide, we went to Pantheon one last time, and on to San Pietro in Vincoli to see Michelangelo’s tomb for Pope Julius II. That thing is huge! But anyway we also went to Santa Maria della Vittorio to see St. Teresa in Ecstasy. That evening we went to Abbey Theater for drinks and a shirt for Jeannie, then we went to the hostaria down the street which was one of my favorite restaurants the last time I was here… we should have let just like that… in the past. It was always hit or miss but usually hit. This time it was pretty bad, the waitress I remembered was still there but she seems to have become more surely than ever… oh well after having to another waiter for our wine again, we got our food… the antipasti’s were great, and my lasagna was really good, but they got Jeannie’s food really wrong. She ordered a Farfelle alla Ragu e Verdura (translation: bowtie with red sauce and veggies)… well unless Ragu has changed to mean al burro (butter sauce) they screwed up… also the pasta was seriously undercooked, and when I tried to tell the waitress she just looked at me like everything was correct… so we eventually left (with me being quite annoyed) and went back down to Abbey Theater for more beers and trivia night. Well our beer was free… but that did require us to run trivia scores down from upstairs… hehe ok Jeannie ran them down, but hey it was still fun. It was quite hard actually but hey we’re not European so half these questions made no sense to us anyway (and in our defense all of the hardcore trivia people were complaining that it was very hard this week… oh well like I said it was fun.

So now we are on our way to Venice, I’m excited I have never been there, so it should be an interesting experience. Although we couldn’t get the post to work in Termini this morning so it should be… interesting to get these damn heavy bags lugged around Venice and the “water taxis”, outside of that headache this should be great. Here’s to hoping that neither of us fall into the canal…