How do you leave?

How do you decide what you're going to do on your last day in Rome? Well, you pretty much have to resign yourself to the idea that you can't possibly see everything there in a week (or even two). Have I had a great time? You bet I have. Did I see a lot of marvelous things? More than I ever imagined. So I decided just to go out and have some fun without stressing out about what I might have missed. No regrets.

There was still one place that I wanted to go; the Galleria Doria Pamphilj. According to the guide book, "Most of the great names of the Renaissance are represented on this gallery's crowded walls." How could I pass that up, right?

The gallery didn't open until 10:00 and it was relatively close to Capitoline Hill, so I decided to take another walk past the ruins. The rain from the previous night was gone and it was another beautiful day.

Here are a couple more shots from the area of the Forum.

This kind of 'peeking' view looks in on the monstrous Victor Emmanuel Monument. Vick was Italy's first king. He must have done a pretty decent job because one of the few streets wide enough for traffic on both directions is also named after him.

I was so glad I'd gone to the Galleria! After spending several hours there (no photos allowed), I stopped for lunch at a pizzeria. All of the pizzas were named after rock groups from the 60's. I had 'The Doors' (and a beer, of course).

"Italian Food" in the US is so different what I had there. Every time I was served something, it made me smile to see just how different it was from what I would have gotten here. There was no sauce on this pizza. It wasn't sliced. The crust was very thin and crispy. The cheese was in scooped piles. The tomatoes were half cherry tomatoes set around in concentric circles. And there were 'greens' on it!! It was great!

After lunch, I decided that I'd go back inside St Peter's and take a last look there. Here again are just some street scenes I found along the way.

Again I crossed the Ponte Sant' Angelo. This time I took pictures of most of the angels along the bridge. This one is my favorite.

There was one heck of a line at St Peter's and it kind of made me laugh to hear people complaining about having to wait. These folks had come all the way from the US and a 20 minute wait in line was stretching the limit of their tolerance! Obviously they had never been inside. I would have stood there for an hour and I'd seen it already!

Also... All of the guidebooks warn and there are signs as you wait; you must be properly dressed in order to enter the churches. No bare shoulders or knees are allowed. So there were people who stood in line and made it through the security check only to be turned aside at the door because of the way they were dressed.

Here's one shot just coming up the steps before you actually enter.

And a fitting close to my adventure, was the opportunity again to see Michelangelo's Pieta'...

...and, of course his glorious dome!

One of the benefits of where I was staying was the location and I spent the rest of the evening browsing the shops, had a late dinner and headed back to the hotel.

The final adventure was trying to cram everything back into my suitcases!

T Minus 2

Only two days left in Rome! I try not to panic. I got up early on Monday and decided to walk to Campo di Fiore to the street market. It was another beautiful day. The weather had cooled down quite a bit, so I thought it would be a great day to walk and shop.

I took this picture at the bottom of the Spanish Steps, right around the corner from my hotel. I think this is about the only time of day when you can actually see the steps. In the evening they're covered with people.

This scene cracked me up! Apparently the price for parking in a 'No Parking' zone is to have your vehicle buried in trash. I'm not sure how trash pick-up works here, but I noticed that early in the morning there were empty plastic trash bags left on the doors to many businesses. So maybe someone comes around and takes your full bag and leaves an empty? Certainly no garbage truck could fit down most of the streets.



The market was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, but had all kinds of great looking vegetables and meats and a couple stalls with fresh flowers. The best booth had bags of dried herbs and spices that smelled wonderful. Of course there was a limit to what I could drag home with me, so I had to leave it all behind. The one thing I did take away with me was the name of that wonderful tasty leaf that was in all of the salads: rughetta! Gotta get me some!!

I went off browsing through some of the shops and just taking in the local scenes. Here are a couple of miscellaneous street scenes I ran across.

This one is from the Piazza Navona. A lot less crowded in the morning than it was the first evening I passed through.

This fountain was pictured in my guide book and I just happened across it in one of the back streets. I recognized it immediately.

Originally, I had planned to return to the Vatican Musem on Tuesday, making it both the first and last place I visited in hope that the memory of it would not be diluted by everything else I experienced here. Finding myself in the neighborhood, however, I decided to go back now.

