ROAMING ROME



My first vacation since last 2006 Christmas break in Rye, Rome was beckoning as part of an Italian tripod with its three legs (of different destinations). This may even turn into a four-legged table support as the only Italian holiday spot left of interest could be… Venice. Four years ago, Antoinette (or AA) and I flew for an extended November weekend to Naples, the town of Benevento nearby harboring her family’s origin. Besides discovering the best pizza on a global basis, we were also able to visit Pompei by train while journeying along the coast by the long dormant volcano Vesuvius. Our second leg lead us to Pisa (in November of 2005) and the surrounding Tuscany region (Florence, Siena and the flourishing wine country… but that can be read elsewhere in the blog).

This would be AA’s third trip to Rome as she has local friends in the area, in particular a couple Domenico and Barbara (five months pregnant) living in the nearby suburbs. AA knew Barbara from her years in London while working for Goldman Sachs. To make it more the merrier, another friend of the girls Tita Rebello (of half Portuguese, half Indian origin and still living in London) made the effort and joined the merry band while staying with the couple and she joined us on several of our excursions.

Having Ascension Day as a holiday on Thursday May 17th and the following Friday being an imposed vacation day as part of the infamous French RTT program, I even took an extra day on Monday in order to avoid the very expensive weekend plane tickets. When these were purchased, a fortunate event occurred : Air France was actually cheaper than the low cost Easyjet prices, this latter airline having been the means of travel for the first two trips (plus our Berlin/Wolfsburg escapade). Having gained only a few euros, we were able to get the mileage and the assurance of a quality airline… oops, let me take that back… at CDG Airport when we arrived on that Wednesday night, we learned that we would be taking Alitalia, the junior partner (once, almost in bankruptcy) of the already smallish alliance Sky Team. True to its reputation (the acronym Always Late In Takeoff Always Late in Arrival), we left one half hour late (originally a 21:15 flight), had the worst sandwich ever as a snack (should have been dinner, no ? ), the sourest glass of white wine (Italian), hard cardboard-like seats, and a horrid deep-green trimming inside the plane which seemed more fitting for the Irish. We were lucky as Barbara had graciously offered one of her company’s drivers (she works for Peroni, the king of Italian beers… and they were bought out a few years ago by SAB Miller of South Africa) to pick us up at the Fiumicino (or Leonardo da Vinci) Aeroporto and drive us into the heart of Rome about 40 km away. Of course we arrived late, waited for the luggage on the same carrousel with two other arriving planes which had already arrived. To our surprise, as the rubber plates started to revolve, our plane’s luggage were the first to come out… and our suitcases were among the first ten bags… how fortuitous… as we were already feeling bad for our driver and the midnight hour. He was there on cue and he drove us (accompanied by a gorgeous woman whom we were guessing as his girlfriend… who was a peridontist !! )

We arrived at our destination about 35 minutes later… being Hotel Art, just a three minute walk from the heralded Piazza di Spagna (or the Spanish Plaza with its adjacent Steps) in the northern part of central Rome. This very recent yet very chic hotel seemed to be hidden in a side road (via Margutta, one of Rome’s most picturesque streets and where Federico Fellini, the reputed movie director, lived while in Rome)… with only four floors of rooms (46 in all) with each floor having its own vivid green, yellow, red or blue hallways and room trimmings. A ten minute stroll would take you to several major sites in Rome as well as a two minute walk to the designer shops (Bulgari, Chanel, Valentino, Gucci, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Armani, etc). The hotel concierge, believing that we were big spenders, mentioned this hypothesis in a rather flippant manner and said that these shops were “the most dangerous place for a woman with a credit card”… funny, funny… we never stepped into one. We only used the hotel for sleeping and breakfast, the eating area juxtaposing the reception area which was quite incongruous. The reception desk was actually two oversized dinosaur eggs having a portion cut out for communication purposes. The lobby (including the breakfast lounge) had a vaulted fresco ceiling overlooking a marble altar (the “Crystal Bar”) and had cathedral-like stained glass windows (they seemed to have renovated a 19th century chapel). How…arty… The “state-of-the-art” facilities included an Internet access in each room which did not allow accessing and manipulating your e-mail accounts… plus they charged five euros per day… in this already “luxury” hotel. So AA (who needs constant e-mail access for her work) had a run-in with top management the first morning… they offered her use of the business center for some outlandish fee per minute… and when that was politely refused, they told us of a large Web center fifteen minutes away by foot… which we discovered later on to be closed due to renovation !!! Clearly these blokes were just not up to par… so we discovered a much cheaper access site about a two minute walk from the hotel.

