After three relaxing nights in Positano, it was time to head to the final destination on our trip: Rome.
Today, Rome is a bustling, modern city, but what really fascinated me about Rome was the incomprehensible amount of rich history--layer upon layer--everywhere. For example: This square is important, and it commemorates a certain significant event. And did you notice the obelisk in the middle of the square? Did you know Augustus had several of these brought to Rome after he conquered ancient Egypt? And did you know the fountain in the middle of the square was created by one of the greatest Italian sculptors in history? Beyond that, you have to wonder what lies under the square (or lied there before they built it). Today, no building project or public works project in Rome is expected to be completed on time because everywhere they dig, they find items or structures of historical significance, and then they must halt work to allow the archeologists to study the site.
Day 1: We arrived at our apartment around 1 pm, and since we were staying near the Vatican and had half of the day left, Jen put together a plan to see that part of the city. After a quick lunch, we were off to St. Peter's Square and the Vatican Museum.
Vatican City, though entirely surrounded by Rome, is actually a sovereign nation. It has no military, but Switzerland provides guards to protect the city. The museum takes about two hours and has a great deal of important art and artifacts. Furthermore, admission to the museum also includes the Sistine Chapel, so we were able to see Michelangelo's two most famous works, David and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, within about a week.
If you get to the back of the Sistine Chapel, there are doors on both sides of you. If you have already toured the museum and want to see the inside of St. Peter's Basilica, head to the door on the right. Museum visitors can go straight into St. Peter's without waiting in the massive line on St. Peter's Square.
St. Peter's was neat to see since it is the large basilica situated within the Vatican itself, so it really is the central cathedral of the Catholic Church. It was intended to be the most ornate church in the world, and the interior is quite impressive. With all due respect, part of me wonders if the elaborate cathedrals of Europe fit into the absolute best way to carry out the Great Commission in terms of energy, focus, and use of funds, but theological questions aside, they are impressive structures. Jen and I also toured the crypt under St. Peter's, where many popes are buried. It was interesting to see the contrast between kingly tombs and humble, modest ones, like the simple slab that marks the resting place of the late John Paul II.
When we left the Vatican compound, I wanted to walk the city a bit, so we did a fun walk from St. Peter's Square to the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Venezia, and then, with a stop for a nice dinner, back to our apartment. Kind of a cool fact from our first day--both the Pope and the President were in Rome that week, and near the Vatican, we saw Benedict XVI's motorcade, followed by Berlusconi's motorcade later that evening (a large crowd had gathered outside of a state building to see him exit, and then a couple minutes after, his large motorcade buzzed by us). Thus, after a big first day, we crossed the Vatican off of our list and went to sleep.
Day 2: Day two almost epic enough to enter the annals of Roman history by itself. We left our apartment at about 10 am and did not return until well after midnight. We started by taking the jam-packed Rome metro (subway train) to the Colosseum. I knew quite a bit about the building before visiting, but I was very impressed to learn that this 2,000-year-old Roman structure held as many spectators (50,000-80,000) as today's D-1 football stadiums.
After the Colosseum, we were pretty famished, so we ventured over to Via Cavour for some lunch. I had a list of dishes I wanted to eat in Italy, and still waiting to be conquered was beef carpaccio--thinly sliced pieces of raw filet. We found a restaurant that specialized in carpaccio dishes, and I ordered a pretty classic plate--filet, arugula, and sheets of parmesan cheese. With a little olive oil and some of the house-made infused pepper oil, this dish was a lesson in simple, amazing cuisine. Add an incredible glass of Sicilian wine for €3.50, and this was one of my favorite meals of the trip. Jen ordered a very refreshing cous cous salad with tomatoes and mint leaves, and that was very tasty, as well (she loves refreshing herbs like basil and cilantro).
After lunch, we went back over by the Colosseum to see the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The Forum was the heart of ancient Rome, with many important temples and state buildings. Palatine hill, sitting above the Forum and the Colosseum, held many of the ornate homes of Rome's most important families. In fact, our modern word "palace" comes from this hill, not vice versa. The Forum was neat, but it's better to see in pictures, so I captioned my photos with interesting facts about the buildings.
Soon after leaving Palatine Hill, we ducked into an outdoor cafe for a quick cappuccino to avoid an impending downpour. Jen had quite a laugh at the €4 umbrella I bought while waiting for her in the rain in Venice. It was so poorly constructed that the vendor opens it for you, and the first time you close it, something breaks. Thus, half of my once-used umbrella had collapsed. (We bought a €5 replacement from a street vendor that is holding up far better.)
