Final Day

We have finished our last day.  We cleaned our apartment, packed, had dinner at Gino's (another favorite neighborhood haunt), shopped and even squeezed in a final educational visit at the Palazzo Massimo, where there is a statuary exhibit from the Julian-Augustan period.  We ended the evening at the Square, which is sort of like our living room, where we went to say goodbye to the "stick men", the Hungarians who have given us a month's worth of entertainment, teaching all of us to twirl "flower sticks" and who themselves will leave for Croatia on Monday.  We wanted to say goodbye to Sr. Marcello, the sweet proprieter at the Bar di San Calisto, who is Cecily's very special friend and who has a smile that lights up the room--only for Cecily when she comes in.  (She returns it with similar wattage.)  Unfortunately, a movie is being filmed at the end of the block, and we found the bar closed and the square cordoned off, causing Cecily and Meredith to burst into tears.  It was a sad moment and a hard way to go, but perhaps there is a lesson here:  All good things come to an end, even 31 glorious days in Rome, finding Peace and rest in the Eternal City and discovering the joy of time spent with each other, living the dulce vita.  Farewell, Roma.

Journal Entry by Olivia, Meredith, and Cecily: Top 10 (or 12) things to see in Rome

The assignment:  From your vantage point, what are your recommendations for "Things You Must See in Rome."  Our young ladies negotiated the list, and entered their observations separately below:

-1. (Negative is good.  This was added as an afterthought once 1 was established, and then 0 had been taken by another afterthought!)

 Gelato at Bar di San Calisto and night entertainment at Santa Maria Trastevere Square:
     Meredith:The bar di San Calisto and the Santa Maria Trastevere Square aren't negitive 1 because they aren't horrible, they are negitive 1 because we had soooo many favorites to choose from and that is just how it worked out.The bar was one of my favorites because it had homemade geloto, cheap gelato,and really nice people working there.The square was also my favorite because we got to see a flame thrower,a spray painter,a pupetier,a different kind of mime, and stick people who we bought sticks from.
     Cecily:This place has lots of activitie.Such as these guys, who have play stix and let kids do it.The flame thrower was cool to.Then there is the bar they have homemade gelato.You have to first go to one counter purches your order then go get what your having. The guy at the counter is so nice!!!!!!!It is allways fun to go see him.
     Olivia: Not only is the gelato probably the least expensive in Rome but it's also the best. It's handmade every day and is absolutely delicious. After the gelato comes the best part; the square. We try to go every night and there's always something interesting going on. My favorite is probably the stick guys but i also enjoyed the fire lady.

0. Leonardo [da Vinci] Exhibit:
     Meredith:I would recommend the Leonardo exhibit because Apple has looked at leonardos designes and recreated them so you can look and maybe touch them.The Leonardoes exhibit was my favorite exhibit of the week we went.
     Cecily: This Exhibit  was my favarite place there are things that you can touch.In one room there is a chamber of mirors you might miss it though because it lookes blocked off.
     Olivia: A great place to see all the inventions of Leonardo. Make sure to try and see if you can build the bridge!

1. Cappuccin Crypt:
     Meredith: If you have a child that is scared of bones (like me) it is a really bad idea to take them there.
     Cecily: There are tons of bones but watch out for complete skeletons staring at you.
     Olivia: The Cappuccin Crypt would have been my number 1 but I was outvoted. It's a basement with beautiful works of art made of human bones such as jawbones, vertebrae, leg bones, skulls and all other bones. Make sure you look up too because everything is covered from the bones on the floor to the chandeliers made of bones. It's just an amazing place.

2. Doria Panfilij:
     Meredith:I loved the Doria Panfilij because I love art and it had a whole room of painted art and statuary.All the rooms there have so many peices of art I couldn't believe it only took us two hour to get through it.
     Cecily:The dori Panfilj was a gorges sight. The reason I liked it is because  I like art,and art is an amazing thing.
     Olivia: The Doria Panfilij had lots of art which didn't appeal to me but I still found certain paintings and painters I liked so it wasn't all bad.

3. Castel Sant'Angelo
     Meredith:So I really did love the Castel Sant'Angelo but if you walk there and you are so tired when you get there be careful where you sit because you may or may not be sitting on the pope's toilet.
     Cecily:This palace is my favarite place i would recomind it to every one.This place used to be where the popes would stay when there would be a war.
     Olivia: Castel Sant'Angelo was an impressive fortress. It had a great view on top and very friendly guards.

4.Colosseum:
     Meredith: I really like the Colosseum because you get to see and learn about where the gladiators fought and died
     Cecily: I think the Colosseum is interesting because the area is very old and gorgeous when you get to the top.
     Olivia: The Colosseum is interesting because you can see a piece of history still mostly intact and you can see what people did and how they lived.

5. Forum
     Meredith:When you get to the Forum it's fun to take a guided tour because you get to hear stories of how Rome may have been built and learn about the different sites in the forum.
     Cecily:I would say to probably take a tour because you get more out of it.You would not get much out if you did not.
     Olivia: The forum is a great piece of Roman history. Try to see it early on though because if you don't you will eventually just see it as more Roman ruins.

6. Four Papal Basilicas (St. Peters, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Maggiore)
     Meredith:I really liked the four Papal Basilicas because as you know I love art and statuary and the Four Papal Basilicas have a lot of that.
     Cecily:I liked the papal basilicas because all of the statues told interesting storys.
     Olivia: The four Papal Basilicas are a must see because of the beautiful art inside and out. My favorite is St. Pauls outside the walls because of the huge scale and sheer size.

7. Trevi Fountain
     Meredith:When we got to the Trevi Fountain we saw it was closed for construction and that was a big let down because I was so excited to see it.
     Cecily:We saw the Trevi fountain, it was closed due of construction.It was weird.
      Olivia:  You ave to see the Trevi Fountain but my advice would be to make sure it's open. I've heard it's beautiful when it's not being renovated.

8. Baths of Carcalla
     Meredith:The bathes of Carcalla were a lot or roman ruins that weren't all there but the stuff that was there was so beautiful that it was hard to imagine that the whole place was decorated with it.
     Cecily:The place was filled with lots of old ruins it was interesting.
      Olivia: The Baths of Carcalla are amazing becuase of how intact they are with having been around for so long. It has a fascinating history and it's fascinating to learn about the way people would have lived 2,000 years ago.

9. Jewish Quarter Tour
     Meredith:The Jewish Quarter was really big and pretty.If you're planning on going there I would recommend a guided tour because then you get to see places that you wouldn't get to see on your own.
     Cecily:This place was diffrent from the other places.You can see sights that not many people can see here.
     Olivia: The Jewish Quarter Tour was one of the more interesting things we did that I don't think many do. You see a huge catholic influence in the Italian culture with 900 catholic churches in Rome alone. You don't really see other religions so taking a tour of the synagogues and learning about Jewish history from their perspective was very interesting and intriguing.

10. Capitolini
     Meredith: The Capitalini was a fantastic place to be because there were a lot of statues and with each statue there was a story and when you put them together you could almost always asume I wouldn't want to leave.
     Cecily:The capitalini was  a  new sight it was quite pretty.
     Olivia: I liked the Capitalini but it wasn't one of my favorite places. I must admit though that I very much enjoyed seeing the huge statues of Constantine.

Our Special List:

You can read the girls' impressions of things they thought were worthy of seeing and doing in the previous post.  Here's Laura's and my additions and personal recommendations for "not to be missed" opportunities:

1. Sopra Minvera.  This ancient church adjacent to the Pantheon was a pagan temple before it was a major basilica.  It is beautiful in its own right.  In the left hand corner near the altar is a statue of Christ with a cross.  This is actually a Michelangelo sculpture, totally unprotected.  It is as close as you will get to Michelangelo.  Everything else is behind class or ropes.  Simply beautiful and simply amazing.

2. Ara coeli.  If you climb to the very top of the Vittorio Emanuele monument (the white wedding-cake looking building in the middle of the Piazza Venezia) you will be astonished to find an ancient and beautiful church.  This is the official church of the Rome city council and dates back over 1,000 years.  It is beautiful and little visited.  Surprisingly and jarringly, it exists atop a monument built in the 20th century--by excavating the hill underneath it.

3. Tour of the Jewish Synagogue.  Rome is home to Europe;s oldest continuous Jewish community. The great synagogue is home to 13,000 worshippers and includes two separate synagogues in one building.  The synagogue includes an interesting museum.  After several days of high baroque catholicism, the synagogue provides a nice break from intellectual conformity.  Afterwards, you can enjoy dinner in the adjacent Jewish Quarter and a walk through the ruins of the Flavian Amphitheater and the Teatro Marcello, which are dramatically lit by night.

4. At the Coliseum:  Hire the guide.  Wander down to the Coliseum and you will be approached by someone offering you a guided tour. You will question the expense v. value ratio of this, but trust us:  the guide is a much better way to see the Coliseum.  Plus you can skip the LONG admission line, and you will learn a lot more.  The same ticket should also get you preferential admission to the Roman Forum afterwards, making both sites doable in a single day.

5. Papal audience vs. Papal angelus.  We've done both, and the audience is definitely better. The angelus involves the pope appearing in the window.  The audience involves (Pope Francis, at least) driving around the square in his golf cart, greeting the crowd.  Go early (like four hours early) to stake out a spot on the rope line, and you may find yourself up close and personal with a major world figure.  Take plenty of water and something to keep the sun off your head.  If you an find a spot in the shade, so much the better.

