whitehall

Tarquinia

On our way to Rome for our final week-end, we decided to make one stop. We wanted to go someplace we never heard of, so we picked Tarquinia, and, as with Rome, it is part of the Lazio region. We only took a peek, but it looks like it could be one of those great places to go when in Rome and in the need of a day trip by train.

Tarquinia sits back from the sea, but it is high enough for distant glimpses.





We had convinced ourselves we would be the only tourists, but we forgot that this city is very close to the massive cruise port in Civitavecchia.






This is a very old city, at one time the largest city in the Etruscan empire. And the big draws, both of which we passed on, are Etruscan tombs and Etruscan art. For us, it was simply a matter of time, since we agreed to return our leased car in Rome around noon. We were intrigued enough by what we saw, so we plan to come back, maybe even stay a night.

Archaeologists are said to be working all the time on new Etruscan finds here, and we thought, sitting in the main square, this was an ancient Roman find on display. But apparently it’s a recent work by a local artist.


Tarquinia seems typical in every way. Cobblestones, quaint buildings, pretty squares, lots of churches. It was known as Corneto until 1922 when they decided to adopt a name closer to its Etruscan roots.


From the outside looking in, we saw a lot of medieval towers. They say there might have been 38 of them at one time. With maybe 18 surviving. That’s a few more than the 14 famous surviving towers in the Tuscany town of San Gimignano.



There were several nice looking places for a morning pastry. We selected one. We asked if the plain looking croissants had any fillings. Crema? We got a big smile, and the lady behind the counter went into the kitchen, sliced open the croissant, reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a pastry bag. Nice. And full. Thank you.



We popped our heads into a few churches; as usual, there were many. And noticed one unusual congregant, laying prostrate before the altar.





The busiest place in town this morning was the fruit and vegetable seller. Lots of places had limits on the number of people allowed inside due to Covid.





After this quick stop, we passed the busy cruise port for Rome at Civitavecchia. I think we have been there for three transatlantic cruises and one other Mediterranean cruise over the years. There are seven cruise ships in this out the car window photo, all rising higher than the beachfront buildings.





We returned our car, a little dusty, but in great shape considering what we have been through together. After over 4,000 km, we felt a connection to this little SUV. As with any car lease, we had to “sell” the car back. The whole process took less than five minutes. We love Auto Europe.


By the time, we were on the streets of Rome, it was time for late lunch. Although we had a lot of pizza in the last month, we had been dreaming of our favorite place in Rome that was closed for August vacation when we were here at the beginning of our trip. It’s a famous place. Travel & leisure says: “Soccer players, Hollywood stars, famous artists, and locals from the neighborhood all line up outside Pizzeria da Baffetto to wait patiently for a table to open up in the crammed rooms of one of Rome's most stalwart traditional pizzerie." We never noticed because the place is so busy, but we have read they have a celebrity wall of past guests. And, we usually avoid "famous places". We started going here because our son, who knows his pizza, suggested it. And, he originally found it by accident.

There are two kinds of Roman pizzas, one is the thick rectangle sheet pan type, often for takeout, and the other is the very thin, crisp crust. This is the latter in all its perfection. (Neapolitan, which we get more often in Italy, is a little thicker and a little floppier when holding a slice.)


With the after-lunch gelato in hand, we did our latest several mile walk across the city. We noticed big changes, just in the few weeks since we were last here. Americans. Lots of them. And, perhaps a doubling in the number of tourists. Crowds everywhere, much like the old days. Guides holding cruise ship paddles. Long lines at restaurants and even for gelato. Glad we got to enjoy a much quieter Rome a month ago.

TDudette

LOL at the prostrate one, whitehall. Upon googling Tarquinia, I saw some YouTubes about the Etruscans. There are tombs with interesting painted walls...more new information thanks to your TR. All those tourist ships do not delight.

annhig

<<Thank you on Sicily. We plan to spend a few days in a little hill town, where my grandfather came from (we were there only once for an hour). We have based in Taormina, Ortiga, Trapani and Palermo in the past. However, as we discovered in Umbria, you can go there many times, and there always is something new. Due to Covid, we canceled a trip last year that included southern Calabria (we've been in the north) and Sicily (to include Modica and Ragusa and Caltagirone among others)>>

The SE of Sicily is exactly where we based ourselves for the majority of our trip in 2106 so happy to help if you would like; that said there are several others here who spend more time in that area whose TRs may well be of more interest.