After a full day of seeing the sites of ancient Rome, we decided to try one of the two most acclaimed pizzerias in Rome. The pizza was actually nothing special, but the restaurant was a lot of fun. We were seated in between two other couples--an older couple from Cornwall, England and a young couple from Aberdeen, Scotland--at a table for six, and after a few minutes, all of our conversations merged together, making for a very fun British-American dinner. The older couple wrapped up before the rest of us and wished us a pleasant evening, so we stayed with the Scottish couple, Jim and Catherine, and then I invited them to join us for some gelato. The four of us walked back across the river together and then talked for another hour over a bottle of wine at a sidewalk cafe. After trading e-mail addresses, we called it a night and Jen and I walked the last few blocks to our apartment.
Day 3: For our third day, I had made a reservation for the Borghese Gallery, an appointment-only art gallery situated in a park above the Spanish Steps. The gallery does not allow photos, so I do not have any photos of its works in my album, but they have an incredible collection. This was one of my favorite museums that I have ever visited, and I would say that if you are spending two or more days in Rome, it should be non-negotiable.
When Jen and I were waiting in line to give our reservation code and pick up our tickets, we heard a voice say, "Hey, we know you guys!" I looked up to see Caleb Walder and his wife, Angela--two old friends from the University of Illinois (Caleb was my small group leader during my freshman year, and Jen was in a small group with Angela later on in school). It was pretty amazing to see them in the middle of Rome and learn that we had made an appointment for the same museum at the exact same time.
The gallery's collection is very impressive, and to me, their real crown jewels are their incredible Bernini sculptures, including David and Apollo and Daphne. These were so impressive to me that I bought a Bernini coffee table book, which showed me that many of the works that had captured my attention around the city were done by Bernini. He had an amazing talent for sculpture that captured a moment. For example, Bernini's version of David, in contrast to Michelangelo's more stoic masterpiece, shows the protagonist at the moment before the fateful stone was thrown, with the rope taut, every muscle at peak tension, and a look of utmost determination and focus on his face. The Apollo and Daphne sculpture almost has to be seen to be believed--how he worked that piece from a block of marble is bewildering. Anyway, if you go to Rome, do not miss the Borghese. Wow.
After the museum, Jen and I met up with Caleb and Angela to get a cup of coffee, and then she and I walked through a few of Rome's big squares. Right near the middle of Piazza Navona, I ran into Charles Crandall, a Berkeley Law alum who graduated a year before me, who was in Rome with his girlfriend. We caught up a bit, and Jen and I gave him some suggestions for the next couple weeks of his trip. Jen likes to say that I find someone I know in every city, and on our third day in Rome, I ran into friends from undergrad and law school.
Just off of Campo dei Fiori, we stopped for an apertivo and then planned to go back to our apartment to cook dinner, but the restaurant was opening up a table full of tapas-type dishes to anyone ordering a pre-dinner drink, and this included a lot of great vegetable dishes. We both ate a bit more than we expected and ended up pretty full, so that became a fun impromptu dinner. On our way home, we stopped into the same cafe we had visited with the Scottish couple at the end of the previous evening, and Jen and I split a piece of tiramisu (with an espresso for me). And that concluded a pretty perfect third day in Rome.
Day 4: Day four was our final full day together on the trip, but we wanted to make the most of it instead of focusing on our upcoming parting. We started out by walking to the river and then south to Rome's Jewish Quarter. We wanted to see this neighborhood and sample some of the famous pastries from its famous Jewish bakery. It was a Friday, so I thought it would be fine (the Jewish sabbath is Saturday), but I had forgotten that it was Rosh Hashanah. For future reference: don't choose Rosh Hashanah as the time to visit famous Jewish establishments. So we missed out on the pastries, but it was neat to see the neighborhood nonetheless.
Next, we took a bus up to the Vatican area for lunch, because a restaurant there features wild boar pasta dishes, and the owner even hunts some of the boar that the restaurant uses. And with that, I had achieved a very important goal for the trip--in Italy, I had eaten lamb, duck, rabbit, and wild boar.
