Month: March 2015

Well after days of sniffing around the Forum I finally paid up and went in and spent the next 6 hours pottering around in there. I was trying out the iPad App that does this virtual thing of what it looked like in Roman days. It comes with you and uses your location to identify what you are looking at. Having said that it is limited and I also get sick of peering at my iPad so once I got the gist of it I abandoned it and went on my own imagination. Truth be told it is very hard to envisage what the Forum used to be like. It’s hard to convert piles of stone and marble that have been put back together in the C20 as a vibrant, active, commercial city centre. So the Forum left me a bit wanting so up I went to the Palatine Hill and that was a different matter. It is a lovely green and treed area with the ruins of the Dumus (Mansion/Palace) of Augustus and you really could imagine it as a living breathing place with it’s internal oval for races (chariot), its swimming pools and gardens and mazes and baths with ducted heating etc. It was great. The area also provides great views over the Circo Massimus (where the Ben Hur – type chariot races were held) and Colosseo and the rest of Roma. So a long and tiring day but good. My ticket is for 2 days in a row so tomorrow I’ll use it to go to the Colosseo so I can inform Rosa’s visit.

I spent the whole day in my new shoes which may have been a bit risky and I know you will be just hanging out to know how it went. First day of new shoes and all good!!! Somehow those Merrells seem to suit me.

This is a quicky…tomorrow I continue on my excursion into Ancient Rome!!

Spring is definitely peeping out in this part of the world and lovely it is to feel the sun, to soak it up and enjoy the moments. It was a good decision to see the winter out in Rome and as each day passes I get to know the city a bit better and grow to love it. I love the way the Italians embrace you, greet you as you walk down the street and kind of accept you. With Spring comes an increase in the tourists but they don’t really bother me too much. Yesterday I went to the Capitoline Museum(s) which are two joined Museums that are part of the Capitol Building (The wedding cake – white monolith). I spent the whole day exploring these museums. They are so rich with Roman History. Amazing sculptures and paintings. The Lupa Capitolina is there, that is the famous wolf suckling Romulus and Remus. Anyway…all bloody day!!! I came out smack into another demonstration. There is certainly a lot of political activity going on.

Today I thought I should give my tourist role a bit of a rest. So I did a bit of Italian study in the morning, then decided I should buy myself a pair of sneekers. Specially if I’m going to give the Cinque Terra a go when Rose is here. So I went up to the shopping area Via del Corso where I had seen a Merrell shop. That was successful and I came home with a pair of sneakers although their summer collection isn’t in yet but Spring will have to do.

I then came back to Il Vittoriano (Wedding cake building). I was walking past it and there was an exhibition on at the Immigration Museum of the liberation of the Concentration Camps at the end of WWII. It was free and I waltzed in only to be totally stopped in my tracks. It reminded me of when we went to Vietnam War Museum on Christmas Day. It was honestly the most disturbing thing I have seen in a long time. It brought tears to my eyes and profoundly impacted on me. I guess I was taken off guard so it hit me between the eyes.

When I left there I went to the Marmertine Prison which is on the edge of The Forum and is where Saints Peter and Paul were incarcerated and it was used as a brutal prison in Roman times…very spooky. So all in all not exactly an uplifting day. I scuttled back to my neighbourhood. Went to my Ravioli shop to get a delicious ravioli for dinner. Then went and got myself a Gelati and then a cappuccino. Then I came home to pull myself together.

I certainly never have boring days in this extraordinary city.

Yesterday I started sniffing around the outskirts of the Forum as I move slowly towards finally entering and trying to understand this massive excavation. So, I went to the Chiesa di Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Like all churches in Rome it is full of interest and art. It is built on an ancient temple and blah, blah. I love it all as you know so not much point in going on too much. I then went to the Capitoline Museum forgetting that it was Monday…bugger. I should remember that by now!! So back I go tomorrow. Then I got a bit aimless and wandered off through the Ghetto which reminded me of stuffed Zucchino flowers!! So, for the first time since I’ve been in Rome and counting my pennies after spending too much on the gallivant with Tull, I sat down to lunch in a Jewish/Roman restaurant. There is no better food! I had Zucchini flower stuffed with Sea Bass!! That was a really delicious, between the Jews and the Romans they know a bit about food.

I then wandered around the streets and ended up in yet another church. Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. This one houses a Michelangelo statue just sitting there, a lovely chapel decked out in frescoes by Filippo Lippi among other loveliness. If I was ever going to end up religious it would happen in Rome (not that that’s ever going to happen). I then wandered home.

Now it is morning and I’m about to go and get my coffee. Then I guess it’s back to the Capitoline Museum and more sniffing around the perimeter of the Forum. Tomorrow might be the day to actually enter!!

19 sleeps til Rose arrives and I have my little buddy with me again!!

