Italy - Day 16 (Rome)

Day 16 - our final full day in Italy. :-(

It felt good to be free of the tour group. We were able to wake up late and finally get our postcards written and sent off....
Our plans for the day were to simply walk around and take in the city (literally, by eating). Our first stop was a coffee shop for some espresso and pastries. By now we've really got the Italian pricing system down. Many places have three prices for the same cup of coffee: the cheapest price if drinking coffee while standing at the bar, a bit more expensive to sit indoors, and the most expensive for sitting in the outdoor patio.

At the place pictured below, we got 2 cappuccinos, 1 croissant, and 1 bottle of water for 4 Euros total. Earlier on our trip, we paid 4 Euros for a can of soda and 3.50 Euros for a cappuccino while sitting indoors at a similar coffee shop..... It was a Sunday, so we decided to visit the St. Peter's Square and get blessed by the Pope. I'm not Catholic, but as they say..."when in Rome, do as the Romans". I'm borrowing this aerial picture from wikipedia...Brooke is in front of the building from which the Pope is to appear at noon. He will usually bless the crowd from the top-floor window, second from the right.....

We wait, and then we wait some more. Finally, the large tv screens turn on and they show the Pope giving mass in some Latin American country.....As we're disappointingly walking away from St. Peter's Square, we see a Peruvian religious procession heading the opposite direction. I still not sure what happened, but I'm guessing the Vatican and Peru were doing some priest exchange program....We continued walking toward the Tiber river, past Castel Sant'Angelo....Tree-lined walkway along the Tiber.....To paraphrase Anthony Bourdain from a recent episode of No Reservations:Venice...
"In France, the chef is the star. In Italy, it's all about the ingredients".
This phrase really explains the caprese salad we had for lunch in Piazza Navona. I realize caprese salads are inherently simple (tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil), but when this dish arrived, both Brooke and I were still shocked by it's bold simplicity. It looked even more plain prior to Brooke added the oil and balsamic.... Campo de' Fiori....

Largo di Torre Argentina, the former site of Roman temples, is now a haven for stray cats. Brooke and I could count at least 20 napping cats immediately upon arriving...I liked the little, colorful buses in Rome....Vittorio Emanuele Monument - a monument to the first king of Italy. I'm told that most Italians see this place as an eyesore, being obnoxiously large and glaringly white.That evening we had a nice dinner with two other couples from the tour. The next morning (at 4 am) we took a 40 Euro taxi ride to the airport. I don't think we've ever traveled faster by car. The driver averaged around 95 mph for the 15 mile journey.

Unlike at American airports, you could get decent food for a reasonable price. At this coffee shop in FCO airport, we got 2 cappuccinos, 1 pastry, and a bottle of water for under 5 Euros....Our final moments in the Rome airport.....
At this point, we were definitely ready to head home. But after reliving our trip through these posts, it makes us ache to get on the road again.

Italy - Day 15 (Superwoman)

We forgot to mention our midnight stroll through Rome in the previous post....
After dinner with the tour group, four of us took the subway back to the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps area. We didn't do much except eat gelato (for the third time that day) and people-watch.


We were just sitting on the Spanish Steps when we heard a girl yelling in Italian (with English obscenities) from the top of the stairs. She continues to yell as she walked down past us. By then we could see she was wearing a bright blue Superman t-shirt, a shiny foil-like headband, and a short skirt with stiletto boots. She homes in on the flower vendor, and you can see the rest. (Brooke wants everyone to know that she's not the main female voice in the video)

Italy - Day 15 (Rome)

We started our morning with an easy half-mile walk from our hotel to the Colosseum where we met our new local guide, Francesca. All of our local guides have been great, but Francesca was even better. At some point in the tour, I actually saw a couple of women get teary-eyed from Francesca's great story telling.

Prior to the tour, I didn't know anything about the Colosseum (aside from what I learned watching Russel Crowe in the Gladiator). Here's a few things I learned:

1. The Colosseum was once covered with travertine and marble, all held together by iron clasps. Notice the small holes on the existing stone - this isn't due to wear, but rather where the iron clasps were fitted.

2. Being the site of public executions of Christians, the Colosseum was not held in high regard by the church. The marble and iron clasps were all taken for the construction of St. Peter's Basilica and other buildings. It wasn't until the 1700s that Pope Benedict XIV declared it sanctified by the blood of Christian martyrs and therefore off-limits for further plundering.3. The Colosseum is oval-shaped, not round. The arena floor is nearly twice as long as it is wide (~280 x 165 ft).After the Colosseum, we toured the adjacent Roman Forum. Everything here is HUGE! (Check out the size of the people in the 3rd picture down.)Next we continued our walk to the Pantheon. It was neat to see, but the interior wasn't as exciting as I was expecting. The front of the building is beautiful and iconographic. The interior is basically just one large room with a hole in the ceiling. We had couple hours to ourselves after the Pantheon so we decided to have lunch. We went to a place in the same piazza called Antica Salumeria. They served basic sandwiches that were good, but bit salty. They were also a bit small for our big American appetites (and especially for 5 Euros). After lunch, we still had an hour before meeting up with the group again. We decided to go see a few sights that we had only seen at night during the day. We also had to stop by our favorite Gelateria again. Brooke at the Spanish Steps (with her two backup singers dressed in red)....It wasn't part of the standard tour, so 8 of us decided to visit the Borghese Gallery on our own. To reach the gallery, we had to trek across the Villa Borghese Gardens (the Roman equivalent of New York's Central Park). Look how big it is compared to everything else....
The gallery only accepts 360 people for a given 2-hour time slot. Reservations are necessary and everyone needs to arrive a half hour early to check all bags and cameras. This place is definitely worth the extra hassle. We learned from the gallery audio tour that Cardinal Scipione Borghese (the garden and gallery's namesake) was a total asshole. He would go to someone's home, see a piece of art that he liked, and simply demand to have it. This behavior allowed him to amass a great collection, especially if you like Bernini.

As I've said in a previous post, I like Michelangelo's David for its ambiguity, leaving his thoughts up for interpretation. But I love Bernini's David too, and for almost the opposite reason. Bernini's David (below) couldn't be more clear. He is mid-battle, with a look of determination, in a comic-book-like exaggerated body position of the Baroque style....Bernini's Apollo and Daphne. As the myth goes, Apollo was shot with a golden arrow that caused him to fall in love. Daphne was shot with a lead arrow causing her to be repulsed. Just at the moment Daphne is caught by Apollo, she turns into a tree in defense. I couldn't find a good picture showing all the detailing, so you'll just have to trust me, Daphne's hair and leaves are amazing. I would go back to the Borghese Gallery just to see this sculpture....
That night we met our entire tour group for our final dinner together; the Last Supper if you will. It was a fun meal, especially with the surplus of alcohol and the live music. We presented our tour guide, Cecilia, with large photobook of Michaelangelo's Pieta (she had said it was her favorite)....Group photo in front of Santa Maria Maggiore....I'm helping 3 Ohioan tour members complete the O-H-I-O. Those crazy Ohioans are all the same (and I mean that in the best possible way)....
Parallel and perpendicular parking....