Roman Roamings: 2 Weeks of Wanderings
Apr 21st, 2017, 12:14 PM
#41
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Thank you all! If I was restarting this trip report I would rename it 'Rome: One Street Off'. I am still amazed to the point of being speechless at how different the city is if you just step a single street off the beaten path!!! I am LOVING it.
Apr 21st, 2017, 12:17 PM
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<b>Wednesday, April 19th
Up the Hill and Visiting the Rival Artists </b>
I was half asleep when the alarm went off. There are so many things wrong with this sentence! To be fair, the alarm was set for 8:00am. So it wasn’t the crack of dawn. But it meant that we had to haul our butts out of bed and get moving because we had a (paid) reservation for a tour at 10:30am. Ok, it wasn’t like we could not have a relaxed breakfast and still make the walk across town in time.
That was how we found ourselves around the Trevi fountain at 9:30am. From the corner before, it looked (and sounded) like it would be blessedly empty. It kind of was….because it was blockaded off and the cleaning crews were collection the million coins thrown in during the night. So second time there and still didn’t get the chance to throw in our coins. Hoping third time will be the charm.
Up the hill and up the stairs we went, to the Palazzo del Quirinale. Italy’s equivalent to the White House making a very loose comparison. Reservations are required in advance –I’m assuming a basic background check takes place- and IDs are verified against the list before entering. I made them online about 2 weeks in advance. Their website was not hostile.
Notice that I’m not saying ‘user friendly’ or ‘fairly easy to use’, but in dealing with foreign websites any transaction that ends with a confirmation receipt can be considered ‘not hostile’ at the very least. I had two things going for me with all the online reservations I made: Spanish is my native language and I did take a semester of Italian some years ago. I scrape by. I lol’ed many times when the only effect of pressing the ‘British Flag’ button for the English translation was to change the titles on main menu, leaving the content in the original language.
There are two tours of the Quirinale Palace, a free one where you see the main floor and the ‘artistic itinerary’ where you also see the gardens, the Maderno masterpiece staircase that was the inspiration for the Bernini and Borromini staircases in closeby Palazzo Barberini, the carriage museum and the china collection for a very reasonable 10€ fee. All tours are only given in Italian.
I loved it. All 2.5 hours of it. LOVED IT. Well. At least until the last half hour of it when we went to see a document exhibit focused on the more modern Italian politics, and our feet were tired. Also at that point we changed guides and the new one spoke so fast I could no longer get anything of what was being said.
The state rooms are beautifully grandiose; just the amazing display of Murano chandeliers are worth the visit. There is a ‘secret service’ guy going with the tour and constantly herding in the stragglers back into the main group, but the overall pace did not feel ultra rushed. Yes, I might have liked a little longer in a few of the gorgeous rooms, as well as to observe the incredibly intricate carvings in the carriage house, but it was still ok.
It was 12:40 by the time we came out and I had a few more things to see in the area.
The Quirinale hill is ground zero for one of the greatest artistic feuds of all time: Bernini vs Borromini. Within a few streets there are many of examples of their work.
It was too late, by the time we went across the street to the church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, the doors were firmly shut and we could only admire Bernini’s outstanding façade.
We had fallen into the ‘pausa’ black hole. Most churches, small museums, and some small businesses, close for 3 hours anytime between noon and 4:00pm, the period varies among sites and some leeway has to be given. Do not expect the doors to be open on the dot at the announced hour.
The door to San Carlo alle Cuatro Fontane was still open at 12:59pm and we managed to sneak in, but the little cloister and crypt were already closed. We would have to come back later.
We kept walking a few steps along Via del Quirinale when C spotted a group of men in business suits going through an unmarked door. He peeked in, it was a restaurant. I have mentioned in our past trip reports that C has a knack for finding hole-in-the-wall, shacks, and non-descript restaurants. I spend hours doing research and then he just finds them. Well… it works.
So this is how we came to eat lunch at Ostaria Contemporanea, somewhat associated with Caffetaria Borromini. The place is not small and within 20 minutes most of the tables were full of government-official-looking people.
