Hadrian's Tomb and St. Peter's

 [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.