Did we do more in Rome? Oh yes, we did!
There was the zoo (almost nobody else was there!):
And the Baths of Caracalla, built in the 3rd century and with a capacity for over 6000!
And the San Giovanni Basilica, the seat of the bishop of Rome (aka, the Pope):
And just piazzas and fountains and obelisks everywhere we walked:
Now we are on to the Prague section of the Grand Vacation. Thanks, Italy, for the pizza and wine and history and beauty and (most of all?) gelato!
Boy, we’ve stuffed a lot into our less-than-a-week in Rome.
Next on our agenda was to bike along the old old old Appian Way. (Tessa was especially excited to have a big bike with hand brakes. Yes, let’s teach our 5-year-old to use hand brakes biking on a line of half-submerged rocks on a bicycle one size up. Worked out fine!) It took us a little bit to figure out how to bike over those things, which really was a line of half-submerged rocks. But so cool — in places you could see carriage ruts in the stones. Luckily for our bums, the road is now mostly small bumpy bricks.
The road is lined with ancient mausoleums and memorials
and lovely villas
and, look! Acqueducts!
Afterward, we got a special treat. No, not gelato. We’re not 100% pushovers all the time. These watermelon slices looked sooooo good. And they were the best after such a hot ride!!
We hit a couple of other biggies too.
The Pantheon, of course, was amazing. So surreal to stand in something built in the 2nd century, famed for being the biggest unsupported dome in the world. And Raphael is entombed there too.
At the Trevi Fountain we cooled off a bit by dipping in our hats. Other people were filling their water bottles — gross.
And the Spanish steps and so many piazzas and pilfered obelisks. We saw a street artist make a sand sculpture on the sidewalk, jammed out to a sax-playing panda and a drumming horse until they got evicted by the cops, and watched a lady make fresh pasta in a bowl made of flour.
Tomorrow we leave for the next leg of our adventure, but we still have the morning to do even more of Rome!
We’ve hit a few of the biggies already! Sunday we rose early and naively thought we would be in the front of the queue to get into the Vatican museum on a free day. Yeah, we were about 3 hours down the line an hour before they opened. So we bagged that idea (flexibility makes for happy vacations!) and we’ll have to do the Sistine chapel another visit. We did, however, go into St. Peter’s Basilica. It is the biggest church in the world in the smallest country in the world, in case anyone wants a little trivia fact. We of course checked out Michelangelo’s Pieta (he was 23 when he carved that sucker!) before heading up the 551 stairs to the top of the dome. Claustrophobics, beware!
Especially when you get toward the top of the dome where the walls and ceiling start to slant in on you, it can feel a bit freaky. But boy was it worth it!
We stayed to hear the Pope pontificate out his window. Everything was in Italian or maybe some Latin, so we understood about 3 words (cinque, Gesus, and bambini). An experience we’ll probably never get again, though, to hear a King address the masses from his castle. It all got me thinking, really, what does the Pope wear for pajamas?
This morning we woke up for our guided walking tour of the Colosseum and Palatine Hill and Forum. So. Cool.
We learned about the invention of elevators here (to raise animals and gladiators to arena level), the importation of exotic animals (which would you choose to fight — an angry elephant or angry tiger?), why the exits were called vomitoriums (55,000 spectators could leave in 5 minutes), and that you got free bread, free water, and free bathrooms inside (better than current tourist attractions!). Oh, and that all the white marble that used to cover the Colosseum was taken to be used in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Next up, the Palatine Hill — the birthplace of Rome. Here is where Romulus killed Remus and built the first huts 8 centuries before Christ. (The wolf suckling and raising 2 little twin boys, by the way, is probably accurate. Except use the other meaning of “wolf” which is “prostitute.”) And here is where the emperors had his grand marble-encrusted, landscaped, swimming-pooled palace. It is all now ruins, but it has an amazing view of the Forum below.
There was just too much in the Forum to know fully what we were looking at. There’s been centuries and centuries of building and looting and rebuilding and burying and building. The 2 major things we recognized were the Temple and House of Vestia surrounded by statues of the most well-known vestial virgins
and Julius Caesar’s final resting place, to which Romans still bring flowers and coins.
We ended the day with a quick trip up to the church and museum of the Capuccini (yes, the coffee drink does trace back to these monks) for the odd crypt there. No pictures were allowed inside (it is still a sacred place to the friars there), so you can visit a website for a view of what it’s like. Let me just say that it was not what I expected, and also that it was actually very beautiful. In the mid-1700s the friars had to move house, which meant also taking their cemetery with them. When all those wagon-fuls of bones arrived at the new friary, some unknown monk took it upon himself to arrange them in a pleasing manner. Intricate patterns, chandeliers, symbolic designs — he went all out in these handful of rooms. It was fascinating, both intellectually and aesthetically. Never before have I asked the question, “What is that star made out of — coccyx?”
We still have a few days to cram in some more history and art. And gelato, of course!
I think we were more on vacation at Lake Maggiore than we have been anywhere else so far. We allowed ourselves indulgences and hot siestas and spent a whole day without leaving the apartment, even. Which is not to say that we didn’t experience the area as wholly as other places.
We did a lot of swimming in lots of different beachy places.
We indulged in good food beyond gelato.
We made friends with a local.
We learned that the ratio of responsibility between pedestrians and cars is 50/50.
And that being a gardener here is different sort of work.
Really, we just enjoyed ourselves. Can you tell?
Next up…Rome.
Every night, Bill and I look across the lake at a huge cleared line up the mount over there.
We took the ferry over and found our way to the Funivia (which I guess translates to cable cars). These fancy buckets are 2-standers, so we divvied up and gripped the rails while we slowly climbed higher and higher.
It was pretty steep and I’m sure very safe, although it did feel a bit hinky. Never been in an open cable car with a wiggly 5-year-old before. (I definitely stood at the back where the door was and didn’t touch it with one finger nail.) Neither girl felt creeped out, so I guess that’s a parenting win.
At the top of the Funivia, it was just a short hike to the summit (1062 m) before the promised all-downhill hike we advertised to the kids.
It was very hot. And very very very downhill. But the view was pretty phenomenal.
And recounting our wedding, our honeymoon, and every anniversary until the present got us down to gelato and the ferry home and shops for a lemon marmalade pie.
We are in love with this family of ours!
Magrilless 