Our Tour of Italy – Part One

As a reward for Cathy putting up with me for 25 years, I gave her a choice of where in the world she wanted to go.  So to celebrate our silver anniversary, she chose a tour of Italy.  Common wisdom on the internet suggests that June through August are heavy tourist months. Consequently, I planned our three and a half week tour of Italy for September, with stops in Rome, Chianti, Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast.

Rome

After flying through the night, we arrived in Rome to begin our tour of Italy at 8 Sunday morning.  Our intention is to stay up all day to adjust to the new time.  That seems a little ambitious but I’ve read that’s the best way to beat jet lag. We’ll see how that works out.

Day 1

Our AirBnB host provided a driver to pick us up and take us to our apartment in the Trastevere area of Rome.  Good thing because I never would have found the place.  Rome’s streets are a labyrinth of narrow, cobblestone, often one-way streets.  The driver expertly maneuvered the car past parked cars and scooters into spaces that I would never have attempted.  We’ll see how I handle driving these streets when I pick up the rental car in a few days.

Our apartment is in a 400 year old building in an area filled with shops, restaurants and interesting plazas within walking distance of anything we want to see. After dropping off our luggage, we went out to wander the streets to see what we could find.  We came upon several plazas with outdoor markets and local vendors selling their crafts.

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Castel Sant’Angelo

We also found the National Museum at Castel Sant’Angelo. The Roman Emperor Hadrian originally commissioned the structure as a mausoleum  for himself and his family. The Popes later used the building as a fortress and castle. The structure was once the tallest building in Rome.

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The Vatican – First Attempt

No tour of Italy is complete without taking in Vatican City. The Vatican is nearby so we headed over there next with the intention of touring St Peter’s Basilica.  Here’s a tip: don’t go on a Sunday around noon just after the Pope has given the benediction.  The line to get inside was wrapped around the square several times.  Cathy got some pictures while we were there but we’ll save the tour for tomorrow.

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We were exhausted after being up for 32 hours so we headed back to the apartment, stopping for dinner at La Scala on the way back, and crashed at about 5.  We’re not as young as we used to be….

Day 2

Basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valley

Our goal for the second day in Rome was to tour the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica.  We took a circuitous route by walking in the direction of the Pantheon.  On the way we came across the Basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valley.  This Basilica is the second largest in Rome, after St. Peter’s in the Vatican.

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Once inside, you can get an Ipod with headphones to take an exceptional free audio tour, giving the history of the church and describing all the fantastic frescoes in the vault, dome, cupola and chapels.  It is named for the nearby residence of Cardinal Andrea della Valle, whose name is inscribed above one of the windows on his former palace.  The cupola displays the Glory of Paradise by Lanfranco.   The last chapel on the left is the Barberini Chapel, which was Puccini’s backdrop for the first act of his famous opera, Tosca.  This is well worth a stop.

The Pantheon

Our next stop was the Pantheon. The general scholastic consensus is that this is a former Roman temple, now a church, on the site of an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD).  That structure burned down and Hadrian completed the Pantheon and dedicated it here to all the gods (from the Greek, pan = all, theos = gods) probably about 126 AD.   Recent discoveries and excavations cast some doubt about all this.  You can read about all that here.

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The Vatican – Second Attempt

Next, we headed back to the Vatican.  We decided to take a guided group tour which included the Vatican Museum (a misnomer since there are actually 10 different museums), The Sistine Chapel and no waiting too get into St. Peter’s Basilica.  The guide was very knowledgeable and gave us information we never would have gathered if we toured the Vatican on our own. I highly recommend getting a guide.

Taking pictures in these places is like capturing the grandeur of the Grand Canyon on film.  It can’t be done.  We only had time to hit the highlights but what we saw was fascinating, from the artifacts, to the paintings, to the sculptures, to the frescoes on the walls and ceilings and the tapestries.