6. Catacombs--it takes some doing to get to the Catacombs, but they are really worth doing. You go nearly 80 feet underground and begin to get a sense of just how dreadful life was for the early Christians, fleeing persecution and how strongly they clung to their faith.  In addition, it's just cool.

7. A day at the beach is really a cultural experience not to be missed.  We took the regional train to Santa Marinella. From there it's an easy 5-minute walk to the beach. You will need to rent an umbrella and beach chair.  Drinks are available at the beach.  When you're done, walk back to the train station and take the half hour to sixty minute trip home. (Depending on which train you take.)  It's a uniquely European experience, and the cool beach provides a nice break from the heat of Rome.

8.  Roman Ruins:  There are several ways to see the Roman ruins in Rome, all of which have their plusses and minuses.  The "it" tour is the day trip to Pompeii, although we though Herculaneum was better.  If you go, hire the professional guide (at the ruins) for a better understanding of what you are seeing.  Lesser know, but easily done is the day trip to the ruins of Ostia Antica, the old port, about 40 minutes outside Rome.  Take the metro to Pyramide and switch to the regional rail (same ticket).  Get off at the Ostia stop and buy the map at the entrance.  You can easily spend three to four hours at this site, so start early.  Stop along the way at the St. Pauls stop and walk over to the least-visited of the four papal basilica--St. Paul's Outside the Walls, built over the spot where St. Paul was supposedly beheaded and containing his grave.   If you're still in the mood for ruins, you can visit the gargantuan walls and the amazingly mosaic floors of the baths of Carcalla (take a local bus to Terme di Carcalla) or you can walk from S. Giovanni in Laterano (where you can also visit another papal basilica, a former bath itself.)  You can also see the remains of the Stadio Domitian, underneath the present day Piazza Navona and accessible at the curved end of the piazza.

9. Palazzo Colonna.  We hadn't visited this site before this trip, and it is open only on a limited schedule.  Near its more famous cousin, the Palazzo Doria Pamphilij, the Colonna is an incredible art collection assembled over 80 years and housed in an architectural setting worthy of Versailles.  It is worthy of a Saturday morning, if your visit happens to align with opening hours.

10. Drinks on the plazza of the Hotel Exedra, at Republicca metro stop.  (The metro dumps out at the entrance to the hotel.).  This is Scott's favorite venue in Rome.  Sit on the covered portico and watch the the people go by in the Piazza popolo. The drinks even come with snacks!  A really pleasant way to wind up a long day, and the cocktails are the best in Rome.

Bonus 1:  If you need green space, spend an afternoon wandering around the grounds of the Villa Borghese.  Rent bikes or segways or enjoy other entertainment.  This is a huge urban green space and provides a little refreshing cool in a hot city.

Bonus 2:  We simply loved the  Bar di San Calisto adjacent to the Santa Maria Trastevere square.  The gelato is artisinal and made on site.  It is the least expensive in Rome, but oh so yummy and oh so authentic.  You can also get a grande Pirone beer to enjoy with the locals and tourists or take it away to enjoy the street performers and ambiance at the square.  A uniquely Roman experience. (If you need your soul cleansed in advance of all this merriment, you can also attend the community vespers service at S. Maria in Trastevere, one of Rome's oldest churches, at 8:30.)

 



 

     

Unvarnished: Advice for Would-Be Visitors:

We've noticed that a lot of guidance provided to would be travellers tends to "pull the punches" and "hint" at conditions in Europe.  I guess this is to try to support tourism while still giving people the general idea of how to prepare.  The problem is, subtlety is generally lost an Americans.  The following is our "unvarnished" truth about travelling in Italy.  We aren't trying to discourage you from visiting.  We are offering you practical and realistic tips to make your trip a success. Below is our collective wisdom.

1. Pay a little extra to enjoy the ride. There's no way around it: The trip to Europe is brutal, from the cramped seat to the long flights to the smelly bathrooms.  You can make it a little better by minimizing stress.  Pay the extra for more direct routes. Allow yourself plenty of time at each stopover to stretch your legs and to allow for late flights, lines at passport control and lines at customs (We allow 3 hours between international flights).  We use British Airways, because the service is better and there is a little more legroom.  If you want to go to hell on the cheap, fly United. 

2. Before you leave, make photocopies of important documents--fronts and backs of credit cards and bank cards, passports and drivers licenses.  You will have to turn over a copy of your passport at each hotel you stay at, so take multiple copies. Leave one copy at home where it can be accessed by someone you trust in case of emergency.  Take one copy with you in case of theft, so you can contact your bank. Chances are you won't need this, but it's good to have.  It is also advisable to purchase a good travel policy which covers medical emergencies and travel exigencies.  Organize all your paperwork--airline itineraries, hotel reservations, car reservations, important papers, etc-- in some sort of binder in roughly chronological order. Be sure the binder has a pocket, as you will need to add loose papers and receipts as you go along.  (At minimum you will need something in which you keep accumulated receipts for merchandise, which you can turn in at the end of your trip for refund of the 20 percent VAT tax that will be applied to all your purchases.) 

3. Italy is not the 51st state.  Rome is not America.  It has at least 3000 years of known history and a tribal history before that.  It would be well worth your time to read at least the Wikepedia entry before coming, if not something more substantial  Once you are here, realize that you are not in America anymore.  Be open to entirely new experiences and don't be one of the irritating Americans who walk into the trattoria and say, in LOUD English:  "Do you have coffee?  American coffee?"  You will be disappointed in what you get, the Italians will think less of you, and you will not improve the image of your country.  (Italian's don't know what drip coffee is. Or American-style bacon. Or scrambled eggs. Or hamburgers, tacos or orange cheese, so don't expect them. It is also helpful not to stand on one of the bridges shouting at your spouse, "Is it the Tiger or the Tiber?"  (Yes, we saw this.)

4. You are in Italy.  The national language is ITALIAN.  Learn to speak it, at least a little.  You have no more right to come to Italy, and ask Italians to speak English, than they have to come to Oregon and ask you to speak Italian.  Learn to count to 20 and then how to count by 10s to 100.  Learn the basic verbs like "to be", "to have", "to make", "to want" and the phrases such as "I'm sorry," "Excuse me" and "Where is the...bathroom, train station, bus stop, hotel, restaurant, etc."  Your efforts, however clumsy to speak Italian and treat Italians with respect will open doors to you.  Otherwise, you are just another boorish tourist with money.

5. This is a cash economy.  Most Italian businesses do not take credit cards  Even if they do, the internet probably won't be working on the day you try to use your card. Before leaving, talk to your bank and credit card companies and have them put travel alerts on your cards, so they will work here.  (Take your bank's phone number, because banks cannot seem to get the travel alerts right and you will probably have to call your bank and remind them that you previously turned on a travel alert--  aggravating, but true.)   Once here, withdraw euros in 300-euro increments and spend cash. Everything will go better.  To withdraw cash conveniently look for an Italia Poste (post office.)  There will be an ATM out front which is likely available day and night.  It even has an English language button, which makes the ATM work just like it does in America.   

6. Lower your expectations.  At some point while you are here, the power will cease to work, the internet will stop working, the hot water will stop working, or the restaurant which advertises "air-conditioning" will provide you with a trickle of air that barely cools the temperature around you or the pizza oven will stop working or the fire alarm will sound for no rason (This is Italy, not America, so if you want America, stay home.)  When something essential isn't working, wait a while.  It will probably fix itself.  If it doesn't, alert management.  Be prepared to make do. 

7. Safe drinking water comes in bottles. Even the tap water may be contaminated, and there is nothing like spending your vacation hurling across the room.  Italy is very hot, and it is important to stay hydrated, so order bottled water every time you get a chance and drink it all.  You will need to specify whether you want "naturale" or "frizzante: (still or sparkling).  Fountains on street corners spouting water in which lots of Italians are splashing and tourists are filling their water bottles may be safe--or may not.  Assume they are not. If you are one of those people who wants every beverage served with ice, get over it.  Ice is rare in Italy and a possible source of contamination.

8. Bring hand sanitizer.  It is hard to find here, and it is, unfortunately, necessary.  Bathrooms may or may not have soap in the dispensers.  You will be sharing the countertops, grab bars, table tops and everything else with millions of other hands that have been God knows where.  Be prepared to carry around and use the hand sanitizer for your own health. It is also handy to have a pack of tissue/Kleenex.  Toilet paper may not be available in the bathroom you are using.  Is this gross?  Maybe. But this is Italy.  If you want America, stay home. 

9. When it comes to food, safety matters. Closely related to the concern over hand sanitizer has to be a concern for the safety of food.  General lack of hygiene standards, the hot sun and a lack of environmental regulations, make this a potential disaster for anybody whose digestive tract isn't accustomed to such conditions.  Generally, the rule is;  Baked is good.  Anything that comes hot from the oven or off the stove has a decent chance of being OK.  Beware, however, of lavish buffets sitting on a front counter.  That buffet is likely the source of what's going on your plate, even if you are seated inside a restaurant and ordered the dish off the menu. Beware of the sandwiches, sitting in an unrefrigerated counter at midday.  Beware of fresh fruit unless you see it being washed. Sadly, being safe will mean missing out on some great options for enjoying Italy's cuisine.  But a little vigilance will save you a LOT of unpleasantness the next day!