We did not want to stuff ourselves, we were not awfully hungry and furthermore, we wanted to avoid the post prandial coma that inevitably follows a four course Italian lunch. We ordered an aranccini from the fried menu, a tonnerelli carbonara with zucchini for me from the primi section and roasted veal slices from the secondi for C. Thank God we did not order anything else! Each plate on their own was enough to be considered a ‘big lunch’.
My carbonara was deliciously creamy and eggy in all the right ways. They were not shy with the pepper, which I like. C’s veal had a mustardy sauce and was served with awesome roasted potatoes, no contorni needed. We both ordered a glass of wine and then a third one to share as we lingered a bit over lunch, it was interesting to watch all the ‘real’ people go in, out and about their lunch. We were brought two glasses anyway and charged only for the third.
With a 1.5 l bottle of fizzy water and two coffees, the bill was €27. The Restaurant Whisperer had struck again.
Adequately refreshed and not excessively stuffed, we could take on the next item on the list while we waited for the churches to reopen. We made our way halfway down the hill and went into Palazzo Barberini. This is a Baroque palace commissioned to Carlo Madero by Cardinal Barberini when he became pope Urban VIII and finished by archenemies Bernini and Borromini.
It is not a huge collection and it has its great pieces, but this is a museum for die-hard fans of eithr painting or architecture. But to me, just to see the Bernini v
and Borromini staircases was worth the admission ticket. I liked it, C was getting tired and museumed out.
After spending about an hour at the gallery, we went up the hill, back to the ‘four fountains corner’ and into Borromini’s church of San Carlo alle Quatro Fontane for a more leisurely visit. Not that there was much more to see, it is indeed a tiny church. Lovely and perfectly proportioned, but very small. The cloister is also small and the crypt is entirely skippable. So 15 minutes in and out. But the façade and its interaction with the four fountains are worth the trip uphill.
Backtracking on the same street brought us back to Bernini’s Sant’Andrea al Quirinale now that it was open. I was not expecting the golden extravaganza. Wow. So glad we came back!!! The incredibly elegant dome is gilded and dotted with white putti and saints; they are still not outright sculptures, but are certainly in the process of breaking out from the ceiling. You can see in this church the beginnings of Bernini’s no-holds-barred sculptural epitome that will climax at Santa Maria della Vittoria.
And there was a wedding ceremony taking place (in English) so we waited it out until they said their vows and kissed. We kissed too. C can be romantic.
After that we just made our way slowly home and to grocery store. Where we made store-bought prosciutto tortellini in a cream sauce that turned out pretty darn good. And drank lots of wine in the process. Then we crashed because we were beat. For a ‘lazy vacation’ we seem to be walking about 6 miles too many per day.
Up the Hill and Visiting the Rival Artists </b>
I was half asleep when the alarm went off. There are so many things wrong with this sentence! To be fair, the alarm was set for 8:00am. So it wasn’t the crack of dawn. But it meant that we had to haul our butts out of bed and get moving because we had a (paid) reservation for a tour at 10:30am. Ok, it wasn’t like we could not have a relaxed breakfast and still make the walk across town in time.
That was how we found ourselves around the Trevi fountain at 9:30am. From the corner before, it looked (and sounded) like it would be blessedly empty. It kind of was….because it was blockaded off and the cleaning crews were collection the million coins thrown in during the night. So second time there and still didn’t get the chance to throw in our coins. Hoping third time will be the charm.
Up the hill and up the stairs we went, to the Palazzo del Quirinale. Italy’s equivalent to the White House making a very loose comparison. Reservations are required in advance –I’m assuming a basic background check takes place- and IDs are verified against the list before entering. I made them online about 2 weeks in advance. Their website was not hostile.
Notice that I’m not saying ‘user friendly’ or ‘fairly easy to use’, but in dealing with foreign websites any transaction that ends with a confirmation receipt can be considered ‘not hostile’ at the very least. I had two things going for me with all the online reservations I made: Spanish is my native language and I did take a semester of Italian some years ago. I scrape by. I lol’ed many times when the only effect of pressing the ‘British Flag’ button for the English translation was to change the titles on main menu, leaving the content in the original language.
There are two tours of the Quirinale Palace, a free one where you see the main floor and the ‘artistic itinerary’ where you also see the gardens, the Maderno masterpiece staircase that was the inspiration for the Bernini and Borromini staircases in closeby Palazzo Barberini, the carriage museum and the china collection for a very reasonable 10€ fee. All tours are only given in Italian.