Here is one view down the Tiber as I cross Ponte Sant Angelo. The river itself is pretty ugly, but other than the hilltops, it's one of the few places where you can see any distance and the views are all amazing!

This view includes St Peters.

Here it is again from another angle.

Once at the museum, I went directly again to the Sistine Chapel. The museum and the chapel were much more crowded this time; maybe because it was Monday? This time around I found the picture gallery, which I had somehow missed on the first day. I also ran across this interestingly attired individual:

The last place I went was back to the Sculpture Rooms. What an incredible collection! The sun was dropping, so there was all kinds of great light coming through the windows this time. In this grouping, I kind of thought the second from the left looked like Pete Townsend and the third from the left like Joe Walsh.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the sculptures.

I spent more time shopping in the area of the Vatican before I headed back. By the time I got back to the room, my feet were like 2 pounds of hamburger in my sneakers (I think this was the day I clocked 25, 000 + steps). I showered and changed, but there was no way I was putting my shoes back on, so I headed out to dinner in my flip-flops. I was starving and had a marvelous dinner at Otello's (thanks, Bob, for the tip!) but it starting storming while I was there and my flip-flops are useless on wet surfaces, so I ended up walking home barefoot; up the Spanish Steps and down the cobbled street to my hotel. Hopefully, there was no one taking pictures of me! :-)

Roaming Rome on Sunday

By the time Sunday rolled around, I was finally able to slow down and enjoy being in Rome the way I had intended. My plans for the day included a trip to the flea market at Porta Portese in the Trastevere area and then a stop at a couple churches in the area that I had identified in my travel guide. Another beautiful morning. This was my view as I climbed the hill to the metro stop near my hotel...

It took me much longer to get to the flea market than expected because there were just so many distractions. Every time I turned the corner, I saw something that took me off my intended path.

I had two choices of metro stops that were close to where I was headed. I chose the 'Circus Maximus' stop for the obvious reasons. Here's what I found when I ascended into the street:

This former site of the famous chariot races is now little more than a dirt track; a large open field in the midst of an otherwise very crowded city. Some folks were out for an early morning jog here. Amazing!

From the hill I could see back toward the capitol where I'd been the day before.

Just past the Circus Maximus I turned into a residential area and found this arch just kind of sitting there behind a small parking area:

At the main street, I could see a bank where the old pillars had been revealed in the side of the building. I headed off in that direction and found this, the Theatre of Marcellus:

Attached to the building you see on the right hand side of this picture was a small church where there was a service in progress; a choir singing and several men waiting on the steps smoking. Down the street a way was a nice park just above the river.

To appreciate these scenes, think of the town where you live and then picture these things across the street from the Walgreens. Everything was so 'right there'!

I really liked this section of the city because it was less cramped and there were a lot more trees and grass. I headed across the bridge to Porta Portese. I knew I was headed in the right direction because everyone coming the opposite way was carrying at least one bag. The flea market was HUGE. I don't have a lot of photos from there, because I was too busy shopping. Most of the stalls sold either clothing, shoes or bags/luggage, but there were also plenty that had other things like this one with african masks.

I bought a bag, a pair of pants, a CD of 'authentic' Italian music (for Kyle who collects all sorts of music) and a Jack Nicholson DVD (that I had never heard of) in Italian with English subtitles (also for Kyle). The flea market closed at 2:00 which was probably a good thing for my budget. As I was leaving I bought an absolutely wonderful roast pork sandwich from a street vendor. It had just started to rain a little, so I sat on a bench by the river, under my umbrella, and ate the best sandwich ever.

I took the metro back to the hotel and dropped off my 'treasures' then headed back out toward to look at the churches. Here are photos from two of these. The first is Sant' Ignazio and the second I believe is Sant' Andrea Della Valle (I should have kept better notes).

Not only are the churches decorated with these beautiful frescoes and sculptures, but they also contain the most gorgeous columns and balustrades in various colored marbles. They are just incredible.

I wandered around through some of the shops and side streets to see what I could discover. Here's a small scene I stopped to photograph...

Then headed back toward St Peter's. Here's a picture of Ponte Sant' Angelo.

And another of Piazza Sant' Pietro as the sun is setting.

This night I had dinner at a 'pizzeria' on one of the streets near the hotel. I had the Spaghetti Carbonara which is spaghetti with eggs and bacon (and a Heineken). I was great!!

So Little Time...