10. Enjoy the cultural venues.  Being a world capital, Rome attracts all the major performers, and Rome does a good job of advertisng these venues--along with their healthy admission prices.  However, youre options aren't limited to the blockbusters, especially if art or music are your things.  As you travel around, keep your eyes open.  You will likely see free concerts and ads for art exhibitions advertised on posters, usually posted only at or near the venue where vocal and string and brass performances will be staged or where exhibitions will be staged.  These can almost never be found on the internet, but are part of the joy of Rome

11. Time your visit.  Consider coming here in the fall.  Or better yet, the winter.  Italy is incredibly crowded in the summer months, and, frankly, it is oppressively hot.  Why fight the lines?  Everything is still open in the off season, but the lines are shorter and the prices are lower.  You won't get a tan, but you will get a better experience, unless you are here specifically for the sun (which also shines in America.)

12. Americans drive cars; the rest of the world walks, or takes public transit.  If taking a car everywhere is important to you, stay in America.  If you come to Rome, learn to walk.  Most of the sites for tourists in Rome are within walking distance of each other.  The distances on the map are deceiving.  Ancient Romans walked their city, because they had no other way to get places.  You can, too.  Buy a good pair of shoes and a good map. Wander down crooked streets, and when you get lost, consult your map and recalculate.  When you are really lost use your broken Italian to ask someone to put you back on course,  Most of the major sites have signage pointing the way.  If you are not up for walking, you have public transportation options.  Taxis are an easy, if somewhat expensive way to get around.  The Metro is efficient.  (That said, Italy lived on Metro Line A and Metro Line B is not real Italy but rather is a bizarre blend of real Italy and tourist Italy.) For maximum flexibility, learn to use the bus system and the trams and regional railroads.  You can buy a one week multi-modal pass at Termini, where your credit card will work,  or at the ticket machines at San Giovanni, which may require cash. If you have a map of the transit stops, you figure out which busses run from which locations to the places you want to visit.  (GoogleMaps will tell you the same thing most of the time.)  This is important because the names of the stops are likely unrelated to the places you are visiting.  (Piazza Venezia, for example, may be Piazza Venezia.  Or it might be Aracoeli or it might be Corso or it might be Foro Imperiali.)   Don't be afraid to try.  If you get off course, you can always get back on course by walking--with the aid of your maps and your good walking shoes.

13.  A useful investment is a portable wifi device. This can be rented in the U.S. and brought with you, or rented online and delivered to your hotel in Italy.   (You can also pick it up at a designated pick up pont. Since internet is somewhat unreliable, this will keep you connected and can help you power useful apps like Google Maps) while you are here.   Also, we found halfway through our trip that portable batteries are very useful.  The key to using these and all other electronics is to make sure you have enough adapters, converters and cords to plug in and recharge all your various devices. When you add up the price of all these, you will gasp, and you will probably conclude that you will make do with "serially charging" your electronics.  This will not work, because you will not be willing to sit in your hotel room doing nothing while waiting for electronics to recharge, which you would otherwise be using while out and about.  Make the investment. One adapter/converter and cord per device.)

14. Put some clothes on.  Italians are conservative and modest, and God, apparently, doesn't like women's shoulders, too much cleavage or men's thighs (unless you happen to be a completely naked male statue, which you are not, no matter what your mirror tells you.) By wearing tank tops or short running shorts, you will be barred from entering the religious sites (such as the churches) or embarrassingly asked to leave or provided with an ugly wrap, which has been God knows where,  to put over yourself while inside.  In any case, you will look like an ignorant and boorish tourist.  Put your clothes on.  Outside of a romantic relationship, your body probably isn't worth sharing with the rest of us. 

15. For women, consider a good cross-body purse.  This will give you something in which to carry around water, sanitizer and your day's purchases and enhance your security.  Women should also consider casual skirts and dresses, which are cooler.  Bring fewer clothes, not more, especially if you can have access to laundry facilities.  You aren't going to see the same people every day, and Italians wear the same clothes over and over anyway.  Remember that Italians are modest people, so black and white are preferable to bright colors.  Men visiting in summer should wear cargo shorts.  You will need the pockets, and the front pockets can help add security for things stored there. Men do not wear pink in Italy. At some point, you will probably will need long pants and a long sleeve shirt (non patterned), so bring at least one set with a pair shoes appropriate for a formal setting.

16. Convert your measurements to continental before you go. Italy has great clothes, although you may have to search a bit to find the deals.  (Hint:  they are not in the tourist venues.)  Italian clothes fit more tightly, and you are going to lose weight while you are here (due to all the walking; see above), So you are going to be tempted to buy something Italian.  The problem: you'll have no clue what size you are.  Fortunately, the internet can convert your American size to Continental sizes.  Do the research and carry the information around with you.  It will come in handly when you see that perfect little dress or that must-have pair of shoes. Just remember when you are buying XL and XXL, that's only a comparison relative to the size of the average Italian, which is smaller than the size of Americans (or even Germans for that matter). At home, you're still still an M-L and trying to squeeze into something smaller and flatter your ego will only flatter you, not your figure.

17. The shopping experience.  There are several ways to shop in Italy:  you can buy your stuff at the museum gift stores and at the popular tourist destinations such as the area around the Spanish steps or the Piazza Navona.  This will be relatively hassle free but is the most expensive way to shop.  You can also visit the street vendors (or worse yet, they will descend on you) who offer their wares at streetside tables.  (These will mostly be Pakistani/Indian/Bangladeshis and other southeast Asians or the occasional African.)  You can generally bargain with these vendors, and they expect you to do so. Getting off the beaten path will take you to local stores, where the prices will be much more reasonable, but Italian will likely be the only language spoken.  Look for signs that say saldi (sale) and sconto (discount).  Lastly, be sure to visit a grocery store. A visit to a grocery store (an actual grocery, not one that caters to tourists or a mini-market) is a glimpse of real life and offers a wealth of curiousities in any foreign country. 

17.  Do you need a mobile phone in Italy?  That's hard to say. We made do without one.  We did have use of a Skype phone app, which sort of worked with wifi.  When Linda visited us, her carrier allowed her to make calls over a wifi network.  If staying connected to the mainland is that important to you and email just won't work, it probably won't hurt to invest in a sim card that will give your phone international calling ability. 

18. There are 2.5 million people living in Rome.  The pope counts as one person.  Rome does not belong to the pope.  (That city and country is called, The Vatican.)  For historical reasons, Romans respect but don't particularly trust the pope, so don't think about Rome entirely as being Papa-centric, no matter how popular Francis may be in the rest of the world.  Likewise, while Romans take great pride in their former glory as "capital of the world", Rome also has a medieval, renaissance and modern history.  If you limit yourself to studying the Rome of 2000 years ago, you will miss the best of Rome.  If you aren't interested in the culture and history of Rome, stay home.

19. Beware of strikes, slowdowns and unexpected closures.  Italy is prone to labor strife.  You may have a big trip planned and suddenly find that the bus that was going to take you there simply isn't running today.  We travelled all the way to Herculaneum one day, only to find a labor dispute in progress, and uncertainty about whether the site would open or not.  (Fortunately, it did.)  We were surprised one morning when the tram lines stopped running for three weeks, apparently because the tram workers like to take their holiday at the same time as everyone else--at the peak of the tourist season. We also encountered a slow-down, caused by a fight between transit workers and management, because of management's unreasonable request that workers punch a time clock.  As a result, it was decided to do everything slowly and by the book--including kicking off all the passengers in the middle of a route at the end of a shift and returning immediately to the terminal.  There is nothing to do to prevent any of this, except to have a back up plan and be patient.  Our last tip would be to check the hours when planning to visit any venue where your time is not flexibile.  Italians generally work in  the cool of the morning and late in the evening, and even churches will shut their doors from 1-4.  Plan accordingly.

20.  Consider the world beyond Rome.  Rome is amazing, but Rome isn't all of Italy.  In fact, the idea of Italy as a unified country is fairly new to the Italians and they still hang on pretty intensely to regional identify and local cultural preferences.  Generally speaking, the farther north you go, the better things works, but that is by no means a universal truth!  Day trips are easily accessible from Rome--to Pompeii or to Florence.  We even made Venice with a day trip, although that is not for the faint of heart.  For day trips outside Rome, consider a tour company (most likely Viator) or consider hiring a private driver to take you door to door.  The Agent 365 at Termini can help you arrange train tickets to whisk you right to your favorite destination and home again on the Italian train system for a very reasonable feel.

Bottom line:  Rome and Italy are wonderful experiences, but traveling there involves living in a foreign country.  Things here will be FOREIGN.  If you want America, stay in America.  If you are ready to broaden your horizons, visit Italy and enjoy the Italian experience fully.  You'll be back in America soon enough. 