I loved it. All 2.5 hours of it. LOVED IT. Well. At least until the last half hour of it when we went to see a document exhibit focused on the more modern Italian politics, and our feet were tired. Also at that point we changed guides and the new one spoke so fast I could no longer get anything of what was being said.
The state rooms are beautifully grandiose; just the amazing display of Murano chandeliers are worth the visit. There is a ‘secret service’ guy going with the tour and constantly herding in the stragglers back into the main group, but the overall pace did not feel ultra rushed. Yes, I might have liked a little longer in a few of the gorgeous rooms, as well as to observe the incredibly intricate carvings in the carriage house, but it was still ok.
It was 12:40 by the time we came out and I had a few more things to see in the area.
The Quirinale hill is ground zero for one of the greatest artistic feuds of all time: Bernini vs Borromini. Within a few streets there are many of examples of their work.
It was too late, by the time we went across the street to the church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, the doors were firmly shut and we could only admire Bernini’s outstanding façade.
We had fallen into the ‘pausa’ black hole. Most churches, small museums, and some small businesses, close for 3 hours anytime between noon and 4:00pm, the period varies among sites and some leeway has to be given. Do not expect the doors to be open on the dot at the announced hour.
The door to San Carlo alle Cuatro Fontane was still open at 12:59pm and we managed to sneak in, but the little cloister and crypt were already closed. We would have to come back later.
We kept walking a few steps along Via del Quirinale when C spotted a group of men in business suits going through an unmarked door. He peeked in, it was a restaurant. I have mentioned in our past trip reports that C has a knack for finding hole-in-the-wall, shacks, and non-descript restaurants. I spend hours doing research and then he just finds them. Well… it works.
So this is how we came to eat lunch at Ostaria Contemporanea, somewhat associated with Caffetaria Borromini. The place is not small and within 20 minutes most of the tables were full of government-official-looking people.
We did not want to stuff ourselves, we were not awfully hungry and furthermore, we wanted to avoid the post prandial coma that inevitably follows a four course Italian lunch. We ordered an aranccini from the fried menu, a tonnerelli carbonara with zucchini for me from the primi section and roasted veal slices from the secondi for C. Thank God we did not order anything else! Each plate on their own was enough to be considered a ‘big lunch’.
My carbonara was deliciously creamy and eggy in all the right ways. They were not shy with the pepper, which I like. C’s veal had a mustardy sauce and was served with awesome roasted potatoes, no contorni needed. We both ordered a glass of wine and then a third one to share as we lingered a bit over lunch, it was interesting to watch all the ‘real’ people go in, out and about their lunch. We were brought two glasses anyway and charged only for the third.
With a 1.5 l bottle of fizzy water and two coffees, the bill was €27. The Restaurant Whisperer had struck again.
Adequately refreshed and not excessively stuffed, we could take on the next item on the list while we waited for the churches to reopen. We made our way halfway down the hill and went into Palazzo Barberini. This is a Baroque palace commissioned to Carlo Madero by Cardinal Barberini when he became pope Urban VIII and finished by archenemies Bernini and Borromini.
It is not a huge collection and it has its great pieces, but this is a museum for die-hard fans of eithr painting or architecture. But to me, just to see the Bernini v
and Borromini staircases was worth the admission ticket. I liked it, C was getting tired and museumed out.
After spending about an hour at the gallery, we went up the hill, back to the ‘four fountains corner’ and into Borromini’s church of San Carlo alle Quatro Fontane for a more leisurely visit. Not that there was much more to see, it is indeed a tiny church. Lovely and perfectly proportioned, but very small. The cloister is also small and the crypt is entirely skippable. So 15 minutes in and out. But the façade and its interaction with the four fountains are worth the trip uphill.
Backtracking on the same street brought us back to Bernini’s Sant’Andrea al Quirinale now that it was open. I was not expecting the golden extravaganza. Wow. So glad we came back!!! The incredibly elegant dome is gilded and dotted with white putti and saints; they are still not outright sculptures, but are certainly in the process of breaking out from the ceiling. You can see in this church the beginnings of Bernini’s no-holds-barred sculptural epitome that will climax at Santa Maria della Vittoria.
