Bryan's Rome

January 2012 The Snow in Rome

2012-02-08T05:29:00.000-08:00

So that we don't forget!

These photos were posted on http://www.insidersitaly.com

The mayor announced that Rome was in a state of “catastrophe” and that we should all take shovels and start to clear snow. We do not own a shovel. Those neighbors who for one reason or other felt the need to use cars today were attempting to clear paths for themselves with mops, brooms, children’s sand shovels and windscreen scrapers.

We did have an appetite, however, picqued by the close-to-freezing weather. Thus, after a hot chocolate at our beloved Dolci Desideri

.. we were off

Monteverdevecchio Verde street

through a city without a visible snow plow, and where our friend Dario, owner of our favorite restaurant, emerged with a tablecloth-apron round his waist, to announce that he did not remember seeing snow like this since the 1960s.

Dario remembers the snowstorm of 1965

Through the gateway of Villa Sciara

Into a winter wonderland

And into a winter wonderland.

Never have we seen our neighborhood park, Villa Sciara, so full. It literally resounded with an air of greatest festivity !

Magnolia in the snow

The Laurel Walk

: Umbrella Pine

: SPQR

Making a snow angel

As the children toboggoned on their bottoms down a steep hill with palm trees as obstacles

We gazed in wonder at the view before us. It was close-to-impossible to leave it, familiar old Rome with its magical dusting of snow. Most remarkable of all was the Pantheon rimmed in white.

The Pantheon and Campo Marzio Close Up

And when at last we turned back towards home, we found more festive Romans pouring into the park.

More festive Romans pile into the park as we depart

The snow-woman with the herbal features

Lunchtime

Cin-Cin !

The polenta arrives !

The Autistic Eye - Drawing Rome from Memory

2011-08-30T06:34:00.000-07:00

The Autistic Eye - This is amazing!!

Driving the Amalfi Coast.

2011-07-04T07:39:00.000-07:00

If you have never been, This is one of the most incredible places on the planet

Oaxaca, Mexico 3/28/2004

2011-06-07T18:33:00.000-07:00

So, what is Oaxaca about? Well, the house is nestled in a complex which must be more than an acre in scope and is surrounded by a perimeter wall. Right now, some of the units on the property are abandoned and in

disrepair. There is a permanent resident in one of the houses by the name of Mike Fite with his family. He is not a nice guy, and to say that he is obstructing our progress would be an understatement. He controls two of the houses, and his second house is currently occupied by his daughter and her boy friend. There is one gate to enter the complex and the common parking area is paved with a rock cobble. Our house is pretty cool, it is constructed entirely out of concrete and it is amazing how effective concrete walls are as sound insulators. The shower and sink plumbing are in one of the walls next to my bed (since the bathroom is next to my bedroom) and I can’t hear the water running at all when Israel is showering. The ceilings of the house are a series of barrel vaults (think of a barrel cut in half) all running from the back of the house to the front and then cantilevering out another six feet to help shade the doors and windows from the hot afternoon sun. The vaults are constructed out of brick and I don’t have a clue how they could have possibly been built. In the master bedroom, the bathroom and the kitchen, the vaulted ceilings have been finished in plaster so that the rooms are completely white, in the rest of the house, the walls are white but the vaults are natural brick color. I would say that it is easily fourteen feet to the center of each vault from the floor so there is a feeling of expansiveness throughout the house. All of the windows and doors have metal frames painted black, the only part of the house that is of wood are the doors to the rooms and the closet areas. The house faces west into the garden and there is a brick terrace that runs the length of the west side that is around seven feet wide. From there, you go down a few steps to the upper garden level where there is an outdoor dining area enclosed by a low brick and Celosia wall. Celosias are open shapes made out of brick and assembled together to create semi open walls and exist in all sort of patterns. We are going to be building another wall at the level below the dining patio to separate our space from the neighbor.

Yesterday we demolished the kitchen and poured concrete kick spaces for the new kitchen cabinets. Everything is different down here and extremely complicated to accomplish. Perhaps one of the easiest parts has turned out to be the kitchen remodel. I purchased a new refrigerator and stove/ oven from Sears here in Oaxaca (they don’t have a warehouse here so they need to ship them down from Mexico city) and will have those delivered in a few days. Down the highway from our house we found a store that sells the most beautiful rustic furniture and kitchen cabinets all made of Pine with raw iron hardware on them. If I had my choice, I would love to do my whole house in this stuff. We purchased all of the kitchen cabinets there, but the kick spaces are sold separately because down here apparently the locals usually do the kick spaces in concrete. We followed the local custom and since my dad likes his counters high (38” high instead of the regular 36”) we adjusted the heights of the kick spaces that we built to accommodate his wishes. The cool thing about this stuff is that they come with the tile counter tops already installed on the modular units, so all we have to do is to assemble the components and the whole kitchen will be done. The hole for the kitchen sink is already cut out and I liked the display sink that they were using so I bought that from them too. The kitchen isn’t very big and we got all of the cabinets for just over $900.00 which I think is an incredible steal! Back home it would have cost the much just to do the tile counters alone.

Monte Alban was pretty amazing, to imagine that these people spent almost a thousand years excavating this mountain top and building step pyramids and temples up there is incredible. The hill has no water, so all of the water had to be carried up hill from the river that is more than two miles away. It is named Monte Alban because of a tree that grows all over the mountain that is just covered with white blooms, they aren’t in bloom yet (probably in another three weeks) so I missed out on that, but I did collect seeds so that I can try to grow them back home. While we were up there, we saw a party that was performing a wedding at the foot of one of the pyramids, imagine how memorable a setting that is for a wedding. Some of the temples are built in astrological alignment with the solstice and equinox and they still have ceremonies up there on those days. There were plaques at each building explaining the buildings’ function. The left side of the plaque was in Spanish, the right side in English. It took us a while to figure out what language the center was, apparently, it is the ancient language of this area and many locals still speak it. The view from up there was fantastic, from different vantage points you could see down to the city and the valleys beyond.

I know that the indigenous population were rather short people. You would not believe how high and how steep the steps on these pyramids are. They have to rise at least at a sixty degree angle and each step is almost two feet tall! Looking down from the top of one and watching people climbing up and down these steps, I experienced high anxiety (yes I have a healthy fear of heights). In order to go down the steps I had to just look at where I was placing my feet because when I looked down to the bottom, my legs felt weak.

Wednesday March 24

The weather here has been as close to perfect as a person could possibly ask for. The sky is almost always partially overcast (something that I find to be the case almost universally throughout the tropics) which helps to reduce the intensity of the sun. From time to time, the sun breaks out into a larger clearing between the clouds and at those times, you are aware of how intense the strength of the tropical sun actually is. My work uniform is like at home in the summer, shorts and my Expanding Horizons shirt with no sleeves like I wore when you came. From seven in the morning until past dark, this is a comfortable outfit to be in. One almost never breaks a sweat from the heat, but is never cold either. At night I sleep with the windows open, naked, sometimes covered with a sheet and sometimes not. Before morning I need to pull over a light blanket for an hour or two.

We are finally making some progress here! Yesterday we installed almost all of the new kitchen cabinets. It turned out to be more of a process than I had anticipated. The walls are concrete and we didn’t bring an hammer drill. My dad and brother both asked why I hadn’t brought one when I called yesterday. What do they think! I was restricted to two check-in bags each and was forced to bring a Jackhammer so we could do the excavation for the new septic tank. I had to choose what to bring, this isn't a job that I was able to drive my truck full of tools to. The new refrigerator, stove and washing machine arrived ahead of schedule yesterday and by the end of the day we unpacked the new refrigerator and emptied the old one. The old one was definitely ready for replacement. It has the Sears name on it, but is so old that they hadn’t introduced the Frigidaire brand name yet! Thee old stove was also an antique and it scared me to use it. The cabinets were all made of metal and the sink cabinet was so rusted out on one side that it fell apart when we removed it.

Today we finish getting the cabinets installed and then we can put in the new stove and perhaps clean up the phenomenal mess we have made out of the kitchen so that we can put it back together again and make it usable once more.

“This the true human knows:

The strings of all the ways

Make up a cable of great length

And great purpose….”

Thursday March 25

Hey, We are progressing, there are few more miserable and harder to get along with people in this world than Mike Fite, our neighbor on this property. He is the most contrary person I have come across in years. No matter what is going on here he complains about it. He complains that we showed up in the first place, that he wasn’t given adequate notice (my dad did call him just before we left to come down), that we have no respect because we make noise during the day while we work. He is fighting me about where to build the property line wall because he wants to appropriate some of our property, he is just beyond belief and I have About reached my limits with him.

Well... that is all that I wrote that rip...Bryan

Memories of Dining in Tuscany

2010-07-16T05:57:00.000-07:00

After Rome, we went to Tuscany to stay at my brother’s villa in Montefienali. This place was incredible in so many ways and is available for rent much of the year. Although I haven’t written about our time in Tuscany much, I did write about a luncheon we had. Here is that story.

Memories of dining in Tuscany

When my fiancé and I discussed our time in Tuscany with our family, I asked Donna what single moment or event stood out beyond all of the rest. She talked about some of the special moments that we experienced such as arriving in Montefienali and discovering the Villa for the first time. She also mentioned when we were visiting Florence and were in the piazza della Signoria, the heavens opened up and the most incredible deluge fell from the sky. We were driven into the Loggia dei Lanzi which must be at least thirty feet deep and yet the wind and rain was so powerful that we were getting wet against the back wall. And then it began to hail. Balls of ice the size of large marbles were bouncing all around us. But I digress…

The one single event that we easily agreed was the crowning moment of our time in Tuscany was the lunch that we had at country osteria called Villa di Sotto near Castelnuovo Beradenga that as we were arriving seemed to be out in a field in the middle of just about nowhere. We had to drive through someone’s front yard and along the side of their house to get to this field first; then down an old dirt road to a group of farm houses that were the restaurant and the residence of the owners. Turns out that it is also a bed and breakfast. Entering the restaurant was like a blast from the past. Stone walls, some plastered, some not. Walls two feet thick. Tile and marble floors lots of heavy woodwork and upstairs where we ate, half the room was floor to ceiling bookcases with different types of wine. Clearly not much had changed here in centuries. Looking out the window I saw olive trees and fields of grapes! I had arrived.

The menu was on a chalk board leaning in the window at the end of the table. The owner, who was also our waiter reminded us of an Italian version of the English comedian ‘Mr. Bean’. Actually, although he looked very much like Bean, his mannerisms were also very similar. It added a whole new dimension to the experience and he gave us excellent service. We were a pretty large group; there was our (extended) family of eight another couple and a family of three that lives up the hill in the Borgo making us a group of thirteen. The wine was on shelves behind us and we began the meal by selecting a few bottles of the house wine which is made from the grapes growing in the fields around complex. An excellent Chainti!

In Italy, many meals begin with plates of antipasto, olive oil and bread. This meal was no different except that the variety and selection of cured meats that were served was superb. The olive oil was also a product of the farm as, I was told, are all vegetables and salad greens that would be served today. Rumor had it that when you ordered it, they would go out and harvest your order. Naturally, the menu on the chalk board was in Italian. Those of us that understood it translated for those that didn’t. In the end, it boiled down to a few special plates that were ordered in quantity. More than a few ordered the local (fat) spaghetti covered with what was described a boar stew sauce. Others ordered risotto with zucchini flowers. Gwynne was in heaven when she tasted the risotto, a smile brightened her face and her eyes shrank to slits as she explained that this was the best risotto that she had ever tasted. Gwynne and Donna had also ordered the most incredible combination of grilled vegetables which I was happy to share with them. At our one end of the table we all decided to have bistecca alla Fiorentina. This is the flagship Tuscan steak made from the region’s Chianina breed of cattle which are prized for their tenderness and flavor. It had been years since I had eaten it and Leonardo assured us that no trip to Tuscany should occur without enjoying this meal. As good as all of the other plates looked and tasted, the steaks were incredible. They served a pile of enormous steaks cut into strips and piled on a large cutting board in the center of group and we all proceeded to dig in. Leonardo had ordered wild boar steaks in a berry sauce and potatoes ‘al forno’ which he shared with those around him (he really didn’t have a choice). This was a group that understood the concept of fine dining Italian style. What a meal, loud boisterous conversation, fine conversations, family all around, everyone eating off of everyone else’s plates, fresh from the field country salads…and then for desert, at Leonardo’s request (he called in advance) they had baked two ricotta and hazelnut pies for us that were out of this world! Naturally, espressos all around were in order with this delectable pastry. What a meal!

Rome, June 2010 Day Five, Sunday

2010-06-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

The big plan for today was for me to go to the airport and rent the car that we will use as we tool around Tuscany for the next week or so. As usual, I hopped a ride to the Piazza Mazzini apartment. Beatrice’s printer was capoot and I needed paperwork to rent the car. I sat down in her dad’s office and plugged the USB cable from her dad’s printer into Donnas’ laptop. The printer wasn’t even on and the Windows 7 operating system recognized the printer and went online to locate the necessary driver and installation software. With permission, it loaded everything and offered to print a test sheet as well. Windows 7 is a complete wonder of an operating system. For anyone still using XP or Windows Vista, I strongly recommend an update.

Shortly later I was off on my adventure. I had to buy a couple of bus passes since I had used the last ones getting home the previous evening. As usual, the 628 presented itself and I got on. I rode it to Flaminio (just outside of the gates at Piazza del Popolo) and walked uphill, underground to the subway. All I can figure is that the subway is under the Borgese Gardens which slope uphill from that piazza. From there, a quick run to Termini (the central train station). Up, up, up, more and more and more escalators got me to the ground level where I purchased a ticket to Fiumicino (Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport) and was told that it departed from rail # 28. Well I went out to the rails, I was at # 17, following off to the right I counted all the way up to 25 and then there was a solid building. Very suspicious. As I reached the end a sign pointing down the track indicated that 26-28 were down there. So I started walking, it must have been more than a half mile down but eventually I arrived at the mysteriously missing tracks nicely arranged next to track 25. It was a quiet and leisurely ride out, and I found the rental place without ado. The lady charged me an extra 12 Euro a day for the Tom-Tom GPS unit but I already know that it was worth it. Returning to Rome it worked flawlessly. It knew about every counterintuitive move that was necessary to get me to the center of town. I was tempted to ignore it when it seemed to be wrong but I decided to trust it until I saw the Mouth of Truth. At that point it wanted me to veer right toward Piazza Venetzia and I wanted to continue along Lungo Tevere toward Campo Di Fiori. So, since I ignored it, I was immediately forced to make a left onto a bridge and another left at the end of the bridge and I was heading back toward the airport all over again. Fortunately, Tom-Tom had some ideas for me. First he wanted me to go right down an alley, when I failed to make that right, he led me back across the next bridge and from there I defeated that loop and eventually got all the way to the side of San Andrea della Valle where I did as the Romans do and parked with two wheels on the sidewalk and two on the street with the driver mirror folded in so that no one would break it off.

I rang Shirley’s door bell and no one answered. I called her cell phoe and then mom’s with the same results.They weren’t home and they were out of communication. Mom had said that they were going out to lunch. Wondering where they might be, I wandered over to the Campo. Tried to call again and failed. I looked in at a few restaurants as I crossed the Campo and ended up eating at a ‘Tavola Calda’- a place that sells pizza by the slice and other things like Suppli or roast chicken. The contents can vary. I had a slice of white pizza sliced down the center and filled with prosciutto and mozzarella. They were still not home. I remembered that Mom had pointed out a restaurant the previous day that she said was Shirley’s favorite, I went dowen that way and found them inside finishing up their meal. They were mystified how I had found them, I told them that I was psychic. I visited with Mom and Shirley for a while, they finished lunch, had coffee and paid their bill. As they headed home, I headed off to meet Donna as her day of teaching was coming to an end. What fun, driving in Rome again. It is just like a mini demolition derby thing except even though everyone IS out to get you, they don’t actually want to damage their car in the process. There is a sort of poetic flow to driving in Rome when the traffic is moving and since it was Sunday, I had a blast. Arriving at the apartment in piazza Mazzini, I found a parking space immediately (another perk that is available on Sundays) and climbed up to the apartment. I only had minutes to work on the Rome blog before Beatrice roped me into helping her put the house back in order. The workshop was over and her parents were coming back the next day. We had a massive amount of stuff to carry down to the street and pack into the cars but it all fit and we said goodbye to Bea trusting the Tom Tom would get us home. It seemed like it led us around in circles but eventually I started recognizing the landmarks and I was totally amazed when we ended up on Bea's street and found a parking space right in front of her apartment building.

