It was about a month after I'd gotten back from Oz. The snow was deep and in its cycle of falling, icing over, melting a little and then freezing again. It is the hard end of winter in England and I'd just left sunny Australia and all my friends and family behind me. It was then that I declared to Russ that if I didnt get to go to Italy again this year I might die. It was a calm and rational response to weather related chaos. Russ decided that he could not live with my death on his hands and so joined me in planning a trip.
Last time I'd hit Rome and Venice in a week, a few days in each. I'd seen the highlights but there was so much that I'd missed. I'd also headed off to Italy just after Russ and I had gotten together and so I pined around wishing he was there. This time he would be with me and we would go to one place and spend some time. So Rome it was. Trip advisor helped us decide where to stay, our flights were booked and we had a list of places we wanted to see and a rough idea of when we wanted to see them. We're gahn ta itly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I counted down the days, downloaded Italian pop songs onto my iphone and packed our suitcase.
It was the end of May when we flew out. We arrived at Fiumicino airport just after sunset and caught the train into Termini. Our B and B, Mokhouse, was in the Monti district, a quick walk from termini past the Basillica Di Santa Maria Maggiore. A word about Mokhouse, if you ever have the chance to go to Rome, we heartily recommend it. We stayed in the 500 room, with a kingsize bed, french doors leading to a balcony on two sides of the room and a large bathroom. Marco, who is one of the people who run's Mokhouse, met us at the front door and then flew up the four flights of stairs with our suitcase like lightning. Yes, you read right, four flights of stairs and no lift but it has to be said that they are not very steep stairs which makes a difference, and look at it this way, after a week of stair climbing and the walking you do sightseeing you'll have an arse that could crack walnuts.
After Marco settled us in and I unpacked, we threw open the french doors and listened to the sounds of Rome. The sound of wandering musicians playing the theme from the godfather in the restaurant downstairs, they played for four men drinking red wine while sitting at a table covered in a red and white checked table cloth until the men shoo'ed them away with a Basta, basta! Enough, enough! And the musicians zeroed in on their next victims.
We slept that night on crisp white sheets with the shutters closed, letting the cool clean night air wash over us.
At some point before dawn, Rome was only for the birds, no cars breathed in the streets and there were no shouted conversations from the streets below. It was only the birds who ruled Rome as the sun rose on our first day. They chorused in victory at ruling this great city in the absence of all other souls which promptly woke us up.
Breakfast at a B and B in Rome usually means that you get a little ticket to a local cafe which you exchange for a cappucino and a pastry and you get to sit down and enjoy them which is almost as much of a treat as the cappucino.
I had not had decent coffee since Yvette and I went for coffee in Carlton in December. So good, so creamy, the perfect temperature as soon as you get it, so sweet you barely need sugar.
Rusty drew our first breakfast feast and like magic it was frozen on paper.
We wandered back down to termini to pick up our roma passes. The roma pass is like a discount card that gives you free entry to your first two sites, which saves you a bit of money if you're going to the colosseum, villa borghese or the capitoline museums and it also gives you a discount on as many venues as you can get to for three days. You get a three day travel pass as well which is valid on the metro and all busses. For our first tourist activity we took an open topped bus around the centre of Rome to orient ourselves. We went all the way around once and then hopped off at the Trevi Fountain to have lunch. There is a little deli right near the Trevi called Il Forno where you can get fantastic panini filled with hams and cheeses for only 2 euro, we ate while watching the crowds heave around the fountain, regular groups of awestruck cruise passengers filing past us led by wearied guides holding umbrella's or soft toys aloft so their charges could find them in the crowds.
We wandered down Via Della Murrate which I took a picture of for Yvette and found a little shop selling handmade wooden toys. They even had a life sized wooden toy motorcycle.
Making our way to the pantheon we were stopped by a couple of women making a wedding video for their friends who asked us what the secret to a lasting and happy relationship was, we said patience, friendship and respect.
For a month before going to Italy I had decided as a test of will to give up all chocolate, no chocolate what so ever, nothing even chocolate flavoured. I even went so far as to, when given a slice of strawberry gateaux, pick the tiny chocolate curls off the side just to stay true to my vow.