And there was a wedding ceremony taking place (in English) so we waited it out until they said their vows and kissed. We kissed too. C can be romantic.
After that we just made our way slowly home and to grocery store. Where we made store-bought prosciutto tortellini in a cream sauce that turned out pretty darn good. And drank lots of wine in the process. Then we crashed because we were beat. For a ‘lazy vacation’ we seem to be walking about 6 miles too many per day.
Apr 21st, 2017, 01:05 PM
#43
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Apr 21st, 2017, 06:30 PM
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marigross,
I am so enjoying your wonderful days in Roma! My last trip I stayed on Via XXIV di Maggio, right down from the Quirinale. I had no idea you could tour and that there was so much to see! Just another very good reason to return. I love Rome! Thanks for sharing.
I am so enjoying your wonderful days in Roma! My last trip I stayed on Via XXIV di Maggio, right down from the Quirinale. I had no idea you could tour and that there was so much to see! Just another very good reason to return. I love Rome! Thanks for sharing.
Apr 22nd, 2017, 02:53 AM
#45
Marigross - I found out about the possibility of visiting the Quirinale a while ago and it's been on my Rome radar ever since so thanks for doing the preliminary scoping for me. Great how you managed to turn it into a whole day AND a great culinary experience. Brava!
Love the photos too.
Love the photos too.
Apr 22nd, 2017, 03:02 AM
#46
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<b>Wednesday, April 19th
Inside, Under and All Around St. Peter</b>
For not considering myself Catholic (not even a non-practicing one), I –and therefore C which was raised Protestant and is 100% non-religious, we have been to a lot of sites which are very important to the faithful. Today was going to be one of those days.
Once again, the alarm sounded off while we were still sleeping like logs. After a quick breakfast we made a bee-line to –drumroll please!- the TAXI LINE!!! Yay, C’s staunch stance against indulgence of the transportation kind had been overturned. ‘Why don’t we just save our feet for the return walk, that way the actual visit will be more enjoyable…’ had gone the winning argument.
BTW, my extra ugly, black, mary-janes-on-steroids shoes from Alegría are potentially the best and more comfortable travel shoes I have ever worn. No foot pain whatsoever. I even wore them without socks and they did not scrape or pinch. And the Nike’s are not that bad either.
A 1.5 mile, 5 minute, €8 taxi ride, brought us into the Vatican and dropped us off next to the road in front of Saint Peter’s Basilica. It was basically empty so we got extra attention from every single tour peddler that we walked by. There must have been at least 50 of them on our side of the road, actual estimate, I kid you not.
The sun was out, the sky was bright blue, and the piazza was mostly empty at 9:15am, so I got the best pictures ever of the Basilica and Bernini’s Colonnade. True m
asterpieces of the Renaissance and Baroque! We found the entrance for our tour but we were not allowed to go in as we were too early, so we continued to wander around.
In the pavement, close to and on both sides of the obelisk, there are two discs (not the ones with the wind directions) that mark the center of perspective for the colonnade. If you stand on them you will only see a single frontal column along its embracing arms.
At 9:45 we presented ourselves to the Vatican Police security station, showed our confirmed reservation email and ...
to continue: http://wp.me/p7rOvK-if
Inside, Under and All Around St. Peter</b>
For not considering myself Catholic (not even a non-practicing one), I –and therefore C which was raised Protestant and is 100% non-religious, we have been to a lot of sites which are very important to the faithful. Today was going to be one of those days.
Once again, the alarm sounded off while we were still sleeping like logs. After a quick breakfast we made a bee-line to –drumroll please!- the TAXI LINE!!! Yay, C’s staunch stance against indulgence of the transportation kind had been overturned. ‘Why don’t we just save our feet for the return walk, that way the actual visit will be more enjoyable…’ had gone the winning argument.
BTW, my extra ugly, black, mary-janes-on-steroids shoes from Alegría are potentially the best and more comfortable travel shoes I have ever worn. No foot pain whatsoever. I even wore them without socks and they did not scrape or pinch. And the Nike’s are not that bad either.