Rome, June 2010 Day Four

2010-06-21T12:13:00.001-07:00

As with the other days, this day began at Beatrice’s parent’s house where Donna was teaching the Advanced Feldenkrais Training. I departed from there and walked over to the bus stop to catch the 628 into town. I had decided to get off at Flaminio which is just outside Piazza del Popolo and walk through a good part of the old City on the way to join my Mom near the Campo dei Fiori. Arriving there I proceeded to photograph the arch before entering through the walls of the City. Just inside on the left is a church called Santa Maria del Popolo. Mom had castigated me on previous visits for failing to go see the Caravaggio paintings that hang there. I decided to earn brownie points and go see them. I have to admit that the guy is pretty good even if he isn’t Michelangelo (actually his name is also Michelangelo but he is not THE Michelangelo). One of the paintings was the Crucifixion of Peter and the other was a soldier being trampled by a horse. I really like the crucifixion one. From there I crossed the square, photographed the Obelisk and proceeded toward via del Babuino. Along the Babuino I glanced in the stores, all the big names here, went into the Anglican church but it was just too English. Further down (almost to the piazza di Spagna) was the place we had discovered full of statues. I went in and looked around and tried to sneak some photos. The Spanish Steps were as magical as ever. I took a photo of the steps but focused more on the fountain this time. I’m doing a job in Cardiff right now and we are discussing fountains. I want to be ready to address that subject when I return with lots of examples. Somewhere along the line over the past few days I became interested in the street names in Rome so I started photographing them whenever I saw a street of note. Mostly, I was not interested in the famous ones (some of those did get photographed) but rather in the ones that grabbed me for some other reason. There was a street named after the craftsmen who re-weave the wicker into an old worn out chair and another named after the guys who made nails. There was also one for Key makers but according to Beatrice Via delle Chiavetorri is also a crude slang expression for what guys do to women; who knew?

Anyway onward, through the piazza with a column that had a saint on it. Another with an old Roman on it. Behind the building (I think the Prime Minister was there) was another piazza with an obelisk with hieroglyphics all over it. A few more turns brought me almost to the Pantheon and so in the foreground was the Tazzo d’Oro with the moniker ’best in the world’ (in Italian). I went in, had a cappuccino and moved on. It actually is very good coffee. There was no way that I could cross the front of the Pantheon without going in so I did. I photographed the inside and the dome, all over again. For Donna and George I also got photos of the fountain. By now I was running late but still, I needed to go through Piazza Navona. The church was open and what a treat that was! Borromini was a genius. And so was Bernini. That fountain is a triumph and there was a zoo around it. The piazza was jammed with tourists, street painters, performers, everything, very cool.

Mom was raring to go when I got there so off we went on our grand walk-a-bout. We set off for the Ghetto. Checking out this and that along the way I showed mom the new Fornaio (bread store) and then we went over to via Catalana to see our old apartment. There was a to do at the Synagogue. People pouring out of the Synagogue. Mom started wandering over and immediately the military police moved towards us to block a possible terrorist threat. I turned mom the other way and said “let’s go see Lemantani” and so we did. At the other end of the block that we used to live in, in the basement of the building is possibly the world’s largest supplier of kitchen stuff. Not appliances, but plates, cups, glasses, silverware, knives, pots, pans and so on. This place wanders on and on under the building. It is Huge! I asked permission to take photographs; they allowed it, sooner or later I will post the photos of the inside of this place.

Finishing there, we wandered down into the grounds of the Teatro Marcello. Those of you who have read my other years of postings may remember that I used to catch the bus to school from here every day when I was a kid. We wondered through and came upon a newly erected pedestal, with a column on top of it. Impaled through the top of the column is a carriage (horse drawn without the horse), the type used to take tourists around Rome. The thing was painted gold and cantered slightly off at an angle. I guess this is also art. I made up an amusing story of the Cart driver trying to explain how his cart had ended up impaled in that column and how he couldn’t figure out how to get it down.

Mom was running out of steam but being the slave driver that I am, I pushed her along and we crossed the street to the side of the Capitoline hill and walked down hill away from the Ghetto. There was a foot path that veered off to the left and would bring us closer to the base of the hill so I steered her that direction and we found a place to sit under some trees. This made mom happy. Rome has been very hot. In the high 80s to 90s every day with high humidity too. In the sun, it can feel oppressive. Naturally, I had been loving it even if I was mostly a sticky, sweaty mess. There was a cool breeze under those trees and it refreshed us both. I wanted to push on. The old Roman mint was somewhere nearby and I wanted to go there. What we saw was another church and I convinced mom that we should head for it since it would have seating and be cool inside. As we approached the base of the stairs I told mom that I would go up and see if the church was open. Just then a priest got out of a car and started conversing with us. He assured us that the church was indeed open and walked with us as we climbed the stairs. He spoke English and I explained that Mom was Italian; I was only half but had grown up in Rome. He left us as we entered the church. Inside, this church was very poor and decrepit. The paintings were deteriorated to the extent that I doubted they could ever be restored. The whole place smelled musty and it was not all that cool inside either. We sat a while, then decided to get out of there, it was depressing. At the same level as the church, there were some outdoor restaurants. I thought it best to lead mom over to one and feed her before she collapsed. We selected one. Right next to our table was one of those vertical Roman drinking fountains made of bronze that are on many street corners. I immediately took our glasses over and filled them up. I just kept filling them over and over as the meal went on. Sort of felt water logged by the end of the meal. We both chose to order Rigatoni with Pesto sauce. It was delectable!

Relaxed ad recharged (at least I was) I led mom the opposite direction that she wanted to go (she wanted to go home). We were only two blocks from the Mouth of Truth and any of you who really know me know that the ‘Bocca’ is special to me. So kicking and complaining, I dragged her down there and she rebelled and declined to stand in line to see the Bocca. She found a seat while I waited in line as couples and families made idiots of themselves posing with body parts inserted in the mouth and the eye of the Face. When it was my turn I took a series of high def pictures. I’m now ready to do my third reproduction of the Bocca if anyone out there wants one. After the pictures I went inside to see the scull of Saint Valentine for a sec and I also extensively photographed the mosaic patterns of the floors of the church.

Mom wanted to take a taxi home but naturally, we could find no taxis. There was a bus stop nearby and I managed to get her down there. We caught an empty bus where she got a seat and this one bus even had air conditioning and took us to a block from where she is staying. I was off the hook. I plopped her down in a chair in the air conditioned house and took my leave to return to pick up Donna. We had agreed to return to have dinner with Mom and Shirley.

So, I walked through piazza Navona again; I don’t think that anyone can ever visit that piazza too many times. Got the 628 at the other end and shortly arrived at the apartment at Piazza Mazzini. Donna was elated to be finished with her work for the day and anxious to get in some exercise so we agreed to basically repeat the voyage I had taken earlier that day. We got off the bus at Flaminio. Immediately it was obvious that something was up. That morning as I passed through Piazza del Popolo I had noticed that they were setting up to do a rally. Well, this rally was in full swing now. The place was absolutely jammed with people wearing red hats and large bandanas proclaiming that the weight of the world was on their shoulders (whatever that was supposed to mean). Donna wanted to see the Caravaggio’s so we went back into that church again. Exiting we soon realized that we would never be able to directly cross the piazza, there were thousands and thousands of people here and Donna doesn’t really like being crushed into a mob situation. It probably hadn’t helped that I kept pointing out all of the paramilitary police aggregated around the perimeter all dressed out in riot gear. To my credit, I did tell her that things must be under control or the church would have been closed up like a vault. The solution was to take the perimeter road up the side of the piazza and back down the other side to the twin churches.

We enjoyed our walk. Donna needed to look into some of the stores. This was the first opportunity that she had had since arriving in Rome to shop and she had already been in Rome for four days. Eventually, she satisfied her immediate need by purchasing a new top. We stopped at the statuary store for an Ice Tea (they sell statues but are also a café). Pretty much, it was a déjà vu of that morning’s walk. At the Pantheon we went back in again, at Piazza Navona we walked around the Bernini fountain twice discussing the power of the sculptures and then went into the Borromini church as well.

Finally, we arrived at Shirley's apartment and I introduced Donna to her. We had cocktails and a nice dinner and eventually departed to return back to Beatrice and Renzo’s apartment. This was accomplished relatively quickly by taking a bus to the metro and then three stops down the line on the metro to the Cornelia exit which is a few blocks away from the apartment.

Rome, June 2010 Day Three

2010-06-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

OK, there is a hiccup in the operation. Today is an impromptu transportation strike. Well, I can only get into the Center by taxi, walking from Donna’s training at Piazza Mazzini is definitely out. Don’t know where the day will lead me but I am going to start out there which is near to the Vatican and go see the ‘Pieta’ (Michelangelo) as a starting point.

Siily me, I thought that Saint Peter’s was close to piazza Mazzini. I set off in the right direction and walked and walked and walked. This is one boring neighborhood. The buildings are well under a hundred years old and in Rome that is essentially, brand new. Block after block I kept waiting for the Duomo (dome) to come into site and it just kept eluding me. I did finally end up at Castel San Angelo and from there I knew exactly where the Church was. I arrived through ‘La Porta dei Englesi’ (the English gate) and on the side of the colonnade that surrounds Saint Peter’s square. I always like to enter this way instead of through the grand concourse in front because it has so much more impact this way. Surprisingly, there was security and metal detectors in the crossing through the colonnade. I’d never seen this before. Turns out that my buddy Benedict (the Pope) was doing his Service thing right out in the open on the front steps of Saint Peter’s. Most of the square (its round not square) was filled with people dressed in white with yellow hats. I was unable to figure out what that was about but we could all see old Benedict doing his thing up front on these enormous monitors that were set up around the piazza. Everyone was having a good time and the crowd around me was singing right along with the eunuch priests that were leading the choir. Well, I was having fun but one can really only do that for so long out in the full sun on a day that is exceeding ninety degrees. It was obvious that I would not be allowed through that crowd of thousands, past Benedict and into the church so that I could see the Pieta’. I went off back the way I came and decided to follow the Papal battlements that connect the Vatican with Castel San Angelo. This was fun; I kept stopping to photograph details of the battlements, Also through the arches that framed the alleys leading away from the other side and some of the street names too. At one point an old man who was headed my direction and going about my speed had stopped to wait for me. He told me that I could get a photo of the street sign and the campanile in the background from this angle if I wished, I did and he got ahead of me while I was shooting photos of the combo. I caught up to the old guy and we were mostly neck to neck all the way to the front of the Castle. I turned right and crossed the bridge and lost sight of him there. Crossing the bridge I got a great picture of one of the sentinel angels of the bridge in the foreground with the dome of Saint Peter below and to the left. It should be a winner.

OK, having crossed the bridge, the Campo seemed to be just down the way so I decided to go see Mom after all. I stopped at the Chiesa Nuova (also San Fillippo) saw that there was supposed to be a Caravaggio but that it was missing, took some photos and proceeded to arrive at Shirley’s just after their return around noon. We chatted a while, Sherley made her lunch and was munching on it and Mom was hungry. Eventually we went out and trolled for some food finding an incredible fornaio/ pastry store a few blocks from the Campo and heading toward piazza Navona. I’m not sure that I have ever seen such a large variety of pastries in one place but what got us in was the freshly made pizzas that are sold by weight (by the slice). Mom selected pizza margarita but I got this White pizza that had fresh slices of Mozzarella, tomatoes and Basil and was not melted. This was truly heavenly. We wandered up the street to a bar and I ordered a beer, mom ordered a cold cappuccino. They bollixed that thoroughly and mom proceeded back into the place to try to teach them how to make it properly. She failed on her attempt, I didn’t ask her if she had been charged for their failures. From there I walked mom back to Shirley’s and set off toward Piazza Navona. Having examined the maps I had determined that no matter how I returned to piazza Mazzini on foot it was going to be a very long walk.

Piazza Navona is one of the gems of the world and unlike our previous two visits to Rome, this time all three fountains were operating. The previous two times the center fountain was being restored. They did a great job, it looked brand new. So, I remember a story from my child hood about the central fountain and the cathedral behind it. I seem to remember that it had to do with the rivalry between Borromini and Bernini. Have them mixed up so I don’t know which one did which. Anyway, one guy got the church contact over the other. Shortly later the other got the contact to do the fountain. Well he was so pissed off about missing out on the church job that when he did the four river god statues, they are all (but one) looking away from the church. One even has his head covered with a cloth to hide the hideousness of the church facade from his view. The fourth statue does face the church but he is holding up his hand to block the view of the church. Talk about holding a grudge!

I navigated through all the guys selling their original or perhaps not so original art. Out the back side of the piazza and I watched two buses go by. Some buses were running, a lot fewer and some lines were not running at all. I walked up to the bus stop and studied my options. There was the 30, the 7 and the good old 628 that would all take me to Piazza Mazzini. I liked my odds that a bus going my way would show up so I decided to wait. I probably waited a half hour in that 90+ degree sun and while I waited group after group of tourists led by a guide walked by. Finally, I was rewarded for my patience. Guess which bus showed up. Yep, the 628. Something seems to have me inextricably connected to this bus line as I return to Rome time after time.

Rome June 2010: Day Two

2010-06-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

First, for those of you who speak Italian; give me a break on the spelling. I know that I misspelled a bunch of Italian words. Corrections are humbly accepted. I’m not sharing this with Nancy Jones (former elementary school teacher and the newest member of the Alta Vista Gardens Board) or she would feel obliged to correct my English, I am happy to express myself just so, without her help.

We slept ten hours last night and basically, converted ourselves over to Rome time. Beatrice awoke us at ten this morning and we were rushed to get out of here in time and to her mother’s place at Piazza Mazzini for the beginning of Donna’s advanced Feldenkrais class. Renzo drove us in his VW Bug because Beatrice left early to get the living room cleared out and make the other preparations. We got there, proceeded down to the corner café where the Roman movie set gets their coffee and ordered two Cappuccinos’ for 2 Euro ($2.40 for both), a lot cheaper than Starbucks. We downed those in a few seconds and ordered another two along with a ham and mozzarella ‘Medallione’ for 2.5 Euro ($2.70). We shared the sandwich and I rushed her back to her class room for the first day of her teaching.

Leaving, I wandered over to the next road where Renzo had said I could get a bus to the Center of Rome. I was on my way to see my mom who had flown up from the Greek island of Paros where she lives six months of the year to see her sons who (by happenstance) happen to be in Italy at the same time. I went into a Tabacchaio and purchased ten bus/metro passes for ten Euro. Out on the curb, I looked up at the bus schedules to figure out which bus I wanted. Wonders of wonders, the old 628! For those of you that have followed my previous Blogs, this is the exact same bus line that we used the previous years to come from Beatrice’s old apartment in the other side of Rome to get to the center. How weird is that?