I agree with you about how safe one normally feels in Italy - I can think of very few times when I have felt at all wary. And i know what you mean about the language problems, which exist even if like me you think that you can speak some italian. That said, saying "polizia" and making for the door may well bring about the desired result, though I have yet to try it out. Rome does indeed look very busy in those photos - I'm hoping that this is the post covid rush and that by the time I am able to go things will have calmed down.

whitehall

TDudette We have taken many cruises and have enjoyed most of them. With the bigger and bigger ships, and all the extra people and their tremendous impact on port cities, we think there should be a time-out. Cities and towns from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Venice are now re-thinking limits. It seems about time.
annhig Now that cruise ships are filling up again, and two million a year come through Civitavecchia, I am guessing crowds will keep growing in areas within easy reach of these cruise passengers. All the more reason for us to seek the many places in Italy that have not been impacted by them.

whitehall

Our first order of business on this Saturday is to get a negative Covid test, so we will be re-admitted to the US on the following Monday.

We asked our landlord for a suggestion. He looked out our apartment window and pointed to an antique pharmacy down the street. We simply walked in, were asked to write down our names and email addresses and pay the fee, which was like $22 euros each as we recall. And, then take the papers across the street to a little white tent under some construction scaffolding. There were similar small white tents all over Rome. The guy in the tent took us in, one at a time, took out a really long swab, stuck it in both of our nostrils, higher than we were expecting, a little uncomfortable. But we were each in and out in about 30 seconds. We got an email with our negative results and an Italian QR code “green pass”, good for two days (although, of course, our CDC vaccination card is the same thing for use in Italy). The results for returning home, however, were good for three days.

We then decided to go somewhere we haven’t been.




Villa Borghese is an art gallery that many here have most certainly been to. Unfortunately, despite our dozen or so trips to Rome, we still haven’t made it. And, we were unable to get last minute reservations this time as well.





But Villa Borghese is much more. It was originally an expansive estate built by Cardinal Borghese to house his famed art collection per this old drawing we saw near the villa. The original gardens, now a public park, make up 200 acres right in central Rome. We can’t believe we have never been there either. Until now.

It is not Central Park, which is four times the size, but it is thought to be one of the largest urban parks in Europe


Most people come up to the park via stairs above Piazza del Populo or taking a left at the top of the Spanish Steps. It is literally minutes from either. Once you enter the park, there are terrific views of Rome and Vatican City. It is still hard to believe that such an area is so close to the swarms of people just below.


The park has so many dimensions from exercise to art. There are long stretches of roads and trails. Many are lined with pedestal statues of what we believe are famous Romans from the past.


Most people get around by walking, but there are golf cart tours and rental vehicles of all kinds. Even pony rides for the kids.


We would need to display dozens of photos to capture all the sculptures and statues throughout the park and gardens. One of them, honors a WWI Italian hero, who, after losing a leg became a cyclist and forced his way into the front lines during the war. We aren’t sure why this boxing instructor picked this spot to train this lady.


The immediate area around Villa Borghese itself, and its gates and outbuildings, have even more statues and architectural detailing. I will leave it to the historians to debate the greed, corruption, excesses and politicization of the papacy, but Borghese (formerly known as Scipione) was the Pope’s nephew. And, some say this property was the ultimate party place.


The park has picnic areas, where there were birthday parties on this Saturday, as well as Tai Chi and yoga groups, a large soccer field and an equestrian area. It also offers rental boats on this romantic little pond with wildlife.

There also were carnival rides for kids and restaurants, one with large trees growing in its middle. There are so many other buildings, many of them added to the park in the 19th and 20th centuries. A small theater for kids has been there for 85 years. There also was an outdoor cinema that may have been created for Covid.


On one side of the park, we saw these soldiers with long guns We noticed that they were guarding the Saudi Arabia Embassy. In looking at this area on maps recently, we also noticed that the US Ambassador’s residence (where the President stayed last week), and many other embassies are just around the corner.


Not too far away from the Ambassador's villa home also is the current US Embassy compound, which is quite large, covering a big square block with multiple buildings. This is the first time we have walked by it. Many years ago, my Dad turned down a top position at the Embassy because he didn’t want to disrupt our schools. We often think about the “what ifs.”


Via Veneto is a posh hotel area near the US Embassy. Erwin Wurm, a noted Austrian artist, has 14 artworks on Via Veneto that gave us a smile.


It’s also nice to see artists of all kinds in action all over Rome.


I know I made this comment at the beginning of this report. It seems a little disingenuous to show only the beauty of Rome, when there is simply so much trash around. Some of it is because it’s a city, with lots of restaurants, and perhaps not a lot of room to shield trash. And it’s not just Romans, but tourists, who are part of the problem. Thank you McDonald's. At home, we see lots of those dental plastic floss picks. In Italy, we started to see lots of face masks discarded on streets all over, including Umbria. Many places, like Spello, with its many tourists for its small size, make it a daily undertaking to clean up. Rome should try to figure out how to duplicate that model.