A 1.5 mile, 5 minute, €8 taxi ride, brought us into the Vatican and dropped us off next to the road in front of Saint Peter’s Basilica. It was basically empty so we got extra attention from every single tour peddler that we walked by. There must have been at least 50 of them on our side of the road, actual estimate, I kid you not.
The sun was out, the sky was bright blue, and the piazza was mostly empty at 9:15am, so I got the best pictures ever of the Basilica and Bernini’s Colonnade. True m
asterpieces of the Renaissance and Baroque! We found the entrance for our tour but we were not allowed to go in as we were too early, so we continued to wander around.
In the pavement, close to and on both sides of the obelisk, there are two discs (not the ones with the wind directions) that mark the center of perspective for the colonnade. If you stand on them you will only see a single frontal column along its embracing arms.
At 9:45 we presented ourselves to the Vatican Police security station, showed our confirmed reservation email and ...
to continue: http://wp.me/p7rOvK-if
Apr 22nd, 2017, 08:49 AM
#50
<<annhig no cliffhanger, it goes on on the blog!>>
you see I had to go out, so to me it WAS a cliff hanger!
but I've caught up now.
Marigross - you're not alone in being moved by the experience of the Scavi tour, despite not being religious. Just as we arrived at the chapel next to the supposed resting place of St Peter, midday mass was starting above our heads along with some wonderful singing, which will always set me off, and I was suddenly quite overwhelmed to the extent that DH thought that I was ill!
Dare I say that I did not find the Pietà that moving? It seems to me quite a cold portrayal with none of the emotion that you see in it. It is wonderfully sculpted of course, but not, to me, at all moving. Ah well.
My DH tends to have the same reaction as yours to the avant-garde [at least when it appears on his plate] so i may borrow your trick in future. The food looks very good and I'm glad that it was not, as sometimes happens in these hyper-modern places, better to look at than to taste. May I ask what your lunch there cost?
I also like the taxi first, walk later approach - and really taxis in Rome are a steal. Though I like the buses too.
you see I had to go out, so to me it WAS a cliff hanger!
but I've caught up now.
Marigross - you're not alone in being moved by the experience of the Scavi tour, despite not being religious. Just as we arrived at the chapel next to the supposed resting place of St Peter, midday mass was starting above our heads along with some wonderful singing, which will always set me off, and I was suddenly quite overwhelmed to the extent that DH thought that I was ill!
Dare I say that I did not find the Pietà that moving? It seems to me quite a cold portrayal with none of the emotion that you see in it. It is wonderfully sculpted of course, but not, to me, at all moving. Ah well.
My DH tends to have the same reaction as yours to the avant-garde [at least when it appears on his plate] so i may borrow your trick in future. The food looks very good and I'm glad that it was not, as sometimes happens in these hyper-modern places, better to look at than to taste. May I ask what your lunch there cost?
I also like the taxi first, walk later approach - and really taxis in Rome are a steal. Though I like the buses too.
Apr 22nd, 2017, 11:18 PM
#53
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ann, the bill was a very reasonable (considering quality) 53Eu with a bottled beer and a single glass of wine.
That is the wonderful thing about art, it touches each of us differently and differently at each moment.
That is the wonderful thing about art, it touches each of us differently and differently at each moment.
Apr 23rd, 2017, 01:21 AM
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<b>Friday, April 21st
The Not-So-Lazy 3-Church Day</b>
It was supposed to be a lazy day. ‘We can relax and maybe go see a couple of churches not too far away’. Yup, that was what I said.
So we had a leisurely breakfast, refilled our coffee mugs more than once and eventually rolled out the door in the general direction of the Colosseum. My plan was simple, see 3 churches which are in close proximity: San Clemente, Santi Quattro Coronatti, and San Stefano Rotondo al Monte Celio.
A quick consultation with Google maps confirmed that it was less than 1.5miles to the nearest one, a nice stroll to enjoy the nice weather. This would be a ‘rest’ day. In and out way before the aperetivo hour struck.
Except it was not.
Two things went wrong with the plan. First...
<b>To continue reading: </b> http://wp.me/p7rOvK-jh
The Not-So-Lazy 3-Church Day</b>
It was supposed to be a lazy day. ‘We can relax and maybe go see a couple of churches not too far away’. Yup, that was what I said.