So, it took a half hour for the bus to arrive. The 628 has a very sporadic schedule. Sometimes it’s three buses in ten minutes and sometimes one bus in thirty, go figure. While waiting at the stop the distinguished gentleman standing next to me awaiting the same bus reminded me of a very important phrase that I have no doubt I shall continue to use regularly during the time I am here- “per piacere lasciami in pace” or “please leave me alone”. In this instance it was a young man trying to insist that I purchase a pair of sport socks from him. In all fairness I was wearing flops and no socks so he was aware that I had none, but did I need them? I thought not. Needless to say, he did not make the sale as I took advantage of this new phrase and mouthed it for the first time. The bus finally came and I was happy. I sat near the back taking in the sites. The bus took me down to and along the edge of the Tiber, I had never been familiar with this part of the river. It does not have built up embankments but has been left natural with trees and foliage. As we crossed over the bridge I looked down and saw a bunch of house boats moored along the edge of the river and a large parking lot with very few cars. So, for anyone who wants to live in Rome, here is a place that you can live with a wonderful ambiance and you will also never need to look for a parking space near home. I wondered if the rents are high to moor a house on the Tiber.

The Bus route was incredibly convoluted, switching back on itself in strange ways (or so it seemed). This driver had balls. He was hauling down very tight curving streets with little cars parked on both sides, very little clearance on either side like it was nothing. At one point he came upon someone who was double parked and restricting his passage even further, he slowed down to about 15 miles per hour and squeaked through with inches to spare but was unfazed. Just part of a days work driving a bus in Rome. The wonders of Rome; as we drove along I got a view down a narrow street and saw the obelisk in the center of the Piazza del Popolo framed by the road. We passed the tomb of Augustus and the Aria Paces (?) At another point another narrow side street afforded me a view of the Spanish steps with the boat fountain in the foreground at its other end. We passed a column with some old Roman at the top of it. I think that was Piazza Colonna (piazza of the column) I found myself there again at the end of the day and got a picture with the sun backlighting it. What a City!

I disembarked at piazza Venetia. They had finally finished that part of the new Metro route and filled in the eternal hole in the center of the piazza. Now there are two mounded grass areas with signs to stay off of the grass. Much better this way. I hesitated there. Did I want to go through the Ghetto or through Largo Argentina? The Ghetto won out. I just can’t resist getting that close to the turtle fountain and not actually going to see it. So I just picked the thinnest alley in site that went the correct direction and proceeded with my internal compass leading me first left then right (or was it right then left) in the direction of the little boys holding up those turtles. Around a corner into a little piazza and a huge church, another corner, another church. This is Rome…. I found the turtle fountain, good as ever. If (when) any of you ever go to Rome you defiantly need to see this little fountain. I almost forgot to mention, somewhere near the turtle fountain is a church. There is this guy who sits outside the church on the street and paints scenes of cactus (no cactus in site on this street). The steps of the church have one cactus painting after another lined up across the front of it. I’m not sure that anyone actually buys them as they are not very good and he probably never has even seen a cactus, but he has been there the three visits that I have returned through different seasons so he appears to be a fixture. Onward out of the Ghetto, across Corso Vittorio Emmanuelle toward the Campo di Fiori. A little way up on the right I saw that street that has a curve in it and knew that up that way was Largo del Palaro where I used to live. Shirley lives just behind there and this is where my mom is staying. Up to the apartment, I spent an hour or so re-connecting with Mom and Shirley. Shirley and I had actually not been in communication until about a year ago for almost forty years but she seems very lively and full of life.

I was dying to see the Campo so I urged mom out the door and down through the Chapel/tunnel that connects Largo del Palaro to the Campo dei Fiori (field of flowers). Most of the market was still open. Pretty cool, two stalls sold only Pasta; I got some photos, who knew there were so many types. A stall sold balsamic vinegar and different types of Pate’. Mom tried the artichoke pate’, she said it was incredible. Pricy too; 15 Euro for a small cold cream jar full. What a variety of vegetables. In this market you can find anything. Fruit and vegetables that I had never seen, most grown locally. I took pictures, because it was just so colorful and inviting. Mom had gone out that morning to buy an espresso machine at one of the stalls in the ‘Campo’ since she couldn’t find one in Shirley’s kitchen. She discovered that they also had one of those industrial size ‘sciatchia aglio’ (garlic press) that she had given each of us so many years ago. Knowing that, I made her take me there and I bought it so that we would have one at both houses. Too bad, I bought the last one and they had no idea how to get a hold of another.

From there we went to the Fornaio in the Campo and we each of selected a sandwich made from white pizza sliced down the center and stuffed with meat and cheese. Naturally, I chose Prosciutto. We wandered over to piazza Farnese and sat down at a café and ordered some drinks to go with our pizza sandwiches, yummy! From there we looped the Palazzo Farnese. I was particularly interested in seeing the building again with new eyes. I had read ‘the agony and the ecstasy’ about the life of Michelangelo and had learned that he had designed the top story of the building. Around back I showed mom the view into the rear gardens of the palazzo and she remembered that the Borromini Perspective was just around the corner (somewhere?). We wandered through a few wrong turns but did find the palazzo Spada and went in to look through a glass window that has a view of the ‘perspective’. You can’t walk it anymore but I did many times as a kid. It is a series of arches, the first full size, the others increasingly smaller. At the end is a statue. Viewed from a distance it looks like a long hallway of arches. If you walk it, it isn’t very long and it turns out that the statue is not much higher than three feet with its pedestal. Very effective. By then, mom was fagged, I took her back to the apartment and we sat around talking away the afternoon. I left near five to start the process of returning to piazza Mazzini where Donna was teaching.

My plan was to cut across to the Corso down which the bus had traveled on the way there. Silly me, I assumed the 628 route would be the same returning as it was going toward the Center. I went out, wandered right into Largo del Palaro and looked up to our old apartment. Last time I’d seen it, it was all closed up, this time it was open, I took a few photo for keepsake. Walking out along the side of San Andrea della Valle, I decided to see if the church was open. The last two trips it had always been closed when I was in that location. Seeing as how it was open, I went in. The interior is huge and very gilded with gold. I think someone famous did something in that church but I didn’t have a guide book with me so I just walked around and looked. I seem to remember that this is the oldest church dome in Rome. I need to look that up.

Out the front, across the street I veered right instead of left, I missed the piazza Navona but in short order realized that I was heading directly towards the Pantheon. OK, the Pantheon is always good but wow, what a crowd! There was literally an army of 13 year old kids all wearing Red hats. I later discerned that they were probably Germanic when I overtook them on the way to the Trevi fountain. The Pantheon was being worked on out front but they had completed the floor restoration they had been working on the last time I had been there. As usual, it was inspiring to stand inside. It was what I had sold to Keith when we had done the house of God in the Kabala Garden of his Valley Center home. Naturally, his was somewhat smaller but the impact was there all the same.

From there onward around the Tassa D’Oro (I was on a schedule, no time to stop for an espresso). All of a sudden I had hit the Corso where I expected to catch the 628 back to piazza Mazzini. I hesitated a second and decided that I had time to go on and see the Fontana di Tervi (never go to Rome without visiting it). The whole piazza was one giant can of sardines (I mean tourists) but the good news is that the fountains were running! I stayed a few minutes. Muscled through the crowds and got a few photos and then off back to the Corso to catch the 628 Bus. Getting there, I ambled up to the bus stop, no 628 on the first, second or third sign. Clearly I had missed something. I went back and checked the three signs again. No 628. I walked across the street to see the bus stop going the other way, OK, 628. Crossed the street again to confirm I wasn’t tripping; no 628. So I did the only logical thing left for me to do. I got on the 628 bus going the wrong direction and rode it back to the Teatro Marcello where I knew the bus was on both sides of the street. Getting off the bus, I crossed and a few minutes later caught the 628 going the way I wanted it to be going. When we got to piazza Venetia instead of going straight down the Coso, it took a left went thru Largo Argentina and right up to San Andrea della Valle (where I had started out) and took a right onto Corso dell Resorgimento and went around the piazza Navona. Go figure, I had just spent most of an hour to end up right back where I started from. Good lesson, that 628 really does go everywhere.

I arrived without further ado at Piazza Mazzini and then proceeded to get thoroughly lost. There were only eight roads leading into the piazza but I couldn’t figure out which one I needed to be on. Problem was that when I got off the bus I bypassed the first street and started examining them all in more detail starting with the second. After fifteen minutes I ended up calling Beatrice to ask directions and even then had a hard time figuring it all out. The rest is history. We met up, returned to Beas’ apartment and then Donna was ready to get her yayays out and go for a walk, I agreed-guess I hadn’t walked enough that day.

Back to Rome...June 2010 Day One

2010-06-09T12:13:00.000-07:00

Well, things are definitely moving ahead in this world! I want to tell you all about it but first…

We flew Delta and had a nightmare time getting an assigned seat on the plane to Rome. Something about an equipment change in New York. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find anyone in the whole airline that could override their system and get us assigned seats. My almost last try was to call them at exactly 24 hours before departure. It also failed to get me a seat so I went online, checked in electronically and low and behold, the second leg of the trip from Kennedy to Rome had seat assignments. No luck on the cross country leg and I was still locked out. Somehow, miraculously, during the day, the seat assignments appeared. We were separated three rows apart in rotten seats. At check-in, same problem, they knew all about it, equipment change, we were screwed. One possible chance, the gate has around fourteen seats at their discretion to assign, with any luck the can give us new seat assignments.

When we got there we had to wait in line (not a good sign) and when I got to the front of the line, she explained that all the flight was sold out and all seats were taken. I explained my long and convoluted story of all of the attempts I had made to obtain assigned seats starting with when I had booked the flight months earlier. She was very nice and put our names on her list. She said that she was working on upgrading two people that have assigned isle seats across from each other in an emergency exit row to first class and she might be able to get us those. We had become convinced that fate was working to keep us apart on that flight but that kind lady came through and put us in that exit row (lots of leg room). Donna immediately traded one of the aisle seats with a center seat and viola’, we were sitting together. What a relief, traveling with Donna is fun and part of that is the airplane ride. I just wanted the complete package.

So, back to what I was going to tell you about. Delta is rolling in Wi-Fi on their airplanes. This plane had Wi-Fi. As a frequent flyer I had received an email on their rollout. It was supposed to cost around $12 on flights of 4 hours, a bit more for longer flights or something like $32 for a twenty-four hour package (or was that for a whole month of usage?). Good news, once the Gods decided that our luck had needed to change, they went even further than the seats we got. I logged into the ‘gogo inflight network’ and for whatever reason, it was free for us today!

Well, the entertainment of the internet on a flight is priceless. Much better that a movie (yes I also watched a movie). We are using Donnas’ awesome Acer laptop with Windows 7, over eight hours of battery life, HDMI monitor, Wireless ‘N’, a hi-def web cam and 500 GB hard all in less than four pounds of weight. We both checked and responded to email and then I attached an external 500GB hard drive that is the size of a pack of cards and had access to all my Documents, Pictures and Videos. We proceeded to produce the invitation for our Summer Party, edited it and refined it then sent it out to our ‘Party Groups’ from each of our profiles. OK, not so special tech wise except that we were in a plane over the Central States when we did it. The second flight was nowhere near as good, I didn’t sleep much and we didn’t get exit seats. To top off the disappointments, no Wi-Fi either.

Beatrice met us at the airport and drove us into Rome to the new apartment that she and Renzo had just moved into the previous week. The apartment was very nice and it is on the ground floor with a real yard on three sides. It was good to see Renzo again and I met their daughter Micolla for the first time.

After bathing and taking a nap, Donna had left for her first day of teaching. I got up and decided to go out for a stroll. I wanted to be familiar with the neighborhood; find the closest Metro station (Cornelia on the Red Line) and make sure I could find my way back to the apartment. Leaving the apartment I felt like I was really in the middle of nowhere. This area of Rome isn’t even on my map and it is really directly behind the Vatican and close to the Via Aurelia antica which was one of the main roads (started around 241 B.C.) out of ancient Rome that led up the coast to Pisa. Up the street through a few turns I came upon a huge piazza that doubles as a transit center. No isolation here. I can get to anywhere from here. I wandered around the neighborhood for a few hours checking out the stores and the women. Basically the sites. I had a Suppli at a corner fast food place and scored some Euros from an ATM so that I would have more of the local currency. Eventually, I found a market, bought some basic groceries and some wine. This place has me confused. At first I couldn’t find a bottle of red wine more expensive than 1.95 Euros. Eventually I did find a bottle of Chianti Classico for 5.00 Euro but that was absolutely the most expensive bottle in the market. Wow!

Day Seven, the Capoteline

2010-05-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

The Forum as viewed from the top of the Wedding Cake

There are some things that just must be experienced when you visit Rome. Last year we went to the Vatican Museum and were given a wonderful tour by a little lady who we dubbed ‘Yoda’s sister’ so we really had covered that well. This year, the most important museum on my agenda was the complex on the Capitoline hill. With this goal in mind we set out and caught the bus just on the other side of Piazza Zama that took us to the base of the Capitoline hill. Last year we had not climbed all of those steps up the left side to the church which sits in the temple to Jupiter Maximus but we were fresh and so I led Donna up what must number in the thousands of steps. Bummer, when we got all of the way up, the place was locked up solid and there was apparently no connection to Michelangelo’s square in the center of the Capitoline.

We did discover an open gate to the left that led around to the back side of the Monument to Vittorio Emmanuelle (we called it the wedding cake when we were kids). Since the last time that I had lived in Rome they have added a very cool feature to this monument. I had read about it in our guide book. They put an elevator on the back side of it and this elevator takes people to the roof of the darn thing, right up there with the two chariot winged victory statues. For 10€ each we went up there and I have to say, from there you get the most incredible perspective of Rome that there ever was. This is the true, new ‘E’ ticket ride in Rome! If you come, and you only have a day, I strongly recommend going to the top of the monument to Vittorio Emmanuelle which is also Rome’s tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Apart from the two statues which sit higher than the central roof, you basically get an unobstructed 360 degree view of all of Rome and you are standing above every other building for many miles around. I’m pretty sure we were higher up than the top of the Janicolo which used to be the prime viewing place in the City.

There are some high power binocular/ telescopes up there as well. With these you can count the nose hairs on a face miles away. These were very powerful. I took photos all the way around. At home I have a program that puts together photos into a panorama; we’ll see how that comes out. Eventually, we went back down and it turns out that if you continue around the back toward the Corso Imperiale, you can get over to the Capitoline from there. We loved the two museums on the Capitoline, they were truly inspiring. I guess that for the most part, I am into statues, and that is what these museums were dominantly about. Unfortunately, the Medusa head by Bernini was on loan to Capua, co we missed that but I went mostly to see the Dying Gaul because of the book Desmond did by the same name. A tunnel connects one museum to the other and crosses under the piazza so one ticket does both museums.

Finishing there we lazed under some Stone Pines and took in the view of the Forum. Looking down, on the side of the wedding cake we noticed that it was there that the ‘Tribute to Luciano Pavarotti’ was being exhibited, plus there was an Exhibit of Picasso’s work in the same building. We walked down, the Pavarotti exhibit was very interesting and incredibly moving and powerful. They had set up projectors that used a whole huge wall as a screen. On both sides were cycling black and white photos of Luciano, 16 at a time. In the center was floor to ceiling video of his more famous performances including one done in Sarajevo with a symphony orchestra, U2 and Bono. The side walls had grids of dozens of plasma monitors with video of other events with the great man. They said that they had 6 million meters of taped video of Pavarotti. That seems like a lot to me. The stereo system was excellent and the music was unfathomably powerful. Naturally they had other paraphernalia as well. A whole wall of all of the records and CDs of his music, many of the costumes that he had used in the operas he had performed in, etc., ect. I really enjoyed this exhibit; I only wish that I had actually seen him perform in real life. Next we went upstairs to see Picasso, he wasn’t there but there was a sizable amount of his work. I’m ashamed to say, I don’t really like most of what he did. The pencil drawings and the sculptures talked to me more than the paintings but I guess that my true love is rooted in antiquity.

