The train ride from Torino was quite nice. Business class
with free beverages, internet, large seats and plenty of room. Instead of
muddling through two hours of posting and uploading like he did in Torino,
Chris was able to get everything done in less than a half hour. He did not want
to leave the train.
The decision was made upon arrival to Roma Termini (huge
train station) to go underground, catch the Metro, go one stop and walk the
rest of the way to our hotel on
Via Principio Eugenio. This was a somewhat apt description of what happened but
in a roundabout manner upon emerging to the surface. Eventually the proper
address for the hotel was arrived. It was literally an apartment building with
two columns of apartment buzzers at the entranceway. Now we were trying to save
money and be close to the railroad station since we were only staying two
nights and were back on the train for our departure but this was of the
‘curiouser and curiouser’ experience.
A small sign “Press #4 for the Eugenio Principio Hotel” was
taped to the framework of the columns of buzzers. Va bene, we will press #4. We
did and the metal gate was released, we entered the foyer and opened the door
to the building and saw a plain hallway of closed doors. Hmmm…
We espied a small open elevator; something Dr.
Frank-N-Furter might arrive in. A disembodied voice said “Up one floor!” in
Italian. So we swung open the doors, slid the gate open, squeezed ourselves and
our luggage in and went up one floor. We were met with one side of a double
door opened and what could be seen as a front desk became visible. The hotel
experience then familiarly took shape and our female host eloquently described
the neighborhood, local restaurants, city wide points of interest, methods of
transportation including specific tram, Metro and bus routes in a most
satisfying fashion.
The room was on the entry floor but behind another double
door that led to a long hallway of rooms. It was clean, well furnished and
comfortable.
We headed for one of the recommended local eateries, Il
Tempio di Minerva (Temple of Minerva). We had not walked more than a couple of
blocks before restaurant staff from a couple of places swept out to us in the
street. Disappointing one and accompanying the other we sat at the Temple and
had a fine meal of buccatini with a hot sauce and rigatoni with a creamier, red
sauce. Complimentary bruschetta arrived first. As we were finishing up our
cappuccuni (uno decaffeinatto e uno normale) the couple next to us engaged us
in conversation. Within moments it was determined that they were from
Australia. They ran the German club in Sydney. She was from Germany and he was
from Ireland. But not only was he from Ireland but the same town, Dundalk, (a
small Irish border town in the north) as our cousins Peadar and Noreen! Don’t
ya love it?
A constitutional was in order so we took off for a walk to
the Colosseum. The neighborhoods around the train station and a bit west are
quite beaten down and unremarkable. We walked perhaps for a mile before the
landscape changed dramatically and we came upon a park:
It was both Saturday and a holiday (Eastern Orthodox
Liturgics). People were definitely out and about. Within a short distance we
came upon the famous arena:
Next to it is Constantine’s Arch:
This arch commemorates Constantine’s victory at the battle
of Milvian Bridge in 312 AD. This was the legendary occasion when he was to
have had a dream, the night before the battle, of a cross and was told “By this
sign, conquer”. He then dutifully displayed it (somewhat desperate since he was
outnumbered by Maxentius’ troops) and in gratitude of his victory built the
arch and declared Christianity a favored religion of the empire.
Though having visited before, the Forum was the main focus
of the exploration. There is a residual energy there that hums with commerce
and social interaction. It’s main peak was around the time of the early empire
but continued as a commercial center for decades after.
Just a taste (click on them for a better look):
This was also where the Vestal Virgins lived. These were 2-6
women empowered by the state for important functions and were in the service of
the goddess Vesta. Courtesy of Wikipedia:
Their tasks included the maintenance of the
fire sacred to Vesta, the goddess of the
hearth and home, collecting water from a sacred spring, preparation of food
used in rituals and caring for sacred objects in the temple's sanctuary.[21] By maintaining Vesta's sacred fire,
from which anyone could receive fire for household use, they functioned as
"surrogate housekeepers", in a religious sense, for all of Rome.
Their sacred fire was treated, in Imperial times, as the emperor's household
fire.
