Our last day in Rome. (There’s more to the trip though, can you believe it? This is a truly epic recap series, I do believe.)

We decided to split up the group for the morning. Louie, his brother Julian, and I wanted to go to the Capuchin Crypt, which was very near our hotel. This place is NOT for the faint of heart. It is described by Frommer’s as “one of the most horrifying images in all of Christendom.” I’d read about it ahead of time, and thought it sounded fascinating, amazing, and awful.

Basically you pay a few euros, go through a little museum telling you all about the Capuchin monks and all about their lives and backgrounds, lots of the funny monk haircuts (called tonsure), tons of gory Christ images and lots of hard times. Then comes the real treat: the crypt. There are six crypts, each with a different theme. All but one contains the bones of more than 4000 friars who died between 1528 and 1870…artfully arranged on the walls and ceilings. No photography was allowed but you can find plenty of pictures online.

It was pretty unique, to say the least. I’d never seen art made with bones. The Capuchins claim that they don’t even know who made the displays or why. I say claim because it just seems like it had to have taken a very long time to catalog all the bones (they are arranged mostly by sort of bone, for instance, skulls, or vertebrae, or tibia), organize them, plan the art, and then actually do it..and how could they have done all of that without people noticing or keeping a record? But who knows.

After spending more time in the crypts than any of our fellow museum-goers seemed to (we started to really get interesting in the anatomy, and some of the mummification we saw)…we headed out into the sunlight to continue sightseeing. We headed to the Piazza Barberini with plans to walk down the Via XX Settembre to the Piazza Quirinale, and then to see the inside of the Pantheon.

We saw approximately one church per block. In fact, this was the day that Louie became obsessed with going into as many churches as possible. There was an earlier day in the trip where he had said he was “churched out” but on our last day in Rome he got a “second church wind” and probably nearly converted to Catholicism.

I didn’t even really know what these churches were when I took the pictures, so I’m not too concerned about trying to look them up. Is that horrible?

We passed by a very busy intersection with the four fountains, the Via delle Quattro Fontane. Rick Steves tells us that it was a very big deal for the poor 16th-century pilgrims coming into town. They didn’t have guidebooks like us, but instead would navigate the city by using various obelisks and domes. I suppose we do similar things today as well, but we didn’t drink from the fountains. The intersection didn’t give much room for pedestrian traffic though, so pictures were challenging. In fact, without any cars, it would definitely be easier to take these outdoor pictures…

I snuck into an old guard tower right near a new guard tower. The guard tried to pretend that we didn’t look like crazy tourists while taking this picture, but he didn’t succeed.

The Obelisk outside of the Palazzo del Quirinale, where the president of Italy stays. There is a flag outside that indicates if he is there, which he wasn’t when we walked by. Too bad.

I always liked seeing parts of buildings that were obviously older than other parts of the same building. I love the idea that they just build around or repair things rather than tearing down and beginning new.

We were heading downhill the whole time to the Pantheon, which was nice. Going back to the hotel would be more difficult, but we’d let our future selves worry about that!

We made it inside the Pantheon. The Pantheon is overwhelming to think about. It was built in 27 BC originally but there were a few fires and the structure was completely rebuilt (wait, what did I just say earlier) by the emperor Hadrian around AD 120. Some say he helped design it. I suppose others say he didn’t. It is the most influential building in art history: its dome was the model for the Florence cathedral dome, which basically started the Renaissance. Basically it was the dome that inspired all later domes! And all done without machines or computers or any of the helpful stuff we have today! (flush toilets, coca-cola, you name it!)

Another fascinating thing about Rome that you definitely noticed with the Pantheon is that it is lower than street level. Over the 2000 years, the streets have gotten higher and higher, and the older buildings just seem to get lower and lower.

We were hungry by then so we decided to eat lunch at a restaurant on the square. We had mediocre pizza but a great view!

Then naturally it was espresso time. We went to Tazzo d’Oro which was recommended by my sister Leslie and by Rick Steves. The espresso did not disappoint and indeed we had more than one before moving on.

We next decided to walk towards the Jewish Ghetto.

We walked around the Jewish Ghetto, which definitely makes you start doubting mankind, and then wandered even further, with Louie getting excited about every ruin and church and honestly, his infectious enthusiasm was a bit contagious, even though I was getting exhausted and I think Julian was too. We knew we needed to start heading back to meet up with their parents for dinner soon, though, so after a few more random ruins, we headed back towards the hotel.

The lens smudge definitely takes something away from my photos…sorry about that!

That reminds me, I don’t think I mentioned the bird outside my hotel room window. Every morning, and by morning I mean the wee hours of the morning, there was this cry that sounded like a crazy baby—crying and screaming. It woke me up on many occasions. I finally decided it was a deranged seagull, or perhaps an evil deranged seagull, or a seagull that was stealing babies, or perhaps had the soul of a bunch of babies, because it really sounded like one! I should have recorded the sound to share with you because I’m sure you don’t believe me.

