Mon 1 Sept - Italy reminiscences

I am delighted that the Italy trip - Aug 9-21,2014 - is remaining fresh in my memory yet. I find myself wandering in Venice or Florence or Rome in my wakeful moments at night. Best to capture some of these memories in writing before they inevitably begin to fade Rome: Arrived Sunday morning at 8:45 am, flights smooth and on-time. We had been able to catch some sleep in flight so we were reasonably rested and ready to go. The My Private Italy driver met us outside the "Customs" area, which basically consisted of us walking through the doorway marked Nothing to Declare. We were shuttled in a very nice Mercedes van to our hotel, Hotel Della Nazione. We were told our room would be ready in about an hour, but I wanted to go to Mass so it was no problem to leave the luggage in their safe holding spot. I made a fool of myself insisting that we wanted to attend Mass at the Forum and that I had confirmed online that it was scheduled at 10:30. I blame the sleepiness of the long flight for confusing the Forum with the Pantheon, two entirely different venues. Once we got past my stubborn insistence, we determined that the Pantheon was quite close and located it in time to be admitted for Mass. As general tourists are not allowed inside during the service, we had to assure the gatekeepers that we indeed were there to attend Mass. The priest looked old enough to have come with the place (which is, of course, several centuries old!) Mass was in Italian, and he was attended closely by an adult acolyte who was also the cantor. There was a little organ music, but not as many hymns as we are accustomed to. The only parts we could sing with were the Alleluia, which used a familiar melody, and the Sanctus which we could fake. We did not have a worship aid or book so we could not join in the responses which were all in Italian. I could catch enough words and phrases to have an idea where we were in the Mass and sometimes a little of the readings or sermon, but mostly it flew by way too fast for my limited Italian. The building was so amazing in its antiquity and beauty, it quite made up for minimal understanding of the words. After Mass, we found a small restaurant on the route back to the hotel where we had a fairly mediocre pasta lunch. We had tried to find a place not as heavily touristy, but this area was full of tourist spots and most of the fellow diners were of various nationalities (other than Italian). We had house wine and pasta al funghi. We returned to the hotel, walking past the scaffolded Trevi fountain that still was crowded with tourists. They had erected a walkway that people could navigate single-file to get closer and likely throw in a coin somewhere, but we passed on that option. We found our hotel room to be very comfortable and spacious. We rested for about 20 min (with the timer set on my cell phone so we didn't succumb to jet lag and sleep longer). We then rose and walked to the Forum area, using the map provided by the hotel. It was quite hot and sunny, and we quickly learned that everyone walks in the shade whenever possible which provides considerable relief. We opted not to use the podcast and headphones but just to wander through the considerable real estate that comprises the Forum and Palatine hill, taking in the antiquity and using the signs which usually were dually in Italian and English. We glimpsed and photographed the Coliseum from a distance but lacked the energy after hours of walking in the sun to do that the same day. They anticipate this, and the ticket you buy that covers all three attractions is set to be used over a 2-day period so we could come back tomorrow. On our return walk to the hotel, we photographed the Victor Emmanuel monument and Traji's column, then found a little artisanal gelato shop tucked onto a stairway. The woman behind the counter said her father had been making gelato for many, many years. Our first Italian gelato was excellent. When we had finished, the "siesta" period was over so the pharmacy across the street had reopened. We were able to go in and purchase a tube of sunscreen as I didn't think the little tubes we brought on the airplane were going to be sufficient in the intensity of the Roman sun, especially since most of my shirts were sleeveless and my arms are not tanned. We returned to the hotel and rested again before seeking out a recommended restaurant called Sacro e Profano, a venue in an old church near the hotel. We sat on the second floor balcony overlooking the open food prep area. We started with the house appetizer platter which turned out to be multiple small dishes that were delicious! She brought a plate of 3-4 things to share and before we finished them, brought a couple more plates of multiple offerings. We followed this with a shared dish of pasta as their portions of everything are more than adequate to share. I believe we had some kind of ravioli. We had also ordered a shared plate of cinghiale (wild boar) in a sort of stroganoff preparation. It was delicious, but we were so full from everything we had already eaten that we each only could manage about 3 bites and had to leave almost the entire