Rome with the Traveling Trio

Rome Day I: We slept in this morning, likely a bit of a time adjustment, and were too late for breakfast so opted for a couple sandwiches in the free stuff lounge before heading out to St Peter’s Square in the Vatican. This ‘square’ is a huge circle with an obelisk in the center. Two encircling colonnades topped with statues of 140 saints welcomed us amongst millions of visitors over the years. At one end of the square the stairs the largest church in the world, St Peter’s. We decided to take a guided tour and learned that the church was built on the site of Peter’s execution and grave. In centuries past the exact location of his grave could not be disclosed for fear of desecration until the 1940’s, during an excavation under the church, an actual grave with inscription that said “Peter here” was found. We had a little time prior to our tour and met a young Minnesota woman who had come to Rome to study and just never went home! She took us on a quick tour under the church to o see various coffins of Popes including John Paul I & II and John the 23rd.
When the tour formally began and we stepped foot into the church it took our breath away. It is huge measuring more than two football fields long! There are numerous priceless artworks that we were able to enjoy including Michael Angelo’s ‘Pieta’. We were all a bit surprised to see Popes who had been awarded sainthood displayed in glass caskets under altars that was a new one for us!
Above the main altar is the famous cupola designed by Michael Angelo, it is so tall that the statue of liberty would fit in it with 30’ to spare and to say it is beautiful would be a vast understatement. After closing the tour we took an elevator about half way up to get a closer view of the master’s painting which offered a perspective from above of the entire main altar area. We ended our day we made our way to “Old Rome”, an area called Trastevere! Getting there was memorable to say the least. Again, it is “Old Rome” which seems redundant but picture riding in a cab down one lane cobble stone streets with cars parked randomly on either side of the ‘lane’ meeting traffic from the opposite direction either by scooter, car or foot. Talk about masters! These cab drivers are surpassed by none I have experienced. After some strolling and taking in the atmosphere we chose a place for dinner and of course it was the perfect place…..LaScala! Simple but delicious food and the best house wine we have ever wrapped our lips around. The food, notably the shared antipasto and gnocchi in light Olive Oil, Mushroom, Onion, and a bit of Pecorino cheese were an amazing accompaniment to that wine! We closed our first full day in Rome full of food and wine and retired to our beautiful room with a view.

Rome Day II: Another beautiful morning at the Hilton Cavalieri and we took our time to enjoy it! This time we were able to enjoy an exquisite breakfast with multiple Cappuccinos. We love the European breakfasts which usually include some typical American faire with a lot of additional mouth watering choices. Some of my favorite at the Hilton was green beans and little grape tomatoes lightly sautéed in Olive Oil. We are in love with the grape or cherry tomatoes here and from what we have heard it will only get better. After our leisurely breakfast we headed to the Vatican to see the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. The museum has endless stairs, hallways and rooms full of statues, tapestries, paintings, frescoes and you could spend hours or perhaps days there. By the time we got to the chapel we were beginning to get burned out. If we had a chance to do this over again we would have likely gone directly to the chapel and followed that with our choices of the other parts of the museum. With that said, Michael Angelo’s Sistine Chapel was incredible. He did the ceiling frescos with stories from Genesis, the panels depicted creation to the story of Noah. On one end wall is the stunning last judgment. Interestingly enough other famous masters completed the walls but they paled to Michael Angelo’s nearly three dimensional works. As if the Sistine Chapel were not enough for one day we continued on to the Coliseum and from there to the Pantheon with a stop off in a wonderful piazza for a rest accompanied by another beautiful wine. We were looking forward to finding a spot for dinner near the Pantheon where we could see this amazing Roman temple lit at night. We did find a great place to dine, however a portion of the Pantheon was under renovation so the lighting was not that which one sees on postcards. Nevertheless, it was wonderful. After a full day of this history and beauty we settled down in a nearby sidewalk café to enjoy people watching, the view, good wine and dinner. Our wine arrived and when it seemed things couldn’t be more perfect we heard the angelic voice of a street performer coming from the piazza. In a moment I reached my saturation point of dreams coming true. Sitting here, in Rome, with my sister and my husband….in this place sipping wine and now this voice……it was just too perfect and when that happens for me, the tears begin to spill….happy tears of course! John is used to this, it just happens sometimes when I get ‘full’. So it was that kind of day. Speaking of getting full, we managed to get physically full as well. We shared another antipasto just as good as the night previous followed by shared margarita pizza and an amazing fresh tagliani tossed in a little butter, pecorino cheese and black pepper. As if this were not enough Judy and I indulged ourselves in the spa prior to bedtime. She in the hot tub portion and I in that amazing Turkish bath!

Rome Day III:
Sunday, our last day in Rome, started with a beautiful breakfast at the Hilton and some housekeeping in preparation for our departure on Monday. We shuttled to the center of Rome and gave the on/off Green bus a try. It worked for us for a bit but was not as effective as these kinds of tours have been in other cities. We left the bus near the Spanish Stairs and then wandered the city through the famous high end shopping area, the Champs d’ Elyse of Rome, working our way to Trevi Fountain. John read about a wine bar in our Frommer’s travel book in this area and we were anxious to give it a try. Wow! We had a chance to buy some amazing wines by the glass, namely Brunella, Nobile Montepulciano, and Barbera d’Alba. If you are a wine drinker you can appreciate how cool it was for us to enjoy these wines by the glass at a very reasonable price. Something we would not have an opportunity to do in the states. Eventually, we dragged ourselves away from the wine bar and came upon the Piazza Cologne, a square around the Italian Parliament and official offices and from there the Trevi Fountain. Judy and I actually didn’t recognize the fountain at first somehow we didn’t remember it as huge and beautiful from the movie “Three Coins in a Fountain”, but of course that was quite a few years ago. Probably one of my highlights on this day was a simple human interaction with a shopkeeper. We noticed a tiny little shop not even close to the size of our closet with a tiny little old lady minding the shop. I would guess she was 4-1/2 feet tall on her tip toes and easily 85-90 years old. It was a baby shop so of course I went in looking for something for our two new little babies, Lyla and Jocelyn. There was just room enough for Judy to join me and the shop was full. Judy pointed out an adorable and unique music box and I decided I wanted two of those for the babies. Now the test began, me asking for a second box and this little lady searching and talking away to me, asking the age of the babies and I’m not sure what else. What I do know is that by the time the transaction was finished (which did take a while) she was patting my arms and saying over and over “Buona sera….buona sera…..Ciao…Ciao….” And once again I was touched at the realization of how you can connect with another person so different than yourself despite a huge language barrier and have an amazing experience. Yes I was full once again!
Our Roman friend from Francesca’s told us we must go to Ivo Pizzeria when in Rome and so we ended our time in this fine city back in the Trastevere eating pizza like none we could have imagined nor could we explain to you in words. We can only say, until you have eaten pizza in Rome you really have not eaten pizza. This evening we returned to our room to prepare for our next adventure filled from all the food and wine, yes, but most importantly from the entire Rome experience.