We finally got back to the hotel to rest and freshen up for our last dinner in Rome. Just so you know, people eat dinner in Rome on the late side—8 pm is early for them. This is a nice contrast to St Louis where often when I finish teaching between 8 and 9 there are only a handful of options left for dinner. I imagine though, that the violin teachers in Rome actually have to teach until 10 or 11 pm and have the same issue.

We headed for a vegetarian restaurant called Il Margutta Restaurante. Since Julian had been somewhat deprived of all the delicious food we’d been enjoying all week, we felt it was fair. Well, nobody was deprived tonight either! I had a delicious salad and a wonderful cheese filled ravioli…topped with cheese, with more cheese on the side. (It had a lot of vegan options, but I wasn’t going to avoid cheese unless absolutely necessary!)

After dinner it was time to hit the hay. The next morning we had a train to Orvieto to catch. We asked the guy working at the front desk of the hotel about getting a subway or taxi to the Termini train station, and he informed us that probably neither would be easy…because there was a metro strike planned. Which meant that the metro (subway) wouldn’t be running and that taxis would be few and far between! Luckily the train station was “only” a 20-30 minute walk away so we could do that. I say “only” because while that isn’t a terribly long walk, it is an annoying walk with luggage. We all had smaller bags with wheels, and since we would likely have no other option (unless they canceled the strike, which SPOILER ALERT, they didn’t…).

Anyway, that was our last day in Rome. I was sad to be leaving, but looking forward to the train ride and seeing a small hill-town in Italy the next day. The week was flying by, but we saw and did (and ate) so much that it definitely felt like we were there for awhile, if that makes sense.

Wednesday in Rome. (Yes, I’m really far behind, but I’m determined to do this thing. The good news is, by the time I’m done it’ll be time to go on my next vacation, at least at the rate I’m going.)

Related: my friend April asked me the other day, how can I remember so much so far afterwards? Well, two things help. One is I did keep a few notes as we went along. The other is that when I look at the photos, which are obviously in chronological order, the trip really starts coming back to me. I’m one of those people who firmly believes that photos help keep memories! Obviously you also want to “enjoy the moment” but I really like having pictures later. Moments are fleeting.

(If you’ve missed a day here are the trip recaps–)

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

So Wednesday we had some random plans. Louie’s mom and stepdad, and honestly all of us, had been to Rome before. They had been more times than we younger folks, and in fact his mom had spent a year in Rome with her family while she was a teenager. They lived right off of the Spanish Steps!

Wednesday was to be a less touristy day. We’d been surrounded by crowds for the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums, and it was time to sneak into lesser known places. I don’t mean sneak, I just mean, hopefully thousands of people wouldn’t follow us.

We started our day with a visit to the Giorgio De Chirico museum. It was a little house museum located in a house near the Piazza de Spagna. De Chirico was an Italian artist, and saying much more than that would simply tell the world how ignorant I am of art!

I love house tours. I love seeing how people lived. The tour was led by a guide and was very small—just us and a couple from Australia.

So, after the tour we headed along the Tiber River with plans to go to the Villa Farnesina, in the Trastevere neighborhood.

The Villa was built in the early 1500s for the richest man in Renaissance Europe, a Sienese banker named Agostino Chigo. I guess the thing that is most interesting about the Villa is all the frescoes painted by Raphael. During the time that Raphael was painting them, he was also having a (famous) affair with the celebrated Fornarina, that is, the “baker’s daughter” who lived down the street. Chigo thought that Raphael was too distracted so he had the girl kidnapped so Raphael could focus on his work. This plan (obviously) backfired as then Raphael was distraught and upset, so then Chigo brought the girl to move in and keep Raphael company while he worked.

Our visit got interrupted though, because an old friend of Louie’s mom’s called to meet for lunch. Back when her family lived in Rome her younger sister was good friends with a girl named Ruthie. This Ruthie grew up to be the Swedish Ambassador to Rome and that’s who we met for lunch. We met at a nearby cafe in the Trastevere neighborhood and had lunch and espresso. We didn’t get any pictures of the group which was a shame!

Ruth had to get back to work after a short lunch, so we headed to wander around the Trastevere neighborhood. It was very hilly (near the Janiculum too—I got a little turned around at one point?) and tiring but led to some nice views.

We wandered around quite a bit, and I took some fun neighborhood photos.

Our next stop was to be the Palazzo Spada. It wasn’t easy to find due to a variety of factors: not terribly accurate maps, impatience, and construction.

After that we decided an aperitiv and a snack would be lovely before dinner.

We had some delicious mozzarella for an appetizer, and then headed to a Sicilian place, where we feasted on seafood and pasta. Anchovy pasta! Again, no food pictures (I do regret this but at the time it seemed quite tacky—I never regret the pictures I take, only the ones I don’t?).

