kakalena: why did i like Venice? Well, I think first of all it is the water. I just love the ocean..granted it's a lagoon but being on and around the water soothes my soul. I was raised in the SF Bay Area and almost 30 years ago moved to Nevada and i STILL miss the ocean. Was down there a couple of weeks ago and just HAD to go out to the beach. I loved the small alley ways, the intersting shops and restaurants to be discovered. The buildings have this kind of washed, soft pastel colors, and coming down the Grand Canal and seeing The Doges palace was fascinating and I enjoyed the activity of St. Marks. It's kind of like you can get all the "buzz" and then wander off to a quieter place when you need some peace and quiet. Oh yea...the liver!!!! I know, I know some of you are going YUK! My sister-in-law ordered it by accident and she gave me a taste and it was just fabulous. I ordered it for dinner that night and found a similar recipe on Epicurious.com after I got home. There are any number of churches, museums etc. that I never had time for and would love to explore. There was a program on PBS not long ago about the history of Venice..so interesting, and that too made me want to return for more. For me, Venice just had an incredible amount of charm, had great liver and gelato, and it's just so unlike any other place. I think some of liking a place or not is just an emotionsl connection and is always hard to really explain..like the liver...you like it or you don't. LOL

Hi Jeanne. I had been to Paris six times before visiting Rome partly because I'd been put off by reports of Rome being "dirty" and "noisy" and "too intense." (When I finally visited, it was after the Jubilee Year, in 2000, when Rome got quite a cleaning-up, so it may have looked a bit different prior to 2000.)

Anyway, once I finally got there? I fell head-over-heels in love with Rome. The fountains and piazzas are enchanting. The warm ochre colors of the buildings are pleasing to the eye. The Romans are engaging.

Paris does have consistently beautiful architecture throughout the city, courtesy of Haussmann** although, ironically, the one district you specifically mentioned, the Marais, was left largely untouched by him.

(** &quot;For all Haussmann's massive public works, the salient feature of his new Paris was the apartment building. His standardized block, running for hundreds of unbroken metres down the new boulevards, was both an extrapolation of Napoleon I's Rue de Rivoli and a product of the new industrial age. An extraordinary degree of architectural unity was achieved by the continuous run of symmetrical wrought-iron balconies balconies on the <i>piano nobile</i>, linking one building to another, as did a common cornice line which was there to reinforce the horizontal effect of the street's perspective. The overall intent was that the visual impact should be that of the street rather than the individual building.&quot; -- from <i>The Seven Ages of Paris</i>, by Alistair Horne)

While that extraordinary degree of architectural unity&quot; Horne refers to is very striking, one of the most memorable things (IMO) architecturally about Paris, the very lack of that is also one of the things I love about Rome. I love the fact that it <i>doesn't</i> look as styled. And also, as I noted above, the colors of the buildings in Rome are, for the most part, warmer ochre tones unlike the cooler greys &amp; whites in Paris.

Also, the lack of wide boulevards, as in Haussmann's Paris, lends a much more intimate quality to Rome, especially in the Centro Storico. The entire Centro Storico, as well as Trastevere (and part of the Borgo, near the Vatican) is like the Marais. It's urban design that impresses by seduction.

If you like architecture, which you appear to, I'd highly recommend the hard-to-find book by John J. McGuire, Jr., <i>An Architect's Rome</i>. McGuire talks about some of the urban design elements of Rome created by one of the Popes (Sixtus, as I recall) such as visually linking some of the obelisks.

capo: &quot;The warm ochre colors of the buildings are pleasing to the eye.&quot;


That brought to mind my favorite line from Under the Tuscan Sun. Frances Mayes introduces us to Bramasole:
&quot;When it rains or when the light changes, the facade of the house turns gold, sienna, ochre; a previous scarlet paint job seeps through in rosy spots like a box of crayons left to melt in the sun.&quot;

With that one line, she had me hooked. I had to go to Tuscany. Your description of the color of Rome touched that &quot;emotional&quot; chord that has eluded me. Well done.
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Thanks also for the book rec. My library doesn't have it, but they do have a &quot;Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Architecture)&quot; which sounds interesting.

Grazie, JeanneB. Glad I touched that chord in you. Since I love Paris and architecture as you guys do, I sure hope you fall in love with Rome as I did.

I don't know how much time you're already allowing for Tuscany or how important Tuscany is to you. If it's very important, you certainly could cut your time in Rome to three days and still have a very rewarding time there. But, for what it's worth, I spent nearly nine days in Rome on my first visit there and could've spent more.

As much as I love Rome, I will caution you to expect to be disappointed by one aspect of it in comparison to Paris: its river. Whereas Paris embraces the Seine, Rome more or less ignores the Tiber. But, to me, the wonderful fountains of Rome help to make up for that. Also, there are a few lovely spots along the Tiber with magnificent plane trees lining the embankment. One such spot I recall in particular is on the Rome side of the Tiber, near Tiber Island.

There's a &quot;very good&quot; used copy of <i>An Architect's Rome</i> at Amazon.com. Even if you don't bring it with you, I'd highly recommend it to read in advance if you like architecture.

We visited Rome for the first time this past January for 4 days. There is a lot to see there. In Rome you may be walking on a street and turn the corner to find an archeological dig. Rome has a soul, Paris has the Boulavards and the Eiffel Tower at night, but as for history and places like the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon and the rest of the historic beauty. If you like the Marais, then check out the old Jewish ghetto in Rome, it's still living. We hope to go back this winter again. The pizza is great too.
alan