Relaxed Roma
Day three in Rome is set aside for nothing. We thought we would just wander about a bit,
check out some familiar and unfamiliar spots and just soak it in. But, we have to hustle to do nothing today
because the lights go off at 9:00 when the power company shuts down the hotel
and actually the neighborhood. We are
showered and dressed and in the breakfast room a little after 8:00 so plenty of
time for our daily calorie extravaganza.
We are sipping the last of our coffee at 8:50 when the lights go
off. The first time in the history of
Italy that anything happened earlier than scheduled.
We relax a bit on our patio—no reason to start too early
given John’s announced touring shelf life.
Our first stroll is to our neighborhood square to check out the Church
of Santa Maria. It is really hard to
describe how we can walk into a smallish local parish church and find it with
gorgeous inlaid ceilings, great sculptures and plywood size canvases of
religious scenes that were painted by Italian masters 400 years ago. The fact that we are 2 miles from the Vatican
and this church has been visited by many Popes probably has something to do
with it.
We go back across the river in the general direction of the
sites of ancient Rome working our way up yet another hill towards the Colosseum
and Forum where the masses are gathered for today’s onslaught. There is a lot you can see from the periphery
which is our plan—we have been inside before.
The Colosseum is undergoing a major renovation along with other famous
Roman sites (see Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps). These are being financed privately by wealthy
Italians who have accepted responsibility for continuing the connection with
their ancestors. The history of this
civilization is a matter of pride with the Italian people, but since the
Italian government can’t get its act together it is up to the individuals and
Italian companies to step up. Good for
them. It is fun poking around the walls
and ruins among the streets that are not inside the fences. Along one walkway we discovered a complete
series of the stations of the cross carved elaborately into the stone
wall.
By the time we are finished it is after noon so we change
directions and head off into the area of the Campo Fiori where the plan is to
explore some of the back streets, do some shopping and have a bite of
lunch. We pass the hotel where we stayed
last time here and it has had a very fancy renovation. The small café and bakery/deli across the
street are still here and apparently thriving.
We do a loop around the market, pick up a couple items and begin the
search for lunch. We’re still not very
hungry but we’ll keep our eyes open as we do our backstreet exploration. Once we leave the square there really isn’t
much going on and no place that appeals to us for lunch. Finally we find a little pizzeria with a
table on the street just off the square to grab a beer and a tuna/tomato
pizza. It will do.
It’s after 2:30 and Mary would like to visit the Carrefour
supermarket allegedly on our home turf which gets us back across the
river. Our search takes us up Via
Trastavere but after walking up a mile we still don’t see it and it isn’t
promising ahead. We decide that the
person who told us about it generally drove and since it only took ten minutes
in the car it seemed right up the street.
Not so much when you’re walking.
It’s about 3:30 when we get back to the hotel and the lights are on,
again, early. Then we remember that it’s
Friday—of course they’re finished early.
This was an easy day and very much as we intended with a few
new experiences with some down time before we go back out for dinner. We haven’t participated in the hotel happy
hour yet and think this is the time to do it.
They have a nice spread of appetizers out free with a purchased
drink. Apparently this is the latest fad
in Rome and a good way to eat relatively cheap if you don’t want a big meal. We are planning to go out so we try to keep
our nibbling to a minimum with a bottle of chardonnay. The tapenade is great, the artichoke spread
on garlic toast is fantastic, little cheese croissants are delicious—it’s hard
to stop but we do.
We had a good experience our first night at La Freschetta so
we’re going back for a pasta instead of a pizza. We beat the rush again (it is about 7:45) but
the place fills right away after we sit down.
One of us is going to have the carbonara for sure and we don’t know
about the other—we’ll share whatever it is.
The waiter says he would order the grecia over the carbonara and would
have something with a red sauce as the other for more of a change. We sort of ignore him and order the grecia
and carbonara. They are very similar but both are good, and a little more
peppery than others we have had. We
conclude that the famous Roman carbonaras are not as good as the one we had in
Amalfi, maybe our best single dish of the trip (although Mary may vote for the
tomato-anchovy pasta, also in Amalfi).
We drag it out as long as we can, possibly because we have had so much
food, but also because it is our last night in Rome and we love watching the
scene.
On our way home the female member of the modern dance couple
from the other night is performing in the square. It is not glowing balls tonight but flaming
things. There are flaming rings and
sticks and batons all twirling and swirling to the background music from her
sound system. Again, very entertaining,
and this is just a little neighborhood square, not one of the monster
entertainment venues across the river.
Our city planners should have paid more attention to the classics. Off to bed.
What did we learn today? Rome never stops attacking your senses.
No comments:
Post a Comment