On the first day we wandered by foot the surrounding area realizing that afternoon we would be having a more profound tour with our guide Roberto Carbone. The Spanish Plaza has the Barcaccia (or Old Boat) Fountain (built in 1627/29… Pope Urban VIII had the fountain installed after he had been impressed by a boat marooned on the site after a flood of the Tiber River about one mile away). The Spanish Steps (or Scalinata) climb up a steep slope to the Trinita dei Monti, a church that was under the patronage of the French Bourbon kings. The Steps are known to be the longest and widest staircase in all Europe. Hmmm… I guess that the Italians have not visited the steps dropping down from Montmartre (the Sacré Coeur church) in Paris. Americans can discover the Steps (in Rome) without even leaving the US as supposedly there is a replica located at the base of the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles !! There were always crowds either sitting on the steps under the drilling sun (an atrocious 93° F or 34° C were experienced both on Sunday and Monday) or just hanging around the piazza. With the heat, I am surprised that no one jumped into the “boat” but maybe that is why there were always the local “carabinieri” or the Italian police lolling nearby.

One of AA’s missions on the trip was to dress me up Italian-style as she believes that the Italians are at the tiptop of fashion. We bumped into a local boutique (far from the designer shops) where business dress shirts were marked down 70%, still above what I would pay for at the local Sy Syms in NY but several with white collars (especially those butterfly wing Italian types) that I had been searching for years… and finally found. On our last day, I went back to the boutique and splurged on several. Actually… dress shirts, a few ties, several leisure shirts, a pair of pants, and two pairs of slick Sisley blue jeans as well as a pair of funky shoes were purchased on the trip. Hmmm… going to Rome to buy clothes… now that is a thought. While touring on foot in central Rome (cars are not allowed in most areas), it is amazing to see that it is like a labyrinth and has no planning like Haussmanian Paris or the checkerboard of NYC. It would seem tough to walk around there after midnight in several parts of the city… even though we never felt at risk… despite AA warning me on how professionally these crafty characters could pick pockets.

After some quick pasta at a local eatery, we walked back to the hotel and met Roberto, our guide for the afternoon. He is half-Italian and half-Ethiopian making him almost as dark as our darling sidekick Tita. She showed up twenty minutes late at the hotel… and told AA later that upon first sight, she could not guess which one was… me !! We walked north to the Piazza del Popolo which would be a mini-version of the Place de la Concorde in Paris but with almost no vehicles and a much shorter column in the middle. I started taking pictures with a digital camera which Christel very kindly allowed me to borrow… and eventually snapped about 70 which I will try and post them on the Net... according to Roberto, 70% of the world’s cultural heritage is in Italy of which one third happens to be in Rome.