We noticed the old Cafe de Paris sign and canopy on Via Veneto and remembered this was one time a famous sidewalk cafe and celebrity hangout. It was made famous in the Fellini film "La Dolce Vita" in the cafe’s heyday in 1960, but it was closed and empty and apparently has been for a while. We checked its more recent history. 1985: terrorist wounded 38 here with grenades; 2009: it was impounded by police as part of as Mafia empire; 2014: destroyed in arson fire the very morning a management group was being evicted. It’s not clear if it ever re-opened after that, but it seems odd that it still sits empty, with its sign in an area that was always considered high end.


We nearly always see some type of protest or promotion of a cause when in any European city. Rome is no exception. One group, trying to highlight domestic violence against women, lined the bridge to Castel San Angelo, with a colorful patchwork of knitted and crocheted pieces. A smaller group, some camped in tents, covered a section of Piazza del Populo with signs protesting Italy’s vaccine mandates for workers.

There were plenty of people out and about on this Saturday, so it was a good day for us to retreat to the spacious park at Villa Borghese. Some were just watching chess players; some were attending weddings; and restaurants and streets were all packed.




We found a table for dinner down a quieter side street. Great service, and we were even able to get the meat course served with the pasta. These meatballs looked more like meat patties, but they were very good nonetheless. We apparently were so anxious to eat, it looks like we started eating before we remembered to take the photo.

TDudette

Thank you for interesting new views of Rome. I'm sorry you missed the inside of Borghese, but seeing so much of the park was really nice. The crowds were surprising. Good going home travel karma.

whitehall

Before we go home, there is still the Rome Zoo to see, as part of that great park. Hopefully, we will have that tomorrow.

whitehall

We decided to go back to the Villa Borghese Park on our last full day in Rome to see a few things we missed on our visit the day before. The park was crowded, largely do to a charity walk that seemed to draw thousands of people.


We saw the equestrian center, a restaurant in an elegant old building, and the exterior of a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The theater was hosting a private function. It looked ugly on the outside, but photos of the inside show a grand circular oak theatre. We would love to go to a function here.





We haven’t been to a zoo since our kids were younger, and that was sometime ago. The zoo in Rome was created in 1911 and takes up more than 20% of the 200 acre Borghese Park. It is said to be the oldest zoo in Europe.

The Rome Zoo doesn’t like to called that. It changed its name some years ago to “Bioparco di Roma”, a friendlier name, since zoos often have those who love them and those who hate them. They have education campaigns within the park about conserving endangered species, and they say that is their mission.

We will try to keep away from the arguments about zoos, pro and con, and instead focus on the beautiful animals.


The park has 1100 animals from 200 species including mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians from all continents.


We aren’t sure what impact Covid had on the proper maintenance of these animals. The place had to be closed for two months during the lockdown, and all school trips were cancelled for even longer. The city owns 50% of the zoo.

Weather plays a part as well. This summer, there were photos of animals being fed blocks of frozen fruit during the severe heat wave.

Here are a few of our favorite animal photos for the day, including a Komodo dragon and the usuals, a lion, a tiger, a brown bear, zebras, monkeys and our favorite, the giraffe family:




















And this guy seemed to say it all. “Not another selfie!”

We do not recommend visiting the zoo on a Sunday. It was definitely a family day, and it was quite crowded


Before we leave, one more pizza and some gelato. Our favorite pizza place has a reputation of sometimes being selective about who they seat, since they always have lines. We had left a tip the day before and, with a smile of recognition, we were quickly given the only available table, one with four seats. While sitting there, we noticed a table for two free up and offered to move to help a party of four get seated. The waiter seemed overwhelmed with that generosity, took our order quickly (that rarely happens here) and served us quickly. Trying to get a bill always takes the longest here. Not this time. No bill, just give me 20 euro, he said. The same food and drink the day before was 33 euro. I guess they were paying it forward.


We walked off our food amidst the usual chaos of the city and saw these protestors with TV screens (not sure how they were powered) decrying the horrors of the meat industry, making us feel guilty about that sausage on our pizza.


I probably photographed 100 or more old Fiats on this trip since they are so quintessential Italian. Here are two we saw on this latest walk (one who hand-wrote that his was "turbolente" and another having some fun too).


We always poke our heads in churches. We overheard a guide to a small tour group tell them that they were a few Caravaggios inside a church on a side altar. Of course, that’s a big name, and we have liked some of his work. We went in and I think this time we were more impressed with some of other artwork at this and another church we visited.




There is always something new to discover for the next time. We have been to Piazza Navona dozens of times. Walking through there in the evening, we caught sight of this lighted ceiling fresco. This building has housed the Brazilian embassy for the last 10 years. We were looking at the beginning of a grand, really grand, gallery that is sometimes open to the public.