The Museums

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The Sistine Chapel

After the museums, we were ushered into the Sistine Chapel. We were only allowed to stay for 15 minutes to ensure everyone had a chance to see it.  That’s understandable since you could definitely spend a lot of time here just gazing at the ceiling. I would love to show you some pictures but photography isn’t allowed due to copyright issues. Pictures wouldn’t have done it justice anyway.  The ceiling blew everything we saw up to this point away. It was absolutely awe-inspiring.  There really aren’t any words to describe it.  This is definitely a bucket list item.

Saint Peter’s Basilica

After our allotted 15 minutes, we were ushered to the front of the line to get into St. Peter’s Basilica.   The US has a lot of inspiring cathedrals but doesn’t have anything that compares to this.

One of the first things of note before entering the basilica is The Holy Door. The door is only opened every 25 years during a Holy Year, or Jubilee. On the first day of a Holy Year, the Pope strikes the brick wall with a silver hammer and opens it to the pilgrims.  The symbolism is that God’s mercy reaches out to man’s frailty.  2000 was the last Holy Year so if you want to witness this event, plan accordingly.

Once inside, our guide left us to tour St. Peter’s Basilica for as long as we wished. And there was a lot to look at and take in. The basilica holds a “unique position in the Christian world” and is “the greatest of all churches of Christendom”. Catholic tradition holds that the basilica is the burial site of Saint Peter, chief among Jesus’s apostles and also the first Bishop of Rome (Pope). The basilica is filled with many masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque art. Here’s some examples:

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A major part of our tour of Italy was to sample the cuisine. We were famished after all that walking so we looked for a place for dinner after our tour.  We found Il Pozzetto, an appealing restaurant with street-side tables near the Vatican.  Cathy had a very tender and tasty beef fillet and I had a wonderfully prepared sea bass and seafood.  Fabulous food and service!  We followed that up with the best tiramisu we’ve ever had.  If you find yourself in the area, we highly recommend having dinner here.

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An after dinner stroll through Rome at night yielded a different perspective on some wonderful sights. A great end to a great day.

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Day 3

Our plans for today was to tour the Roman Colosseum so that’s where we headed.  On the way, we passed by this church near where we were staying and decided to take a look. A pretty impressive interior for such a humble exterior and worthy of a detour.

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The Vittorio

Before we got to the Colosseum we came across the Vittorio, a very impressive monument.  Built between 1895 and 1911, the Vittorio honors Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy, who always had the goal of making Italy unified. He became the first king in 1861 when Italy was unified. He was buried in the Pantheon when he died in 1878. 

The focal point of the monument is the equestrian sculpture of Victor Emanuel II.

The Vittorio is not just to commemorate Victor Emmanuel II, but also is a war memorial and location of the tomb of an unknown soldier. The tomb location is also known as the Altare della Patria, or the Altar of the Fatherland. The expression began to indicate not only the place of burial of the soldier, or the personification of all the fallen and lost in war, but the whole structure due to the strong popular sentiment for the symbolic Unknown Soldier. So, since the monument is also a war memorial, visitors are instructed to treat it with the respect and honor it deserves as they enter the gates.

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Our original intention was to tour the Coloseum but it was very hot and humid and the Vittorio had a lot of steps, which wore Cathy out.  So we took the Panoramic Elevator to the top of the Vittorio for a splendid view of the city and then perused the nearby ruins of the Forum of Caesar Augustus.

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Because Cathy was out of gas, we headed back to the apartment to rest and cooled off before heading out to dinner. A street musician was playing nearby so we stopped to listen. He played a nice mix of Led Zepplin and other ’80s tunes . We were out when he got to the Bee Gees.

   






We had fun strolling around our apartment at dinner time, watching all the restaurants’ maitre d’s out front trying to coax us inside and competing with the other nearby establishments for our business. At tonight’s chosen eatry, dinner consisted of beef in a green pepper sauce, which was absolutely delicious, and a swordfish steak, also fantastic.  We are going to get so fat.

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This duo doing Frankie, Dino and the boys serenaded us during dinner.

Rome doesn’t seem to  come to life until 7:00 or 8 PM.  By that time, we’re usually finishing up and thinking about going to bed.  Man, we’re old.

