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The Peabody Papers: A Mostly True Tale of AJ and Mrs. P's Visit to Italy

The Peabody Papers: A Mostly True Tale of AJ and Mrs. P's Visit to Italy

Old Jun 19th, 2012, 02:27 PM
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The Peabody Papers: A Mostly True Tale of AJ and Mrs. P's Visit to Italy, Part 5


Now with Music! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f72CTDe4-0


Tuesday: We Do the Big V at Last! And other stuff.

So, we bit the bullet, and did a scheduled, expensive, guided, skip the line, See the Vatican tour. Instead of hurry up and wait, it was wait and hurry up. Grab a gulped breakfast and wait for the pickup (late), ride to the Vatican via 5 other hotels (wait), find the tour meeting point (wait), pay (wait), get our radio headsets from the tour leader (wait), skip the line (don't wait), enter the entrance hall, use the “last restroom before the exit,” regather under the red plaid tour guide flag, enter and wait. Then we follow the nice tour leader through the mile or two of galleries, see art and sculpture and frescoes, the Raphael Rooms, and a pope's bedroom, and realize that the Vatican may have a few millennia of artefacts but really could use some useful identifying labels. Yes, with a guide you can't linger or digress or do it your way, but without one you won't have any idea what you are looking at.

Then, it's the Sistine Chapel in all of its restored cartoonish beauty. Guide whispers into his mike, we look at the shadow of Michelangelo's ruined masterpiece, and then move on. I agree that the cleaning removed not only the grime and candlewax, but also the sculptural shading overglaze that Michelangelo used in his artistic genius breakthrough. What is left is still nice, just too gaudy for my taste.

Then it was off to St Peter's, see the huge dome, the six-foot-high letters, the sculptures, and leave to be greeted by a massive cloudburst. Gather at a souvenir store, wait, get the ride back to the hotel.

For the afternoon, we went to the Palazzo Massimo Museum, which has an amazing collection of ancient art. Frescoes rescued from the ruins of Lidia's Villa fill an an entire room reconstructed as if it were still on site. They are as impressive as the Monet Waterlilly room in Paris. The museum has many frescoes, sculptures, floor and wall mosaics, all the art removed from places that are no more. Really worth it and almost empty.

Walked to the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria to see the Bernini sculpture of St. Teresa in Ecstasy, also worth it.

Dinner, our third at Osteria Barberini, and again loved the food. Mrs. P had a big salad and a platter of scallops and calimari in the lightest tempura-like battering ever. I had pasta with white truffles and a dish of oxtail stew (a bit too much dissection for me, but great flavor), sides, wine, etc. Service charge was subtracted from the bill “for regulars.” We didn't tell them that Wednesday was our last full day in Rome, so we were only to be regulars for a day. Sigh.

(To be Continued)
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Old Jun 19th, 2012, 05:09 PM
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Love the report -- thanks!
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Old Jun 19th, 2012, 06:28 PM
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What a refreshing report.

Disagree entirely about the Sistine Chapel though -- the only people who could prefer the uncleaned version have to be academics whose thesis (?) were undone when the original was revealed. Compare to contemporary works. (This happened with Joyce scholars, too, when the early editions of Ulysses were corrected.)
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Old Jun 19th, 2012, 06:29 PM
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Very much enjoying your report!
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Old Jun 20th, 2012, 02:47 AM
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"too gaudy for my taste" he didn't do it for you
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Old Jun 20th, 2012, 07:28 PM
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The Peabody Papers: A Mostly True Tale of AJ and Mrs. P's Visit to Italy, Part 6

Wednesday: Dig it! Also gelato.

Thanks to a heads up from another Fodorite, I heard about the 5 Euro Context Tours in the Public Interest, and we had booked the one scheduled for today. We gathered for our docent, took a train to the countryside, and explored Lidia's Villa, an archeological dig not usually open to the public. Actually, the place has been under excavation for more than a century, although neglected for most of the time. The prize of the place, a room totally covered in frescoes of a garden (trees, plants, flowers, birds, etc.) was eventually moved to the Palazzo Massimo, which we saw earlier. The frescoes, that is, the room was still there. We saw the excavated villa, mosaic floors, swimming pool (complete with working restorers), and so on. The layout of the place was like a small rural village designed for the very rich, complete with baths and the rest of the Roman trappings. It must have been amazing in its time. Also, there is a small museum with artefacts, including ancient Roman flower pots, keys, and dog-headed rainspouts. Pleasant and interesting place even as it is being excavated, explored, and restored.

On our return to Rome, we decided to finish up with a gelato crawl. We started at the Campo dei Fiori, first exploring the market and getting pannini at the Forno de Campo dei Fiori. Really tasty, great flatbread, cheap. Then we went to GROM, a gelateria on the Campo's corner, which, besides having top notch gelato has a bathroom. Next we navigated ourselves to il Gelato del Teatro (don't trust my spelling), a tiny place on a tiny dead end off another street off … Oh, heck, get a map. Anyway, the flavors here were knockouts. My pistacchio de Bronte caused an involuntary “Wow!” Mrs. P had lemon basil and a fruit flavor, both extraordinary. I had chocolate fondant, great. Then I got the lemon rosemary honey flavor. Then raspberry sage. No matter how strange the names of the flavors seemed, the balance and flavor combinations were perfect. We stayed there at the tiny outdoor tables and gave up on the idea of revisiting the gelateria form Friday and the other one on the five best list.