I've fallen another day behind. There are just too many things to do! It's okay. I spent most of yesterday (Sunday) at the flea market anyway. What great fun! But I need to talk about Saturday first. Let's see... I realized when I got home on Friday that I had not been to the Capitoline Museums and had missed Trajan's Market altogether, so I set a course back to the capitol and headed out the door. (Oh, this tiramisu is fabulous! Sorry!)

I walked all the way down again and took some more pictures of the Trevi Fountain (you can't see that too many times!). I stopped again at a couple of the churches because the churches in Rome are so beautiful. I just can't get enough of them and stop in every one I come across. Here is a picture of a small entryway that appears to have been excavated. This type of discovery is around every corner. I found the simple beauty of this very touching.

The small statue is melded right into the corner of the structure. I'm almost sure I saw a match to this in the Vatican Museum. There are beggars on the street in Rome, mostly at the churches. I have my doubts about some of them after watching one carefully tuck her leather purse beneath her robe as she got into position on the steps near the Colosseum.

My first real stop of the day was at the Capitoline Museums that occupy twin buildings on Capitoline Hill. The museums are mostly dedicated to sculpture. A funny thing happened to me there. I bought a ticket but I wasn't sure where the entrance was (everything is very different here). Anyway, I wandered into a reception for some undoubtedly important person. I knew they were important because someone was video taping people as they entered and everyone except me of course was extremely well dressed. Oops! Perhaps I was on the news as having crashed the president's birthday party! HaHaHa!! Later I heard much cheering and applause from the room I had escaped.

I liked the Capitoline Museums well enough, but they could not compare to the Vatican. Here are some of the things I saw there:

This is one of the many statues out front.

In one of the courtyards are pieces of this gigantic statue of Constantine. A smaller staue would probably have survived in one piece had he not been so over-ambitious and arrogant. The Romans certainly loved to honor themselves! Here's one of the feet...

...then the hand...

(We're number one!) ...and then the head...

They were very cool! One of the main exhibits was about the reconstruction and preservation of the Roman artifacts. Part of this exibit included this statue of Marcus Aurelius: A real serious historian, all I could think of when I saw this was a line from my favorite movie, 'Gladiator'; "You knew Marcus Aurelius?" That made me start chuckling, so I had to leave the room before I offended someone.

One of the things that really intrigued me at the museum was in one of the rooms upstairs. The entire room was covered with these wonderful frescoes depicting various war scenes. All around the edge of the frescoes were painted these faces alternately of men and women. This is not commentary on my part but merely observation. All of the women appeared to be very serene and meek, many with eyes cast down. The men on the other hand were leering and evil looking. Some of them were actually demonic. I tried to ask the guard/guide (whatever) about the significance of the obvious good/evil counterpoint but she didn't understand english and just looked at me like I had two heads. You be the judge! Here's a set: female - male - female.

Some of them were even more obviously evil like this ine with the horns...
...or this ghoul...

I just thought it was fascinating. I'm going to see if I can find a 'tell me why' site on the internet where people answer Art History type questions. Where is Robert Langdon when you need him?

I had another such question today when I went back to the Vatican Museum. In several of the painting were men holding structures or what pieces of cities and I wondered what that signified. Were these men local governors? Interesting!

One of the 'extras' I got with my ticket to the Capitoline Museums was a chance to take some great shots of the city from the upper terrace. Here are a few of the views:

The one below is the Theatre of Marcellus. I got a real good look at this on Sunday when I just happened upon it on my way to the flea market.

And these are the forums that I visited the day before.

Finally, I visited Trajan's Markets. I'm such a dope. When I read in the gude book that they were reconstructing Trajan's Markets, I thought I could go shopping there! Ha! I guess they were all sold out of slaves! The museum here was really great. In one room they had a video that showed how the original structures in the area looked originally. I thought the video was fascinating and again it made me think about how awesome it must all have been.

I included a broader view of the markets yesterday. Here's on a little more up close and personal. With the price of the museum (6.50) they let you walk all through the structure and over the grounds. Pretty awesome!

After I finished at Trajan's place, I visited the Pantheon and the Piazza Navona. I walked down Via del Coronari where my hotel room was originally supposed to be. I ended up then back in front of St. Peter's, did a little shopping and caught the metro home.

This is me at the end of this day...