Exiting the exhibitions we wandered around to the front and climbed the stairs in the front of Vittorio Emmanuelle enough to see the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They had a special cop on the steps whose job it was to blow his whistle and prevent anyone from sitting on any one of all of those steps. He explained that this is a military monument and you must not sit down out of respect for the dead soldiers. Five in the evening, tired and in need of a recharge, we headed off to the Ghetto. Most of it is closed to traffic so it is much more pleasant than it used to be. It hasn’t come into its own yet as a tourist destination but I can see that very soon it will be full of restaurants with tourist eating on the streets. We sat down at a bar to have a beer. After a while we noticed that a group of well dressed elderly women were starting to accumulate on the bench across the street from us. Four of them were sitting side by side on one bench. Then three men come over to our side and sit down at the outdoor table next to ours and start talking but don’t purchase anything. As time goes by, more women arrive; they bring their own folding chairs and set up around the bench with the original four women. For a while it becomes multi generational as a young girl comes to hang out with her grandmother. Meanwhile at the table next to us, there were more and more men joining this group. We must have sat down at the tables that they habitually occupy, they didn’t ask us to move or to leave but we started feeling surrounded. Now there were over ten men. Some were sitting next to and behind Donna and some next to and behind me. We thought that it was getting to pretty comical. All of the men grouped next to us and not one of them has purchased a thing from this bar. All the while, those ladies were over there on the other side, serious and watching the men on our side. Finishing our beer, we decided that it was time to move on. We abandoned our spot and the men spread out into our chairs.

Day Six- Tivoli

2010-05-21T15:56:00.000-07:00

At the entrance to the Villa D'Este

Boy were we wiped out after all of that gallivanting around Rome the previous day. I don’t know how far that was that we walked but it did follow the walking of the previous day in Pompeii. These old bodies aren’t as resilient as they used to be. Thank God for Tylenol and IB. Well, today was to be a big adventure. Last year I couldn’t figure out how to get to Tivoli but did know that the trains went there. So, we set off, walked down to ‘Re di Roma’ to get the Metro and took it to Termi. We climbed up out to the track level, purchased our tickets and then learned that the train to Tivoli doesn’t leave from Termi, it leaves from Tiburtina, the guy also told us to go down to track one to the information booth. Silly us, we thought that there was something that we needed to know, so we walked all the way down to the information booth on track one, waited in line and then told the lady that we wanted the train for Tivoli. She says that we have to go to Tiburtina to get the train for Tivoli. So I say, “OK, how often do the trains run?” She answers that we have to go to Tiburtina to get that information too. So I guess that was all the information that they had for us at Termi. Back down to the Metro and a short ride got us to the correct station. The Metro really is quite wonderful in Rome, who would have thought. By the way, I just saw today that they are building a new Metro line ‘C’, supposedly it is going to go to all of the ancient ruins. I’m not sure how they are going to pull that off since there are ruins everywhere but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

View of Rome

Neither of us has a watch, so I have no idea how long it took us to get to Tivoli but it seemed like around an hour and Tivoli was beautiful. From up there, you have a fantastic view of the valley that houses Rome. We would recommend Tivoli as a good place for an overnighter as well. The town is very inviting and there are lots of things to explore. Arriving, I asked in the train station how to get to the Villa D’Este. The lady said, just down the road, about a ten minute walk. Well, it wasn’t exactly that, there were some turns and stuff but it wasn’t all that far and along the way we discovered that Tivoli had another attraction. I did not absorb its name and it was closed by the time we got out of the Villa D’Este but what it is essentially is a very, very deep compact valley with what are advertised as the most spectacular waterfalls in Europe. Since it was closed, we cast around for someplace to eat and did go into a place named after mom called, ‘Flo’s Bar’. We didn’t actually go into Flo’s which was at street level but instead followed the signs for the restaurant which led us down a few flights of stairs to a large terrace cantilevering over the above mentioned canyon. So, I did get a few photos of the waterfalls from above even if we missed out on the chance to walk in it.

Villa D’Este! What can I say, if you haven’t ever been there, you really must go and experience it for yourself. Some Pope must have really liked water, they re-routed two rivers to power the fountains of the garden and some of these fountains really have power! Dad, I took photos of all of the different runnels that went down the sides of staircases and in one case down the top of a railing. I remember that you wanted to somehow replicate these ideas at the Kensington property. Perhaps someday I’ll eventually have the opportunity to do one somewhere. Todd & Gail perhaps a PowerPoint presentation for the membership would be in order. I have literally hundreds of photos of the fountains and of the town.

As with all walking adventures, we eventually got pretty tired of waking and Renzo had told us that in Tivoli right next to the temple of the Sibili there is an excellent restaurant that is THE place to go have lunch in Tivoli. So we set off over the hill and off to the left of the center there was a Roman temple which an old lady confirmed was the temple that we were looking for. Next to it was a restaurant that proclaimed its name was Sibili. We figured OK and set off for it. Arriving, apparently after 3:00 p.m. the place looked extremely expensive but we went in anyway and asked for lunch. The guy inside was on the phone but he looked at his watch and said that the restaurant was closed. We took off a little concerned, the restaurant below ‘Flo’s’ was the next one that we tried but they told us their kitchen was also closed as they delivered a plate of pasta to this French guy who insisted on trying to talk to us about how he forced them to allow him to eat outside instead of in and read me an excerpt from his photocopied one hundred year old travel guide of Rome and its surroundings (in French) that explained how great the waterfalls in the canyon really were. This deck had its own private entrance into the canyon garden and Donna tried to tempt me but we went on to look for a place that was willing to serve us lunch. We crossed the street to the next restaurant and that one was closed (locked up) and went next door to the next one. This one looked very promising as there were still a number of different tables of guests eating lunch. We asked the owner to seat us; he looked a little worried and stuck his head into the kitchen returning to tell us that the kitchen was closed. Well, we had exhausted every restaurant in the neighborhood and the eating district was uphill, we asked the guy at the sidewalk gas station what time it was and found that it was less than ten minutes before the next train left for Rome. Off we went in a hurry and jumped on the train minutes before its departure.

Once in the neighborhood of where we were staying, we went into a place that I had found that morning that was full of whole prosciuttos, cheese and bread. We proceeded to buy two ettos of prosciutto, two balls of mozzarella di buffola and three soft, fresh rosetti along with some freshly made tortellini stuffed with ricotta and spinach. We also stopped at a roadside stand to buy some tomatoes and a head of finochio (fennel). For me, I was in heaven; I had one and a half sandwiches of prosciutto and mozzarella in roman paninos along with a finochio salad and some tortellini and a bottle of cheap red wine which in Italy is actually, pretty good. That was possibly the best meal I had in Italy because I missed it so much. I know that those of you that live in San Francisco can actually purchase rosettis from Il Fornaio but I never have found them in San Diego and both the prosciutto and the mozzarella seemed to be better than what I am able to buy at home. Renzo says that if I like it so much I should buy a leg of prosciutto and bring it back on the plane. He insists that it needs to be brought back as carry on and not be checked. Perhaps because if it is checked, someone will make off with it before it gets to San Diego. When he came home Renzo asked if I had eaten at the restaurant next to the temple of the Sibili, I explained that it was closed and that in fact all of the restaurants were closed. He looked at me and said, Bryan you grew up in Italy, you should have known. Restaurants close after the lunch hour. The other side of that is just try to get a meal in Italy before 7:30p.m., it just isn’t possible. The Italians have a lot of rules about when you can eat or at least, when they are willing to serve you.

Day Five (Monday)

2010-05-21T05:02:00.000-07:00

French Church

F.Y.I. This is Italy, on Mondays; everything of historical importance is closed.

Piazza Navona is going to the Pigeons

We returned the car to the airport, by now I am getting over getting lost all of the time. We actually navigated to the airport with little to do. I only made two wrong turns along the way but immediately realized that I had tried to apply logic to the situation and was able to rectify my naiveté and apply counter logic to get me back on the correct course. Dropping off the car was painless and we proceeded to the train station at the airport to catch the train to Termi which is the main station in Rome. We arrived at the station, followed the throngs out the front and began our great walking loop of what I consider the must see at least once while in Rome spots.

Campo Dei Fiori

First to Piazza della Republica to see the fountain (Rome for me is and always has been all about its fountains). On the piazza is the church converted from part of the baths of Diocletian called Santa Maria degli Angeli e’ gli Martiri (Santa Maria of the Angles and the Martyrs) which was worked on by Michelangelo and many others. It was pretty spectacular and definitely worth a look. From there we went on to Piazza Barberini (for the fountain) but the flow was reduced from where it should be. On to the Spanish Steps. We approached from above and bummer the church was closed but what a view of the City. Down the steps and past the boat fountain, across to Via Condoti which occasioned an obligatory visit into one of its exclusive stores by Donna who eventually emerged with a package in her hand and a smile on her face. Down a side street called Via Mario Dei Fiori kept us off the larger congested roads and soon we emerged onto the piazza that houses the Fontana di Trevi (another fountain). The fountain was being repaired, no water flowed and a crane was parked to the side. Naturally, no one was working on the fountain. From there down the alleys of Via delle Murate toward the Pantheon. I didn’t go look at the fountain in front of the Panteon, the building is so overwhelming that all else is lost. We did however go to the Tasso D’Oro for a coffee while in the neighborhood. Next, on to Piazza Navona. Mom, the church of the French something was closed, I will try to get back there sometime. Wasn’t there a statue of the Madonna with the dying Christ (like the pieta) on that same street behind Piazza Navona somewhere? I seem to remember old ladies touching the feet when I was a kid. Anyone know where that was?

Arch connects the Pallazzo Farnese across Via Giulia to another Palazzo

In Piazza Navona they are still working on the main fountain a year and a half later if you can believe that. The place was happening as usual. Artists selling their paintings and the cafes and restaurants full of people. We stopped and rested and paid 14€ for two coffees ($21.00) but it was worth it. From there we went past San Andrea della Valle into Largo del Pallaro to see the old house. Donna values the historical importance of this site as well since it is built on top of the theatre of Pompeii (yes, that same Pompeii guy that I mentioned before) where Julius Caesar was assassinated. We went through the metal gates and stopped at that restaurant (whose name escapes me) and asked to be allowed into their basement. There we stood in part of the ruins of the theatre. It was heavy with history and very powerful for both of us. Into the Campo dei Fiori, the market was being disassembled. And on to the Villa Farnese, we sat and rested on one of the fountains. I dragged Donna down the alley to Via Gulia so that I could look at that wall fountain of the face again. We got to see into the back garden of palazzo Farnese from the Via Gulia side and then we went down Via Gulia toward the Ghetto, the Theatro Marcellus and the bus stop to get us back home for the evening. Almost every one of these places had been visited last time we came but I feel the need to reconnect each time I return. By the way, we are already planning when to come next year. Perhaps in June on the way to Greece?

Day Four, Pompeii and the Pope

2010-04-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

Next morning was a lazy start, our goal for the day was to visit Pompeii. The distance was not far so we were not in a hurry. We had a relaxed breakfast out on the porch and Donna brought her pastels and did a drawing of the scenery while we ate. We packed, brought our suitcases down to the lobby and checked out. This time there was a strong guy standing around in the lobby to carry the bags down to the car. I was happy to see that and I know why he must hide when it comes time to carry luggage up those stairs. So he just tied all of our bags together with a rope, hoisted the lot over his shoulder and off he went down those stairs. We followed and when we arrived at the car, the guys there extracted the Micra and then gave us a bill for 42.50€ (around $60.00) for two nights parking. This really got Donna going, she was not a happy camper, she was even moved to climb all of those stairs to go talk to that lady at the hotel. The lady at the hotel said that the small print on their web site said that parking was not included so tuff shit. We intend to crucify this place on the web for being so deceptive that there was no mention at all of a parking fee until the second we were ready to leave (after we had paid our hotel bill). Anyway, now you know why it was that all of those well to do Italians were parking their cars kilometers down the main highway from the entrance to the town to save what amounts to a lot more than a few bucks to park their cars for free.

Down we went into the town and back up again. Turn left and shortly we were stopped by a police traffic lady on duty at this corner of the highway that was so tight that she needed to stop the northbound traffic to allow each southbound bus to get around the corner without killing anyone. We had seen four or five other traffic policemen standing around at various corners along the road the previous day in obscure locations. Watching this operation gave me new appreciation of just how narrow, sinuous and dangerous this road really is. Amazingly, we returned to the freeway without incident and without getting lost. Shortly later we arrived at the exit to Pompeii. The exit brought us off to the left of the freeway or to the west of the freeway, being a seasoned traveler by now and having cast off the last vestiges of my macho ego over the past few days, I immediately stopped to ask the Carabinieri who were standing on the center divider of the freeway exit for directions to old Pompeii. He said that the Pope was on his way into town and that he wasn’t sure that I would be allowed to go to the digs (Scavi) but I was welcome to try. Just go right, follow a while, go right again, up over some sort of rise, down the other side and go right again, no problem. So we take off, the place is crawling with Carabinieri. They are following us on motor cycles and going the other way too. There are lots of signs to the Scavi Pompeii and I only need to stop and ask directions one more time. I do however accidently take this right at a Y in the road that leads me into the parking lot of some mega market. Once in, just try to get out. We did eventually leave but it was a quite convoluted route designed to accommodate a couple of hundred people stuck in a traffic jam. Arriving outside of the Scavi, there was a restaurant that only wanted to charge us 5€ to park. It had only cost us 2.5€ to park at Ostia Antica but after what we had just paid in Positano that morning, this seemed pretty cheap. The Carabinieri were arriving, more and more every minute. We had trepidation that the Pope would arrive and they would close down Pompeii. Pretty soon there were two SWAT vans (the Italian version) and Carabinieri cars with machine guns all over the place. Anyway, we went on in, we figured once we were in, no problem, we would just hang out with the Pope inside the Scavi di Pompeii.

The Scavi di Pompeii are huge! This was a major city; the ruins go on for kilometers in all directions. It was very interesting to check it out but they should run bus tours through it. Donna discovered that the ancient city had fast food stands on all the main streets, turns out that fast food was not invented in the States. No point in going into any details except to note that Pompeiius Magnus came from Pompeii (for those of you that saw the Rome series on HBO) and that the city was conquered and brought into the Roman sphere of influence by Sulla who is everyone’s hero that read the Colline McCollough Series that started with the ‘First Man in Rome’ book. The guide book said that you could still see the dents made in the arches at the city gates caused by Sulla’s men who threw rocks at the walls as they stormed the city. Donna, being a newly anointed scholar of the late Roman Republic was thrilled by these observations and in being able to stand where these great men had also stood. Actually, sharing history with the ‘Greats’ and standing where they stood is a pretty powerful experience. I recommend to anyone that they will get so much more out of Italy if they study its history first. I included a photo of the pedestrian bumps that cross all of the streets. These were so that the pedestrians wouldn’t have to step into the open sewers that the streets represented. As time went on, we ended up at the opposite end of the City from the entrance. Now there was a helicopter hovering in the air near the other end of the city. It remained hovering for around an hour, in a way unfortunate because it went a long way toward breaking the harmony of the experience of catharting with Pompeii .

We were bushed; we stumbled out of Pompeii and down to the car. Ate at the restaurant and were soon on our way to Rome. Never did get to see the Pope, turns out he went to the new town of Pompeii and they just had extra Carabinieri hanging around for the fun of it. Boy did we get lost trying to get back to Rome, lucky we didn’t end up in Florence. Every highway in Italy seems to be called A1. Well one part of A1 bypasses Rome completely and goes on for 30 km without any exits. We missed the first exit to the ring road around Rome because it was a great deal less than clear. We finally got off of A1 way north of the ring road around Rome and returned south along a highway that paralleled via Salaria back to the ring road. By then we had analyzed the map and proceeded to go the wrong way on the ring road. We were headed counter clockwise toward Fumicino and would need to go three quarters of the circumference to get to where we wanted to exit. We exited, went right and ended up again going the wrong way. I decided to apply Roman logic to the situation. Whatever seems logical, ignore it and go with the counter intuitive solution to the problem. That worked fantastically and I got us out of this ridiculous clover leaf build under the freeway that had led us on a merry goose chase trying to follow logic since there really were no signs anywhere to tell us which way to go. We got back to Beatrice and Renzo’s house exhausted and greatly relieved. All I could think about was that tomorrow morning I was going to return that car in one piece to the rental place at the airport and I would not be getting lost again on this trip.