Very quick update tonight. A day of very low activity/ laziness. It was a glorious day with sun to warm the bones and the cockles of your heart. My morning coffee is always a disappointment on a Sunday bec. my usual bar is closed and I have to find another source. After coffee I wandered off to the piazza, called the Piazza del Madonna di Monti so naturally I feel it is my piazza. Who else would be the Madonna of Monti I ask myself, it must be me. I was in the last throws of my book and I couldn’t put it down so I sat in the sun for 2 hours and soaked it up reading my book/ kindle. I then went home for a spot of lunch and spoke on Skype to Norjie who is visiting in Lucca in July. The reception was so good that I also Skyped Hammy while I was at it and the great reception continued. I then went out again and had a brief passagiata before holing up for the night as the chill set in. End of very quiet but nice Sunday in Monti.

Just a quick post before bed tonight to say the sun is back but it’s taken a bit of a dive temperature- wise in this part of the world. It has that ‘there’s snow in them there hills’ feel and actually I believe there is – blizzards actually!

Anyway after coffee this morning I don’t know what got into me but I decided I’s better clean my little apt. That took all of 10 mins (well, actually a bit longer). I had some lunch and then headed over to Chris’. As I said she’s away so I packed up a bit of washing and walked over there (it’s about 3 kms). I put the washing on and got myself organised to watch ‘Bidrman’. That was interesting but I’m still not sure what I thought of it. I need my buddies (Rose and Jule) to talk to to work out what I thought of it.

Then I packed up my wet washing and thought I’d walk back to my area. I went the back roads and through the ghetto which unfortunately found me on the wrong side of The Forum which in Rome means disaster because you can’t cross the Forum, you have to go around it and in this case that was massive. I was walking to punish myself for a slovenly day but I didn’t mean that much punishment!! I reckon I doubled the trip home. I wonder whether my knees really will wear out before their time!!

So to reward myself I got a gelati, came home and collapsed. I’m watching ‘Newsroom’ now so I watched 2 episodes of that. Now I’m ready for bed. The Saturday night noises and really in action outside my window. There is a very popular restaurant just on the other side of the street and it generates lots of noise. I’ve never been there because I don’t eat out at night by myself but I think it would be a place to try…maybe when Rose gets here.

Nearly finished my book ’The Bone Clock’ Rose…good one to get. Most unusual but an absorbing read.

Yesterday it rained all day. It started the night before and rained and rained. So I did nothing other than pick up a few essentials (wine!!) and I holed up inside with my computer, my book and started to go stir crazy. I heard it was going to be shit all over the weekend but this morning when I woke up the sky was blue and although it was cold it was lovely. So off I set. I went up to Piazza del Popolo and went to a church up there (Chiesa di Santa Maria del Popolo) that is literally full of stunning works of art. A couple of wonderful Carravaggios, Raphaelles, Berninis…quite gob smacking. I enjoyed that very much and puttered around in there for ages. Then I walked up the hill that overlooks the Piazza and sat for a while in the sun in the lovely gardens up there, the Pincio Gardens. I then walked back down and along to the Museo dell’Ara Pacis, the Museum set up solely to house the Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Peace) completed for Augustus in 13 BC. This vast marble alter is considered one of the most important works of ancient Rome. It’d need to be important given what they charge you to see it….but it was nice!!

Then I hopped back in the bus and headed home to do a bit of shopping, have my afternoon coffee and come home to do a bit of very simple cooking (!!!!!!!!) for my weekend meals.

Chris is away this weekend so I’ll probably tootle over to her place tomorrow to do a bit of washing and maybe watch a movie while the washing machine is on. Otherwise who knows what the weekend will bring.

Had a fantastic email from Mares with lovely, lovely photos of you all…made me very homesick I must say, it all looks so familiar and as if I should be in there somewhere!!

More later.

It’s been a few days as another week gets underway and then starts to disappear. I started the week very sluggishly after a full weekend and on Monday there was little to report which is why I got into the habit of missing the daily email.

The weather until now has been absolutely gorgeous so on Monday I time just enjoying it and taking things very slowly. I went for a bit of a wander around the Colosseo but I rapidly get sick of being in amongst all the tourists. I went to the Forum to see what App they had for the Forum but I haven’t been able to make that work yet. I’m saving the Forum to explore with Rose but I wanted to see what worked in terms of ‘virtual experiences’ but haven’t solved that one yet. I also spent time studying a bit of Italian. I haven’t enrolled for classes here but am going through what I have learnt and am trying to retain it.

But that was about it. So to Tuesday when I decided I needed to get off my butt…for some strange reason I feel so guilty if I’m not ‘doing’ something. Anyway I had a lovely day yesterday. I set off to find a way of getting to Via Appia Antica (The Appian Way), the first Roman Road that is lined with Catacombs used for the burial of Christians for the first centuries AD. It was no mean feat getting there. I had to conquer the Metro system and then get a bus but I got there. First I went to the Catacombe di San Callisto. You can only go with a guided tour and a different Salesian priest takes group in each language. I had the misfortune of being with a large group(about 30) of young Fins. It was just them and me!! Wouldn’t you know it the English speaking priest had the broadest Australian accent. I have no idea what the Finnish kids thought of him and how much they understood. He used terms like ‘they got jack of it’ which I’m sure isn’t a term taught in Finnish schools. Anyway until I thanked him at the end he thought I was with the group. Once he worked out I was from Melbourne I couldn’t shut him up…he was from Melbourne too and I got his life story before he let me go.