dish. I felt the waitress was a little annoyed with us that we didn't plan to take the leftovers with us, even though we explained that we were at a hotel and had no place to store or reheat the food. We learned a valuable lesson that night not to order too much food. We returned to our hotel, deciding we had a full day and needed to rest before our early Vatican tour in the morning. The desk clerk told us where to pick up the Metro about 2 blocks from the hotel as it would be a 45+ min walk and we had an early meeting time and a 4.5 hour walking tour once we got there. We managed to blow the circuit breakers in the room just trying to plug in chargers for our electronics. On the second day, we rose early and ate the buffet breakfast quickly. It was simple but quite adequate with a good granola, yogurt, canned fruit, scrambled eggs and sausage, and very nice pastries. Cappuccino was make-your-own from the machine, but also quite adequate. The dining room was pleasant, and the abstract picture above our table reminded me of the Green Bay Packers in that one object looked like a green/gold football helmet and another few lines could be construed as a goal post. We hurried off to the Metro station and found it quite easy to purchase our tickets from the machine and find the train platform heading to the Vatican. When we alighted, we were able to follow our map from the outside stop to the Vatican, but it helped that we encountered another group of tourists heading to the same place so we could pool our intellectual resources to decide how best to find the meeting point. They turned out to be participants in the same tour we had booked, quite a coincidence since there were dozens of tour groups meeting at about the same time. Our tour guide was a pleasant fellow named Tiberio who was a font of knowledge. We were all equipped with little radio units that hung on our necks with lanyards and earbuds so we could hear his narration without need to be on top of him. With so many tour groups in the same place at the same time, it is necessary for each group to be able to hear their own guide and for the guides to be able to speak quietly to avoid cacophony. We started in the picture gallery which was room after room after room of amazing artwork. I was initially distressed as we just walked quickly through the first several rooms without even stopping to appreciate any of the paintings, but when Tiberio stopped in the next room to talk about one of the more famous works, he also explained that if you took even 1 minute to admire and study each painting just in the galleries, it would take seven years non-stop to get through them all. I resigned myself to quick glances at those we had to just pass by. The art was utterly awe-inspiring, works of famous artists and beautifully executed and displayed. Tiberio explained some of the differences of the periods displayed and some of the symbolism of how things were portrayed. He commented that because most of the people of those eras were illiterate and there was no "mass media", the paintings and sculpture works served to teach and tell stories to pass on from each generation. They always portrayed certain figures in a similar way so anyone could recognize who the painting was meant to be and what story was being told. From the picture gallery, we proceeded through courtyards and other areas, finally arriving in the Sistine Chapel. Here the Swiss Guards made certain that everyone was appropriately covered, and no photography is allowed inside. They also try very hard to enforce silence. The guards move people along so they don't congregate in pathways, staring at the amazing Michelangelo ceiling. You are directed to stand along the sides or in the center to gawk. Periodically a wave of "Shhhhh!" will arise, followed quickly by a guard on a microphone demanding "Silencio!" The Sistine Chapel is very much as awe-inspiring as was expected. It was sufficient to stand and drink it in, not distracted by trying to take inadequate photographs. From there, we moved on to the Basilica of St Peter, also a very awe-inspiring and amazingly huge structure. Tiberio pointed out the original Michelangeo's pieta, the roped-off area in the center that indicates the length of other famous churches in the world. No other Catholic church in the entire world is allowed to be larger than St. Peter's so they show you where the other churches would end if they were placed with their front at the front of this church. Here photography is allowed so we took many photos. I had to switch to my phone camera at one point because my camera battery was extremely low from a morning of heavy photography. We were glad we had not attempted to walk to and from our hotel after the tour, as 4.5 hours of walking around the extensive grounds of the Vatican in the warm weather was sufficient. We found the Metro stop and returned to the area of our hotel. We asked for a restaurant recommendation, but the clerk seemed a little too pat with his answer, handing us a card for a nearby trattoria. We checked it out and decided it might be a bit pricey, so we found a cute place nearby and were satisfied with a nice lunch.