Day Three, we drive down the Amalphi Coast

2010-03-13T06:13:00.000-08:00

Day Three:

By the way, Women hear this, in Italy the new ‘in’ color or is it the old ‘in’ color is now ‘in’ again- Royal Purple is it! Other purples and plums will work as well.

Donna had left her sun glasses in Rome when we left. This turned out to be somewhat of an emergency and she was determined to buy a new pair. Problem was, in Positano, you cannot get a pair of sun glasses for less than $150. We even went into a very small pharmacist that also had a rack of sun glasses in the window; I guess that the average Italian tourist wouldn’t be seen dead in a cheap pair of sunglasses. We departed after our continental breakfast, picked up the car and drove down into the village. At the bottom the road we met another two roads. We took the one heading south since that is the way we were heading. The other is the main road into and out of town. They widened is so that it is actually a two way road. However, I noticed that in order to widen the road, one lane was hanging out (cantilevering) in the air completely.

What can I say? The drive down the Amalfi coast was breathtaking. I became even more adept at pulling over to let faster traffic go by. This included buses and trucks. Everyone was in a hurry. I did however draw the line on the way home when these two guys on bicycles tried to pass me on a downhill grade. One can only take so much humiliation so I speeded up and lost them on an uphill grade. The drive was full of wonders. One incredible vista after the next. We wanted to stop in Amalfi but it was a zoo with buses everywhere and no place to park. We just pushed on and stopped in some other small town further down the coast. We walked on the beach, I got a Gelato, and we wandered into the town (uphill of course). I eventually found another Farmacia and went in to look for sun glasses. They had a rack with four sets of very dusty sunglasses on it. Donna liked one of the pairs and we went to buy them. How much we asked, the pharmacist said “yes” and called the lady from the back room who went over to the rack, ignored it and proceeded to rifle through a bunch of drawers full of sun glasses in packaging. She pulled out one pair after the next, how much we asked, “30€, no 20€ for you” she answered. Good price, but Donna wanted that particular pair that she had first selected and this lady would not sell the display model for anything. The lady pulled out one pair after another and Donna kept saying no, she wanted the pair she had originally selected. This was quite baffling to us. Why couldn’t we buy that pair? We weren’t getting anywhere fast so, pretty soon Donna and I are back there with this lady pulling out drawer after drawer of sun glasses in packages, opening them to check them out and putting them back. Again, Donna tried to get the lady to sell the dusty pair that had been in the rack and again the lady refused. This lady had rules and she was basically, inflexible. We did eventually get lucky and actually found a new, packaged pair of glasses identical to the pair that Donna had originally selected. Good thing too or we might still be there sorting out the contents of those drawers, there must have been over a hundred pairs stuffed into the drawers behind that counter. Up the street and around the corner we wandered into a tourist shop. Finally I had found what I was looking for. A tourist shop located in a small town with almost no tourists on a street unlikely to see many tourists because it was pretty much, way off the beaten path. The prices were much more reasonable than in Amalfi and that place that we had stopped along the ‘highway’ where all of those tourist buses had stopped as well. Donna selected the parts to make a tray with four (or was it six) espresso cups sitting around a small sugar bowl. All hand painted ceramic with some cobalt so it goes with all of the other cobalt stuff that we have in the Vista Casa. We also got a very nice signed reproduction of a typical hillside on the Amalfi coast with houses tumbling down toward the sea. I had a nice chat with the owner who seemed to think that I spoke Italian remarkably well for someone from San Diego, California.

One of the things that really amazed me was how these people had carved out this cliff for agriculture. In some places there were 20’ high retaining walls to create 8’ wide planted areas and this type of thing was all over the side of the cliffs. We decided we didn’t want to continue any further down the coast but that we had to visit Ravello which is a mountain town located essentially straight up in the air above the town of Amalfi. Well, what can you say about Ravello? Words just can’t even begin to do this mountain town justice. If you want to know what we experienced, you are just going to have to go there. You very definitely won’t be disappointed. We traipsed around the town for a number of hours, visited a castle type thing with a show on shoes and had lunch in a tratoria. I took hundreds of photos of architectural details. I think I want to start a business building new five hundred year old (mixed with two thousand year old buildings). The roads in and out of Ravello leading up that mountain may have been the narrowest that I have ever seen. On the way out we had to inch our way past a giant tourist bus with only inches to spare on either side of the car. A few minutes later as we slowly maneuvered past an Alfa Romeo in another tight spot, our mirrors kissed as we passed.

Thankfully, we made it safely back to Positano and that evening we chose to have dinner at a restaurant only somewhat down the street from the hotel instead of down by the beach so that the return uphill trip wouldn’t be so challenging. The collateral benefit of that is we sat next to a railing with the most incredible view of the town spread out before us. Donna thought the whole thing was very romantic. We ordered Spaghetti alla Carbonara and Donna Approved, it was very good.

For a lot more photos of this trip and especially Ravello, please visit my construction web site page on Antiquity Replication

Stairs and more stairs to the Hotel

2010-03-12T06:11:00.000-08:00

First the ramp, then turn right

Then up a steep section to a landing with a good view

Another steep section, then a more gentle long stair/ramp

gets steeper along the way and we arrive at the hotel entrance with two stories worth of stairs to the lobby level

Another flight of stairs inside finally gets us to the level of our room

It was a long way up to that room in that hotel!

Day Two: Off to the Amalphi Coast and Positano

2010-03-12T06:01:00.000-08:00

Today we leave for Positano on the Amalphi coast south of Naples, I decide to ignore the directions suggested by Google maps and got hopelessly lost trying to locate the freeway out of Rome. Thirty minutes later, we are on the right road (A1) out of town and do great until we leave the freeway south of Napoli. We need to exit because we have missed our exit somehow and are now rushing toward Salerno which is to the south of where we really want to end up. As we exit I consult with the toll collector and he gives me a long string of directions which escape me beyond the first left turn somewhere up ahead. So, we are lost all over again but basically, we need to go west since we are south of Naples and I know that the Amalfii coast is only slightly south of Naples too. We head past the signs to Pompeii and travel down a thin road through an old town that goes on and on. Eventually I feel the need to ask for directions at a gas station. I’m told that the freeway to Sorrento (near Positano) is only a few hundred meters ahead, just go right and then left. Well we go right and drive down a road that appears to be a main road, go around a corner and it dead ends. We turn around and examine a barrier that appears to be where the road used to go but doesn’t anymore. So I return up the hill the way we came and ask at another gas station. He tells me to take a left at the alley down the road. Sure enough there is a freeway sign pointing into this alley that is only 8’ wide. We go through the alley and come out the other end as it dead ends into a street. No freeway sign. We go left and pretty soon we are on our way to the Adriatic. This is not good, we want to be heading toward New York and instead we are heading toward Istanbul. We turn around again, return to the alley and this time continue the other direction. Success! Down, around a couple more obstacles and soon we are on the freeway which is where we are supposed to be on the road to Sorrento, we are actually back on the Google Maps directions again.

We had great fun once we are following the coast. This is one very thin road, barely as wide a one freeway lane with traffic going two ways above 500’ of vertical cliffs. On the way down, we are on the cliff side and giant tourist buses are going the other way. Naturally, they take the whole road and don’t really care much about the oncoming traffic. Good thing we have a car that is only six feet long and 4’ wide. Anyway, with careful navigation and luck, we arrive at the outskirts of Positano. There aren’t really any outskirts, but you do know you are almost there because this road that has been built out of the face of the cliff is now strung out with lots and lots of parked cars. Men in business suits are walking long distances down the highway toward town from their cars, very curious, we don’t understand why….. Well, according to Google Maps I could get to our Hotel called Copa D’Oro by taking the first right as we approached Positano. Note, this was not the main road and it really wasn’t apparent if I was looking for a paved road or a dirt road. Well, it was one way and that way was down. We wanted to travel slowly so that we could take in the sites and perhaps actually spot the hotel as we snaked downward toward the blue Mediterranean water below. I realized as this road went on and on down the hill that if we missed the hotel the first time, we would have to go to the bottom and then all the way back up to the top and then down again to find our hotel. Italians are always in a hurry and it took no time at all for someone to be riding my tail. As soon as possible, I pulled over and let the traffic pass by. As time went on and for the next few days that we were on the Amalfi Coast I became very adept at locating small niches in the road wide enough for me to pull over in so that someone could pass me. The roads of Positano make Lombard Street in San Francisco look like a freeway. It really isn’t safe to drive faster than 15 miles per hour but the Italians want to drive at 50 if they can and I won’t even mention the Vespas. Vespa drivers are the true daredevils of Italy. They are always going full throttle and don’t hesitate to pass a car or even a bus around a blind hairpin turn. At first I was wondering why everyone was in such a hurry on these thin dangerous roads but eventually I figured it out. It took a long time to travel very few miles between one town and the next along the Amalfi coast and up to Ravello. In fact, it would seem that a lot of the infrastructure in Italy was built by the ancient Romans when a road only needed to be wide enough for an oxen cart and a pedestrian. The roads have been widened slightly since then but aren’t any straighter now. If Italians only traveled at safe speeds, it would take forever to get around, thus the necessity is to drive like a maniac and to take your life into your hands at every turn. Dad, I now understand why you used to drive the way you did. You lived too long in Italy and absorbed their driving habits.

So anyway, down and down we go. It seems that we have come down the slope hundreds of feet as the road winds back and forth across this enormous cliff. The switch backs are incredibly tight and instant U-turns. The Micra handles the road like it was made for it but it wasn’t the first time that I wondered how I ever would have gotten around if I had been driving my truck. When I did internet searches for a place to stay in Positano, there had been perhaps twenty search results. Now that we are there, it appears that there may actually be hundreds of places to stay. When booking a room I was worried about finding a place with a view. Now I saw that it would be nearly impossible to build a house in Positano that doesn’t have a view. The buildings are practically built on top of the roofs of the houses below them. I did actually find a place on the internet that had some rooms with no windows at all so I guess it was possible to not have a view but just not very easy. We went around another corner where the cliffs hung out over our heads. There was a small scale replica village built into the base of the cliff and there in front of us, Donna spotted a sign that said parking for the Copa D’Oro. Wow, we had found our hotel. We pulled in, got out, were greeted by the parking lot attendant and as we opened up the back of the car, a very worried look came over his face. He said that there were a lot of steps leading up to the hotel. Then he emphasized that there really were a lot of steps leading up to the hotel. Then he got on the phone to the hotel and talked to the desk there. He told them that they needed to send someone down to get the bags but they did not have anyone so we were stuck. We took off toward the hotel, the first part was easy. Roll the suitcases behind us down the street to the corner and make a right down a step onto a cobblestone paved path leading away from the road. Ahead a sign indicated that the hotel was to the right. This is when things started to get tough. We should have repacked and condensed what we really needed for our three day jaunt down the coast of Italy, instead and because we had the car, we took everything with us. One largish suitcase for me, one smaller suitcase for Donna, my backpack with the laptop computer and another small roll behind for Donna plus jackets. Well, now I needed to carry all of this stuff up a vertical staircase. I have no doubt that by the time I was finished, and the luggage was in the lobby of the hotel, I had raised all of it up at least six stories worth of staircases twice. For each set of stairs that I climbed, I had to go back down to get the other half of the luggage and climb it again. To say that I was wiped out would put it mildly but I can’t complain too much since I really did need the exercise. I do wonder though how many guests have heart attacks trying to get up to the lobby of that hotel. The lady in the lobby welcomed us and said that we should have called up to the hotel and have them send down someone for the luggage. Yeah right. It was obvious that she was the only one there. She checked us in and we took an elevator to our room one more flight up from the lobby. She told us to leave the luggage and she would have it brought up. Guess what, she brought it herself. After all, she did have an elevator to use.

The hotel advertises a modest pool on the roof. When we checked in, the lady suggested that we would want to check it out. Naturally, Donna was disappointed that we hadn’t brought our bathing suits but never the less wanted to go check out the pool. I was a little skeptical because I had seen a photo on the web site and it only showed a small corner of it. Well, we get up there, and we find a Jacuzzi sitting on the deck. I experiment, push a few buttons and get the jets going but the water is cold. Donna wants to use the Jacuzzi so we go back to the desk to ask them to heat it and they tell us that it is only warm between 9:00 and 10:30 each morning. I think, yeah right 9:00 and 10:30 of alternating Sundays on leap years is more like it. So much for the pool/spa, whatever. The weather was perfect but this is the end of October after all.

The hotel was great, the view was stupendous! I had survived getting to the hotel, we showered and smiled as we sat out on the balcony and took in the view. Wow, Positano really is one of those very special places on the planet. It had been so long that I had forgotten how incredible this village truly was. So after a little rest, we put ourselves together and headed out. In Positano, there really is only one way to go and that way is downhill. The car was parked and the weather was great, and so we set out walking. As far as we had come downhill to our hotel, it seemed that we were still closer to the top than we were to the bottom. No matter, on the way down we did some window shopping, Donna looked at the clothes and eventually bought something at one of the places. I took lots of photos of alleys, the view of the town and the water; architectural details and this incredible cloud that was bit by bit enveloping the top of the cliffs above our heads. Eventually, we found ourselves on the beach at the bottom of the hill town just as it was getting dark. We found a restaurant right on the sand and had a long lazy dinner with a carafe of Vino Rosso. The restaurant had someone playing music and it really was quite idyllic. After dinner with a Gelato in hand we set off toward our hotel. No hurry, stop in the stores, check out an art gallery, after all, it is up hill all of the way, stop and admire the view, check out the wedding party in one of the restaurants along the way, and still, it is up all of the way. It had seemed a long way down, amazingly it was even further on the way back up and then, the stairs to the hotel. Well, they were terrible but after what I had gone through earlier in the day with the luggage, they were a breeze. We left the restaurant slightly inebriated and very full. When we were back in our room, we were sober and I have no doubt that we had burned off every calorie that we had taken in while getting back to the hotel but it was fun!

We return to Rome the following year... October, 2008 Day One

2010-03-09T06:22:00.000-08:00

Preface, Before I left, I talked to Mahlon, he said that if I rented a car without a GPS, I would be screwed; see below….driving in Italy showed me how seriously challenging something can actually be…

Day One:

We arrive at the airport; there is no custom check whatsoever. So, we ask where the rental cars are, apparently, they are upstairs. Upstairs we are told that they are on the top floor, from there we are directed across the street to a parking garage. Inside the garage is a moving sidewalk, “follow the signs toward the Hilton” we are told, we travel from one moving sidewalk to the next and we arrive at a train station. Very cool, the train goes to the airport but the car rental is not here. I ask, they tell me to follow the moving sidewalks back the way I came. I want to argue, but my Italian escapes me so we return on the path we came. Turns out, the car rental was in one of those intersections behind the central post hidden from view as we came down the other way. Renting the car was easy, we got a Nissan Micra, a very small car but with four doors and larger then a ‘Smart’.

OK, so now we start the controlled destruction derby of driving in Italy. Remember, I never had driven here before. I obtained my driver’s license in the U.S. after graduating from high school. Well, it was a little harrowing and I soon learned the rule. Stop signs are just a suggestion, I’m not sure that I ever saw a car stop at one. It isn’t even like the ‘California stop’ where we role through the stop sign and intersections slowly. In this country they just don’t actually slow down at all as they go through the stop sign. OK, I can do that too. And if you put on your blinker to make a turn or change lanes, that is the same as challenging every vehicle within sight for that space. If a car doesn’t accelerate to close off the direction or lane you had intended to turn into, for sure at least one Vespa will. The goal is to get where you want to go without letting anyone crash into you.