I then went on to the Catacombe di San Sebastiano. It did test my little short legs getting up and down the steep stairs to the underground tunnels. I think if I’d tried for a third I might still be down there. But they are fascinating. It is like a massive labyrinth with tombs woven into the walls like honeycomb and decorated with stuccoes and frescoes some of which still remain. So that was interesting.

I then started back but stopped on the way to visit the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. Chris had told me that this was a lovely place to visit and it was. It is a beautiful cemetery and full of interesting graves like that of Keats, Shelley, Gramisci, Carstens. It was a most glorious sunny day and I sat in the cemetery in the sun for a while and just absorbed it all. I told you I was becoming a bit obsessed with death!

Today I decided to spend a day in Trastevere checking out a few things. So I set off and again had to work out a bit of navigation to get there. I went to a church (Chiesa di San Francesco d’Assisi a Ripa) which holds Bernini’s splendid “Sleeping Woman’ or ‘Beata Ludovica Albertoni’ sculpture. That man (Bernini) was a true master and his sculptures are mesmerising. I then moved on to Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere which also has a superb sculpture of Santa Cecilia by Stefano Moderno and some lovely frescoes.
Then I scooted off to the third and final church Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere with its wonderful 12th century mosaics. Phew…busy morning of churches!!! But I love things wonderful works of art within.

Just in time Chris rang to say she had some lunch ready so I walked over the river to her place, had a nice pasta and a glass of wine and then hopped on the bus to come home. As I walked back down to my apt the rain started to spit. Apparently the weather is about to turn really shitty including the weekend!! Chris has friends coming from London for the weekend and is going into the hills with them but sadly for her it looks like its going to be miserable…the forecast includes snow up there!!

For me, I’ll see how it pans out before I work out what to do. I was going to do a day trip to Tivoli (outside Rome) but as that is a lovely garden, bad weather will certainly not make it an attractive option.

Two days to report today and quite a busy couple of days. On Friday I had a fairly leisurely start and then walked up to the National Gallery at Palazzo Barberini. I wandered around there for a couple of hours enjoying the beautiful Palazzo with its divinely painted rooms as much as the amazing art held within. Amazing art is just overwhelming in this part of the world and the settings that holds the art it also mind blowing. Just such a privilege to wallow in it all for such an extended period. I then wandered off. I was going over to Chris’ for tea and taking some ravioli from my ravioli shop. I’m greeted as an old friend and while I wait for my takeaway ravioli he pours me a glass of wine from different parts of Italy and demands to know which I like best. I just love the gorgeous Paolo…definitely a place to take Rosa!!!

I then went and had a capuccino and heard all this massive megaphone noise so went to investigate and found myself in the middle of a huge demonstration. Bugger, last time I went over to Chris’ with lots to carry the busses stopped due to demonstrations and this was 10 times bigger. I was due to head over to Chris with food, wine, washing and overnight gear and again no fucking busses. I rang her and she said that they were heading over her side of town. On my side of town was the left wing protesters and coming from the opposite direction were the right wing protesters and the police were worried about what would happen when they met. Ho Hum, I had to get there somehow so off I headed walking behind the march as it were!! There were helicopters overhead, riot police blocking the roads and the army out in force. On I walked through it all, no-one stopped me so I figured couldn’t be too bad. I think I’m an adrenaline junky. They had all gathered in Piazza Venezia so through the masses I went shopping bags in hand…plod,plod,plod!!!

Anyway not to over dramatise a good story I got to Chris’ with food and me intact, even unhindered I would say. But its a 3km walk which is fine without the shopping but with it is quite tiring. Chris and I had a nice night with good food, nice wine and a movie. We watched Citizen 4 which is something to raise your paranoia a few degrees. As for my complicated password…no more complaints from me Ham Bam, though I haven’t changed anything else yet!! This morning we attempted to get an early start for Ostia Antica but fail to some degree by the time we got out of the house, went to the market to get supplies for a picnic lunch, have a cappuccino etc. We had to be at the Necropolis by 11am for our ‘appointment’. Just made it in time!! That was great it really was interesting with some lovely floor mosaics and frescoes decorating the burial sites of the ancient Romans. We then headed off to Ostia Antica but not before we’d travelled all over the countryside along the Trevere river looking for a suitable picnic spot. We didn’t find one mainly because all the nice spots along the river were private property.

So we resolved to picnic within Ostia which we did. we took our bottle of wine and our roast pork panini and sat on a grassed area above the ruins in the sunshine, it was lovely. It’s great going somewhere like Ostia with Chris. She really is incredibly knowledgeable and knows exactly where to go for the most interesting things to see.

Anyway it was a really lovely day and I got the bus home when we got back. Must say I was glad to get the old shoes off!!
I’m really liking Rome, I think (well, maybe have always known) that I’m a city person, I love the hustle and bustle and being out amongst it and I’m enjoying my area ‘Monti’.
Not sure what next week will hold but maybe a low activity day tomorrow…we’ll see.