Evening was pannini and packing. We ordered a cab for the morning.

Thursday: We travel to Sorrento, and depend on the kindness of strangers.

(To be Continued)
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Old Jun 20th, 2012, 07:45 PM
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Gelato heaven!
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Old Jun 21st, 2012, 03:24 AM
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Wonderful report. You have almost convinced me to join local guided tours. You have definitely enticed my taste buds. I really like Roman pizza, and it is hard to find in the US.
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Old Jun 21st, 2012, 09:03 AM
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I can't wait for the Sorrento/Amalfi Coast part of your report!
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Old Jun 23rd, 2012, 08:35 PM
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The Peabody Papers: A Mostly True Tale of AJ and Mrs. P's Visit to Italy, Part 6


Thursday: We travel to Sorrento, and depend on the kindness of strangers.

Cab to Termini and the fast train to Naples. Termini was nowhere as fearsome as the guidebook warnings would have you believe. We had Mini fares (now Super Economy) booked on line. We found that our assigned seats had been commandeered by a group of a half dozen active senior Italian grandmas, but they made room for us and plied us with delicious caramel candies, so we were quite comfortable, although I doubt we were actually in our assigned seats. Never mind. No one came to check tickets.

An hour or so later, we left our cushy seats at Naples, went to the shop with the “i” and picked up our Napoli ArteCard 3-day Tutta la Regione passes (cash only). This was the only multipurpose tourist card that we found to be useful in all of our travels. The tourist site entries very nearly covered the cost of the card and the three days of transit coverage were essentially free.

Then it was off to the Circumvesuviana. Luck! There was one on a track that had had a sign “Sorrento” among other places, so we hopped on and away we went. “Which will be the stop for Sorrento,” Mrs. P asked. “Sorrento is the last stop,” says I. “Are you sure?” “Yes, Sorrento is the last stop.”

Not exactly.

A man in a business suit seated nearby tried to tell us something, but his English was only slightly better than my Italian, now up to fourteen words. He was trying to say something about Pompeii and changing trains. Luckily, we were able to communicate in French. The Circumvesuviana has many branches and we were on one that does NOT go to Sorrento. The gentleman was going to Pompeii, on the line that did go to Sorrento, and he instructed us that we must change trains with him, getting to the right line. We did, he got off at Pompeii, and we made it to Sorrento. A seven minute walk and we were at our hotel, the Savoia.

The Savoia Hotel is just a short walk from the center of Sorrento, and in a very quiet location. It is family run, the room was large and modern, as was the bathroom. The rooms have great AC with a thermostat you can set, a nice TV, a safe, a minibar, and our room had a balcony with a table and two chairs for admiring the views. Breakfast was even more opulent than that of the Modigliani. Recommended highly.

After checking in, we asked about an online offer for a free meal (beverages not included) at ReFoods, a recommended restaurant run by the same family, offered for hotel stays of over 3 nights. We found we could get it because we booked direct (no commission?) and if we paid the hotel bill in cash. Agreed! Reservations for dinner were made and we went out for lunch.

We found a cafe a bit away from the main square, had pizzas (do I have to say they were really good?), and explored. Sorrento has been a resort for a few hundred years, it seems. There are stores and alleyway “streets” and purveyors of anything a vacationer might want, or be enticed to buy, and limoncello, and gelato and, of course, shoes and eyeglasses. (For reasons I cannot explain beyond cultural ideosyncracy, both Rome and Sorrento had shoe stores and eyeglass stores on almost every block.) Sorrento also has a few nice parks, and views. Choosing it as a base for touring was a good idea. On the way back to the hotel we stopped to check out the local pastry shop (quite good), the local mini-supermarket (useful), and I picked up two more packets of Italian tomato seeds at the local hardware store. These would come in handy later in our travels.

That evening we went to ReFoods. The restaurant is very modern (Post Modern?) in decor, and very friendly. We were welcomed with flutes of prosecco. The food itself was topnotch. I had the “Trilogy” appetizer: 3 different seafoods (cod, octopus, squid), each with a different method of preparation, each a different temperature, and each with a different herb, all in all a world class creation. Mrs. P had a soup which also was superior. The mains of grilled cod and veal chop were also quite good, and the dessert of cassata cake was a sweet treat. The wine list had many that I did not recognize (and we have quite a cellar at home), all at reasonable prices, so we let them pick and were quite pleased.

It was pretty relaxing for what was only planned as a travel day.

(To be etc.)
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Old Jun 23rd, 2012, 08:37 PM
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Ok, Part 7
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Old Jun 23rd, 2012, 08:59 PM
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Mr. P, thank you. Just delightful.
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Old Jun 24th, 2012, 09:05 AM
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so was this your FREE meal? sounds terrific. ditto the hotel. any chance of a link?
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Old Jun 24th, 2012, 09:09 AM
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ah the shoe shop event horizon
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Old Jun 24th, 2012, 09:18 AM
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Free, but not last. Bevs and service not free, of course.