What they didn’t know was that I have driven in Tijuana in my F-350 4x4 truck on many occasions. I realize that the truck is a little larger than a ‘Micra’ but the concept is the same, never let them see the fear that is in your eyes. .. We decided to go to Ostia Antica first since it was right next to the airport. The place was very cool; I got lots of photos of mosaic floors and other things. We had lunch inside the ruins at the taverna dei Slavi. Is that the word for slaves? Turns out it was Scavi (excavations). Ostia was very interesting but perhaps only half excavated, it may take them another hundred years to get it finished, we shall see.

Anyway, I had printed out directions from Google for getting to the apartment on Via Siria. The directions were probably good but the problem is that in Italy, labeling roads is a fine art specifically designed to miss-guide you and assure that you never find the location that you set out to find. We got hopelessly lost looking for Via Christoforo Columbo which must be the largest road in Rome. Really, it wouldn’t have been complicated if I had known that C.C. runs from E.U.R. to the center of Rome, after all, I could see that building in E.U.R. with all of the arches. If I had headed toward that, I would have been in like Flint. As it was, we were lucky that we didn’t end up on A1 on our way to Florence. We did eventually in a very convoluted manner end up on C.C. and followed it toward downtown until it ended in the piazza in front of the Termi di Caracalla. I hesitated for a second and ended up taking a sharp right onto the adjacent street, it was spectacular, walls on either side and cobble underneath. Tourists were walking along this seemingly secluded road which was puzzling until I figured out that we were on the Via Appia Antica. Well, soon enough we were beyond the city and on our way to Brindisi and the road was one way only. We stopped in front of the catacombs of San Sebastiano to figure out how to get home. Go left, left again and floor it, pretty soon we were back at the walls of the City. We made a right, followed the walls and began navigating by dead reckoning. It just felt right; this got me to within two blocks of Via Siria which isn’t bad! For those of you who know Rome but are confused as to where we stayed, here is the simple way, go past San Giovanni in Laterano, through the Porta di San Giovanni in Laterano and follow up Via Magna Grecia, there is a name change and it becomes Britannia and then Via della Concordia as it enters Piazza Zama. Via Siria is just beyond. We finally arrive at Via Siria 23. Renzo had been worried and waiting for us. He soon took off to fix a parking ticket that had been paid but they wanted money again. Italian bureaucracy at work.

I proceeded to plug in my surge suppressor for the laptop designed to only work on 110v I think I killed it. I also blew out the electricity for the whole apartment. Everything works on electricity or has an electric spark igniter. Cold showers, quite invigorating! Search everywhere, can’t find the electrical panel. We go out searching for a phone to Call Beatrice, by the time we return, Renzo is back, he resets the breakers and tells me that it is a good thing I didn’t blow the main which is down by the entry gate to the complex. Had I done that, it would have required the Utility Company to re-activate and a number of days for them to show up.

The Cars of Rome

2010-02-28T06:36:00.000-08:00

I just couldn’t believe how small the cars were in Rome. The more we walked the more the wonder, as a result, I initiated a study of the cars. Here are the results. I think that for anyone who grew up in Rome, the old Cinque Cento (Fiat 500cc engine) has a special place in your heart.

The Mercedes 'Smart' & a Nissan

Large Mercedes

Lancia

This is why cars are small in Italy

Friday February 16th

2010-02-28T06:10:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a whirlwind of a vacation. Today Donna has to work, remember that she is a Feldenkrais practitioner and her work was our excuse for coming to Rome in the first place. Turns out there really was a job attached to the offer. By Wednesday, she was hoping it would go away; all she wanted was to continue the touring. So off she went and slowly I gathered myself and rolled out determined to find Trastevere again.

I exited the palazzo vaguely thinking about a coffee and turned to the left, but as I made my way in that direction the bus pulled up to its stop. Thinking that I would just catch the next one I continued down the street but soon I was standing next to the bus, which was frozen by the traffic and lifted my hand to the driver who opened the bus door to allow me in. So off I went toward town. Somehow, every day seems to either begin or end with the Teatro Marcello. For those of you who don’t know, during high school I lived in a top floor apartment right across from the central synagogue in the Jewish Ghetto. The Rabbi lived two floors below us. To get to the bus stop to go to school, we had to walk through the Teatro Marcello every day. This is why that particular place in Rome is so important to me.

As the bus approached it I remembered the photos that we had taken before and remembered that the lighting wasn’t perfect when I captured the Teatro and the three columns in a single moment. So off I got, crossed the street and shot some photos of the theatre in the morning. Down the alleyway and soon I was passing the Fontana delle Tartarughe (the Turtle Fountain) again. I paused to contemplate it a little better and to see the expressions and the poses of the four boys on the fountain. Across Via Arenula and back to the Campo de' Fiori. I was finally in the neighborhood in the morning and I really wanted to see the Campo with all of the booths. Cool, this time it is there, I paused as I entered the piazza, Mahlon had mentioned visiting the wine bar because the guy with the big nose was still there. Well, I saw a place that said bar and had a lot of wine but the guy’s nose wasn’t so big. There was a Salsamenteria and I stuck my nose in but somehow even in Italy they don’t smell as good as the one on Columbus Street in San Francisco. The Forno next to the Carbonara was open! Actually there were two on either side of the little alley that goes off to the left of La Carbonara. I went straight across the length of the Campo to the one on the left and saw it was for pastry, back out to the one on the right and purchased my first piece of white pizza that didn’t taste like it was made last week. They still sold it by weight and it cost .95 Euro. Now I was happy and I wandered around the square eating the pizza and checking out what everyone was selling. These Italians are proud of the vegetables they are growing. Every box was labeled with what it was, that it was grown in Italy and how much it cost per Kilo. The artichokes were sold individually for one Euro or less; these were labeled as being ‘Romanas’ but one did have smaller artichokes for .50 Euros that came from somewhere else. The profusion of vegetables was amazing, they actually looked good enough to eat and thoughts of having a dinner with just veggies and bread went through my head, but not tonight. Tonight we are going to some special restaurant near the Vatican where Beatrice knows the owners. The vegetables seem very reasonably priced but the cheese on the other hand, wow. I saw some cheese that was labeled at 78 Euro a kilo and it seemed that all of it was at least 23 Euros a kilo. Same place had a little sausage labeled at 23 Euros each.

I wandered down Via dei Cappellari to take some pictures of the street and the arch that straddles it. I wanted to cross Ponte Sisto to get over to Trastevere so I was just wandering vaguely taking in the sites. Glancing at a window on Via Moserato I found myself in front of Hollywood Video. No not the American chain transplanted to Italy just as Blockbuster is but a little store that Renzo had told me would have L’Archidiavolo if it actually existed anywhere. He said it was near the Campo but I never would have found it if I had been looking for it. Obviously, after all of these years, and endless searching for it, I was meant to own a copy of this film. Turns out that Vittorio Gassman co-stars with Mickey Rooney and they had a copy. In my memory, this is a must see film. The devil is sent to earth to wreak havoc in Renaissance Italy. The reality was another thing. It did give me some chuckles but it was not as funny as I remembered.

Dinner at Emmanuele:

Mahlon called and so the narrative ends here.

There is a whole lot more to say... The following year we returned to Rome and went down to Positano and the Amalphi Coast so stay tuned for more.

Thursday February 15th:

2010-02-27T06:39:00.001-08:00

Today was the big one, today we are being taken to the Vatican Museum by our hostess Beatrice. She has arranged with a friend of hers who is an official guide at the Vatican for us to receive a private tour. She is the tour guide of choice for CEOs and ambassadors from all over the world so we feel very privileged that she has chosen to give us her time.

It is pouring rain as we jamb ourselves into Beatrice’s extremely compact car, small even by Roman standards but it fits great on the sidewalks when there are no spots on the street. Traffic is a complete mess and Beatrice calls her friend to explain that we are on our way but slowed by the congestion. She is already there at the Vatican waiting for us. We arrive at the walls of the Vatican, the line stretches off behind us and we climb out to get in line while Beatrice finds a parking space nearby. We aren’t even on the street that has the entrance to the museum but I suspect that the street can’t be too far off. The line isn’t moving but the tail has a life of its own and it grows another fifty feet longer in a few minutes. After that I didn’t look back because the crush of the crowd made the rear of the line invisible. Turns out that the colorful umbrella that the Indian guy sold us on that first day wasn’t actually designed to be waterproof. As I glanced around I saw water beading up and shedding off other umbrellas around us but on ours, not beading up, I was experiencing a drip, drip on my forehead but in spite of that, it was still dryer under the umbrella than outside of it. I should have raised my hood but since I hadn’t, it filled with water to the point that it sloshed out down my back when I started walking.

The line did eventually start moving and Beatrice’s friend came out in the rain and joined us for a while. She was very nice and also very short. I’m not sure, I’ll have to ask Donna but she must have been under five feet tall, wore glasses and was very much alive in her old age. She was sparkly and fun and she identified us as just like teenagers who were newly in love. Donna and I quietly agreed that she reminded us of Yoda from the Star Wars movies. She left us and bought the tickets, the line moved forward and bit by bit we found ourselves flowing with the crowd through an opening in the vast walls of the Vatican. Another security checkpoint, this one more serious but my camera bypassed inspection again. I talked to our hosts later about security in Rome and they said it was a pain in the butt and should be dispensed with entirely. I guess they are more philosophical about the occasional bombing now and again.

Beatrice’s friend met us and led us in. She took us to a board in the lobby explaining that they don’t let you talk in the Sistine Chapel and so the museum has provided this instrument that scrolls through all of the paintings in the chapel as a teaching aid for the tour guides. This lady really knew her stuff! I wasn’t watching my watch but I have no doubt that we spent over an hour learning about the chapel from that teaching aid. There were two more of these in the museum but as she continued to talk, from time to time a group with a guide would come up waiting to assume the machine. She would always tell them that she had a ton more to say, or she had hardly even gotten going. She sent them off to find another machine because there was no way she was going to give this one up. Tours came and went at the other machines but still she continued to explain. I have no doubt that upon our return to the states; Donna and I will qualify as two of the leading experts on the Sistine chapel. She described herself as a layperson, but had attended conferences on that ceiling. She explained about the politics of the time, gave us a complete history of the development of Michelangelo and his style. Explained how he was almost blind after completing the ceiling. Then she went on to the wall that he did and how upset everyone was by all of the nudity, etc. Well, no point rehashing it all but she had a bunch to say. Eventually she finished and took us into the museum. She was great fun and a great guide. She was so small that she could dart between the crowd and we had to rush to catch up on many occasions. She showed us the stuff that she loved and explained about the things she cared about. Mostly antiquity; stuff which was also right up my alley. We took lots of pictures. She showed us a bathtub carved out of a single chunk of black marble, pretty cool. Then she left us to our own and took off. The good stuff was done with and all that was left was room after room of Raphael stuff and much, much more. Through 50 rooms of modern religious art and finally into the Sistine chapel. It was a grueling trek, but it really was worth it. And I know that I was seeing it for the first time all over again because of the lecture and education that we had received by that sweet old lady.

Exiting the Sistine Chapel we were swept toward the exit and we still hadn’t seen the Laocoon. This would not do. I asked where it was and was told that it is right near the entrance, the old lady had passed it right up. We were forced out the exit and the museum was closed for the day but the special exhibit of the Laocoon was free and would be opening in a few minutes. Seems like everywhere we go, things close up right behind us. The Laocoon was beyond description, I have always appreciated that statue, there is just so must expression on that face. They also had a very detailed model of the museum and I wanted to lift the roof to see if they had done the inside too.

Exiting the Vatican, the rain had stopped. We wandered out and down toward Octaviano and the Metro. Donna was worn out and needed recharging and we stopped someplace for a Gelato. This time I got Nociola and Banana (same as last time) but it wasn’t memorable. What was fantastic was the ‘fondente’ or dark chocolate ice-cream that Donna had. That gelato qualifies as a gastronomical wonder and I don’t think that I could find the place again. Donna wanted to eat and we went into one of the millions of pizza by the slice places. Well, did they see us coming. We were too close to the Vatican. Two slices of pizza and a bottle of water cost us 15 Euro if you can believe that. OK, the slices were large but I just had pizza bianca which should have been 2 Euro so the really did rob us blind.

We took the Metro to Piazza Flaminio (right behind Piazza del Popolo). Everything converges there. Trams, buses subway and train. Seems like you could get to anywhere from there. Stopped at a bar for two Cappuccinos but after the Vatican, recharging those batteries was problematic. Both of us had walked what seemed like a hundred miles. Even though I only brought comfortable shoes and switched them off each day, my feet were sore. I wanted to see the Borghese Gardens but they were up hill from where we were. There was a bus stop so we waited and got on a bus, the park was nice but we didn’t get off until we hit the top of Via Veneto. I told Donna that she had to see it, but the enthusiasm just wasn’t there. I told her the American Embassy was there and the first Mc Donalds had opened there when I was a kid. It was all down hill which is really what sold it and as we walked, we both felt a little better. At the bottom was Piazza Barberini. I wanted pictures of the fountain. Funny thing about Donna, she actually perks up when in the presence of a fountain. Or else she is connected to me and when I go up, so does she. This is probably the case; we are extremely simpatico with each other.

Well that was it, I couldn’t stand the thought of having to walk a foot further so we went down the stairs and caught the metro home.

Some of the Obelisks I saw inRome

2010-02-26T09:56:00.000-08:00

A number of years ago at Alta Vista Gardens Sprint came to us and asked to build a Cell Tower. Our idea for them was to do it in an Obelisk. It took almost two years to negotiate an agreement to get it built but it came out pretty well. As a result of this project, my interest in Obelisks was peaked and I proceeded to photograph obelisks wherever I went.

Top of the Spanish Steps & Piazza del Popoplo

The Elephant Obelisk

Saint Peter's Square

Piazza Navona

Wednesday February 14th (Valentine’s Day): Part II

2010-02-26T09:10:00.000-08:00

Well, that was an overwhelming experience not soon to be forgotten. We wandered down a block on that monster street Via della Conciliazione (built by Mussolini before WWII in his attempt to resurrect the Roman Empire) but that isn’t what I wanted to experience so we made a left and walked over to the base of the wall/ramp that joins the Vatican to the Castel San Angelo. Now we were back in old Rome again, it was a quiet street with restaurants that had tables spread all over the street. Donna needed to be recharged (food). After yesterday’s fiasco of a pizza sandwich at the metro station a better meal was in order. Donna wanted a sit down and, after all, it was Valentine’s Day. I passed up the first one because it was too close to the Vatican, then the next few were empty. I explained that since it was a crapshoot, I was looking for a restaurant with someone who might be a local. Well, the next one had a group of six priests all gathered around a table and another table with obvious Italians eating there. Seemed like a good choice and it wasn’t bad. We actually had a great lunch even if I only give the food a B+. The atmosphere was perfect and so was the company. After a while a British family sat down at the next table and for them it was a choice between spaghetti alla Carbonara, and spaghetti alla Bolongese. Well one child and one adult chose each. The youngest boy had an absolutely delightful accent, right out of a Harry Potter movie and he made me smile every time he talked.