After getting to the pantheon we decided it was time to break the chocolate fast and both had 2 scoops of gelato. For me it was too much too soon and Russ had to swoop in and finish the remnants. I am totally in awe of the Pantheon, it might be one of my favourite places in Rome. I took way too many pictures of the oculous and hoped I had the perfect one. We head back to the apartment for some rest before dinner at a local restaurant called La Brigantine. It was perfect, there was no menu tristico, we were the only non italian's there and after a little bit of a wait came the most divine bruschetta, I had olive oil, garlic and salt and Russ had tomatoe and basil, such simple things but the flavours were so intense. We were blown away and we hadnt even had mains yet. We had pizza for the main, the crust was like a feat of engineering, light and crisp, a tiny bit chewy but never tough. I have to figure out how to copy it.
We had an early start on day 2, we were booked in to view Galleria Borghese at 11am and you cant be late and we had no idea how to get there. In the end it was easier than we thought, we caught a 910 bus from Termini and got off right next to the north gate. It gave us time to enjoy the cool, calm of the gardens before heading in to the gallery. It was a this point that I realised that chocolate and I were no longer friends after a chocolate cornetti that morning made me feel less than delightful.
The gardens of villa borghese are where the birds come after the dawn when the morning bussle drowns them out. The night before I had watched waves of swallows ride the dying thermal drafts from the hot day, up and over the roofs around our apartment. Appearing from no where, a musical explosion of chirping and diving before they dissappear again as though none of it ever happened save for one tiny swallow trailing, tweeting plaintively, “Fella's, Fella's, Wait for me, what did I miss?”
Sadly you cant take camera's into Villa Borghese but my favourite sculpture was Bernini's Rape of Persephone. The way he sculpted detail, like curls and tears and the indentations of fingers on flesh put me on a pendulum swinging between marvelling at the mastery of the sculptor and the reality of what the art was depicting. We walked all the way through the gardens down to Piazza Del Popolo, stopping in one of the churches near the entrance to the piazza before heading back for some dinner and a little rest followed by an evening stroll where I introduced Russ to canolli, he's a fan. The best ones we found were at Ciuri Ciuri in Via Leonina, its a nice wander around there as well.
Day three we had a little sleep in which was lucky really, because otherwise we would never have known there was a hidden church right across the street from our apartment. Any time we had seen the doorway it had just looked like the entry to someone's apartment but with the doors open we saw that behind it was an old stone staircase leading up to a courtyard and beyond that was the entrance to the church, they really are everywhere in Rome. After a plain cornetti and awesome cappucino for breakfast I was feeling much improved if not a little hyper. We walked to the colosseum which was only about 10 mins from where we stayed. There was a little rain on and off that day building up to a giant bucket down just after lunch, we waited it out under shelter watching the umbrella vendors make their money going under trees to clutches of stranded tourists and selling the umbrella's for 5 euro a piece. We did have an umbrella, and it was sitting nice and dry back in our apartment but as a matter of pride Russ would not let us relent and buy and umbrella from the umbrella vendors. The rest of the day was mostly light drizzle and we decided to try and make our way to the jewish ghetto but when ever we did, Rome threw up some great obstacle in our path like the Pallatine Hill for instance. We spent a good few hours wandering around Foro Romano and to be honest we prefered it to the colosseum, there's a lot more to see and less people. In the end we were damp and tired and couldnt remember why we'd resisted the umbrella salesmen so we aquiessed and bought one before making our way out to Piazza Venezia and catching a bus back to Via Cavour where we had dinner, bought limoncello and more canolli. We took it back to the apartment and sat on the balcony, getting smashed on limoncello while the sunset.