Back In Town, We Start the Wind Down

After three days of organizing out of town trips (Tivoli, S. Marinella and Venezia) today was a much- needed rest day.  Laura and I have not killed each other in the last 72 hours as we tried to manage timetables, stops, maps, finding bathrooms at the right time and avoiding heat stroke.  We probably shouldn't push our luck now.  In addition, we've been a little worried about Meredith who has managed to spring impressive bloody noses twice in the last few days, suggesting some rest and hydration might be needed. We were probably right.  We all slept in until 10:30, got ourselves ready for the day, headed for the grocery store and returned to cook breakfast and dye Olivia's hair one more time.  By the time we got ourselves organized, it was nearly 4 p.m., which in American time would be considered a wasted day but by Italian standards is sort of like waiting until a reasonable hour to get moving.  We headed over to Piazza Navona to return the portable wireless, and had gelatto at Sgr. Angelo's place. (He claims that he has the best gelatto in all of Rome, so it must be true.)  We admired the street performers and then decided to head back to our neighborhood, taking another bus which dumped us somewhere near the Piazza Venezia.  We remembered that we had intended to walk down to see a modern art installation near Santa Maria in Campitelli.  Fortunately, S. Maria was also open, so we stuck our heads in for a look around there as well--much to the girls' delight.  Afterwards, we wandered into the exhibition next door. Our expectation was that we were going to see a lot of artist's remembrances of the very tragic Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, in which 8,000 Bosnian men and boys, mostly muslim, were rounded up from a U.N."Safe Area" and murdered.  Another 30,000 women, children and elderly people were forcibly transferred, demonstrating the genocidal intent of the opposition conducting the atrocity.  What we saw, however, wasn't quite what we expected.  The installation was one room--a decommissioned church.  At one end was a polished stick of wood, vaguely reminiscent of a face.  At another was a piece of polished, twisted wood, which looked sort of like a cross, laying on its side on the former altar of the church.  on either side of the installation were gray chairs of varying heights turned in various directions, but mostly away from the "cross."  We did our best to interpret the exhibit to the girls, explaining concepts like genocide and the fact that the various institutions put into place to prevent this sort of thing after the Second World War all failed to prevent Srebrenica.  We talked a little bit about why Europeans are so troubled by this event, and we tried to explain as best we could how the various chairs likely represented the indifference and inaction shown by various nations to this event.  We event concocted a description of how the space between the two piece of wood with chairs on either side represented the path of evil in our midst.  (I have to say, the explanation was worthy of a New York Times review.)  On our way out, we stopped to sign the guest book and exchanged a few words of broken Italian with the very nice hostess minding the exhibition.  Realizing that we could speak at least some Italian, she told us that the artist himself was standing at the entry watching us the entire time. We proceeded to get a reinterpretation of the exhibition from the artist, who spoke no English, of what he intended to convey.  Somehow, between words and sign language, he conveyed and we understood his meaning.  It was a pretty impressive thing.  We more or less had gotten the point right, except that our interpretation of the chairs as nation states was actually meant to represent the indifference of people, the "aisle of evil" turned out to be a pedestrian space for viewing the exhibit and nothing more, and while we had understood that the face at the start of the exhibit was an onlooker, we had missed that it was supposed to be crying and that that its lack of hands was intended as a statement that the segment of humanity which did see this tragedy unfold, lacked the hands to help. By the time we straightened everything out, I'm sure the girls were thoroughly confused, but it was still an extraordinary conversation between two sets of people speaking different languages, and understanding the world through two separate lenses.  Afterwards it was pizza at our favorite place, and a sad farewell to "Nicole", our lovely waitress who has waited on us several times and who has taken upon herself the role of Cecily's personal Italian coach.  She is quite lovely and knows our order and our preferences by heart.  We will miss her warm smile and kindness.  She has been a touchpoint throughout this trip..  We ended the evening with a second round of gelato at Bar di San Calisto, where Cecily once again greeted in Italian her very special friend Sgr. Marcello, and we wandered into the square, where the fire eater was performing.  Meredith begged for a trip to the San Crisogono square as well, to purchase a bracelet from the craftsman we call the "Murano Man", who sold her a keepsake bracelet for 10 euro--but took time to show her the tiny loom on which it was made, telling her that this particularly blue and green glass bracelet took three hours to weave.  Tomorrow, last day in Rome. What will it bring?
  

Venice, Citte Bellisima

Venice was on the itinerary today, 330 miles to the north of Rome.  A unique city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a favorite destination for both Laura and Scott and a highly endangered place, there was never any doubt that we would somehow find our way to "La Serennissma".  The question was, how:  Rome is in the mid-southern part of Italy near the west coast.  Venice by contrast is in the northeast corner, and while both Laura and Scott have driven Italy before, the idea of fighting Italian traffic for six to seven hours each way, incurring expense all along the way seemed not very appealing.  Fortunately, we had heard about and decided this was the time to experiment with the Italian fast-train system.  Our initial effort to by tickets wasn't successful.  (Italy is maddeningly behind the rest of the world in access to the internet and as a result, many of its websites aren't well designed or don't work at all.), but we were able to find a travel agency at Termini, at which a Senegalese immigrant speaking perfectly passable English (along with French, Italian and German) was able to secure us tickets in about 10 minutes for around 400 Euro, commission included.  The minimal commission was well worth avoiding the aggravation!  Tickets in hand, we launched into our northern adventure around 7:30 a.m., via a bus to Piazza Venezia and a second bus to Termini.  As always, there was someone confusion around which bus to take (we are forced to take busses at the busses because the trams have stopped operating for three weeks--at the peak of tourist season--while the staff are on holiday), but we got to Termini in time to search out a croissant before board our train.  Once on board, we whisked to Venice in just under four hours, arriving just after noon.  The train itself travels at over 150 miles per hour, which is unremarkable when you are sitting down but becomes perilously evident when one tries to navigate one's way through the crowded train aisle to the cafeteria car, to buy soft drinks, water, and for Cecily, of course, fresh squeezed orange juice.  That latter, which was advertised as coming in a bottle, turned out to be in a styrofoam cup with a lid, and I thought more than once as we hurtled and were hurtled back through our train that it was going to end up on a fellow traveller!  Once in Venice, we disembarked on the Grand Canal and bought a map to negotiate our way through the maze of streets to the Piazza San Marco.  We couldn't help but notice as we arrived that the temperature dropped into the mid-70s/low-80s, a welcome relief from the burning and unrelenting heat of Rome.  We had been warned by some people that Venice in the mid summer is a smelly place, assaulting the nose with the rotting smell of canals.  Neither of us had previously experienced that, but our visits were always in fall and winter, so we were braced for the worst.  Those predictions proved unfounded, however.  The canals were fine, the streets were clean and the only downside to the city was the crush of tourists which always threaten to overwhelm this precious gem of a city.  Olivia noticed the difference from Rome immediately, and declared that while she has no intention of ever returning to Rome, Venice might well be on her list for another look.  All the girls wanted to know why we didn't choose Venice over Rome as the site for our one-month stay.   Well satisfied, we went in search of food, passing God-only-knows how many pizzas and trattorias as Laura pursued her "uncrowded, idyllic and not-priced-for-tourists" perfect eating place, a quest which she eventually acknowledged with a sigh was probably fruitless.  We ended up in the upstairs of a pizzeria, enjoying Margherita pizza and a carafe of cold wine, adjacent to a table of German tourists who proved to have no more cultural sensitivity than Americans. The pizza, however, was deemed by our little food critics, to be  the best in Italy so far  Afterward, we finished our journey to the piazza and got in line for the cathedral. At the door we found out that backpacks aren't allowed inside, so Scott had to get out of line while Laura and the girls wandered through.  The reaction from the girls was decidedly jaded.  Turns out that when you've seen one fabulous cathedral and a hundred churches, pretty soon they all start to look the same.  Next destination was the campanile next door, which we had planned to climb for the view.  We were horrified, however, to find that since the last visit, they have installed an elevator and the experience of climbing the stairs is now not a part of the standard 8 Euro trip.  Since the climb is half the fun, we stepped out of line, to some grumbling.  The decision not to climb the bell tower, however, may have been pretty smart.  It left enough time for another memory-making moment--a ride on a gondola, something neither Laura nor Scott had ever made time or had inclination to do in our previous trips.  Sailing down the canals past the house of Marco Polo and the palazzo in which Don Juan stayed and the beautiful Rialto Bridge (covered in an advertisement) felt much like journeying back hundreds of years. In addition, there were also unanticipated lessons--such as the Middle Eastern man ahead of us at the Gondola line who tried to bribe the gondolier to ignore his six-person limit per boat and take a seventh.  Even in Italian, the girls understood what was going on, and were impressed by the integrity of the gondolier, who under pressure of a potential 300 euro fine, steadfastly refused the gratuity.  They were not so impressed, however, when 15 minutes into our 30 minute ride, the gondolier suddenly announced that he would be stopping the boat for a few minutes, so he could step off to take a cigarette break--while we were left drifting in an unmanned boat in the middle of a canal!  (This might be part of what prompted Cecily to later observe that you can always tell an Italian because Italians speak Italian, smoke, have tattoos and they are never blond or blue-eyed.)   Eventually, our ride resumed and we got back to the starting point no worse for the wear.  We capped our day with a trip to the mask store, where the girls spent lots of time trying on their various faces and debating the value of 10-Euro vs. 30-Euro masks.  (This debate was settled when Dad informed them that anything over 10 would need to be paid for from their allowance.)  With masks intact, we suddenly realized that we were on the opposite side of Venice from the train station with just over an hour until our train departed.  What came next was the unpleasant part of the day--a hot, forced march at top speed through the winding, twisting streets of Venice, attempting to follow the "alla ferrovia" signs, while moving at something approximating the speed of a TrenItalia high speed train!  We arrived just in time, hot and sweaty with just enough time to grab gelato and water before jumping on the train for the ride home.  Sleeping (and a little beer for Mom and Dad) was in order to complete the trip back to Rome, where we found slow bus service and a long walk home waiting for us.  Needless to say, we tumbled into bed just after midnight, ready for a long-overdue lazy day on Wednesday.  I'll end this post with the observation that with completion of this trip, we've managed to see all of Rome, Venice, Florence, and the Pompeii/Naples area. Combined with our trip to the Turin area in 2008, that means we've covered most of the major geography of Italy, leaving us feeling rather accomplished.