After lunch we set off again for the Castel San Angelo and I explained again about the ramp (or rampart) and connection between the Vatican and the castle. The Pope would take off down that rampart and whole up in the castle every time he was under siege. For a while, they changed Popes by killing the previous one and anyone who conquered Rome got to choose the new Pope. We entered the castle, looked up and decided that we really didn’t need to do all of that climbing to see some windy rooms and some armor and other stuff, so we turned around and started of across the bridge. There is no traffic allowed in front of the castle and like many other bridges, there is no motor traffic allowed on the Ponte San Angelo. This is where we discovered what the truly black immigrants do for a living in Rome. They sell Gucci and other extremely expensive purses on bridges with two exits that no police vehicle can drive onto. You can find them on any of the bridges that are closed to vehicles but in few other places. There were other vendors and perhaps an Indian with flowers but I’m not sure now. I turned around to get a photo across the bridge and then we wandered into the small streets of Rome paralleling the river but not quite in view of it. We were hunting out architectural features. Always on the lookout for another fountain, but other things as well. We found ourselves on Via Giulia and I reminded Donna that all first daughters in the Caesar family were named Giulia (not sure that the street was named for one of them). We photographed entries to stores that had pieces of antiquity built into the face of the building. It seems there are tons of examples of those. Took shots of buildings with interesting mixtures of colors and textures. We came across a store that had a whole bunch of plaster feet in the window. There were large men feet down to delicate women’s feet in sandals. We got off a number of shots to send to Leonardo (yes Leonardo, she knows you like feet). There were overwhelming facades of churches on streets that are hardly more than 20’ wide, they must have really been hard up for real estate back then to put such monster churches on such small streets where no one will ever be able to get far enough back to get a feel for the majesty of the entrance to the church. Arched openings that join one street through a building to another street on the other side. And oh yes, for Chris Coseo my client, we photographed a bunch of flying buttresses. He had been giving me a hard time on the flying buttresses that were put in the project so I wanted to show him how common they are. There is a gorgeous arching bridge that connects the Palazzo Farnese across the Via Giulia to another palazzo that adjoins the river with roots and vines hanging down. I noticed that it has the Fleur-de-lis (how do you spell that Mahlon?) symbols on the bridge. I guess that the palazzo Farnese has been the French embassy for a very long time. Just beyond that I came across the fountain I had been searching for. The marble face mounted on a stonewall with the water shedding out of the mouth into a shell and then down into a bath tub. This is located at Via Giulia and the other corner of the palazzo and has always been one of my favorite small fountains. See how many times I mention the Via Giulia, this is a wonderful street to wander down. Lots of interesting stores mixed in with other things. At another time I found a store that sold obscure DVDs.

We crossed the river into Trastevere on Ponte Garibaldi so that I could bring Donna back across the island and show her what is left of Ponte Vechio (very little). Seems to me there was another span that is gone now. It is down to one last piece. Through the Teatro Marcello this time instead of around it. It is undergoing serious reconstruction and there is a team of archeologists in white hazmat suits working on digging stuff up. They have added a whole new wing to the teatro and extended it at least 30’ further than it was before. It is done in a greenish Tufa stone and includes the fine details that the original must have featured. Looking at the photos I see that the apartments on top have been extended over the new wing as well, Guess they are recapturing part of the cost of reconstruction by renting it out. As I mentioned, they are resurrecting ancient Rome. From there we went on to see the round temple of Vesta. With all of the prints that I have and with the one I reproduced at Clyde’s it was time to feel the real thing once again. I couldn’t get very close; like almost everything else in Rome that is two or three thousand years old, there is a fence around it now. Sort of sad. It’s great that they are protecting as much as they can but I can remember the days when I could climb on it and that was very cool too. Note: Turns out that I was wrong, and have been wrong all of my life. Who would have thought? I just zoomed in to what I always knew to be the Temple of Vesta. It is not! It is the Temple of Hercules Victor. How embarrassing is that? Great fountain in that piazza, two mermen supporting a large shell or something and the church in the background, it was fantastic.

Now across the street to the Bocca della Verita. What a crowd, obviously poor timing on our part. The line went all the way across the front of the church and it moved very slowly. There was a side benefit to the wait. Our curiosity was peeked by the hand written sign that said the church had relics of the body of Saint Valentine. Seemed appropriate in view of the date. The line moved slowly but we were entertained by the guy outside that was selling some ancient Roman flute-like instrument that looked a lot like an ancient oil lamp. He could play a tune on it but nobody else could and they were selling like hotcakes to a group of students. As we neared the front of the line an Italian family reached the Bocca. The husband stuck his hand in and screamed bloody murder or something because at that second I was watching his wife and she almost had a heart attack. He really scared the shit out of her, very entertaining. So we arrived at the front of the line. I got a picture of the Bocca by itself so that I have a good photo for when I make one for my own yard and we now have photos of each of us with our hands in the mouth, very touristy but fun.

We then proceeded into the church which is much like so many other ones in Rome except that they had this side altar and above it was a glass and gold box with a scull and some bones in it. All that is left of Saint Valentine. Extremely morbid, but a real crowd pleaser I’m sure and it gets the crowds into the church. As we walked across the street and looked back we saw that they were closing the church and locking out the crowds. We had made it just in time to see the Bocca. I could not have left Rome without seeing that. Well, from there back to the bus stop just down the hill from the teatro Marcello and back home to Beatrice and Renzo.

Wednesday February 14th (Valentine’s Day): Part I

2010-02-26T06:14:00.000-08:00

It was time to go after the big guns now, today we chose to see St. Peter’s Cathedral. This time we were not planning on using the trusty 628 bus, instead we needed to walk some blocks and catch the ‘A’ metro line. This one line goes just about everywhere that is anywhere in Rome. It hits up Cinecitta (the center of Italy’s movie industry; the Appia Antica park; Piazza Rei di Roma; San Giovani; Termini (the central train station); Piazza della Republica; Piazza Barberini; Piazza di Spagna; Piazza Flaminio/Popolo; and then runs up Viale Giulio Cesare and stops at Via Ottaviano for Vatican access and then on to other places unknown. On our return we would have a few choices for the closest stop to our apartment but a lady stopped on the street when she saw us take out our map and insisted that we didn’t want to go to the Ponte Lungo stop and steered us to San Giovanni or Rei di Roma instead. She was friendly and probably also wanted to practice her English. So, on our way out we made it the few stops to Termini and a huge crowd joined us on the metro and the doors closed. A minute passed and the doors opened, then they closed again after more people got on. A minute later they opened and more got on and they closed again. The doors opened, more got on, they closed again, opened more got on and now we are starting to talk sardine can type situation. Then an announcement. The train is broken and we all need to get off. Well everyone piled out and the station was totally jammed. I was holding on to Donna because I was on the wrong side of that yellow line that you need to stay behind with no hope of moving over onto the correct side. We both had visions of those movies where someone gets thrown onto the track just as the train rolls in. Well, the good news is that a train rolled in and we lived. We got on the train and made it to Ottaviano with no further ado. Exiting the station we oriented ourselves and began the pilgrimage toward to the center of the Catholic world. It seemed that everyone was going our way and they really were. All races and all the tourists (there were actually some Italians too) congregating on the piazza di San Pietro.

Well there were Saldi (sales) everywhere here too and the prices seemed very reasonable so I stopped Donna as we gazed at a window with a cute outfit and dragged her in to the shop. We selected outfits, she tried them on and we found a cute dress and a top and that put her in an even better mood. I got my wish and we entered the piazza from the side and through the colonnade (the only way). This way the impact of the enormity of the space has its best effect. What do you know, another fountain and another obelisk, what a score! Plenty of other things to photograph as well, I remembered that there were these marked spots in the piazza but couldn’t remember what they were for so I kept glancing around until I spotted what I was looking for. From a specific spot on each side of the fountain/obelisk you can stand in one marked spot and all of the columns line up perfectly. I have photos to prove it if you don’t believe me. We speculated where the pope lives and marveled on the whole thing.

Time to get in. Seemed like everyone who was headed in was off to the right of the piazza, they had a mouse maze going there to gather the crowds and constrict them into a human traffic jamb well away from the doors. Turns out that the reason for this is that there was a security checkpoint with metal detectors and stuff. The Vatican is more serious about this stuff than the Coliseum was. We had to pass our jackets and all packages through the x-ray machine. Cameras were placed on a shelf that bypassed all inspections so if you are reading this and looking for a way to defeat their security, just pack everything in a camera. I set off the beeper when I walked through the scanner. Looking down I saw that I was wearing a belt with an enormous hunk of metal, also I had keys in my pocket along with a bunch of change. As I began to reach for my belt the security officer waved my hand off and came at me with his hand held detector. He ran it down one side and then down the other. It beeped over almost every part of my body but it didn’t seem to concern him in the least. I guess that an AK-47 beeps louder and they aren’t worried about anything smaller than that. We retrieved our jackets and cameras and we were off. Up the steps, through the portico and past the doors into the bowels of the beast. The place was packed! Apparently somebody had told the pope that we were coming and he decided to give us a proper welcome. Unfortunately we had dillydallied at the clothing shop and then in the piazza. By the time we got there, there wasn’t a seat left in the house, and this place seats tens of thousands. We just ignored all of this stuff and made our way to the right and to the glass enclosed cloister that houses the ‘Pieta’. Wow, that is some piece of marble; it just sort of puts everything in perspective when you see what Michelangelo was able to squeeze out of an ordinary piece of marble. Being close to the Pieta’ definitely qualifies as one of those truly spiritual moments in one’s life and we were both awed and humbled by the majesty of the sculpture. We took pictures and stayed as long as we dared without pissing off the multitudes that were pressing in from behind us to spend their moment with greatness. Eventually, we moved on up the right side of the cathedral as the pope continued to talk and they played some great organ music too.

Another new thing in the church. All of the churches are now wired for sound. Saint Peters has a great sound system with batteries of compact speakers covered with camouflage to make them fade into the background of hundred foot high marble columns and pillars. Anyway, the talking ended and the organ music got really powerful, it is always overwhelming to me to hear good organ music and that is definitely my favorite reason to go to a church. Half way up the right side we found the tomb of some dead pope who was being guarded by these two incredible lions. The one on the left of the crypt was especially mesmerizing, as his eyes appeared to be looking right at you. The one on the right looked like the lion was still finishing dinner. Donna knows about Dad’s nickname for me so she insisted on multiple poses with the lions for Dad. I must admit that I look pretty puny standing between these two lions. About then the service was over and all of the guys on the central stage disappeared and everyone started making for the door, we wrapped around the right arm of the cross and approached the gilded altar at the head of the cathedral. Stopping to get photos of all of that gold and brilliance and the stained glass window in the center we noticed that there were a few old guys in trench coats shooing everyone away from the area in front of the altar. I supposed that we were just not allowed to be that close to God, so every time one would turn around I moved in for another photo. They were gentle but firm they wanted this area clear. So we moved on across the front pews to the left side of the cross. It seemed like every where we went there were these guys in trench coats moving everyone out of the church so we decided to move on again. There was another very cool dead pope with this flowing canopy of marble fabric that was being held up by a skeleton. Donna liked this especially and got off some shots of that too. Not much else to tell but the place was really emptying out and we were very close to the last to be in the Cathedral. This was very cool, to almost have the place by ourselves. The coat Nazis had shooed everyone away from the Pieta’ and we took advantage to cross the exit and go over to spend a last minute or two just the two of us and that wonderful statue. They were gentle but firm and got us out of there and closed down the church. Outside I discovered that there are horse stairs leading up to the center of the portico of the church. I had searched all over the internet for examples of the horse steps that are so common in castles. You know, four-foot long ramps with four-inch high risers with rounded edges that allow a horse to gallop up to wherever he needs to get. Well, these were set up so that the messengers could gallop right up to the front door of the cathedral when the Fed Ex guy needed to get an urgent package to the pope. Donna took a bunch of photos of them for me with her camera since I intend to build some of them one day though I doubt they will be made of marble. Oh yes, we have a photo of us standing together with the piazza and the cathedral behind us. Seems to me that I have a pretty dumb smile on my face but Donna likes the photo, oh well.

All through this trip I was on two separate quests. The first was to find the ultimate Nocciola Gelato (hazelnut) . On this quest I ate at least two gelatos a day the whole trip. Good thing I walked so much because there are some real calories in those. The second quest was to find the ultimate slice of pizza at one of those places that sells pizza by weight. Donna soon got sick of the pizza places and insisted on ordering something else like meat and vegetables at the ones that offered more selections but I never tired of eating pizza. This was mostly lunch fare but when Donna was elsewhere, I would eat at these places twice a day. In the end, I decided that the best pizza (by the slice) was to be had right near Beatrice's apartment where I caught the bus to go into Rome. This was also very convenient because I could get food while I waited for the bus.

Tuesday February 13th

2010-02-25T04:15:00.000-08:00

Intermission: Can't finish now, another day has passed and we walked even more!!!!!!

It all seems like a blur to me now…one day fading into the next… once one starts walking... who can remember where one’s feet have been.

Tuesday February 13th: Let’s see if I can recreate some of what has transpired. Day two, much like day one began with a trip to the bar to pick up another two bus tickets, but this time I bought six. Across the street to the bus stop near a small open market. I don’t know what the lady was selling in the front but the back of the stall was piled high with magnums of white wine shoved in all haphazard, a strangle thing to see in a sidewalk stall. And off we went.

As we approached the Terme di Carracala and the Circus Maximus I decided that what the hell, lets go see the Arch of Constantine and the Coliseum. So off the bus and strolling down the road. What a crowd! The line to get into the Coliseum looked like the lines at Disneyland. We immediately wondered if it was worth the trouble of that line to the thing. We decided to check it out in more detail. Through the security check point, metal detectors and such, almost like being at the airport except that everyone that went through was beeping and nobody was getting checked. I wondered to Donna if they only pulled aside the ones that don’t beep. Turns out the line of thousands was to buy a ticket to get in. Well, there was another ticket box with no line in it at all. They were renting out a little box that would tell us about the 100 most interesting details in the coliseum. We rented the boxes for 4.5 euros each and paid 20 euro each for a Rome Pass which was required to get the box rental. A Rome Pass is a pretty cool thing if you are a masochist and want to see the City in three days. It gets you in free to the first two pay per view museums or points of antiquity (the Vatican is not included because that is in another country as you know). The rest are half price for three whole days. It also gets you three days of use on the public transport system of Rome, which I must say is very good.

Well, into the Coliseum, actually a pretty big place. The present Romans have been going crazy with bricks and are rebuilding all of their crumbling antiques, give them another century or two and there won’t be a ruin left, they’ll all be as good as new. So, the Coliseum has actually grown since I was last there and since I am a builder, I notice things like areas of new construction. Some parts are just repaired, but they are actually adding back what hasn’t been there for centuries! Having noticed that once, I saw it again in many places, Imperial Rome is in the process of resurrecting itself.

We walked around and took some photos. Upstairs there was an exhibition of Greek antiquity, pretty cool stuff, lots of pots like the ones on my shelves at home except substantially larger. Turns out the talking box was a pain to use and far more informative than we wanted it to be. We turned the things in and it was time to recharge Donna’s batteries. Funny thing about Rome and coffee, back home I treat espresso with care, and in fact avoid caffeine entirely after dawn. In Italy instead, this legal form of speed is part of existence. You can drink it all day but when your head hits the pillow for a siesta or the night, no problem sleeping at all, it just stops working automatically when you get horizontal. Don’t understand how this happens here but I do accept it. We went across the street to the 'Met-ro' (Metro Romano) entrance and bought two cappuccinos there and some pizza sandwich, which was really quite bad. As we headed off toward the 'Wedding Cake' (as we used to call it when we lived in Rome) afterwards and found two good looking restaurants just around the corner we agreed that we should not be in a hurry to recharge because not everything is edible in Rome.

Down the via dei Fori Imperiali toward the 'Wedding Cake'. Across the road were the Four Maps of the rise of the Roman empire from a city state, They are missing the later maps that show how it contracted back down again after it fractured into two and was visited by one group after the other of central Asian maniacs. I explained the rise of the Roman Empire to Donna, helped put it all into perspective for her as we discussed the Diaspora of the Jews when the Romans initiated one more final solution in (was it?) 43A.D. Donna is a great person to go to Rome with. She is full of energy (so long as we charge her batteries with more coffee from time to time) and she is interested in all of it and just loves to hear me tell her about what we are seeing. She is about one hundred pages into the “First Man of Rome” and so she is starting to learn about the movers and shakers of ancient Rome as well as the culture. Everywhere we go, there are streets named after the people and the families that are coming to life on those pages, it is sort of like a Rome total absorption project.

