[31 March, 2002, St. Peter's Square, Vatican City]
We took the opportunity to wait in St. Peter's Square for the Pope to appear and give us all his blessing. He did, we were and got the photo to prove -- although he was way, way far away.
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| The Pietà by Michelangelo inside St. Peter's |
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| as close as I'll ever get to the Pope |
[March 29, 2002]
Leisurely breakfast at the hotel. We headed to Hadrian’s Tomb, today better known as the Castel Santangelo. It only took us about 15 minutes to walk there from our hotel and we wandered about the interior for some time. Wonderful views of the Vatican and Rome across the Tiber.
We then went to St. Peter’s to the Prefetura’s office to pick our reserved tickets for Sunday’s Easter service in the piazza.
We then walked out of the Vatican and headed south along the Passegiata Gianicola (the Janiculum hill) paralleling the Tiber up to the Garibaldi monument and then down into Trastevere (literally “across the Tiber”), a neighborhood quite different from the tourist Rome on the other side of the Tiber. We had a delicious lunch at sabatini’s in the Piazza di Santa Maria di Trastevere: bottle of Spumante, cappelini in brodo, formaggii misti and carciofi romano. Oh, and just about the best bathrooms in all of Italy.
After pranzo we strolled over to the Tiber and around the Isola Tiberina (the only serious island left in the Tiber) and then back to our room for siesta. It was then out for the evening passegiata along the Via del Corso and surrounding streets. Watched a “Free Palestine” demonstration heading up the Corso later that evening (the city had blocked off part of the street for that purpose).
We then stopped at the L’angelo Divino, a wine bar just a couple of streets away from our hotel, and a recommendation from Gamberro rosso. A divine corner indeed, there were quite a few wines available for tasting by the glass, great antipasti and wonderful background music. We had dinner at Grappolo D’oro, the sister restaurant to Ditirambo; our wine was a Morellino di Scansano (Elizabetta Gepetti’s “Le Pupile” riserva 97 I think). We both shared a frittatine d’erbe con mozzarella and Steve had spettzatini con patate with pureed carrot sauce followed by chocolate ricotta torte. Sue had the house pasta con ricotta e pomodoro. We both ended the meal with two glasses of limoncello, a wonderful digestivo.
[March 28 2002, Rome, Italy]
Leisurely morning. Breakfast at the hotel and then walked over to the Tiber (Tevere), then along the river to the Teatro di Marcello (Theater of Marcellus) and to the Vittorio Emannule II monument at the Piazza Venezia. Then to the Capitoline museums to the Palatine hill. After touring one of the larger wings of the museum complex we had lunch (great panini misto and a bottle of prosecco) at the Caffee Capitolino sitting outside with gorgeous views.
(The Capitoline Museums contain a vast selection of wonderful sculpture from ancient Rome and I was particularly struck by the large collection of busts representing real Romans. OK, Oceanus wasn't real, at least not anymore. . . )
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| entrance to the Palazzo Nuovo |
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| statue of Oceanus, courtyard of Palazzo Nuovo |
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| Triton or sea centaur |
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| Elagabulus |
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| Caracalla |
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| Valens or Honorius |
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| bust of a woman |
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| Constantine, bronze |
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| Constantine |
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| the Dying Gaul |
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| Cupid and Psyche |
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| Commodus as Hercules |
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| Bernini's Medusa |
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| the Capitoline Venus |
After leaving the Capitoline we strolled the shops up the Via Corso.
Dinner at Vecchia Locanda in the vicinity of Largo Argentina. The maitre’d seemed a very tense sort, not at all friendly and appeared eager to move us along in our dinner, although business was slow that evening. (In any case we took our time and enjoyed the meal.) Wine list was excellent: we had a Modus 1997 from Tenuta Ruffino. And the food was very good: Steve had tonnarelli con tonno, olive nero capperi & pachino, followed by tagliate di manzo con rosmarino e porcino. Sue had gnocchi al limone e parmegiana followed by filetto di manzo con barolo.
On our way out of the restaurant while the fellow was ushering us out the door Steve (taking a suggestion from our concierge at the hotel to tweak the nerves of testy restauranteurs) said to the maitre’d: “Io sono un giornalist con Bon Appetit. Buona fortuna/ I am a journalist with Bon Appetit. Good luck.” The look of amazement and shock on the man’s face was worth the white lie.