Then we walked south near the Tiber River (or the Fiume Tivere) and passed by Emperor Augusto’s Mausoleum, some nasty black round cement mound placed where the Roman centurions marched and battled for practice while preparing their conquests of Gaul and the rest of the world. The Tiber seemed at extremely low levels and there were even marsh smells emanating at certain bends as we saw reeds, algae and marsh grass in several areas. As we guessed (and confirmed by Roberto), little rain and global warming was the culprit (swimming had been banned since 1980). We strolled on to more piazzas, before arriving at the marvelous and outrageous Fontana di Trevi where the rococo rearing horses, conch-blowing tritons, craggy rocks and flimsy trees erupt from under the powerful torrents of water belching out from beneath the wall of the Palazzo Poli. It is tradition to throw a coin over your left shoulder with your right arm in order to ensure your return to the Eternal City but I did it to bring me luck… which I needed back in Paris (with the US portfolio at work). Tita and I quickly squirmed through the crowd to heed the call of tradition. Every Monday morning, the fountain is shut off and a cleaning crew is sent in to collect the small change which is given to the Red Cross. We eventually stopped off at an ice cream store for a gelato (with mounds of about one hundred different flavors and colors), our only one on the trip !! Treading further south to the Pantheon (not as impressive as I would have thought) and then on to Piazza Navona (with its grand Fountain of the Four Rivers unfortunately without any bubbly and hidden for the most part behind restorative scaffolding… like many other monuments an buildings in Rome), one of the larger ones in the city. The Pantheon (Greek for “Temple of all the Gods”) happens to be the best preserved of all Roman buildings built back in 125 AD after the original Pantheon of Agrippa had been destroyed in a huge fire in 80 AD. The façade looks just like the Church of the Madeleine in Paris (without the steps) and then has the dome shape unlike the weighty rectangle of the Parisian lieu of worship (the Pantheon is also used as a Christian church). The vaulted dome (the largest un-reinforced concrete dome in the world) was to represent the heavens and smack at the apex you find the oculus (called The Great Eye), a large open-air hole allowing the rain to pour in (little slits on the floor for draining). The Pantheon also acts as a tomb with a few kings and you can see the coffin behind a glass partition of the painter Raphael.

We also saw our share of Palazzos (Montecitorio, Madama, Venezia, etc). We left Roberto and returned to the hotel. Later that night, AA, Tita and I took the metro (more on that type of transportation later) several stops and joined Domenico and Barbara for our first encounter of the trip in a tavern where we had delicious pasta and shared oxtail, with some aromatic Italian vino. While walking to the tavern, the streets were absolutely crazy with AS Roma fans blaring car horns and waving large team pennants from the car windows. They were in some European league play and despite losing 2 to 1, they still advanced in the tournament due to a better goal average over two games… only in Europe can you find joy in losing…

After breakfast on Friday, AA had to make a bee-line for the Internet center while I went on a two-hour stroll much further to the south of Rome… leading me to the excavations of the forums of ancient Rome. Now finally I could see the vast areas of what I had seen in the French comic books of Alix and Asterix. My final destination point was the Coliseum (or Colosseo), most likely the high point of the trip as it was definitely the most impressive… I was just imagining the Romans having their “bread and circus”, the philosophies of the different Roman emperors in order for the locals (45/50 000 seats) to be happy watching the gladiators hacking away or for other public spectacles (mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, dramas based on local mythology, etc). The lines inside for the visit seemed quite long for this amphitheater built in 70/72 AD under the Emperor Vespasian. Even after Rome “fell” in 476, the Coliseum (all of 615 feet long, 510 feet wide and 157 feet high) was still being used until late in the 6th century. The only other time I had seen the structure was during the movie called The Core when electromagnetic (?) waves rocked the coliseum. The present day damage, only partially due to erosion, to the monument was mostly caused by earthquakes and stone-robbers !!! Having been built at what was historically considered as the city’s center, it is still considered as the “heart of Rome”. Did anyone know that the arena’s floor was actually made of wood and then covered with sand (‘harena’ in Latin) ? Maybe that is why in the movie Gladiator, that trap door sprung open… as the gladiators and animals were living in cages beneath the arena.