We wandered along the edges of the imperial forum trying to figure out what was what and stopped to look at Trajan’s Column. I explained that the pictographs showed stories of parts of his life and explained that if she ran around and around the column she might figure out what that story was.

The primary goal of today was the Fontana di Trevi. Somehow I had missed it yesterday in the initial sweep of points of interest and importance in my old Rome. I was going by dead reckoning as I had done all of the previous day. About the time I decided that we must be there and didn’t want to bypass it by mistake, we were almost at the corner of Via delle Muratti and Via delle Virgini. Good guess, it was just around the corner and one block over. If I had just gone to the corner first it would have been within sight. Saldi! Saldi (Sales!) everywhere! This store on Via delle Murati was advertising scarves and ties starting at 2 Euro. Donna stopped and shopped and while waiting out front I met an African-American couple from back home. The husband went in to shop and I talked to the wife. She wanted to know where I had been and I started showing her on the map. Was she amazed! I had just gotten in the day before and I seemed to have hit every tourist spot for miles around. I showed her how to find the Pantheon and explained why she wanted to go there and that from there it was just a few blocks further to piazza Navona and then to the Campo etc., etc. Donna finished her shopping, she got two scarves and one only cost 2 Euro.

The Trevi was jammed with the sounds of visitors from all over the world. The sun was shining and the fountain was more than glorious. We discussed the fountain which I explained was an early example of artificial rock construction. I explained how the Romans had detoured rivers into their aqueducts and fed them out through the fountains. The water doesn’t re-circulate, it just moves on to the next fountain further downhill. We marveled at the power in the horses and watched this guy who was drawing that horse with a ballpoint pen with no possibility of erasing a mistake. What a drawing, I wanted it but that was out. We did take photos over his shoulder as he worked. There we discovered the other means of employment for Indians in Rome. They work the crowd in places like Trevi. Come up to the accompanied females and offer them a gift of two or three roses, then ask the man for money. There were four or five working the Trevi and we saw this again and again at other romantic spots such as the Piazza di Spagna. We didn’t get roses, but we did get Gelato. I got Nocciola (Hazelnut is my favorite) and Banana, Donna got, well I can’t remember what Donna got but the Nocciola was OK and the Banana was out of this world. Someone had just put a bunch of bananas in a blender and frozen them but they were white and creamy too. As we ate the gelato next to the fountain I explained that everyone who visited needed to toss a coin over their shoulder into the fountain while wishing they would soon return to Rome. I think that this was my problem when I left. I had been to Trevi so many times but was a local so I didn’t make offerings to the fountain before I left and see what it cost me-35 years! Be scared; don’t ever fail to make an offering to the Trevi gods when you visit Rome.

Watching the offerings was quite entertaining, it happens that there are all sorts of ways to do this and every one of them requires that a picture be taken. We are firmly into the digital age and every photo taken must be reviewed and another taken if the first isn’t good enough. Well they dropped them in, most did the traditional thing and tossed them over one shoulder or other while smiling at the camera. Many did as we did and captured the wish together in their minds and made the toss at the same time. A boy of seven tossed that coin like a baseball while his father got it on film. The people at the other side of the fountain were lucky they didn’t get hit. Naturally, it was just so romantic that it got me kissed a bunch and that was fun too.

Eventually, we reluctantly wandered out of that magical square and onward toward another icon of Rome the Spanish Steps. We wandered down the Via del Corso; the road was packed with cars. I guess that this is the one street that everyone is allowed to drive on. The sidewalks were tight and jammed with people. Locals, but tons and tons of tourists. I don’t know whose idea it was but everyone decided that February is the perfect time to visit Rome. Rome is absolutely jammed with tourists. I figured that this would be low season but if this is what low season looks like I can’t imagine what it must be like when people really decide to visit. The sidewalks were too crowded to negotiate and the streets were too full of maniacs in cars trying to get just one more lane of traffic out of the thin concourse. We stopped in Piazza Colonna. I need to check out and get a photo of every single one of those columns, and did I mention it? Because we are about to have Sprint build a cell tower in the shape of an obelisk at Alta Vista Gardens, I have been taking photos of every single obelisk I can find and believe me there are lots of them here. I told Donna that there are more obelisks in Rome than in Egypt or any place else in the world; I don’t think that I made that detail up. In and out weaving, what a relief when we turned up onto the Via Condotti to approach the Spanish Steps. I had chosen the Via Condotti because Donna had already heard of the street and the stores that are on it. I also chose it because it gives a straight on view of the steps as you walk up towards it. What a champ, she didn’t want to go into any of the stores and just glanced into the windows as we absorbed the flavor of the street. B.T.W. this street is blocked at both ends and is for pedestrian traffic only (almost) what a relief after the Corso.

We have also been taking pictures of almost every fountain in Rome, (tax deductible you know) and the fountain at the base of the steps was no exception. Donna and I have matching cameras and we both had cameras. It was pretty cool to compare what each of us were photographing each day, how the pictures tell the story from two points of view. It also created some redundancy and we have hundreds of photos of Rome now. Up the stairs to the top, a wonderful view of Rome is to be had from there, perhaps one of the best. I pointed out the domes of interest. After all, in Rome, any location can be defined (located) by the nearby dome, beyond that the winged chariots on top of the 'Wedding Cake' were also visible and Donna found that monument pretty impressive too (more hugs and kisses). We went into and walked around in the Trinita dei Monti. Only day two and church sensory overload is starting to set in. I wanted to cover the important ones, (actually I like the statues best) but there are so many. Back down the steps again, fought off the Indian guys trying to give away flowers for money and started down the Via del Babuino toward the Piazza del Popolo. By then the need for a bathroom was getting urgent and there are no (public) bathrooms in Rome. We wandered into a cool store; it was full of reproductions of statues of all sizes and from all periods. There were two-ton statues of popes and delicate reproductions of antiquity. The place had literally hundreds and hundreds of statues in it. It was very cool. The statues were stuffed in, room after room and on shelves and niches up to the ceiling. This is a must see place. They also had a bar there, I guess shoppers get thirsty looking at all of those statues. We ordered a fresh squeezed orange juice (cost 6 euro) and rested. The bathroom was hidden behind an enormous statue of a pope and as you walked around the statue, the wall opened up automatically to reveal the entrance to the rest room, pretty cool. With bladders relieved we exited and proceeded to Piazza del Popolo. The piazza was empty! No chaotic traffic machinations. You could just wander around any way you want, what a difference that that makes. We checked out the first of the twin churches but were beginning to experience burn out. Wandered around the square and failed to enter Santa Maria del Popolo. From there it was back towards the bus, which was nowhere near at all! Up via di Ripetta to Augustus’s tomb and along the side of the Ara Pacis (Latin for the altar of Augustan peace). Neither of us really wanted to go in though it was interesting to note that it is the first new museum in Rome since the time of Mussolini and the Romans are awfully proud of it. From there we didn’t actually go in a straight line because it isn’t easy to do so in Rome and somehow touched on the edge of the Pantheon, and I just had to find that little piazza with the elephant statue on top of a pedestal carrying a small obelisk on his back. After consulting the map I discovered that it was just around the corner from the Pantheon. Good thing because by this time Donnas' battery was permanently on empty. She did perk up and agree it was worth seeing on the way home. From there to piazza Venetzia, stupid bus shot right past our stop without even slowing down, we headed around the corner along the base of the Capitoline and finally caught the bus just above the teatro Marcello.

Home, so close, but there was a Hollywood Video store across from the bus stop and brave Donna agreed to go in with me to see if I could find a copy of L’Archidiavolo. No luck.

Monday February 12th 2007

2010-02-23T06:56:00.000-08:00

Monday February 12: We arrived early that morning and were met at the airport by Beatrice in her extremely compact Fiat Cinquecento (500cc engine). It was so compact that it was not immediately apparent if we would be able to fit the three of us and our luggage into that little car. Poor Donna was crammed into the rear seat with the luggage. She was almost buried back there.

After no sleep for almost 24 hours, we showered and got instructions from our hostess on which bus to take to get to the old heart of town and then we took off. We left the apartment and began a search for a place to buy a bus ticket (1 Euro). Supposedly the Tabacherias (Tobacco stores) sold them but they were all closed. I went up to a newspaper stand and here the phrases from that infernal tape held me in good stead. I asked in prefect Italian where I could buy a ticket for the Auto Bus and was told that the Bar across the street sold them. Turns out the bus stop was there as well so we were off to a good start.

So anyway, this bus went everywhere, but the important thing was that the driver assured me it went to the center of town including Piazza Venezia and Largo Argentina. We drove past the Terme di Caracalla (Baths of Caracalla) and many other familiar markers and get this, right past my old bus stop at the Teatro di Marcello (Theatre of Marcellus). Past the Capitoline into Piazza Venezia and over to Largo Argentina where we disembarked.

Off to the Pantheon because they close the doors at dark and I didn't want to miss the interior after having built my own undersized replica this past year. Well, it was great to pass through those amazing doors and into the Rotunda but half of the interior was under restoration and I forgot to pay homage to Raphael. I may need to return because we also bypassed the Tazza D'Oro. Seems like the City is being overtaken by foreigners. It was drizzling and the Indians (from India) had the monopoly on selling umbrellas on the streets of Rome. This guy wanted 5 Euro for the compact model but Donna wanted the large (made for two and a half model) with a rainbow of colors on it. He wanted fifteen for it so I offered him five. He said "no, no" so I offered six. He wasn’t very flexible and Donna didn’t understand that the streets of Italy are just like Mexico co so we agreed on 11 Euro but Donna only gave him 10 Euro and 95 cents. Turns out Rome looks good walking under a rainbow of colors and it did help keep us dry too.

Well, Piazza Navona was only a few blocks over so off we went and entered to view Bernini's fountain of the four rivers but alas, it too is being restored. There were windows to look in but the water wasn't flowing. The other two fountains were in glory so we walked around the piazza as I reminisced about the anti Vietnam war protests of my youth, drug deals and other goings on of Piazza Navona many decades ago.

Naturally from there it was only a few blocks to San Andrea Della Valle and our old apartment so we crossed the Corso Vittorio Emanuele and walked into our old piazza, Largo Del Pallaro. The apartment is still there but the windows and the patio door were shuttered as if the owners are gone right now. We took pictures and I reminisced with Donna about the wild times in that house and the dining table with the painting of the dome across the street. Also New Year's Eve when everything went out the window and the hand coffee grinder that we found one new year's morning before the street cleaners put everything back to normal. By the way, we saw the street cleaners and they have those same old brooms but now the twigs they used to sweep with are made of plastic. Oh well.

I showed the Donna the shape of the building and explained that it was built on top of the stage of the theatre of Pompeii and that Julius Caesar was assassinated there. I forgot to tell her that Leonardo (my brother) is the reincarnated Caesar, but I'll tell her later.

Into Campo dei Fiori. The market was down and the last of the booths were rolling up and moving out. Fresh produce all over the cobble stones and the old movie theatre was still there after all of these decades. So was Giordano Bruno and the ristornate 'la Carbonara'. I have introduced Donna to the spaghetti dish named after the place so now she knows it's origin. Donna is going to have a skewed impression of the history and sites of Rome, but she doesn't care if I am making it up as I go because the narrative is entertaining. Over to Piazza Farnese for a look-see and on down heading towards the Ghetto and our other old apartment.

By the way, one new thing. Little steel and glass boxes all over the place with a Carabinieri (Italian military police) in it. Makes you feel a lot safer but it's sad that they had to do it.

Not much changed there but now its the museum of Jewishness in Rome or something like that. The basement of the synagogue is a museum and since Donna is sort of Jewish, I wanted her to see the inside of the temple. To do this we had to pay six Euro each and wait for the tour. Turns out that there is another temple under the synagogue. I learned more yesterday about Jews in Rome than I ever had before so I guess that it was worth it. As Dad had promised, Limentani's (an incredible wine glass and kitchen store) was still there but wow have they come up in the world. The old doors to the street are still there but inside of that are new glass partitions and everything is in glass display boxes. No problem if you want to pay 20-30 Euro for a wine glass and they have the best stuff there but I was disappointed because the place seems to have shrunk by over 50%. My recollection of the place was sort of a catacomb of glass wear. The place is still large but it no longer encompasses an acre of basement space. Oh well, things do change in thirty years. About this time I realized that I hadn't actually seen one single bread store in Rome. Off I went down the street to the old bread store in the Ghetto, it to was gone. The Ghetto pastry store was still there and we peeked in, then off to the Turtle fountain in the Piazza Mattei. I told Donna about the love lost and the fountain's coming about but perhaps that too is made up, though it does make a good story.

By now it was getting dark and we were thirsty so the goal was Birreria Peroni but first back to Largo Argentina to check out Il Delfino and get a Suppli! Remember mom that I wanted you to make them at Christmas but we never got around to it, anyway, One Track Mind- got to have a Suppli. The Delfino looked smaller to me, guess I grew up since then. It also wasn't as appealing so we got two Suppli to go and headed off towards Piazza Venetia.

Stopped along the way at a tourist shop that had that apron that I wore one Christmas day at Dad's house some years ago. The Michelangelo David from the neck down imprinted on it. I remember that it embarrassed me for a minute or two when I put it on but I soon got over it and it does have such a great shock factor! Guess what I'll be wearing next time I have a dinner party.

We turned down the right street heading for Birreria Peroni but something was off and I didn't see it. I decided to show Donna a church so we went into Santi Apostali (or something like that) If I understood correctly there were two dead apostles in the basement and that was fun to check out. There was a mass in one of the wings but only about 20 parishioners. I don't understand how this city can support all of the churches. Seems like there is at least one on every block and most of them are huge!

We did find Peroni's a little further down the street but it was on the wrong side (or my memory was backwards). Their menu is greatly expanded, but I wanted a pannino with prosciutto crudo and mozzarella to bring me back to those days of old. It wasn't on the menu but the waiter figured it out. He brought me a plate of prosciutto with three olives on it and a ball of mozzarella. I got a side of two pannini and a knife, I was then on my own to figure it out. It worked out to my satisfaction although I ended up with an extra paninno.

We had a great time trying to get across piazza Venetzia. Italian drivers haven't changed a bit. They still resent stopping for pedestrians and rarely do. They really don't want to kill a pedestrian and so it was back to playing the games of chicken from my childhood. I always kept Donna on the other side of me from the oncoming traffic and determinedly stepped out into the onrush of cars always ready to step back before they plowed into us. The cross walks make no difference at all, either way they don't want to stop but a percentage will avoid trying to kill you and so you calculate the odds and eventually get across the street. Anyway, we got across and climbed the Capitoline to see Marcus Aurelius and Michelangelo's piazza at night. It was glorious. From there, down the back side to see the forum at night, that got me kissed, something about it being so beautiful and so romantic, go figure.

We wandered down the back of the Capitoline and that put us just beyond the Teatro Marcello and the bus stop for the 628 was only just across the street. We scampered across and soon we were on our way back to Beatrice and Renzo’s apartment.

Background: Start Here

2010-02-23T06:33:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Bryan Morse. I have been thinking about leading a tour of Rome and select places in Italy. This would be for a small group and would involve a lot of walking. Please let me know if there is any interest out there. You can post, or call me at (760)505-7900.

The story begins with our first morning in Rome. I had finally returned with my soon to be fiancé Donna after an absence of more than three decades. Donna is a Feldenkrais practitioner and had come to do an advance training with her friend Beatrice Porru. Beatrice lived in an apartment in a section of Rome that I had never been to with her boy friend Renzo Bellanca who is a talented Sicilian artist.
When I grew up I had spoken Italian like a native but after so many years of living in San Diego, CA and speaking Spanish with my employees daily, I could sometimes think in Italian but all that would ever come out was Spanish. A friend loaned me a 'How to Speak Italian' tape and I listened to it during my commutes on and off for the month preceding our departure.
Thes Blogs straddle two trips to Rome, a year apart. This was mostly written each night so it is mostly in the present tense, bear with me, it may switch back and forth.