We're Not in Oregon Anymore

Last evening ended with a lot of noise, as the Madonna of Carmel festival continued, with parades and loud singing all around us.  Scott expected quiet streets this morning, when he set out early to meet a Delta Sig, Will Ratliff, with whom he had attended the fraternity's national Leadership Academy a few years ago and who connected through Facebook after discovering that both of us were in Rome at the same time.  Despite expectations, the streets were surprisingly busy this morning, with yet another procession underway--a bunch of elderly ladies following the omnipresent St. Agata priest and his bullhorn marching through the Trastevere carrying the madonna on a pole, while all the church bells rang.  A little farther up the road, prayers gave way to noisy American students, heading to various tourist sites, recounting their activities of the night before.  This is probably more Americans than we have usually seen.  Apparently, the Americans start early and knock off before the heat sets in--about the time we tend to be setting out.  The composition of the tourists has been changing lately.  When we first arrived, most of the tourists were German and Chinese.  In the last week, that group seems to have given way to Brits and Japanese.  The French continue to provide a light background presence.  Interesting how the different cultures move in groups.  While Scott was out, Laura, Meredith and Cecily were getting ready to go out just as Scott returned, while Olivia elected to sleep in.  Thus, four of us (minus Olivia) ended up at the "American breakfast" place, having a decidedly un-American breakfast again, including the yummy fresh squeezed orange and fresh-squeezed apple juice.  We did a bit of shopping at the OVS, and then headed back to the flat to pick up Olivia and pack up for day.  On the way, we stopped in a Roma Rentals for advice from Kyle, our rental agent, about how best to access the beach from Rome.  He guided us to Santa Marinella, about 40 minutes by train outside of Rome.  Kyle also told us that we had "dodged a bullet" today as a transportation strike had been scheduled but failed to materialize at the last minutes. However, he advised us to beware of the continuing slowdown being pursued by transportation workers--as a result of the demands of their employer that they punch a time clock. (How unreasonable!)  Kyle's advice to try Santa Marinella turned out to be great.  The train departed from Trastevere Station and zipped to the station in Santa Marinella.  A five minute walk and we were on the sand, renting an umbrella and two chairs. A few minutes later we had acquired a bucket o' beers, and we were relaxing on the Mediterranean coast with just 500 or so of our newly acquired closest friends.  We all swam in the ocean, enjoyed the breeze and the sun and generally found the experience of communal beaching to be wildly different from Oregon's "layer on, button up and find your lonely place" approach to beachgoing. Post beach, we zipped back to Rome and had frozen pizza from the supermarket.  The girls noted that it tastes just like American frozen pizza.  Meredith, Cecily and I headed to St. Maria Trastevere square to take out the trash and get gelatto.  Cecily took a moment to greet her new friend, Sgr. Marcello in perfect Italian, and even managed a short conversation with hiim.  Meredith said he looked sad when she walked away to pick up her ice cream.  Tomorrow we start early--for Venice!
  

Tivoli Gardens

Today we went to Tivoli and a famous garden in the middle of it:  The garden of the Villa d'Este to be exact.  Tivoli is east and just a hair to the north of Rome.  It is in the hill country, so it's a little cooler than Rome itself.  It's famous for a UNESCO World Heritage Site (The Villa) and for being the summer palace of the emperor Hadrian--a palace the size of small city, the ruins of which can still be seen.  Getting there involved a bus, a train and another bus--always a tricky maneuver to coordinate in Italy, but as transportation goes, it went fairly smoothly.  The villa itself is amazing.  The frescoes are some of the least deteriorated in all of Italy, and you can imagine the cardinal gliding about in his robes, talking affairs of state with important statesmen of his day.  But still more impressive are the gardens and the fountains.  There are 17 in total, which descend down a mountainside, creating a green oasis and a view at every turn.  In the distance can be seen olive groves, church towers and barren hills.  All in all, it's a pleasant way to while away an afternoon.  As we wandered, we also had time to take in a church (St. Mary Maggiore--nothing to write home about), a 15th Century castle well preserved on the outside but unfortunately closed to public access and te remains of a amphitheater where Roman gladiators once fought each other and wild beasts.  And we made time for pizza and wine.  A couple of highlights of the afternoon included convincing the girls to climb the padlocked iron gate to get a better view of the amphitheater--a move which panicked their mother, but resulted in no sanction, despite the gate being in full view of the Caribinieri station, and teaching Meredith some tips on how to take a photograph--hints on framing, perspective, contrast, detail and pattern.  (With her eye, she has the potential to be a good photographer some day.)  We headed back to Rome, negotiated train tickets for next week, chowed down at McDonald's and ended the day with drinks on the veranda of the Exedra Hotel (which may be my favorite "cathedral" in all of Rome!)  We headed back to Trastevere to find the whole quarter in an uproar, as the feast of the some Madonna or the other continues, with a parade of confraternities, a lot of drinking and a lot drinking songs.  The chorus goes on at the bar next door as I write.  Our time here is coming to a close, and everybody realizes it.  It has gone by fast, and more than one little person is contemplating the must-repeat visits that need to be gotten in before we go.

One Day Only: Art Museums

The great hall at the Palazzo Colonna

An unremarkable statue, 

dramatically backlit 

at the Palazzo Doria Pamphilij

"Lotta di Putti", Guido Renni, depicting the triumph 
of "profane" over "sacred" love. At the Doria Pamphilij

The eyes of Pope Innocent X follow

the viewer in the Doria Pamphilij's

most important work by Valasquez

Meredith, moving with purpose,
down a gallery at Palazzo
Doria Pamphilij

Rome has long been the destination of artists--painters, writers, musicians, etc.  Not surprisingly, a lot of it has ended up in museums and galleries over the years (although there is certainly no lack of  available in churches and even on street corners for everyone to see.) One could probably spend every day enjoying it in a museum setting--a prospect which the girls most decidedly did NOT want to entertain!  However, Mom and Dad finally laid down a position that there is time and place for art appreciation and decreed that today would be the ONE AND ONLY day, when art appreciation would be day's theme.  Thus we found ourselves this morning trekking to two amazing settings:  the Palazzo Colonna and the Palazzo Doria Pamphilaj, to admire the collections of two aristocratic Italian families accumulated, in the case of the Colonnas, over nearly a millenium.  We were particularly excited to see the Colonna because it only has limited hours of availability to the public, since the family still lives there.  The setting didn't disappoint.  The marble halls, the beautiful mirrors, the sculpture and the paintings, the tapestries and the velvet covered walls were reminiscent of Versailles in its glory.  The Doria Pamphilij--which is over 1,000 rooms (only the staterooms are dedicated to the art collection and public display--provided a similar feast for the eyes.  Some of the works worth mentioning included the Velasquez portrait of Innocent X, whose eyes pierce the viewer and which was rejected by its subject with the comment (It's too real!).  There are also a number of Caravaggios, including two striking pieces displayed side by side, in which the same model poses as Mary, mother of Jesus and Mary Magdelene, prostitute. The original Titian painting of Salome with the head of John the Baptist is there.  Not as notable but of interest to us for various reasons were paintings by Jan Bruegel (admired by Olivia) and several paintings of ugly people by Quentin Massys, in his instantly recognizable style, which for some reason tickle the fancy of Scott and Laura.  Meredith expressed amazement at a Roman statue of a centaur which, in an unfortunate accident involving collapse of a roof under the weight of snow, was broken into 25 pieces but skillfully restored.  Cecily enjoyed the portraiture, which was remarkably realistic. The story of Olimpia Altobrandini, the beautiful heiress and widow, who married into the Doria Pamphilij family but maintained her position as an independently wealthy and involved businesswoman tickled the feminist in all of us. Post-museum, we wandered home in the Roman heat, stopping along the way for supplies to try grilled cheese sandwiches--a clear sign we are all starting to long for the comforts of home.  A plan to attend mass this evening at Sopra Minerva fell apart when Laura fell asleep.  Just as well:  tomorrow is a travel day to the hill towns, possibly Orvieto, if we can find the right train.

