ROME
MONDAY: We arrived at our flat in Testaccio late morning and the agent gave us the tour and lecture. Then we bought food for breakfast, had lunch and a gelato, and spent most of the afternoon dealing with all the emails and news that had accumulated over the past week and a half. Since it was only in the 60s and rainy, there was not much incentive to go exploring. Dinner at a local restaurant where we were the only ones speaking English.
TUESDAY: Rain predicted for the rest of the week, but amazingly, the sun came out for the six hours we spent wandering around Rome. Bob got a good shot of the Vatican dome through a keyhole in a door not far from where we have our flat. He also took one of the Circus Maximus and Palantine Hill (minus Charlton Heston and chariots), and one showing how Romans build modern buildings onto ancient ruins that they could not tear down. Our plan for the week is to have small museums as destinations for walking the City, and today's was the Palazzo Massi, which is a relatively new one housing an amazing collection of frescoes, mosaics, and sculpture, much of it taken from villas built around the beginning of the Christian era. In all, I think we must have covered ten miles on foot
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| CIRCUS MAXIMUS |
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| DOOR WITH SMALL KEYHOLE |
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| AMAZING VIEW THRU KEYHOLE! |
WEDNESDAY: Another day of walking. Maybe only eight miles this time. Again, it rained in the morning and once when we were in a museum, but whenever we were out, so was the sun. Amazing. This walk took us up the west bank of the Tiber, where Bob took a photo of the river which looked like rapidly-flowing, thick chocolate milk. We visited Campo d. Fiori (small, open-air market), Piazza Navona, and (as we always do when in Rome) the amazing Pantheon which Hadrian had built (if memory serves) in the 2nd Century. We also knocked off two “small” museums of mostly sculptures: Museo Barracco and Palazzo Altempts. Both were housed in 16th Century palaces with some restored rooms, and both had interesting collections of mostly sculptures. The latter included several that had been “restored” in the 17th and 18th Centuries when Greece and Rome were becoming the “in thing.” In several cases, though, the parts didn't all fit together quite right, so you'd have a larger-than-life statue with a smaller-than-life head stuck on it. Still, both museums were a pleasure to be in and did not overwhelm you the way large museums, such at the the Vatican, can do. Also, Bob finally had a cone of his his favorite gelato: frutti di bosco. To be companionable, I had one too.