I had to hurry back as I had to back at a noon rendez-vous at the hotel. Tita joined us then we all walked across the Tiber, passed in front of the Castel Sant’Angelo, a monstrosity of a castle built as a mausoleum for the Emperor Hadrian (mentioned later in this novella) before venturing on the Via della Conciliazione and finally arriving in front of Basilica San Pietro, or the first bastion of the Vatican. We had a 2 PM meeting with our second guide Anna who was absolutely delightful. As we had to walk around the Vatican walls we fell upon the line which extended for over a two hour wait just to get to the Musei Vaticani (notice the plural). Barbara was to join us also which helped us on a ploy to get in by cutting in line. The Italian guides have strategies for hopping in front of the masses as they help each other out but you can’t be more than two or three people. I was able to “sneak” in with Anna and Barbara as she was pregnant and I was her companion, and a museum official allowed us in by removing the “velvet rope”. AA and Tita used another ruse to get in near the head of the line with a much larger guided group. We were all in quite quickly and then we were given the tour by highly qualified Anna (much better than Roberto). The museums with their 54 galleries display works from the extensive collection of the Roman Catholic Church. There were unending corridors (some as ornate as Versailles but not as wide) many of which were closed to public access (the Pope lived and worked in another building in Vatican City). We were not able to see the famous and impressive circular staircase, having been seen in possible only two Hollywood movies, including Godfather III and the smash dud Hudson Hawk (uhh… with Bruce Willis). For those of you who know that we have had dinner over one year ago with movie director Ron Howard (ex-Richie Cunningham of Happy Days fame) and his wife as the movie The DaVinci Code was being released in Paris, we also knew that within the next month, he was planning to direct in Rome the movie Angels & Demons also based on another Dan Brown novel. I have read both and preferred by far A&D due to its more exciting baseline plot, tons more action (some totally outrageous) and some real slimy villains. We were just wondering how Ron and his team would get around the fact that the Vatican would most likely not permit filming in its City (according to our guides) due to the blasphemous connotations in the novel.

Of course the highlight was the Sistine Chapel, another short cut just in time with Anna’s help was necessary. The Sistine Chapel, one of Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoed masterpieces (painted between 1508 and 1512) was ominous in its darkened interior (no sunlight to spoil the frescoes). Part of its fame also arises from its architecture evoking Solomon’s Temple… and also used as a conclave for electing the Popes (when they send out either the white or black smoke according to their decision-making). In one of his more impressive frescoes (of The Last Judgment), there is a body in the hands of Saint Bartholomew, sagging in the form of flayed skin, supposedly a self-portrait of Michelangelo himself. As an aside anecdote, some quack student from Northwestern University (in the US) back in 1998 was inspired after seeing the ceiling and replicated a portion of it on his dorm room’s ceiling !! Several museum officials quietly shuffled people around as no speaking or picture taking was allowed… but you know the masses or ploucs or whatever… some daring souls tried to take pix and were only scolded from far away… every minute, an official had to cry out “silencio !” as the crescendo of voices had to be quelled with the garbled volume growing sixty seconds later… an occasional “no foto” also had to be uttered… we stayed there either seated or standing for about 15 minutes just gazing at the ceiling… before joining Anna at the exit. We then entered (for free) Saint Peter’s Basilica, the most prominent building in Vatican City (and some say the largest church in Christianity covering 5,7 acres with a capacity of over 60 000 people), once again filled with tourists… and having Michelangelo’s Pietà, a sculpture unfortunately behind glass as some tortured soul took an axe to it back in 1972. The most intriguing sculpture was a marble and gold sculpture of a skeleton protruding from under folds of red marble drapery with an hourglass in his hands looking up at Pope Alexander VII and mocking him, the timepiece symbolizing the inevitability of death.

After saying goodbye to our guide and Barbara, we returned to the hotel with Tita to nibble on Italian ham and cheese while lying on the bed and splashing that down with a bottle of wine. Later we walked back to the Plazza de Navorro (25 minutes away) to have dinner with Domenico and Barbara at a restaurant called La Carbonara, with its very dynamic and witty waiter (even though I had no idea what he was saying).

