Tue 9th Sept
Our Rome Apartment: here and here
The drive from Florence down to Rome airport to return our car went without incident and we were glad that the forecast heavy rain did not eventuate. Our taxi pick up from the airport went smoothly as well, that is, until about the last 300m. We don’t speak Italian but we could tell our very polite and genteel driver was swearing at all the pedestrians milling across the road as he was trying to access our accommodation. Having said that, our accommodation was only 50 m from the Trevi Fountain so you can imagine the human congestion in this area. We have been to Rome a few times but I have never seen crowds like we experienced here this time. What happened to that cost of living crisis? You know…..the global cost of living crisis?
Our Rome accommodation was a two bedroom apartment located in a boutique hotel set within a 17th century listed building and it was lovely. There was loads of historic charm, with the beautiful and high wood coffered ceilings, but all of the modern conveniences we wanted as well. We got the advantage of having two large bedrooms, a large living and dining space, two modern bathrooms, a washing machine but also access to the hotel breakfast. We were very happy with our selection despite being in such a congested area. Matt and Annabelle were in a 2 bedroom apartment just a 4 minute walk away and they were happy with their lodging as well.
It was almost 5 pm before Mark and I left our apartment to meet up with Matt, Annabelle and Teddy at the restaurant where they were having dinner, Osteria da Fortunata. This was somewhere that Annabelle had found but was also promoted very recently on Instagram by one of the Swans players so that seemed to confer some extra prestige. Anyway, we all had dinner there and our meals were delicious and it’s a place I would recommend as well.
Mark and I parted ways with the others after dinner and headed back towards our apartment with a detour stop off at a wine bar just below our apartment and this provided some excellent people watching opportunity given there were so many people to watch! Mark only lasted one vino though as we were both tired after our day of travel and so we headed upstairs to our apartment to try and work the washing machine.
Wed 10th Sept
It was a gloomy start to the day but, thankfully, the predicted thunderstorm rolled through earlier than forecast and so we were able to get out for a morning walk. It used to be that a 7.30 am walk around Rome would be relatively quiet but the crowds were building, even at this hour, and we stumbled across at least 3 wedding shoots.
There wasn’t a lot planned for the morning, as we were minding Teddy from 11.30 am so that Matt and Annabelle could visit St Peter’s and the Sistine Chapel, so we just took a walk up to Piazza del Spagna, then along Via del Babuino to Piazza del Popolo and back to the apartment along Via del Corso. Both of these avenues were lined with interesting boutiques, cafes, Basilicas and shops as well as some of the larger well-know shopping brands ubiquitous around the globe. We were lucky to get that walk in as the rain started shortly after we got back to our apartment and didn’t let up again until the early evening.
It was almost 5 pm by the time we all grouped together again and Fortunately, the worst of the rain had passed. We drifted past some shops before heading to Piazza Navona for aperitivo but this was a tad underwhelming. We then went on to Cantina e Cucina for dinner where we all had a nice meal before stopping off for some expensive gelato on the way home. I paid $100 AUD for four ice creams! I’m not complaining at all but just reinforcing and reminding you guys! We have it so darn good in Australia!!!! Don’t tell ANYONE !!!!! You hear me!!!!! Keep it as our little secret!
Thurs 11th Sept
It was good to see the sun shining this morning as Mark and I had a 2.5 hr walking tour at 10 am. This was called a ‘True Rome Tour – An Italian Dolce Vita’ for people ‘weary of the crowds and wanting to spend a perfect morning discovering some of the lesser known places of Rome’. Well, this sounded like us so off we went. The tour started near Circus Maximus, on the other side of Palatine Hill and this was a 35 minute walk to our apartment but we enjoyed this journey as it took as through the Roman Forum area and one can never tire of the majestical view over this ancient site. Our guide for the tour was Anya, a native f Finland, but her knowledge of Roman history was excellent. She took us from Circus Maximus and further away from the touristy area of Rome; through the posh embassy area of Aventino and then down through the humble working class area of Testaccio and we ended at the market area of Mercato Testaccio. It was a good way to spend our morning and we definitely feel we have a deeper understanding of the history and progression of the average citizen through the era of Roman civilization.
It was almost 1.30 pm by the time we got back to our apartment and we took some time out to rest up and recharge our phones. Our only other activity before dinner was a visit to the UNESCO heritage archeological area under Piazza Navona as this used to be Stadium Domitian that became popular after Circus Maximus. This was a sporting stadium developed by Emperor Domitian (81-96 AD) as he was a huge Grecophile and he imported the concept of the Greek Olympics to Rome in the first Century AD. The events included a foot race, discuss, boxing, long jump and javelin with all events being performed naked by men only and women were banned as spectators. It was quite a surreal experience to walk around the ruins of a sporting structure dating back to the first century AD and it is a museum worthy of considering if you are ever in Rome.
It was after 4.30 pm by the time we got out from Stadium Domitian and we headed straight on to our dinner location. Dinner tonight was at La Laconda del Tempio (no website) and it was our last evening with Matt, Annabelle and Teddy as they fly out tomorrow morning. It was a lovely meal and we will miss their company for our last two days in Rome but we wish them safe onwards travel. We headed back to our apartment after dinner and it was an absolute human crush trying to get past the Trevi and on to our front door. We were tired after a fairly long and full day and didn’t want to do anything after dinner but the crowd around central Rome would have made it very hard should we have wanted to.
