We arrived in Rome on Monday. To kick things off, let’s just say that getting through customs in Rome was super easy. They just stamped our passports. So, we were in the airport and the next step was to collect our luggage. It took a bit of time to do this, but happily, our items arrived safely. We had both heard horror stories about the Johannesburg airport and missing luggage, so we were concerned about the safety of our items. Jeremy paid to wrap his “suitcase” in plastic wrap, but I hoped that my lock would keep my pack safe.
After this, we purchased the Roma pass and then hopped onto a shuttle to the Termina station in central Rome. From there, it was about a 10-15 minute walk to our B&B, the Domus Diana. We were met their by our host, who showed us our room. The building itself has a beautiful courtyard and a wonderfully small elevator to the 5th floor, where the B&B is located. The kitchen is stocked with pastry type breakfast items, but not food that I would want to eat every morning. It also has a nice stove and a fridge.
We settled into our room before heading out for an early dinner at Il Brigantino. We knew that pizza was a staple in the Italian diet, but seriously, there are tons of pizza restaurants here. It seems that every street has at least one pizza place. Roman pizza is famous for it’s thin crust, and it is thin and very crispy. I ordered a formagii pizza (white) with ham, and Jeremy ordered the Napoli pizza with anchovies. It was great. Both pizzas lacked the grease that is so ubiquitous in pizzeria style pizzas back home. The crust was, as reported, thin and crispy. We also ordered a half liter of wine. Sadly, I am a light weight drinker, and my half of the half liter made me a bit light headed.
On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at Panella, a bread shop. This shop has the best assortment of breads. We bought a grape bread to snack on back at the hotel. But they also had tons of other sweet breads, sandwich breads, and specialty breads in a wonderfully imaginative assortment of shapes.
After watching an episode of The Office and eating our snacks, we headed off to sleep. We had both had an awful time sleeping on our 12 hour series of flights, we were in desperate need of sleep.
We woke up the next morning refreshed and ready to see Rome. Our breakfast was the Panettone (Ricetta Classica) that was in the kitchen. Panettone is a sweet bread with an assortment of fruits and nuts in it.
Ultimately, we needed to be at the Spanish Steps at 11 am for the free Vatican tour, but our hope was to check out the Pantheon on the way to the tour. On the way to the Pantheon, we passed Palatine Hill, the Coliseum, and the Roman Forum. We also saw the Forum Venezia and the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, or the Monument to Victor Emmanuel. As a tourist, I found the monument beautiful. However, it is not considered wonderful by everyone. Detractors have dubbed it the “wedding cake,” or the “white typewriter,” due to the blinding luster that makes it stand out from the other monuments in Rome that have lost their shine over time. This monument is relatively new, and was built between 1885 and 1911.
The Pantheon definitely lived up to the hype. The Pantheon was one of the first public places of worship, possibly the birth place of the concept of the modern church. The dome of the Pantheon was constructed underneath a hill of dirt. Upon its completion, the dirt was removed. Most of the original marble and bronze was removed by the church to build churches and alters. The theft of these materials led to the now famous accusation that, “What the barbarians didn’t do [to the Pantheon], the Barberini did!”
After visiting the Pantheon, we headed to the Spanish steps. At the bottom of the steps is a statue of a boat, entitled the “Ugly Boat.” The statue was built following a famous flood of the city. After the water resided, a boat was sitting in the spot, and it became a symbol of the flood. The statue/fountain is also a popular place for people to grab a drink of the fresh spring water the flows from fountains throughout the city. In ancient times, the famous quote was the water, bread, and entertainment would be free. The water is still free.
Our first tour was cut short because of a lack of guides, but it ended at the Saint-Louis Des Francais church. Our guide told us that many of the churches in Rome were built to exaggerate the splendor of the Catholic Church in comparison to the protestant religion. This church has many items covered in gold plating. Other churches in Rome were built from marble stolen from “pagan” monuments, such as the Coliseum and the Circus Maximus. The Coliseum was lucky to only have some of it’s marble stolen. The Circus Maximus was completely destroyed, as were many other monuments.
After the first tour ended, we decided to follow the guide back to go on the second tour of the Coliseum and The Forum. The tour ended at the Roman Forum. One of the highlights of the tour was the guides story about the founding of Rome. It is fabled that the mother of Romulus and Remus (a vestal virgin) was knocked up by the god Mars. She placed her children in a boat that was discovered by a “she-wolf.” This “she-wolf” raised the founders of Rome. However, at the time, the word for prostitute was “she-wolf.” Could it be that the founders of Rome were raised by a prostitute?
At this point, Jeremy and I were both pretty wet and I was tired and miserable. We stopped at Caesar Pizza and ordered sandwiches for lunch. We decided that we would travel to the Piazza della Republica to pickup our tickets to see the Pope on Wednesday.
Sadly, neither of us wrote down exactly were the tickets were located, so before we could get them, we had to return to the room. We did look into one of the churches, in hope that it would be the correct one: The Basilica at St. Mary of the Angels and Martyrs. The church was not correct, but I am glad that we stopped into this one. There was a particularly interested exhibit on Galileo. Jeremy said that he thought that the church had recently reversed some of its antiquated scientific positions, which would explain why this exhibit would be in a church. After walking through the church, we knew that we had to head back to the room to find out where the tickets were. This gave us an excellent opportunity to just relax for a bit and to get a hang of the underground/metro system in Rome.
Back at the room, we found out where the tickets were, but we also discovered a free Christmas concert taking place the next day. We found out where it was taking place, and decided that it would definitely be worth going to. That meant that our very busy day would include seeing the Pope, visiting the Vatican Museums, going on a tour of the excavations at St. Peter’s Basilica, and going to a Christmas concert.
After picking up the tickets, we bought some supplies for lunch and then went in search of dinner. The guidebooks were not kidding when they said that Italians eat late. At 6:30, the first restaurant that we tried was still setting up. We hung around for about 10 minutes before deciding to try somewhere else. The next restaurant, La Cuccuma, was open and they had a great deal for only 9 Euros. I ended up with a big bowl of pasta soup, a meat loaf type dish, bread, and eggplant. We bought some walnut bread from our favorite bread place and then headed back to the room to unwind and prepare for the next day.
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