The Vestals were put in charge of keeping
safe the wills and testaments of various people such as Caesar and Mark Antony. In addition,
the Vestals also guarded some sacred objects, including the Palladium,
and made a special kind of flour called mola salsa which was sprinkled
on all public offerings to a god.
This is a pic of the interior garden of their house:
They were an important factor in Roman life for over a
thousand years (700 BC – 380 AD or BCE-CE if you prefer)
They had a multitude of businesses and services including 24
Hour Pillar Repair:
Er…just a guess….
Given the commercial importance of the Forum it is obvious
that intelligent business people would be located here. There would have to be
some critical thought as to location. After careful analysis it was determined
that this would be the store and site of Togas Unlimited, a Carolus Dunneum
enterprise with a crack retail staff:
Speakers came alive after awhile to warn us that the Forum
would be closing. We headed out towards Vittorio Emanuele Piazza but began to
make our way up another Roman hill. This was part of our ‘…if you see a hill,
climb it!’ philosophy while in Roma. Gelato sounded good and when we saw the
sign for “Two Balls, Two Euro” we knew were in the right place.
Along the way up we stopped at Basilica San Vietro in
Vincoli. Another beautiful church and also another rare place where they
honored Moses (Venezia has an entire church to him) with a statue on a side
altar. You could light him up for a euro.
At the top of the hill we came to the Qirinale:
This area and associated buildings have long housed the
famous and powerful. The main edifice was built as a summer home for the pope
who wanted to get away from the humidity and the stench of the Tiber River. It
was also the site for Papal conclaves and the offices of the Papal States.
After they dissolved it was, in name, the residence of the King and the
Presidents of the Republic. However in many cases it was just used for state
offices and the rulers lived elsewhere.
Our true target destination lay on the other side of the
hill:
We are suckers for the Trevi Fountain. People are packed
like they were on the Metro at rush hour but we still take pause:
Mirroring an action that was occurring in many places around
the fountain, Chris turned his back on the waters and flipped a coin into the
depths that caressed Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita. He wished that…..oops,
can’t tell. But maybe a return is in the offing.
We now pause to ask Mike Foley, what the hell is this?
Dinner seemed like a good idea and Gini wanted to go into a
deep trance to remember where we had had dinner with Eileen six years ago when
we were staying at the Hotel Modigliani near the Barberini and the hotel
recommended it. Try though we might, even ingesting sacred gelato, we could not
locate it. Now reeling with disappointment we climbed another hill past
Barberini and found the Hotel Modigliani. Even though they did not seem to
remember us from six years ago we still took their current recommendation of a
non-descript location about 80 meters from the hotel, Osteria Barberina. They
said we would need to be lucky because even though it did not look like much
from the outside it was quite the eating experience and would be crowded on a
Saturday night. Hat in hand we entered and were told that there was a
possibility in half an hour.
We found a fountain wall on which to perch in the Piazza
Barberini and dutifully whiled away the 30 minutes and returned to find we had
been lucky. Dinner was marvelous. We decided to forego pasta and took advantage
of the truffle menu for antipasta and then had grilled sea bass and sea bass
carpaccio for a main meal. Accompanied by a tuna salad for two we were quite
satisfied. Dessert was chocolate torte with almonds. Ah!
Interestingly we had a brief conversation with a young
Japanese couple next to us about tipping. It seems that service is no longer
included in the bill in Italian restaurants. Many times there is no longer a
‘coperto’ (cover or table charge) either. It is now being left to the customer
to decide something extra. The young couple was only leaving a Euro while we
thought that was too little even if there was still some unseen bill-padding.
We left five euros for a 70 Euro bill. After doing some Google research that
night concerning this newer restaurant philosophy we decided that 10% would
work for a dinner expense.
Barberini was a Metro stop so we decided that would be our
way home. However there were several dark streets and at 11PM in this down
scale neighborhood we felt a little anxious. Everything turned out fine but we
resolved we would learn about Tram/Bus 105 which left from the train station
and stopped very close to our hotel.
Domani, Geoff and Linda.
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