It was a random day, but involved loads of walking and seeing random things. We went to bed knowing we had one more day in Rome and thinking about how to make the best of it. Spoiler alert: bones. Bones artfully arranged.

Well, without further adieu let me continue telling you about my recent trip to Rome, Italy (and a few other places, but mostly Rome!). Since blogging about something different yesterday I got a barrage of emails, phone calls, and texts asking me WHEN OH WHEN would I be continuing…okay, one text asking if I was done with the Rome recaps and I can only assume that was a hopeful text, but NO. THERE’S MORE!

(If you’ve missed a day here are the trip recaps–)

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

On my last trip to Italy, back in the summer of 2001, we spent a couple days in Rome and did get to visit the Roman Forum and the Colosseum, but I really wanted to go again. It had been awhile, and I also remembered how much I enjoyed it.

So, Tuesday morning we woke up and waited for Louie’s stepdad to arrive. He had managed to sort out his passport troubles and rebook his flight to join us for the rest of the week (yay!) and arrived at the hotel in the mid-morning. Before he got there we took another trip to Cafe Greco for a nice shot of espresso to get us going…the cappuccino the hotel served at breakfast was very nice but it just didn’t have enough caffeine for the day. Louie said that he’d heard that Italians liked to drink espresso every once in awhile throughout the day, versus the American way of loading up first thing and then sometimes not having any more, so when in Rome…

We all decided to walk to the Colosseum from the hotel—it was a long walk, but doable, and of course there were plenty of sights along the way.

We also walked up the stairs to a church (Santa Maria in Aracoeli) right behind it and there were some nice views.

We bought sandwiches from a truck and ate them while sitting on the sidewalk surrounded by pigeons. Note: the sandwiches weren’t great, but the sparkling water was delicious and cold, and at least we weren’t hungry anymore.

We continued to walk towards the Colosseum. Rick Steves suggested you buy your tickets for the Colosseum at the Roman Forum, where there would be much less of a line, and since I definitely remembered waiting in line at the Colosseum for a long time in the past, we followed those instructions.

We passed by Trajan’s Forum on our route. As Rome grew into an empire, it outgrew the Roman Forum. Some later emperors built their own forums, and this was built by Emperor Trajan (who ruled from A.D. 98-117).

We waited in a short line to enter the Colosseum and then a longer line for the bathrooms (probably much like it was back in the day too, you always have to wait in line for the bathroom…if you’re a woman at least.)

And then, the Colosseum!

I took a bunch of pictures, but they are all similar…I love the Colosseum, and I tried to imagine it in its glory, as everybody does. The other thing I found really fascinating to ponder was that when the building was no longer used as a stadium, people started carting stones away, and then eventually the whole thing was just overgrown with weeds and nobody cared about it. (Edit: after writing this because that was my impression, I read the Wikipedia entry and this isn’t correct! And we know Wikipedia is correct because anybody can edit it.) We started watching the Ken Burns National Parks show last night, and he made the point that America’s National Parks are untouched, pristine wilderness, where nobody has really ever lived. Rome is the opposite. Somebody has always lived here, and whoever lived there after them just built on top of what was there, or used it to make a new building. Thousands and thousands of years have gone by and people have continued to live there!

Then we headed over the Roman Forum, stopping by the Arch of Constantine.

Interesting fact: your ticket for the Colosseum covers the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. We all thought the Forum would be free, and quick internet research tells me that in 2008 they started charging for the combo ticket, so that explains everybody’s memory of free admission!

I should look these up and tell you exactly what they are, but I don’t think it matters THAT much. I also kept getting really confused by the Forum map in my guidebook, and found that I kept having what my friend Jen refers to as “swiss cheese brain.” I’d read some interesting historical background in the book, and then promptly forget. It’s impossible to learn everything at once! Luckily Louie’s stepdad Elliot WAS really good at knowing almost everything and he gave us some great information all week long.

After the Forum we split up and Louie and I went up to Palatine Hill.

It was wonderful to see it all from above!

We walked back by Trajan’s Forum and all of that again, and also by where Rome is putting in a new Metro line so there’s a ton of construction happening (it’s right around the Colosseum, actually).

They had a lot of intense looking scaffolding that looked like it was bracing old buildings. I’d imagine if you are trying to dig underneath them you really don’t want to destroy them!

We got back the hotel and had time for a brief rest before going to dinner. We went to a really nice place called Al Moro for dinner. After dinner Louie and I decided to try to visit this place he remembered which was a kind of home for feral cats. He’d mentioned it before but it took some research to find what he meant—it was at the Largo Argentina Ruins which are near the Pantheon. His last visit (some time ago) he recalled dozens upon dozens of cats…this time we saw about 5 or 6…so I don’t know if that means since the cats were neutered the colony was just dying out or what. There are definitely less cats around Rome now than I recall on my last visit—I remember there being possibly hundreds just around the Colosseum and we didn’t see a single one!

