On Friday morning, we started our adventures with a trip to Campo de Fiori, an outdoor street market. The market was fun but it seemed a little touristy, so we only bought a fruit cup for breakfast. There are a lot of lovely vegetables in season this time of year including asparagus and artichokes. We finished our brunch with a visit to a supermarket where we bough bread and cheese, which we enjoyed outside the Largo Argentia.
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| Largo Argentia |
We walked to the Monument Vitorio Emanuelle, the "wedding cake" dedicated in memory to Italy's first king, and then made our way to the Forum.
The definition of "old" is so relative; growing up in the West, I remember seeing turn-of-the century homes as "historic." In Rome, that is practically brand new! It was amazing to witness the remains of a civilization that was so advanced and yet existed thousands of years ago. Sadly much of the Forum has to be visualized in the imagination as much of it was destroyed and/or re-purposed into the many churches in Rome. Nevertheless we enjoyed our visit and learned a great deal.
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| Trajan's Column |
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| Trajan's Forum |
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| Forum of Augustus |
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| Temple of Saturn and Column of Phocus |
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| Temple of Vestus |
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| Temple of Vestus |
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| House of the Vestal Virgins |
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| A vestal virgin |
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| Temple of Romulus |
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| Basilica of Constantine and Maxentius (this building was three times as large as the remaining ruin) |
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| Arch of Titus |
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| Santa Francesca Romana |
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| Arch of Titus |
One of our favorite exhibits was a glass exhibit in the building where the Senate met. The glass pieces were beautiful and it was amazing that something so delicate had survived so long.
The next stop on the path was the Palantino where emperors and other wealthy Romans lived. Again, most of the remains are just the foundations of the buildings but it was lovely just the same. We stopped at another museum that held busts and other sculptures recovered from the site. It was fun to imagine these lovely people living in the ancient halls.
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| Stadium |
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| Stadium |
After the Palantino, we headed to the Colosseum, one of the most famous landmarks in Rome. The architectural marvel was also the scene of much gore (nearly 2,000 people died during the inaugural week's performances, though they did not target Christians as it was reported by legend). While it was impressive, the gory tales are not my favorite (though I'm not sure our civilization is much better as we still like violence, only we have figured out how to enjoy it without actually killing people which somehow makes it more acceptable). (P.S. If you plan a trip to Rome, you can buy a ticket to the Forum, Palantino, and Colosseum all at the same place and the best place to buy it is at the entrance to the Forum. The lines were much shorter than at the other locations, particularly at the Colosseum where the line was an hour and it wasn't a very busy day.)
The Capitolini Hill was next on our list of place to visit. An elegant plaza designed by Michelangelo, he solved an architectural quandary of misaligned buildings by designing a beautiful brick layout that wasn't actually built until Mussolini had it finished (apparently the Pope didn't like Mike's design as he thought it was too pagan).
We crossed the Tiber river to visit Trastevere, the truly authentic Roman neighborhood. We walked through the neighborhood, ducking into a chocolate store for a quick sample, and then found a lovely church with beautiful medieval mosiacs. The Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere is one of the oldest in Rome, dedicated in the 4th century.
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| Tiber Island on Tiber River |
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| Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere |
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| Trastevere |
Back across the Tiber, we stopped at L'Emporio di Gelati for what was becoming lunch every day. L'Emporio was yummy (though not as good as Frigiderium nor as cheap) and I enjoyed a scoop of kiwi and blackberry while Chris had stracciateli. The gelato fruit flavors are amazing, probably because 60% of it is actual fruit instead of the random chuck floating in a sea of cream. The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to hunting for a few treasures for our boys. We stopped at the supermarket again to purchase Pasqua (Easter) eggs. Instead of receiving a basket with little chocolates, Italian children receive a big chocolate egg with a surprise toy inside. It's kind of like a Kinderegg, but about the size of a football. We also found a cute toy store in the Piazza Navona where we found an extra long toy bus for Davin (the collector of all things buses).
We had a few minutes before the dinner hour, so we opted to go back to our room to change for dinner. Our feet were a little dusty from our travail in the Forum (and we developed a great appreciation for modern roads for that reason). For most of the trip I wore my unbeatable Chacos, but I decided to swap them out for a cute pair of wedge sandals because it is Italy, the home of fashionable shoes. Has we started to walk to our restaurant on the cobble streets, I started to question the legitimacy of the stiletto heel coming from Italy (or at least any part of the country where women had to walk on cobble stone streets). Even with my wide wedge shoes, I still had to cling tightly to Chris (which wasn't so bad) and still managed to twist both of my ankles. Needless to say I stuck with the Chacos for the rest of the trip.
Our dinner that night was at Da Tonino's, restaurant in the Navona neighborhood. We arrived right as the dinner hour started and we were glad that we did as a line formed quickly outside (and they were mostly Italians, which is always a good sign). Chris had pasta alla carbonara (bacon and eggs cooked around a spaghetti noodle, apparently inspired by American soldiers who gave their rations to Italians during World War I) for his primi piato, and I had pasta e ceci, a tomato based soup with orso and chick peas. We had a secondi piato of vitelino e patata (veal and potatoes) and finished with insalata mista (mixed salad). The meal was divine and we licked our plates clean. My favorite part of the meal was when a man walked into the restaurant carrying a large bundle of red roses. Much to my delight, Chris bought a rose for me, and I felt like quite the romantic carrying my rose back to our room, clinging tight to Chris (trying not to break an ankle).
Of course the perfect evening couldn't end without another trip to Frigiderium. I had creme da nonno (pinenut flavored gelato) and fondente (deep, dark, luxurious chocolate), and Chris had meringue and chestnut.
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