Fri 12th Sept
It was the first day of being on our own for some weeks now but there wasn’t time to dwell in any self pity as we had a morning tour of Vatican City at 10 am. It was a 45 minute walk to the Vatican but we decided to catch the train instead. Our tour was led by Henry who had an Art / History degree so he sounded like just the kind of person you’d want to lead such a tour. We were to visit some of the museums and galleries, the Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica. Henry turned out to be an excellent source of information and even though we’d done this exact same tour some years ago we both discovered new and significant pieces of information about the Vatican. No one before had ever explained the significance of Michelangelo’s achievements with his art work in the Sistine Chapel. Neither of us knew that Michelangelo had never painted before completing the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, a work he started in 1508 and took 4 years to complete. It seems his name was put forward as a potential artist to the Pope at the time as an act of duplicity because the guy referring him thought Michelangelo would fail miserably, given his only other work had been sculptures. Not only did Michelangelo NOT fail he set a new benchmark and style for painting that was subsequently adopted by other great artists, including Raphael. Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel was significant for 2 main reasons:
1. Michelangelo brought motion and dynamism to the characters in his work. They weren’t just standing figures posing without any movement. He brought the dimension of his fluidity and mugiven to his 3 dimensional sculptures to his 2 dimensional painting.
2. Michelangelo gave emotions to the faces of the characters he painted. There was anguish, pain and joy on the faces of those he painted. Not just the stoic style and bland facial portraits that had dominated the previous tradition of art and this was something that was very novel.
The queue to get into St Peter’s was absolutely phenomenal. Again, our guide Henry said he’s never seen anything like it. It was the same human crushes inside the galleries but this time under a blazing sun. There was one bonus to being here this year though and it was that we got to cross through the Door Of Forgiveness, a food that is only opened every 25 years during Jubilee. The next time it will be opened will be 2050 and we’ll be long gone by then I suspect.
The human crushes continued once inside the thought as the basilica was obviously being prepared for a Mass as the whole floor space, bar a few narrow aisles, was covered with seating. This meant the huge crowd had a much smaller area to navigate through and made the rather very unpleasant. I took one good look at the Pieta and I was done. Henry apologised for the chaos commenting that the basilica was empty yesterday and he didn’t know what the preparations were for. I thought it might have something to do with tomorrow’s concert in the St Peter’s forecourt square area featuring Andrea Bocelli and John Legend. This is a free concert hosted by the Vatican called ‘Grace for the World’. However, Google revealed the basilica was being used for the conclusion of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity.
We parted ways with our group shortly after 1 pm and walked the long route home with a stop for lunch. It was then back to the apartment to recharge our bodies and our phones.
Neither of us were very hungry but we headed out near 6 pm for dinner to Trattoria Della Stampa where we shared a lovely meal. It was only a small Trattoria, and there was quite a queue by the time we left, but the food was delicious and this is a place I would recommend if you’re ever in this part of Rome.
It was our last night at this apartment / hotel but we had one more evening to go however in a different hotel. Thankfully, we were only moving just around the corner so we didn’t have too far to drag our bags tomorrow morning.
Sat 13th Sept
Our Rome Hotel: here and here
We had one more night in Rome but we had to move to a different hotel today as our apartment was already booked for our final night. The U-Visionary Hotel was just around the corner, a 4 minute walk away, and this location had been planned so that we could, hopefully, roll our bags with relative ease from one venue to the other.
It was a glorious morning and forecast to be quite hot so we got out for an early walk down to the Colosseum before our final breakfast at the Trevi boutique hotel. It was a bit of a challenge moving our luggage across, especially the bike as once packed up in its bike bag it then didn’t fit out the jammed door of our boutique hotel but, with a lot of pushing and shoving and some damage to the bag, it eventually was squeezed through the narrow passage.
Check in at the U-Visionary Hotel wasn’t until 2 pm so we filled the morning with a walk over to Trastevere where we took one of the GPSmyCity self guided walking tours. This was an excellent way to kill a few hours and it included a stop at the supposed site of the crucifixion of St Peter! Mark doesn’t believe this but the audio guide stated there was a lot of corroborating evidence to support their claim. The walk over to Trastevere took 35 minutes, as did the return path, so we were pretty tired by the time we made it back to the hotel, some 18,000 steps and 10 km later, so we spent the next couple of hours recharging ourselves and our phones.
We headed out again near 4 pm and went up to the roof top bar at our hotel but it was deserted so we changed plans and headed back to the bar near the Trevi that had free ‘snakes’. We spent a lovely hour or so having our apritivo and people watching before heading back to our hotel.
Our choice for dinner tonight was the hotel restaurant, Clementino, as this was well reviewed and offered an easy option for us being just downstairs. Mark also claimed that he was over the masses and wanted a quiet peaceful dinner. Our meal was delicious and the evening was a most pleasant one and this is a restaurant I’d would recommend if you’re ever in the area. We leave Rome tomorrow morning and head to Copenhagen on the way to Sydney. Bon Voyage!
We had loved our visit to Rome and especially the comfort of our lovely apartment accommodation. The Trevi location was ideal, considering we were part of a group having a toddler, and our apartment for the first four nights was wonderful but I think we would try to find somewhere a bit removed from such a high traffic zone if we ever returned to Rome.