I suppose really that’s a good thing though, as long as they aren’t killing the feral cats and are simply relocating and neutering them. After all, there are plenty of cats in the world still, aren’t there?

So there you have it. A full day of touring the ancient ruins in Rome, followed by a wonderful meal of pasta and wine, followed by cats. That is pretty much my ideal day!

For more Rome recaps:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3 time!

On Monday we had advance tickets to go see the Vatican Museums. Unfortunately Louie’s mom woke up and wasn’t feeling well at all, so she ended up having to stay behind in the hotel. We hated leaving her but she insisted, and we had some cell phones that worked, so we headed out. We took the metro from the Spanish Steps to the Vatican (unlike the Paris metro, the metro in Rome doesn’t go nearly as many places, but occasionally we found it useful.)

One of the things you really have to be prepared for in Rome is all the vendors and people trying to “help” you. Once we started walking from the metro stop to the Vatican people kept asking us if we needed a guide, or tickets, or selfie sticks, and wanting to give us directions, and who knows what else. I’m really good at simply ignoring people because I assume they are up to no good, but we actually followed the advice of one person on directions and it turned out to be more correct than what we were planning, so who knows. Maybe some of the people are trying to be actually helpful! Perhaps they are the good guides! Since we had advance tickets we got to bypass the longest line outside the museum and get in the door quickly. We thought, well, that was easy, and then we realized we had more lines to wait in and the lobby was jampacked with people. I suppose Monday is probably a bad day to go because many of Rome’s other sights and museums are closed.

Anyway, once we entered the museum proper, it was a little overwhelming. I did a little consulting of my Rick Steves Guidebook, but I didn’t want to be too bossy or tell people what to do, and I honestly didn’t really care what we saw. What I didn’t realize is that if you go right up the stairs you get to casually look at some exhibits, but if you go left, you are going on basically a slow march to the Sistine Chapel. It takes hours, and goes by thousands of fascinating pieces of artwork, but the closer you get the more crowded it is, and you start to feel like you are the only people there who are interested in seeing anything OTHER than the Sistine Chapel. The crowds were overwhelming at points, annoying at others, personally intrusive sometimes, and ever present. The museum (museums?) were full of so many amazing pieces of art, frescoes, and more, and it was just an overwhelming experience. I’d like to go again having more background of some of it, and perhaps somehow on a day when less people are there, if that exists? I bet during other times of year than summer.

Julian found an error in one of the signs in one of the sections with the mummies, where the sign said BC instead of AD.

And at one point we got stuck in the Etruscan Exhibit—the normal exit had closed so we headed back where we came from, only to find a roped off exit on that end. Panicked, we snuck under the rope to find a guard wildly motioning and lecturing us in Italian while we tried to explain—we ducked BACK under the rope just in time for the guard from the other end to lead some people out. We left the two guards blaming each other for the mixup. It was a little scary at the time (I imagined us being stuck in the exhibit for hours, unable to explain our predicament, or getting arrested) but really hilarious in retrospect.

We stopped for lunch and espresso at the cafe, which was overpriced and terrible, but desperately needed. After that it was time to swim through the final crowds to the Sistine Chapel.

And the Sistine Chapel…there were so many people. We found a place to stand for a bit and crane our necks. The guards kept announcing that people needed to stop talking and to be silent, that it was a place of prayer and contemplation. But they were basically yelling it at us, and mostly people were just whispering, and it kind of made the mood worse. Then again, if they hadn’t kept saying to be quiet, who knows how loud it would have gotten? We looked at the ceiling for awhile and then moved down to another area. I found a chair along the wall at that point, and we all stared some more. It was pretty phenomenal, and to imagine the work, the creativity, the inspiration, and the true challenge to pain all of that ON THE CEILING…just insane. People are amazing aren’t they?

(To explain the lack of pictures: none allowed in the Chapel itself, and then in museums, I usually don’t bother taking many because I figure the works of art are usually available in picture form elsewhere, plus I like to just appreciate the art, and my pictures inside usually look bad!)

We finally left the chapel and then continued along a long path, far less crowded, to leave the Museum. There was more art to see, and we did glance at things as we went by, but we were pretty beat and wanted to get back to the hotel to check on Louie’s Mom.

She wasn’t feeling great, but marginally better than the morning. After we all rested a bit we walked with her to get some gelato (!!!) and then the three of us went to dinner near the hotel to a place called La Rampa. It was pretty touristy but not bad—it was more in the line with what you think of as Italian food from here, very saucy, very cheesy, and a little overpriced, but we had gorgonzola gnocchi and eggplant parmesan and a decent wine so I was pretty happy with the meal.