Links:

http://www.savoia-hotel.com/en/

http://www.hotelmodigliani.com/

http://www.refoods.it/index_en.html?sezione=

http://www.osteriabarberini.com/en.html

http://www.campaniartecard.it/itinerary.cfm?id=13
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Old Jun 24th, 2012, 02:39 PM
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The Peabody Papers: A Mostly True Tale of AJ and Mrs. P's Visit to Italy, Part 8


Friday: Pompeii and Herculaneum, A Day in the Ruins

As you probably have figured out by now, we are fascinated by ancient places, especially in seeing how things were in the long ago. We got on the Circumvesuviana to Pompeii for a morning exploration, reboarded the train to get to Herculaneum, and returned by train, all covered by the ArteCard.

Pompeii is, of course, one of the world's great archeological sites. A large portion of this city has been unearthed and restored to the point where you see how people lived 2,000 years ago. The homes and roads and public spaces are all there. We used Rick Steves for a guidebook, as we had enough of the guided tour life. The basilica, the baths, the forum, temples, shops, bakeries (with ovens and grain grinding apparatus), food shops, the whorehouse, yup, we saw it all. Good walking shoes are essential, as the ancient roads and walkways are quite uneven. We missed the hot weather but still appreciated carrying water with us.

Rather than eat in the adequate cafeteria within Pompeii, we got pannini at one of the stands outside the gates. It struck me that we were acting just like the ancient Pompeians, buying our choice of a meal from a streetside stand.

Herculaneum was a different type of experience. It was buried much deeper by Vesuvius, and was built farther from the train station, one of the few engineering errors of the ancient Romans. After the half-hour walk to the site (your speed will be faster if you don't spend half a day walking in Pompeii), we descended the ramp down into the ruins.

Actually, due to the volcanic ash burial, wood and structures survived in Herculaneum, and many buildings seemed almost intact except for roofing. Lots of reconstruction has been done. Restorers were active at several points while we were there, and some unrestored/unexcavated places showed what they were working from. All the while, the modern city of Herculaneum loomed 100 feet above us. We saw whole rooms still with their whole wall frescoes, a two story house with a second floor balconey that could have been designed now, all the usual trappings of a Roman settlement, closely resembling those of Pompeii but in better condition, and so on. The combination of seeing both Pompeii and Herculaneum gave us a real appreciation of life in those times, minus the art.

Rather than boring on with food reports, I will skip to:

Saturday: We Go to Naples for Archeology and Pizza.

A long hour on the Circumvesuviana took us to Naples, and the subway got us to a 5 minute walk to the Archeological Museum. The subway was fine, no problem if you have been using the New York City subway. The Museum has the collection of the art, frescoes, statues, and mosaics removed/saved/preserved from the ruins we saw yesterday. There were stylized forms, accurate portraits, fantasies, tromp l'oeil frescoes to make rooms seem to have windows, and more. The much touted secret room was unlocked and open to all for our erotic pleasure. The museum was certainly worth seeing as a completion to the explorations of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Naples is said to be a gritty city, and it does look more New York than Rome, but no problem.

OK, back to food. I had the fixed idea that I would have a Neapolitan pizza in Naples. Long hailed as the original inspiration to the New York style pizza, said to be even better than the Roman style pizza by pizza connoisseurs, I had to do it. Only a few blocks away from the museum, Rick Steves listed a street with 3 or 4 highly regarded pizza places, so off we went. Although Rick was a great guide for Pompeii and Herculaneum and the Archeological Museum, his map to find pizza was a failure. Streets were left out, name changes to the streets were not listed, and we wandered not just aimlessly but poorly aimed for far to long until we hit the right street.

Since all the places were said to be very good and very typical, we took the waiting line of least resistance (the shortest one) and got pizzas and beer at Sorbillo. The woodburning oven turned out the pizzas quickly, and the description from Chowhound was right. Where Roman pizzas have crisp crusts, Neapolitan pizzas do in fact have soggy centers. But they taste great. I had the classic with buffalo mozzarella and fresh tomato, Mrs. P had an eggplant pizza, and both were cheap and good.

Next report: Food in Sorrento (yes, more food) and a striking visit to Capri
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Old Jun 24th, 2012, 03:32 PM
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Thank you for a wonderful report! I will be going to Italy in September and am not only enjoying your story but also getting lots of good tips from you.
Looking forward to more.
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Old Jun 24th, 2012, 04:26 PM
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Great report...paying close attention for our September Roma trip!
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Old Jun 24th, 2012, 04:41 PM
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I'm happy that you were able to find vegetables on the menu as I was in Italy in may and none were to be found . Everything was pasta and more pasta.
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Old Jun 24th, 2012, 05:17 PM
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I have enjoyed your report and waiting patiently for Capri. We are traveling in late august and I still haven't decided on all the towns/hotels. We have 4 nights in positano and haven't decided if we want five nights in sorrento ot two nights in capri and three in sorrento. I am anxious for your report. What would you suggest? I have booked hotel Eden roc. Does anyone have good or bad reviews on this hotel?
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