After lunch, we took two subway lines and a bus to reach a rural area southeast of the Colosseum to visit the Catacombs of San Callisto. The Roman catacombs were very important sites for the early church. Before Christianity was legal in the Roman Empire, Christians were often persecuted and martyred. Christians, expecting the second coming and the resurrection of their earthly bodies, did not follow the traditional Roman practice of cremation. Thus, they needed space to bury bodies, but they tended to be poor and often did not own land. Thus, some wealthy families that had converted offered their land as a burial ground, and the volcanic tufo rock under their land allowed the Christians to dig out massive networks of tunnels to facilitate the burial of the dead. Many early martyrs are buried in the catacombs. Generally, the Roman soldiers would not invade the catacombs themselves, as Romans respected these areas as places of the dead, but under emperors with particular bents for persecution, there were instances when legions were sent in and people were martyred within the catacombs. (Contrary to some beliefs, the Christians never used the catacombs to hide, because the Romans knew about them. However, they did hold religious services down there at times, and this was generally safer than holding them above ground.)
Around Rome, there about 60 known sets of catacombs, and the Catacombs of San Callisto are just one of those, but these sites are huge. San Callisto alone one has four stories of tunnel networks, extending about 40-50 meters underground. In total, the site has 20 km (12 miles) of tunnels, and held the bodies of 500,000 early Christians. Like much of Rome, the site was looted and smashed by Barbarians, but some amazing things did survive, such as art from the second and third centuries. It was amazing to see frescos that were roughly 1800 years old. We were only able to access a small portion of the tunnels, since they are so extensive, but this was really neat to see. Of all the sites we saw in Rome, I think this place captured Jen's attention more than any other (good thing, too, since it took almost two hours each way to get out there and back!).
Finally, we made our way back to our apartment and made a nice, simple dinner to go with the 2001 Brunello we had bought near Montalcino.
Day 5: On the morning of our fifth day in Rome, Jen had to head back to the States. I took her to Termini and bought her a ticket for the airport express train, and then I took her suitcase onto the train and we had to say goodbye. Obviously, we were both very sad. We love being together, and our time in Italy had flown by. However, we know that every day that goes by means we are one day closer to being back together at home. My train out of Rome did not leave until 6 pm, and I knew that for the entire day, pretty much everything in Rome was going to remind me of Jen. I went back to pack up my bag and shut off everything in the apartment, and then I spent the day working on a couple more "to-dos" in Rome, most of which related to food.
For one, a coffee house near the Pantheon, Sant'Eustachio Il Caffè is said to have one of the best espresso shots in the world. I went, and it was certainly a memorable one--intense, no bite, massive amounts of foamy crema (very unusual). If you try this, just get the normal shot for €1.10, not the "Gran Cafe," which means that for an extra euro, the barrista will ruin your espresso with loads of coarse sugar. The shot is the real deal, and it's amazing. Go.
Next, I still had not tried Spaghetti alla Carbonara, which is one of Rome's signature dishes--spaghetti with bacon, pecorino cheese, black pepper, and egg yolks. The dish was delicious, but also as heavy as it sounds. Most of you know I can eat, and I could not finish my plate, even with the restaurant owner's prodding--"Finish!" However, owner did send over some lighter fare, on the house, that I could find room for. He gave me a big bowl of delicious green grapes that really intrigued me, because the grapes tasted like a glass of Gewürztraminer rather than normal green grapes. This was something I had never experienced before, but it was neat and they were delicious.
Also near the Pantheon, there is a coffee bar that makes espresso granite--bold, in-your-face coffee Italian ice. Served with a little whipped cream on top, this was the perfect way to finish lunch. However, despite being a little jittery, I would not be in the neighborhood for quite some time, and Sant'Eustachio was calling my name. I went back and had one more shot of their amazing espresso, and then I was on my way.
I still had a couple hours to kill, so I decided to walk to Termini instead of using mass transit, and this was nice because it gave me an opportunity to shoot the Fountain of the Naiads, one that we had passed several times on buses but had never walked by during our few days in Rome. It being Rome, I also peeked into a few more churches along the way.
At 6 pm, I caught my train to Florence, and in Florence I met up with Nathan again and took the overnight train to Vienna.
I had two amazing weeks with Jen, and we really enjoyed Rome. With 2500 years of history all around you, there really is nothing like it. It's hard to be away from Jen now, but we know we'll be together again very soon. You can see my Rome album here--a lot of pictures, but what are you supposed to cut out with Rome? Thanks for reading!
- R