Just a nice photo of Rome before packing for the next day’s flight home.

TDudette

Sighing for Italy.

annhig

<<Sighing for Italy.>>

Me too, TD especially as some Scottish friends who I know from visits to Venice are there at the moment.

<<We noticed the old Cafe de Paris sign and canopy on Via Veneto and remembered this was one time a famous sidewalk cafe and celebrity hangout. It was made famous in the Fellini film "La Dolce Vita" in the cafe’s heyday in 1960, but it was closed and empty and apparently has been for a while. We checked its more recent history. 1985: terrorist wounded 38 here with grenades; 2009: it was impounded by police as part of as Mafia empire; 2014: destroyed in arson fire the very morning a management group was being evicted. It’s not clear if it ever re-opened after that, but it seems odd that it still sits empty, with its sign in an area that was always considered high end.>>

Whitehall - your reference to La Dolce Vita reminded me of a never to be forgotten night in Rome at a bar round the corner from our apartment near the Via Coronari, which the owner of our apartment had recommended to us. It turned out that the owner had been in the film and was still performing his drag act as featured in the film well over 40 years later. Our then 17 or so year old DS was open mouthed.

so sorry your trip is at long last coming to an end - it's been such a pleasure to follow it.

whitehall

TDudette Don't sigh. Time to return.
annhig Funny story. I know I saw La Dolce Vita many years ago, maybe on VHS tapes. I remember it was long, like 3 hours, and it is one of those films like Ben Hur that came with an intermission. Would love to see it again. With all the streaming options today though, I cannot find it.

whitehall

We had a 10 a.m. taxi scheduled to take us to FCO. We were ready to go 45 minutes early. Our studio apartment was located on more of a local street, but with close proximity to so much. We took our last walk of this trip in Rome, went to Piazza Navona and the streets around it; then to Castel San Angelo and finally to a nearly empty Vatican Square, before returning with time to spare. This is the time of day to be out and about in a quiet Rome.



Once at the airport, we had to go through 8 or 9 people checking and re-checking documents. Funny, because on arrival, we didn't have to talk to anyone. Finally, near our gate, we had a little extra time.

We spoke about food, mostly the simple things, throughout this report. And, there we were at the airport, looking at a food court with food you never see in a similar place in the US. I saw a case full of raw beef, and chicken and sausage. Thinking it was just a display, I still had to ask if someone can order something from here. Of course. They grilled us Italian sausage, with a side of roasted potatoes and a fresh roll, for a perfect early lunch. It’s great to see that they care about food, even at the airport.





Earlier in the report, we noted the irony of taking a photo of Monte Argentario from a plane window nine years ago and not previously realizing it. Then annhig made a recommendation on Fodors to go to Orbetello, which was in that photo, and we completely changed our trip toward the end. That caused me to take a look at any photos from our airplane window on our return trip. The most recognizable place appears to be Lac du Bourget in France. We have never been to the French Alps; wonder if this is a message.

I appreciate everyone who viewed this trip report and thank Fodors for allowing sufficient data to post the 1250 or so photos they allowed.

That’s all Folks.

TDudette

As I wrote to Russ_in_LA, I ran out of adjectives for "stunning" in describing your photos, whitehall. And yes, bravo Fodors for incorporating the space for them in TRs. Again, thanks for sharing your fabulous experiences. 📸

Paqngo

Whitehall- Thanks for the wonderful trip report. We went to France this past September and had a wonderful time. Italy has been calling me back and your trip report is an inspiring.

HappyTrvlr

Thank you Whitehall for allowing me to feel like I have traveled with you and your wife to one of my favorite places on earth.

annhig

Whitehall - I'm so glad to have made what seems to have been a positive contribution to your trip - no fodorite can ask for more.

May your next travels be as enjoyable as these have been.

Jackie44

Thank you Whitehall - I have enjoyed following along so much.

joannyc

Thanks for a wonderful TR! I’ve very much enjoyed following in your footsteps.

whitehall

TDudette Thank you. I only caught russ_in_LA TR report recently, and it made me want to return to Portugal.

Paqngo HappyTrvlr annhig Jackie44 joannyc Thank you all for taking the ride in the sometimes bumpy back seat of our little Dacia SUV and following our 200 miles of walking, hiking, climbing and horseback riding. I apologize for our frequent stops to take photos. We took 7,000 of them, maybe 200 per day. We try not to enjoy everything though a camera lens, and, since we both take photos, we estimate that we each spend less than 30 minutes of our very long days taking photos. For us, that’s a good investment for future memories and sharing. That also included some personal selfies, most with our masks off, celebrating travel for the first time in two years.

Leely2

Great report, thank you!