A Little Music

We slept in this morning, allowing a little recovery from our long, hot trek to Herculaneum. Once we got everybody up and moving, we headed across town, via the bus in the direction of St. John Lateran, with the intention of visiting the National Museum of Musical Instruments, adjacent to Santa Croce in Gerusalem. As usual, we had to figure out the never-quite-clear Google directions to the right bus and once at the bus stop, figure out how to find the right street to set us on the path to our destination, a matter which was shortcut by asking one of the ubiquitous street vendors for directions. Once we arrived at the church, we encountered a cool little iron gate on which were hung a variety of colored stones, making a beautiful backdrop against which to photograph the girls.  We then meandered into the church, which we were excited to find out is built around the remains of a stadium constructed by the Emperor Egabalus. This basilica church is not on the "beaten path" for tourists and is actually kind of spare and gray inside--except where it isn't.  (Interestingly, it has a hotel built into the side of it, which according to Wikipedia was a source of scandal, as it's opening wasn't considered very monastic when it was opened.)  The first church on this site was built about 320 to house the relics brought back from Jerusalem by Helena, mother of Constantine.  It's name comes from the dirt from Jerusalem which she scattered on the floor.  Here you can still see a piece of the True Cross, housed in a reliquary--a fact attested to by St. Helena laying a lifeless young man upon the wood, only to see him come back to life (Really!) Various other relics are intended to amaze as well, but the real excitement is the gorgeous gold mosaic ceiling in the side chapel dedicated to St. Helena and the massive altar in the apse.  Mom and Dad enjoyed exploring the various nooks and crannies--not so much young ladies.  After a break at the church, we headed for the museum next door.  This was a little disappointing, as half the museum is closed for restoration.  Still we saw some cool instruments dating back to the 15th and 14th Centuries.  Lots of forebearers of the piano, hinged ingeneously to allow them to be portable, trumpets, flutes, horns, clarinets and an early trombone lacking any valves, a glass harmonica, which is is a series of glass disks layed parallel to the ground, and which is played by running one's wet fingers over the spinning rims, emitting sounds similar to running your fingers over the rim of a crystal glass. (Kudos to Meredith and her teacher, Valerie Nixon, for knowing this in advance and explaining it to the rest of us!)  We also saw some strange stringed instruments, including something with a very long neck and pegged at the top and in the center, which was apparently played by plucking each end.  The ingenuity is amazing, and we were sorry we couldn't have heard the sounds these many instruments make.  This museum has a lot of potential.  With the right curatorship, it really would have been something.  Following the museum, we went for gelatto.  Cecily placed the order, and I'll not soon forget the look on the server's face as Cecily placed a complicated order for us in excellent Italian.  She went from the typical tired indulgence for American tourists with money to astonishment as Cecily spoke. The she was enthusiastic as Cecily continued, and piled on the gelatto as well as encouraging tips for better pronunciation.  A little language goes a long way!    We stopped off at COIN Department store and St. John Lateran (which we can't seem to get enough of) before heading off to our favorite pizza joint, where Cecily got more compliments on her Italian and the weather turned blessedly cool as a weather front moved in.  We ended in the evening in the square, where the girls scattered to the four winds as their parents wondered where they were.  How different from the early days when they clung to us for dear life.  How wonderful!

No TV; No problem.

The multi-layered couch is a big hit.  The world's ugliest picture, not so much. Percy Jackson:  5 Stars!

Growing Up

OK, time for a proud papa moment.  I've been seeing things the last few days that make me happy.  Just a few examples:  Earlier in the day at lunch, Cecily needed a bathroom (as often happens when Cecily is bored.) She asked for directions, and we told her to ask the server.  So she did, in flawless Italian, earning herself an ushered trip to the bagno.  Cecily's complete lack of fear of the language is amazing, and she is the first to throw herself into an order or a question, using the words she knows and trying ones she hasn't yet mastered.  Meredith has taken command on this trip in a most-unMeredith type of way.  She is often 10-20 feet ahead of the rest of us as we walk down the street, and is often showing the way to our destination.  Tonight at the grocery store, I turned her loose.  She completed the entire list by herself, competently moving through the aisles retrieving everything we needed.  At the end, I handed her a 20 Euro note and a pocket full of coins and told her to manage payment while I bagged groceries.  When the checker told her "vente uno i quatordiche,"  she didn't bat an eye but counted out her $21.14 and told the checker, "grazie" on her way out of the stand--she might as well have been at home.  Olivia, meanwhile, has been coming to terms with her young adult self, starting with her blue hair streak experiment, her strong expressions of opinion around faith matters last night and a decision tonight to buy herself a rather daring two-piece bikini.  Oh yes, my little girl--all my little girls--are definitely growing up!

Lost and Found

We've been looking forward to today, and it finally rolled around.  We were out of the house and moving by 7 this morning, rolling down the road in a hired Mercedes with our friend and driver Sr. Giacomo, who also drove us to Florence.  Our destination:  Herculaneum:  one of the ancient Roman cities on the Bay of Naples destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Laura and I had been to Pompeii on a previous trip, and had wanted to try to make Herculaneum on this trip, both because it is smaller (easier to see) and because it is better preserved, having been covered in 80 feet of ash rather than bombarded with burning stone.  Our 2.5 hour transport went fine, although our tired girls, who didn't heed our warning to go to bed early last night, spent most of it sleeping in contorted positions on seats and, ultimately, laying in the floor of the van.  We got to Herculaneum about 9:30, only to encounter the not entirely unexpected news that due to an unanticipated labor strike, the monument would not be opening until 11.  With limited time and considerable investment in getting to this attraction, we were a bit dismayed, as were others waiting to go in.  I'm not sure what happened next, but somehow the "strike" resolved itself, and suddenly, the monument opened.  Oh, Italy...  Once inside, we were accosted by a guide, trying to assemble a 10-adult English-speaking tour.  We had to wait about 40 minutes for him to get his group together, which was annoying, given our time-limitations, but both Laura and I agreed, based on our Pompeii experience, that there is a lot to be said for having someone interpret an historical site rather than trying to figure it out yourself, based on a guidebook.  Our hunch was right.  Once we got going, our guide did a great job for the next 90 minutes, telling the story and pointing out the highlights of this remarkable site.  The story is pretty straightforward:  When Vesuvius went off, the initial eruption drifted east, giving Herculaneum residents the opportunity to escape.  Most did so, except for about 300 poor souls, who waited too late and whose skeletal remains can still be seen huddled by the then-seashore where they fell, trapped by an incoming tsunami and unable to escape the 1000 degree gas that tore through the town mid-eruption.  What came next was a massive dump of ash from the sky--ash which covered the town and pushed back the shore 400 meters.  In the process, everything was preserved in situ for 1700 years, when the remains were stumbled upon and missions were sent in to to dig exploratory tunnels to recover statutes and other artifacts, many of which can now be seen in the archeological museum in Naples (which we really need to visit some day.)  Today, about a quarter of Herculaneum has been uncovered.  (The rest is under the modern town.)  It's probably as close as one will ever come to experiencing an actual Roman Empire town as it would have functioned in its heyday.  Mosaic floors are intact, some sculptures, frescoes, colored columns, amphorae and even a few of the furnishings have survived.  (That baths, which we had seen in fragmented state at Carcalla, are particularly amazing and well preserved.)  A cool thing was the presence of a recreated garden, featuring quince trees, pomegranates, and roses, replanted after the carbonized roots identified the species originally planted.  Perhaps the strangest thing about Herculaneum was the total absence of a church, this being a relatively small town in the early Christian period when Christianity was illegal and not publicly tolerlated (that wouldn't come around for 300 more years.)  Unlike the sites in Roman, which have been "cleansed" of their pagan past, this community never got the chance for a remodel, leaving it devoid of crosses, gold, engravings and ecclesiastical modifications that create an architectural mishmash of acheological sites in Rome.  All this was very interesting to Laura and Scott, and seemed interesting to the girls.  The most amusing part of the tour was our guide's fixation on Herculaneum's sewer system, which like Pomeii's, used the public roads as an open sewer but, since Herculaneum was built on a slope, allowed everything to be washed to the beach (and ultimately the sea) in quick order.  Not a place I would have wanted to go frolic in the waves!  Post Herculaneum, were were HOT!  The air-conditioned car felt amazing, as it took us up Mt. Vesuvius to a local vineyard, wine making operation and restaurant, at Cantina Vesuvio.  We took a quick tour of the vines and enjoyed anti-pasti, amazing bread, spaghetti and dulcetti, and of course, wine--white, rose, red and sparkling, plus an apricot liqueur.   This region is known as the Lacryma Christi, literally, the "Tears of Christ", which is reference to tears cried so voluminously by Christ as he struggled with Lucifer, that they poured down the sides of Vesuvius and collected in the sparkling blue Bay of Naples below.  However the water got there, it's a lovely setting.  This area has produced wine for a long time, and its wines are supposedly as close as you can get to the wines that ancient Romans would have known. (Wikipedia quoting Wine Enthusiast).  If so, it's not a huge surprise that ancient Romans liked their wine!  I was fascinated by the grapes--the white Capretonne (old goat) and red Piedderosso (red pigeon feet), which thrive in alkaline soil and can survive cold temperatures, including snow and can recover in the event of a freeze.  Sounds like Central Oregon to me!  Full of good food and wine, we headed back to Rome, fascinated to see along the way, a huge fire a the Port of Naples and a forest fire roaring on the side of the hills.  We also enjoyed a magnificent rain and hailstorm--the first we've seen, since coming here, bringing at least temporarily, some relief from the constant heat.

