Day 7: Rome

Rome, Italy

We enjoyed another high speed train ride (at times we were going 240 km/hr) as we ventured to Rome! During the train ride, I realized I didn’t keep you all in the loop on one fun detail! Italians cannot say my maiden name (all our reservations are made under Kirk)! The following letters do not exist in the Italian alphabet, so we often hear something like “keey- irk”: J,K,W,X,Y We’ve instead resorted to using only mom’s name in Italian (Luisa) for any additional reservations! Also, we sat in business class on today’s train which was very comfortable…and was totally awesome that they had little conference rooms in the train car. We need high speed trains in the US! Immediately when arriving to Rome we could tell how much larger this city was than Florence. We were glad to have a driver take us to our hotel, as we soon realized the walk to our hotel would have been impossible. As we turned the corner to our hotel we spotted the Vatican straight ahead! We literally are staying not even a block from the Vatican – quite an impressive site! It’s also the oldest hotel in Rome (Palazzo Cardinal Cesi). We walked to grab lunch (had to sample the local traditions of pasta carbonara & pasta amatricana) after checking in and smiled at the fact that we crossed multiple countries in a matter of moments, as the Vatican is it’s own country technically. During lunch, we discussed options for the afternoon and decided to take a stroll down the street to see the Tiber River. From here, we saw the Castel Sant’Angelo and decided this looked very interesting! This was a great self guided audio tour that well prepared us for the next two days, as much of the history of this castle will intertwine with the other historic and religious sites. This building is the Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as Castel Sant’Angelo. It’s a towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. It then transformed into a site for the Popes prior to the Vatican, and eventually transitioned into a site connected to the Vatican with a special walking path over the city’s barrier wall. It was incredible to see how well engineered this site was with specific alignment of windows to each cardinal direction, a mote for protection, a chamber for prisoners, signs of an elevator for the popes exist, and even special ‘trap doors’ to easily remove an unwelcome guest. The core that remains is only brick, travertine and lava stone; but, prior the walls were covered with beautiful marble. This site was stripped of all of its valuables over the years, but several items are on display in other museums in town. This castle was built in ~130 AD and the Archangel Michael appeared atop the mausoleum, sheathing his sword as a sign of the end of the plague of 590, thus lending the castle its present name. This sculpture also found in the interior plaza of the castle was destroyed 5-6 times until the final version on display was recreated by Michelangelo. Finally, The view from the top was beautiful, and a great way to familiarize ourselves with the city! From here we headed back to our hotel after a walk around the neighborhood and settled/unpacked a little, refreshed for dinner, and shared a bottle of Prosecco in the elegant courtyard of our hotel. For dinner, we headed to Antica Taverna Mangiabene, which was a very popular place! We had a reservation and were seated on the cute patio (right on the little side street) immediately. Here, they simply began bringing us a prearranged meal. To start, our anti pastas (my favorite yet) included: Grilled zucchini and eggplant, a cooked cauliflower dish, potatoes (with a little bit of egg like a warm potato salad), a bean salad, plate of fresh salami (2 different kinds) and pruscitto, cooked cabbage with more Prosecco! From here they poured a house red, and we enjoyed three pastas (2 olive oil based sauces and 1 red spaghetti). The main course included a nice fresh greens salad, crunchy potatoes and veal. We finished another delightful meal with tiramisu and espresso. From here, we took about a 15 min walk (felt sooooo good to walk more after another huge meal) to the Trevi Fountain. Unfortunately, it was covered with scaffolding and is currently being renovated so we only got a peek of this masterpiece. I can imagine how impressive this is when it’s functioning as normal. They still have a spot open for you to toss a coin in, so we all did for good luck to return to Rome (we’ll have to so we can see the Trevi Fountain at its best)! Just as we grabbed a taxi to head back to our hotel tonight we got a few sprinkles – perfect timing. No other rain spotted in the forecast, so we welcomed the slight cool down (in the low 80’s the next few days). Tomorrow we have tickets to see the Vatican/Sistine Chapel/St. Peter’s Basilica – can’t wait to see everything that’s in store! Ciao!