So we had a leisurely breakfast, refilled our coffee mugs more than once and eventually rolled out the door in the general direction of the Colosseum. My plan was simple, see 3 churches which are in close proximity: San Clemente, Santi Quattro Coronatti, and San Stefano Rotondo al Monte Celio.
A quick consultation with Google maps confirmed that it was less than 1.5miles to the nearest one, a nice stroll to enjoy the nice weather. This would be a ‘rest’ day. In and out way before the aperetivo hour struck.
Except it was not.
Two things went wrong with the plan. First...
<b>To continue reading: </b> http://wp.me/p7rOvK-jh
Apr 23rd, 2017, 12:17 PM
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<b>Saturday, April 22nd
Delivering on the Lazy Day Promise</b>
Yesterday, the Lazy Day thing had backfired, but today, I did not even look at The Spreadsheet. Hey, the fact that I’m a recovering overplanner does not mean that I don’t have a spreadsheet….I just don’t feel compelled to follow it (most of the time) to the dot. Besides, 95% of my ‘must do’ activities had been included in Week #1; everything else would just need to fall into place on its own.
So we had coffee #1 and coffee #2; even though it is instant coffee, it’s still Nespresso from Italy with boiled water brought through old Roman pipes, so it will still be better than the exact same thing served at home. Placebo Effect. I know you are supposed to go down to the bar and have a cappuccino standing up. But you have to wear real clothes to do that… not conductive to a lazy day.
A quick consultation with C; let’s just have a brunch with the leftovers we have. So I caught up a bit with writing, downloaded pictures…. All the makings of a lazy day. So far so good.
Over the last few years or vacation rentals I have learned that on Day 1 of grocery shopping, no matter what, you pick up a bag of soup or two. Yes, the dried kind, and I know it does not sound appealing or even practical. But it is. You never know when you might just need to cook an emergency bowl of soup because you either got sick, all the stores turn out to be unexpectedly closed, a second universal flood has been unleashed, or you are just too lazy to go out.
So we had Knorr Cream of Porcini with our leftover green beans and our leftover tortellini. Maybe it was just because it was almost noon and I was still not wearing a bra, but it was heavenly.
I magnanimously told C that if/when he wanted to go somewhere, he should just let me know, or otherwise I would spend the day happily writing or knitting. Entirely up to him. Magic words.
By 3:00pm all his emails and newspapers were read and he started to get bored (no TV on this apartment). Finally he said ‘why don’t we go over to Campo di Fiori and have a drink’. Music to my ears. 15 minutes later, we were out the door. I’m a low maintenance girl.
I think People Watching does not get better in Rome than Campo di Fiori/Piazza Navona. Perhaps the Fontana di Trevi or the Spanish Steps, but at those places there is nowhere to watch the people from. So yeah, we spent about 2 hours and a few glasses of wine watching people take crazy selfies, try to get waiters to rearrange tables for groups of 8+ and oblivious toddlers learn how to walk.
Around 6:00p it was time to move on. As we walked out we went into some of the food stores around the Campo. Everything looked delicious but we held firm; one should not overshop at expensive stores. Then I saw him looking longingly into a fridge display. They had some Cervolats; a typical Swiss sausage that are not easy to find.
The struggle was real. I could see it in his eyes. He wanted them. He just could not admit to it. ‘Honey, why don’t you just get them, it’s ok if we are in Italy.’ I finally said, trying to put him out of pain, Because I try my best to be a good wife. AND those things are good with a little mustard on them. He finally gave in and bought them,
Then it was time to decide what to do… walk around some more or head to ‘our’ neighborhood bar back in Trastevere for one more round. Well, our Lazy Day commitment was kept. We even skipped the bar and went back to the apartment, kicked off the shoes, poured some more wine and cooked a dinner of bacon, smoked pork chops, boiled potatoes and green beans.
Because it’s not always all about what is typical and authentic of the area, sometimes it’s also about what it is available that we don’t have at home and about what makes YOU happy. My Swiss Guy was ecstatic, and we did, indeed, have a Lazy Day.
Delivering on the Lazy Day Promise</b>
Yesterday, the Lazy Day thing had backfired, but today, I did not even look at The Spreadsheet. Hey, the fact that I’m a recovering overplanner does not mean that I don’t have a spreadsheet….I just don’t feel compelled to follow it (most of the time) to the dot. Besides, 95% of my ‘must do’ activities had been included in Week #1; everything else would just need to fall into place on its own.