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Day 4

Today we headed out early to accomplish what we didn’t accomplish yesterday.  We have an 11AM, 3 hour guided tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum.  Our guide gave us lots of historical information – way too much knowledge to put in a blog but I’ll throw in a few tidbits for you.

The Roman Colosseum

We began our tour at the Roman Colosseum.  Built between 72 – 80 AD of limestone, volcanic rock, and brick-faced concrete, it was the largest amphitheater ever built at the time and held an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 spectators during phases of its various renovations over the centuries.  It was used for gladiator contests and public spectacles, such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology.  It was more like a modern day circus than what you see in movies today.  Contrary to popular myth, the Christians were martyred in a much larger stadium built by Nero nearby.

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Roman citizens were admitted free and the stadium could be filled and emptied in about 20 minutes. Take that Carrier Dome! Of course, the Colosseum has way more gates but still… The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for such purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian shrine.

The Colosseum is substantially ruined because of earthquakes, thieves, and stone-robbers.  Portions of the original concrete still exist inside, stumping scientists.  I wish they would figure it out because engineers and contractors in Syracuse can’t seem build a bridge where the concrete lasts more than one winter.

Palantine Hill

The Palatine Hill is one of the most ancient parts of the city. It stands high above the Roman Forum, looking down upon it on one side, and upon the Circus Maximus on the other. Rome’s rulers built their Imperial palaces here beginning in the time of Augustus.

The hill was mostly occupied by the houses of the rich until the palaces were expanded.  It covers about 131 acres and took about 4,000 slaves to operate and maintain the palaces.  It must have been a truly staggering, astonishing, spectacular, majestic – pick your own adjective, you get the idea – palace.

The Roman Forum

The Roman Forum, originally a marketplace, is surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. For centuries the Forum was the center of day-to-day life and commercial affairs in Rome.  It was also the site of triumphal processions (through the Arch of Titus), elections, the venue for public speeches, criminal trials, and gladiatorial matches.  Here statues and monuments commemorated the city’s great men.  The Forum today is a sprawling ruin of architectural fragments and intermittent archaeological excavations.  Many of the oldest and most important structures of the ancient city were located on or near the Forum.

The Roman Kingdom’s earliest shrines and temples are located on the southeastern edge. These include the ancient former royal residence, the Regia (built in the 8th century BC), and the Temple of Vesta (built in the 7th century BC), as well as the surrounding complex of the Vestal Virgins, all rebuilt after the rise of imperial Rome.

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A fellow tourist turned me on to Rick Steves Audio Europe Travel app after our tour.  Rick is America’s leading authority on European travel.  This app organizes his vast library of self-guided walking tours into geographic playlists covering Europe’s top sights, travel tips, and cultural insights. Best of all, it’s free.  Too late to save me any money but perhaps you can get the app, go back and look at the pictures and tour Rome vicariously through me. You can bet our next tour of Italy will be with that app on my phone.

Water, water everywhere….

All around the city of Rome are these fountains, called the nasoni, with fresh water coming out that we (and everyone else) filled our water bottles from.  There are 2,500 of them scattered around the city with some of the oldest in the Trastevere district, where we stayed.  The water for these drinking fountains comes directly from the mountains above the city. It’s pure, fresh spring water.  Uncontaminated with chemicals. Free from added salt. Just. Plain. Water.   This is a legacy of the old Roman Empire – free drinking fountains.  The water comes from pipes of an aqueduct originally created by the Romans, centuries ago. And there’s enough for every single family living in the city to have 550 liters to drink – Every. Single. Day.  Saved us a ton of money from buying bottled water all the time, especially since it’s been so hot.

Tonight we ate at the restaurant across the alley from last night’s restaurant. Our waiter remembered us from last night and so was trying to outdo the competition from last night. He gave us prosecco before our meal and limoncellos after our meal on the house. Hilarious. Our meals consisted of Cathy’s spaghetti and meatballs and my veal dish. The meatballs were totally different than what we’re accustomed to in the U.S. both in consistency and taste. Both entrees were very good, though.

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With this part of our tour of Italy over, we made an early night of it to rest for our travel to Chianti. Stay tuned for part two of our Silver Anniversary in Italy.