Bones Unknown, Bones Made Pretty, No Bones Broken

With temperatures continuing to hover near 100 degrees F, we determined to get an earlier start--if for no other reason than to try to see some of Rome in the cooler morning hours.  That sort of worked.  We managed to leave by 11, rather than our customary 12-12:30.  We immediately discovered that the tram still isn't working, for no known reason, so we took the bus to Piazza Venetzia to finish our tour of Italian history at the "Wedding Cake"--the giant white marble edifice in the center of Rome more properly known as the Vittorio or Altare della Patria, where we had left off yesterday, when it inexplicably closed one-half hour early the night before.  (When you live here for a while, you quickly find that opening and closing times are approximations, not hard and fast guides to be relied upon.) The most striking thing about the Vittorio, is the effect of fresh white marble on the eyes.  Its brilliance is simply indescribable, and when you wander around for a while, it literally hurts your eyes.  We wandered through the rather uninspiring military museum, which includes the altar to the unknown soldier, made our way to the top where we were astonished to come across a gorgeous basilica, Santa Maria in Aracoele, dating back around 1,000 years and built at the top of the Capitoline hill.  When the Vittorio was constructed, it was basically dug into what was the former hill and placed underneath the basilica.  It's a bit disconcerting to climb to the top of a 20th Century monument to discover 10th Century tombs!  We decided against the 4-euro elevator to the skybox with a view of Rome.  (You can see Rome from a number of other vantage points around the city, and we made our way to the Risorgimento museum, anticipating an educational opportunity for the girls about the creation of modern Italy.  Once there, however, in contrast to the free emigration museum in the same monument, we were confronted with an admission price--one that didn't quite seem worth the topic, so we turned away, a decision which parents only slightly regretted and one which met with whole-hearted approval from our girls!  After a quick stop at the tomb of the unknown soldier and the eternal flame which fronts the monument, where we paid respects, we went in search of a bus to take us to our next stop for us was the Capuchin Crypt.  Laura and I had been here before, and Laura wanted to see it again.  The best way to describe this particular tourist attraction is, "bizarre".   Legend has it that deep beneath a convent, monks were forced to hide out during the French Revolution.  Why monks being persecuted in France for loyalty to the church who had escaped to Rome would need to stay in hiding is never explained, but much Italian history overlooks the minor discrepancies. At any rate, they were supposedly hiding, and they were bored, so one of them began to rearrange the bones of the 3,600 people buried in the crypt below the church into a variety of art pieces.  When others saw this work, it was expanded with full approval of the convent, eventually allowing six rooms to be covered with scapulas, femurs, pelvic bones, vertebrae, skulls and all the other bones worked into flowers, chandeliers and other designs.  Installed between the art forms are the artfully hung, vertical bodies of decomposing monks wrapped in their habits, teaching, preaching and generally looking creepy.  Let's just say, the Crypt is Halloween on steroids.  Laura and Olivia loved it.  Cecily tolerated it.  Scott and Meredith would gladly skip it.  Our final stop of the day was the Villa Borghese--site of our previous zoo trip, where Cecily had identified a desire to ride one of the big bikes seating 5 people around the park.  We rented our bike and set off, with Laura screaming at us to slow down, avoid the hills and generally seeming to be in a constant state of terror as we mosied down the thoroughfares.  Too often, we ran into a dead end and laughed uproariously as we had to push the bicycle backwards in order to turn the clumsy thing around.  Cecily had a grand time, up to the moment when Laura got out to take a picture of her and inexplicably, she fell out of the back of the back of the bike, while not holding on.  Much screaming and weeping (on Cecily's and Mom's part) was done, but no permanent harm.  The whole thing was harrowing in its own special way, so imagine our surprise when Laura announced at the end of the day, "Except for Cecily getting hurt, I rather enjoyed that!"  Dinner at Ducati's--a restaurant themed around the Italian motorcycle.  It had an American theme to the menu, and we tried hamburgers, which were a far cry from American.  (Anybody ever have an egg on their hamburger?)  We actually would have preferred pizza and admired the breadth of choices--only to be informed that the pizza oven was closed for the day, just as the dinner hour started up.  Just another day in Italy, the land of "Il non fonctione."
  

Forward, March!

There no cure for what ails you like a brisk hot through a sweltering hot day! Despite grumbles about shaky legs and still queasy tummies, we launched ourselves into the Roman heat in the early afternoon with the objective of visiting the Jewish Museum and Great Synagogue of Rome.  We had decided to prioritize this trip as an "antidote" to the healthy dose of catholicism which has saturated this trip.  Time to take a look around and find out about other points of views.  Rome, as it turns out, is home to the oldest continuous Jewish community in Europe, with about 13,500 self-identifying jews living the city today.  Jews have been here about 2300 years, and despite efforts by various popes to convert them and drive them out and Nazi's to exterminate them, they have lived, survived and even thrived, against the odds.  The museum was actually quite interesting, and we all learned a lot. The English-speaking guide was knowledgeable, but a little tough to understand, due to a fairly thick accent that was hard on the girls.  Still, we were wowed by the vast space that is the Great Synagogue, especially the beautiful soaring alabaster columns at the high altar and the soaring square dome--the only one with that shape in Rome.  All the girls noticed the absence of any statues or religious paintings, and Cecily actually asked a question about it.  The girls were horrified by Nazi perfidy, perpetrated against Rome's Jews in the form of a demand for 50 kilograms of gold in exchange for a safe-conduct promise--a promise promptly broken, leading the round-up of more than 1,300 mostly women, children, elderly and disabled Jews, almost of all of whom perished at Auschwitz. We also heard an interesting explanation for Catholic persecution of Jews in the Middle Ages--that it was a function of the CounterReformation, which was itself a response to the need to purify the church as a result of the Reformation.  According to the Roman version, persecution of the Jews was just a natural outgrowth of this theological necessity--something I never learned in any of my history classes and which conveniently ignores a millennia of persecution before the CounterReformaion, but apparently is the accepted version of events here. Maybe the most interesting part of the day, was the girls' reaction to a colloquy between an elderly Jewish man on our tour (most of our fellow tourists were Jewish) and our guide; the elderly gentleman disputed several points with the guide, who was happy to shoot back with her own opinions.  The girls were offended by what they thought was a rude and disrespectful exchange, and it took quite a bit of talking about cultural differences to get them to understand that people have different ways of disputing with each other and that what is acceptable in one culture may not be acceptable in another. Post tour, we spent a couple of hours in the museum, delving deeper into Jewish culture and theology.  How to describe the next few hours?  The experience was akin to our visit in London to the Imperial War Museum:  Questions, questions, questions, questions, questions--until both Laura and I were ready to flee and never come back!  These three when fully engaged in a learning mission are intellectually exhausting!  Post-museum, as we exited, we decided to walk through the archeological excavations of the Porto Ottavio, Teatro Marcello and Flavian Amphitheater adjacent.  Cecily was fascinated to learn that the medieval fishermen who later turned this area into Rome's fish market had used the marble slabs they found lying around as display counters (and we all remembered with amusement Cecily's earlier acid epithet, spat out with a wrinkled nose while wandering down the grocery aisle, "I smell PESCE! (fish in Italian, a food Cecily thinks should pretty much be banned from the universe.)  We thought we would rest our brains by taking the elevator to the top of the Vittorio Emanuele monument for the panoramic view of Rome.  Unfortunately, we were distracted by the Emigration Museum as we walked by.  The result was a deep dive into family history and the immigrant experience, specifically, the experience of Laura's Italian great grandfather, great grandmother and grandmother (who was two at the time.)   Tears were shed--and more questions were asked.  Emotionally wrung out, we made a quick visit to Trajan's column and the nearby Sacred Name of Mary Church, and then went for pizza at our favorite local spot (stopping along the way to take a second look at the site where Julius Caesar was murdered ).  Over pizza, we discussed the day, and the girls shared what had impressed them.  We then asked them whether they though they might most identify with Catholicism, Protestantism or  Judaism.  Interestingly, they split three ways, although their reasoning was a little shaky (beautiful churches vs. intellectual rigor vs. familiarity). It was an interesting conversation, and it will be interesting to see where life takes them. We headed home to drop Olivia and Cecily before parents and Meredith headed to mass at St. Maria di Scala (only to find that we had the time wrong, and it had ended two hours earlier.  So we went to Vespers at Maria di Trastevere instead, where we encountered one of the nicest Italians we have yet met--a lovely lady, who helped us find our places in the prayerbook and psalter.  Afterwards, home where we found Olivia wanting to take the BeliefNet Faith O Matic test on the internet, to discover her religious identify.  That conversation was followed by her taking a political test to find out her leanings (She's a Ross Perot populist.)   In all, an unexpectedly intellectual and thoroughly satisfying day, despite the late start, Cecily's blood nose in the night which soaked her bed sheets (causing a morning laundry uproar) and the continuing challenges of getting over an illness quickly.  I continue in my core belief:  no matter how you feel, the only way through is, FORWARD, MARCH!