Day four we went back to the Pantheon to buy Bec and Ryan's wedding present from a shop near by, we had seen it days before but couldn't decide which colour to get, it was a handmade photo album from a shop called Il Papiro. They have gorgeous hand marbled paper covered albums, I could spend forever in there. It was then that we found the holy grail of gelaterias San Crispino. I'd been looking for them since the last time I went to Rome but they have very unobtrusive shop fronts. We found one near the Pantheon and another near the Trevi fountain. After my earlier brushes with chocolate I instead chose something fruity and had a scoop of apple and a scoop of honey. We went back over subsequent days and I also tried the melon, lemon, hazelnut, caramel meringue, pear, grapefruit and eventually even the cocoa and rum. All were amazing, beyond words amazing, the honey gelato tasted so much like honey you were tempted to chew it. The grapefruit was bright and cleansing and the melon was just like biting into a slice of melon taken just from the fridge. Try the gelato, what ever you do, when in Rome, try the gelato. We spent the rest of the day wandering and went to campo di fiori and piazza navona before heading back to our favourite little restaurant for dinner. They must do a roaring trade in that place.
Day five we decided to brave the metro and head to the spanish steps. Shelly and Byron holed up right next door when they were in Rome but their place is closed on a sunday. It was hot and we sat by the fountain at the bottom of the steps for a while letting the crowds mill around and relaxing. This was the day we finally slowed down and appreciated things rather than launching on an endless cycle of sightseeing and getting to destinations before becoming too tired to enjoy them. We wandered down Via Margutta, where Fellini lived and imagined buying a place in Rome. We found a drinking fountain with a happy face and a sad face spouting water for all to enjoy and we drank from the happy side. I took pictures out the front of Missoni who I love for their colours and patterns. We walked slow and stopped often, enjoyed nothing more than watching people and let the scene change in front of us while we stayed still. A lazy sunday Roman style.
We walked back to the fountain and we threw in coins so we could make sure we'd get to come back to Rome again. We had gelato at San Crispino and as the evening drew in we found a little restaurant in a side street. After the obligatory bruschetta (we cant go anywhere without ordering it) Russ had Carbonara and I had Amatriciana, the restaurant made their own pasta and everything was delicious.
Day Six, our last full day in Rome, we made our way back to the Pantheon and wandered around a little more. We found Sant'Eustacio's who are supposed to serve the best coffee in Rome and it was good but to be honest pretty much all coffee in Rome is good, certainly better than in London but it really depends on who is running the machine, I had great and average cups of coffee at both Sant'Eustacio's and at our breakfast place, and when someone serves you a less than inspiring cup, you learn not to go to the bar when they're behind the machine. This was or day of last minute shopping. I bought Livvy a birthday present and Jack a wax seal set with his initials. I bought myself some balsamic which was reasonably priced in comparison to the other balsamic I wanted that came in a leather box with a little rolled up piece of paper I declared was its degree. Russ would not let me get the stupidly expensive, tertiary educated balsamic. We got a little lost in the back streets for a while and then came out upon a piazza which Russ declared was the greatest Piazza in Rome as it had public toilets, a fountain and a bench. Sometimes sightseeing makes you appreciate the little things. We had our last dinner at La Brigantine before heading back to pack.
Day seven, our last, last day. We fly back in the evening and have our last decent coffee and pastry at our breakfast place. I bought panchetta so I can make carbonara for Russ when we get home. We check our suitcase so we could do a little last sightseeing and went to see the Capucin Cemetary near Barbarini Station. Oddly beautiful and macabre, it was the corpses of both monks as well as the poor and small children. We wandered down for a final gelato from San Crispino. I bought myself a mille fiori because I became obsessed with them after visiting venice and in a little back street found a leather workshop. Before coming to Rome I had looked at my battered old wallet and decided that if there was one thing I was going to get myself in Rome it would be a beautiful italian leather wallet. The whole trip I had not seen the one that I wanted but in our last hour, on our last day, in this little backstreet, there it was. Its red leather on the outside with a yellow leather strap to close it and on the inside its blue orange, beige, light brown and has stripey fabric lining. It sounds hideous but is a billion shades of awesome. I will post pictures. We were both exhausted but sad to be going home. We have already planned our next trip but before we get back to Rome I'm planning on taking Russ to Venice for the art Biennial in 2011. Oh Rome, we miss you!!!
In our next installment: Brighton, breakfasts and going up the downs
No comments:
Post a Comment