So we had coffee #1 and coffee #2; even though it is instant coffee, it’s still Nespresso from Italy with boiled water brought through old Roman pipes, so it will still be better than the exact same thing served at home. Placebo Effect. I know you are supposed to go down to the bar and have a cappuccino standing up. But you have to wear real clothes to do that… not conductive to a lazy day.
A quick consultation with C; let’s just have a brunch with the leftovers we have. So I caught up a bit with writing, downloaded pictures…. All the makings of a lazy day. So far so good.
Over the last few years or vacation rentals I have learned that on Day 1 of grocery shopping, no matter what, you pick up a bag of soup or two. Yes, the dried kind, and I know it does not sound appealing or even practical. But it is. You never know when you might just need to cook an emergency bowl of soup because you either got sick, all the stores turn out to be unexpectedly closed, a second universal flood has been unleashed, or you are just too lazy to go out.
So we had Knorr Cream of Porcini with our leftover green beans and our leftover tortellini. Maybe it was just because it was almost noon and I was still not wearing a bra, but it was heavenly.
I magnanimously told C that if/when he wanted to go somewhere, he should just let me know, or otherwise I would spend the day happily writing or knitting. Entirely up to him. Magic words.
By 3:00pm all his emails and newspapers were read and he started to get bored (no TV on this apartment). Finally he said ‘why don’t we go over to Campo di Fiori and have a drink’. Music to my ears. 15 minutes later, we were out the door. I’m a low maintenance girl.
I think People Watching does not get better in Rome than Campo di Fiori/Piazza Navona. Perhaps the Fontana di Trevi or the Spanish Steps, but at those places there is nowhere to watch the people from. So yeah, we spent about 2 hours and a few glasses of wine watching people take crazy selfies, try to get waiters to rearrange tables for groups of 8+ and oblivious toddlers learn how to walk.
Around 6:00p it was time to move on. As we walked out we went into some of the food stores around the Campo. Everything looked delicious but we held firm; one should not overshop at expensive stores. Then I saw him looking longingly into a fridge display. They had some Cervolats; a typical Swiss sausage that are not easy to find.
The struggle was real. I could see it in his eyes. He wanted them. He just could not admit to it. ‘Honey, why don’t you just get them, it’s ok if we are in Italy.’ I finally said, trying to put him out of pain, Because I try my best to be a good wife. AND those things are good with a little mustard on them. He finally gave in and bought them,
Then it was time to decide what to do… walk around some more or head to ‘our’ neighborhood bar back in Trastevere for one more round. Well, our Lazy Day commitment was kept. We even skipped the bar and went back to the apartment, kicked off the shoes, poured some more wine and cooked a dinner of bacon, smoked pork chops, boiled potatoes and green beans.
Because it’s not always all about what is typical and authentic of the area, sometimes it’s also about what it is available that we don’t have at home and about what makes YOU happy. My Swiss Guy was ecstatic, and we did, indeed, have a Lazy Day.
Apr 23rd, 2017, 12:34 PM
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Walking along circo massimo does not have to be boring: if you walk on the southwestern side of it, you have amazing views into the palatine hill and also walk by the rose garden that just opened for the season....
Apr 24th, 2017, 12:05 AM
#59
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The blog post with a few pictures. http://wp.me/p7rOvK-ld
vinoroma, true, you do get the views of the Palatine. I never saw a rose garden, where would I see that? I love roses.
heart2travel, thank you! And, yes, I did put on the bra, lol. I'm not one of the lucky ones that can get away with not wearing one in polite company.
vinoroma, true, you do get the views of the Palatine. I never saw a rose garden, where would I see that? I love roses.
heart2travel, thank you! And, yes, I did put on the bra, lol. I'm not one of the lucky ones that can get away with not wearing one in polite company.
Apr 24th, 2017, 12:08 AM
#60
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Also, if anyone is interested, I'm posting a lot more pictures on Stella's Spoon FB page.
https://www.facebook.com/Stellas-Spo...homepage_panel
https://www.facebook.com/Stellas-Spo...homepage_panel