Cecily's Journal: Learning about Jewish history

(Entered by Cecily; punctuation corrected by SC)  Today we went to the Jewish Museum and the Emigration Museum. They were both terrific sights. The first place we went was the Jewish Museum.When we were first entering the museum we saw a railing that you had to get through.Well of course I told Dad to go first. He did.When he was going through the railing he got stuck and so he pushed harder. Minutes later the guy came over and said would you like me to unlock that. Dad said yes, so he unlocked it. When we got inside we bought are tickets.The total was not much. When we were getting are audio guides the lady asked for an I.D.mom dug in her purse and found it surprisingly fast. The lady gave us audio guides but only 4. When Dad passed them out Meredith asked, ''Where is mine''.  Dad replied ''I do not know''. Olivia pulled out ear plugs and shared. Our tour begun in about 35 minutes.We looked around a little.The tour was about to start.The first place we went was a small synagogue. The lady talked about the Jewish being poor. A guy behind me  immediately said  ''They are not poor''. The guy was Jewish. You could tell. They argued and argued.  Finally the man quit. The lady then said before you leave you can take pictures. So people crowded and got few photos but most were ok. Then we went to the big synagogue. It was huge in the inside. The lady finally told us to sit.Then she talked more. She went on about how the place was built. It was interesting. Then I asked a question:''Why don't they have faces of people here''. She said because it is one of their rules. Then we went back to the museum and looked at few other things. Then went the Emigration Musem.When we were looking at moms family history she started crying because she felt so bad for what they went through. Then when we were going up the stairs (SC started taking dictation here), the man who was at the office said, "We are closing," so we said, "Oh, OK," and we left. Dad asked if we could go to that church across the street.  The church was called "The Holy Name of Mary".  Outside of the church, we saw Trajan's column.  It used to be just a column, but then somebody added on a statue of St. Peter holding the keys.  Trajan built the column for himself. Then we went inside the church.  I thought there would be tons of people because there were tons of people near the church, but when we got in, there was only us. Then we sat and stared at the cross. Then we prayed. Later on, more people came, and left, and then we left a little bit later. Then when we got to the tram stop, Dad suggested we go to our favorite pizza place and eat dinner. We waited for the train, but it never came, so we walke to it.  I thought it would be really far, but actually it was only a few minutes. For dinner we had two Margherita pizzas water and wine and a diavalo pizza.  After that, Meredith and I had a cherry and lemon granita, and we walked home, and Livvy and Mom did not want to get gelato, so we walked straight home and did not go to the bar to get it.  Then Mom and Meredith and Dad went to church at 8:30, but the church was closed, so they went to another church that we'd been too before.  Overall, I had a good day.    

A Night and a Day--Not Worth Remembering

This is a day that I would just as soon never repeat.  Something swept through the Cooper household with a vengeance today.  As noted in last night's post, Laura began feeling ill in the middle of dinner.  Olivia made it home before her problems kicked in.  Meredith made it to the early hours of the morning, and Cecily presented symptoms at 9.  By some miracle, Dad was unscathed, which meant that each time somebody had an "incident", Dad was called to help. It was a long, LONG, night and we didn't go anywhere or see anything today as recovery was allowed to set in.  Dad made a trip to the grocery this morning for bleach--the bottled kind and the a spray bottle version, and the apartment got a thorough antiseptic treatment, despite the hot water once again disappearing around 3 (We improvised with a tea kettle.  The most notable moment was Dad handing Olivia pitchers of water behind the shower curtain, so she could finish washing her hair.)  All day, we've been bleaching sheets, towels, bathrooms and dishes, on the off chance this might be a virus rather than food poisoning.  Whatever it was, things were looking better by evening.  Laura was able to go out with Carol for a Coke (you know how sick Laura is, when happy hour involves cola) to discuss business.  Dad took Cecily and Meredith down to the square to buy our third set of flower sticks, and then we played at the playground for a while.  One upside for the girls was that Carol had given them a small jar of peanut butter last night.  Since no one felt like eating traditional Italian today, they've been eating and vastly enjoying peanut butter sandwiches today--or at least as close as we can get.  Ever anxious to find a useful way to spend downtime, Dad managed to upload all the family photos to the cloud.  (The experience of almost losing them with the delayed bag from Germany moved this to the top of my priority list!)  Also, got some reading in:  John Hooper's, "The Italians". which does a superb job of describing how this single nation is really a conglomerate of former nations and  therefore has a hard time defining anything as truly, "Italian". Let's hope we are back on track tomorrow.

Angelus

Some days go a little differently than planned.  Anticipating a crowd, we intended to get up early to attend the papal angelus in St. Peter's Square at noon. (Why is it a square, anyway?  It's round!)  The original plan was to leave by 8.  That didn't work, and we arrived about 10:30.  The square was pretty much deserted, so it was just as well.  We grabbed a seat near the fountains, which turned out to be a good idea, since the water provided a little relief as the sun continued to beat down on the pavement.  Most of the rest of the crowd--what there was--was gathered ahead of us in the shadow the obelisk.  The big crowd--the one we were trying to avoid, based on our last experience attending a papal audience--didn't materialize until around 11:30. The difference between a papal audience and an angelus is that during an audience the pope rides around the square and greets the crowd.  For the angelus, he simply appears at a window and greets the people.  Laura and Scott attended both with John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis, but this was, obviously, a first with the girls.  Based on past experience, we had warned them to expect a short message, repeated in several languages.  Instead, we got about 10 minutes of Italian and a wave.  As Cecily succinctly put it, "THAT'S IT?"  It took some explaining to convince her that a pope in the window is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  Frankly, I still don't think she is convinced!  We walked home afterwards with the intention of eating a bite then heading out to the Jewish Quarter for the afternoon, but Laura seemed strangely lethargic and Olivia fell asleep upon return, so plans didn't materialize.  We wandered out to grocery shop, only to find everything closed from 12-4.  (The entire area seems to be suffering from Festa della Noati hangover.)  Because we were not out and about, we got a chance email from Carol, our rental agent, asking about dinner plans and inviting us to dinner at her house.  We accepted for 8.  Meanwhile, Cecily and Meredith seemed to be going a little stir crazy, so Dad and the younger girls checked out the San Casimato playground--in the 100 degree heat and the 90% humidity.  That soon sapped the extra energy that had been manifesting itself in roughhousing through the apartment!  We came home, wandered to the grocery store and got ready for our dinner out.  We navigated the short distance to Carol's lovely apartment, and had a homecooked Italian meal.  Afterwards, Carol offered the girls a real treat--a Netflix movie, obtained through means known only to locals.  (We had previously discovered that Netflix, Amazon and Hulu don't work here, so this was an amazing treat.)  The girls decided to watch "The Secret of Roan Inish".  We had just settled in, when Laura started having "interesting" gastric symptoms, that quickly grew urgent.  It was decided that Scott needed to walk Laura home before things got worse (which they did on the way home), leaving the girls to finish the movie.  Scott tucked Laura and her bucket into bed, retrieved the girls, made apologies and headed home, only to find Olivia in the same boat as Laura within a few hours.  As I write this, it looks to be a long night....

  

Leonardo and the Madonna

Today we made our way (rather circuitously) to the Palazzo Cancelleria (Chancellery, in English) to view the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition.  Highlights of our wandering in a giant circle included meeting a young man who engaged us as we stood in the street pondering our map who helpfully pointed us toward the palazzo and was excited to tell us about his visit to the U.S. with his girlfriend--the Garibaldi, Oregon, of all places.  I had to think hard about where Garibaldi is (Between Tillamook and Cannon Beach.)  I had no idea that it was founded by Italian immigrants who still honor their heritage--things you learn when you come to a foreign country!  We eventually found the Palazzo and entered the exhibit. Wow!  Some 75 of Leonardo's inventions, many of them theoretical, have been built by Florentine craftsman sponsored by Apple. We learned about everything from ball bearings to flight machines to a temporary bridge which can be assembled using only notched logs.  Best of all, you can touch!  Olivia built the bridge in just 60 seconds!  (Dad built a bridge, too, but it was incomplete and hardly worthy of notice!)  Everybody was fascinated by the mirrored chamber, the music box, the ball bearings and the Archimedes screw.  Meredith was by Leonardo's sketches of human anatomy, especially his hidden volume related to documenting the reproductive organs.  But mostly it was Olivia who drank it all in and admired, "The Genius of Leonardo."  We had gelatto and Meredith asked to stop by a shoe store, which was not a particularly useful exercise, since every pair of shoes seemed to rub something.  We made our way back to our 'hood for the Festa della Noati.  We joined the rest of the community atso mass at S. Crisogno. Cecily had a million questions as the procession of laypersons and clergy made their way into the church, with the cardinal archbishop with his crosier taking up the rear.  We had quite a whispered conversation about what exactly a cardinal is, with Cecily finally determining that a cardinal must be the equivalent of the vice president.  (OK. that will work.)  Afterwards, we joined the rest of the community in the piazza to watch the Italians organize a procession to carry the Madonna della Noati through the streets. It took quite a while to get the procession moving, and reminded me of an Italian street repair--everyone knew the general objective but before anyone could proceed, there was a lot of running around and loudly talking with little apparent movement.  Meanwhile, every bell in the campanile was set to ringing, adding to the general clamor.  Eventually, however, the giant wooden canopy carrying the Madonna began to move, followed by clergy and the cardinal as confetti cannons were fired above it.  It was all very local, very authentic and to our eyes somewhat strange, but it was truly an interesting cultural experience.  Post-procession we adjourned to our nearby apartment for a short rest of tired feet, before returning to the piazzi where we encountered the Belli cultural association program, which involved a brass band of 20 or so performers playing trumpets, trombones and Sousa horns wearing uniforms, which included some sort of long trailing headress of glossy black feathers.  (We later determined this was likely a military unit--the Bersaglieri. It was colorful, and fun--sort of like a mariachi band playing Italian favorites and occasionally breaking into song.  The crowd loved it, and so did we.  Cecily couldn't see, so we put her on the top of a trash can, earning her the nickname, Cecilia Sopra the Bin. Afterwards it was on to pizza, the square, gelatto and bed:  Papal angelus at St. Peter's tomorrow.  Gotta get an early start.