On Saturday, Tita eventually joined us and we walked across the Tiber River to stroll along the Champs Elysees of Rome but on a much smaller scale. From an avenue leaving the Piazza del Popolo, it branches towards the Vatican on a street called Via Coli di Rienzo where all the boutiques (non-designer) allowing us to browse and make a few purchases (even AA with a Coccinelle handbag). AA very nicely bought dress shirts for me at a shop nearer to our hotel thanks to a recommendation from Domenico. I bought two Italian ties in yet another shop just by being attracted to them in the “vitrine”. In the afternoon, as AA was on Internet, I tried out the hotel’s fitness center in the cellar where they had a stationary bicycle, a stepper and a running machine… I got so bored after twenty minutes (I was alone) that I stopped after trying all the machines.

Later that day, we took the metro at the nearby stop Spagna (under the Spanish Steps) and thirty minutes later on the next to last stop on the B line, we were to have dinner at Domenico and Barbara’s apartment. Just a remark about the Roman subway : it has only two lines almost forming an X and it was built in 1980 for an original capacity of 150 000 people on a daily basis… never having been renovated, it serves over 700 000 !!! The amazing thing is the price… if you though Paris was cheap (and London’s fares simply out of this world), then how about paying only one euro for any destination… our half hour trip was only that much… the metro did go clickety-clack and was covered with graffiti though… no problem with us !!

We were served chilled Campari and soda, followed by brownish pasta imported from Domenico’s home region of Puglia in southern Italy! Then Domenico had prepared us a fish platter seared in a mound of sea salt which had to be scraped off in plaques… how sabroso (oops… isn’t that Spanish ? ) We ended the fiesta with a large carton of different ice creams with the oddest flavors : egg nog with a spash of alcohol, ricotta, wine grape, etc. I wasn’t with the girls when this was purchased, but AA was even able to sample taste gorgonzola ice cream. We also had some Italian chardonnay and the pink champagne which was toted in from Paris by AA.

On Sunday, this was to be our first and only outing away from Rome. A 9:30 r-v with Roberto and his accompanying driver, we sped out about 40 minutes to the east of Rome to visit Hadrian’s villa. Due to a snafu in communication, B, D and T joined us later by car after we had done the first 45 minutes of the tour. The Villa Adriana near Tibur (or modern day Tivoli) even though in ruined condition is still one of the most spectacular gardens. Emperor Hadrian not having enjoyed his Roman abode, had the villa built in the early 2nd century as his retreat. It was such a shangri-la that he governed from there as did his successors before falling into ruins during the decline of the Roman Empire. It was a complex of thirty buildings covering at least one square kilometer of which much is still unexcavated. About one hundred yards after walking in, you can see a miniature model of what was supposedly the greatest Roman example of an Alexandrian garden with its sacred landscape. The complex included palaces, a “maritime” theater (a stage surrounded by a moat), thermal baths, libraries, state rooms, and living quarters for courtiers, praetorians and slaves. We were able to espy underground tunnels for the goods and servants as only the roads and paths above ground were reserved for the high ranking residents. In mentioning high-ranking (or should I say ex-), we “bumped” into the Iron Lady !!! At the far end of the villa, we noticed Margaret Thatcher loping along with her hubby Dennis hobbling at her side. We had already seen a spoof of Dennis at the end of one of the old James Bond movies, but he did not seem any better today. They were surrounded by a small cortege of maybe two family member and two Mafia-like slick-haired Italian bodyguards. Some French tourists broke off from their much larger group (as they were calling out “c’est elle, c’est vraiment elle” (“it is her, it is really her”) and chased them down to snap photos from only ten yards away. What ploucs !! As we were waiting for B, D, and T, the cortege passed us on the way back literally within one or two yards. As I was leaning on a tree, one of the Italian guards leered back at me to see if I would pull off some foolish stunt. It is true that I could have stretched out my arm to have checked if she was actually made of “metal” or maybe I should have inquired “What’s up, Maggy ?” or “Dennis, how’s it hanging ?” Today, Hadrian’s Villa is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as was our next destination… a ten minute drive to Villa d’Este up high on the hill and smack in the town of Tivoli. From what Roberto told us, there are about 70 UNESCO heritage sites, of which over 30 are in Italy. We had further luck as we had free access to both sites as the Italians were celebrating some special commemorative week (not at the Vatican though… despite owning almost half of Parisian real estate, it is said that they still don’t mind making the buck… confirmed by our guides as they never give anybody a break !!)

Roberto set us up for lunch across the villa but since the service was so lethargic (and we were slightly pressed for time as our driver had to be back in Rome at a certain hour), we ate and had a few brewskies for free !! Villa d’Este, commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este in the mid 1500s, is a palatial setting surrounded by a fabulous terraced garden in the late-Renaissance style. The palace overlooks a very steep slope needing hydraulic engineering innovations in bringing a sufficient water supply which was employed in cascades, water tanks, troughs and pools, water jets and fountains. Many statues had been yanked away from the nearby Villa Adriana. The most innovative fountain was a woman (goddess ? ) with about ten different sized breasts each spouting out aqua. The Fountain of the Dragons wasn’t too bad also. The palace seen from far below in the garden seemed rather staid in its grandeur and cement façade.

We bid our final farewells to B, D and T as they wanted us to go back with them and hang out at the terrace at their apartment but we were just too bushed. Roberto and the driver took us back and we dined at a tavern near the Plazza del Popolo and had our first pizzas of the trip (not nearly as good as the ones in Naples). A couple who arrived after us (they seemed to be romantically involved and yet he could have been her father), and sat next to us, got up in the middle of their order and insulted the waiter and took off. After we inquired, it seems that they were miffed after the waiter kindly suggested that a side-order of arugula (or roquette salad) was maybe not the best option !!

We checked out on Monday morning… did our final purchases and I had to pick up the jeans which had to be shortened (and eventually re-shortened back in Paris). Tita joined us in the afternoon and we had a complimentary guided tour by a certain Tosca (extremely knowledgeable and dynamic) of the Jewish quarters of Rome (or the Trastevere neighborhood) on both sides of the Tiber… Tosca also showed us the exact site where Julius Caesar had been slain by a group of nobles on March 15, 44 BC (“the Ides of March”) in some excavated sunken mall/forum in the south of Rome.

Barbara ordered us another driver for the airport for our 18:05 flight back to Paris… and once again ALITALIA left about 30 minutes late… with another cardboard sandwich (just like the seats). We got back just in time as in the local paper on the flight, we had read that Alitalia was canceling 394 flights the following day as the local air controller were going on strike !!
Back home, exhausted yet exhilarated from our Roman Holiday (not Hollywood’s 1953 version with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn… Gregory Peck’s character had an apartment on via Margutta !!), we nodded off into an imperial reverie.

Some added comments about what was seen in Roman (or Italian) culture. As seen in Naples, it was quite difficult to find mini shopping stores for everyday groceries or common consumer staples. One innovative (yet profitable ? ) venue though : I noticed one of those soda-style beverage machines selling pizza slices (hot or cold ? ). I mean, for Italy how ridiculous is that !!! Rome was filled with tourists and the Romans seemed to be in hiding (due to the heat ?) The young Italian women (between 15 and 25) were stunningly dressed mostly in white and skin sucking pants and white tops… with the occasional wide black belt with silvery studs… always a pleasure to launch the occasional eye. The older women were also fancily dressed and mostly svelte as the reputation of the Italian overweight Mammas were (as in France) mostly splayed out in the provinces. We saw several small Roman fountains where you can drink the fresh water directly as it spilled from its intricate spigots (some having ornate sculptures) but we never saw any of its aqueducts. Supposedly the water supply in ancient Rome was 1 mn cubic meters per day… and today it receives 1,8 mn cubic meters for a population that has more than tripled… I can understand that with its free free-flowing fountains !! Maybe it has been compensated by the disappearance of all those large swimming pools and hot baths, the relaxed but flabby-skinned Roman having led to the downfall of that oh so powerful empire.