Rome Day 3 and 4

Saturday, May 05, 2007 2030 pm
Good evening. We had a lovely day. Luke made and egg and toast sandwich with cheese and senape. It started out raining before we left the apartment so we packed umbrella and raincoat in preparation.
We went right out our door to the Campo di Fiori fresh food market. We bought some fingerling potatoes, asparagus, tomato with a sprig of free basil, artichokes, onion, blood oranges and that’s about it. They had fish and basically a butcher shop on wheels with rabbit, boned chickens, beef steaks etc. There were lots of fresh vegetables, eggplant, freshly prepared lettuce mixes with carrots, radicchio, celery, cauliflower, zucchini flowers, all colors of grapes, garlic, fennel, potted herbs, heirloom tomatoes, apples from the tree, huge gnarly lemons the size of small cantelope. We brought our stuff back to the apartment and took off from there.
We walked to the nearby Piazza Navonna. It was surprisingly close. It was too bad that the main fountain was under construction due to erosion, bird poop and pollution. The fountain was done by Bernini and had an obelisk in the center. We bought a post card. The 2 minor fountains were interesting to look at. Luckily we arrived early in the morning and could see these places sans crowds. We got to pet 1 of 2 furry dogs that looked like they were in the corgie family. They were short and furry and off the leash to roam around while their owner was shooting the breeze with a neighbor.
We then walked a few blocks to the Pantheon. Pan meaning all and theon meaning of theology or gods. The Pantheon was a church for all gods where everyone could “worship. We took pictures from the piazza and then walked closer to enter. I was really surprised to notice just how BIG it got when we got closer. I took a pic of 6 foot 3 Luke at a pillar. The Pantheon was the only ancient building to have been in constant use since it’s inception. It was changed from pagan to Christian and was said that was what kept the building out of disrepair. I feel I got some pretty good pics here. There were lots of people here even though we were there relatively early in the AM.
We then went to some of Rick’s recommended church tours around the Pantheon. We saw the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Gesu Church, Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. The San Luigi church had a Caravaggio painting of J.C. choosing and strongly encouraging St Matthew to come and be an apostle. This painting was significant as to how realistic it was. You could have seen this scene and it shows how Jesus and the disciples were real, tangible people in everyday settings. Next the Gesu’ Church this one was Baroque and all guilded coffered ceilings. The real thing to see here was the 3-d painting on the ceiling. Rick says that the Baroque people were the masters of using “multimedia.” They used fresco techniques mixed with standout statues and cutouts that extended above the decorative mouldings and also cast a shadow (real and painted I am sure). This looked the MOST 3D than I ever would have expected. Ever. I was really taken by this. This church looked like it was the most used. It had the most people in the roped off chapel for the members and had some old ladies in line for confession. At Sopra Minerva the special thing was a Michelangelo statue of nude muscular Jesus carrying a cross. Also Fra Angelico’s (who we saw that was like at the start of the renaissance in Florence) tomb and sarcophagi.
We then hiked a bit to Trevi fountain. This amazingly large fountain was PACKED with people. Everyone was throwing a coin over their shoulder to ensure they return to Rome. We even got a lady to take our picture. We spent a few moments here where the sun really started to come out and we had to put on sunglasses. I bet this is really nice at night when it is lit. They have so many vendors or people with crap walking around amongst the crowd to sell silly things. They were selling these squeeze stress ball figures. They were pretty ugly and people were even buying them. I get annoyed with these salesman.
Then we scooted up to the Spanish steps. We arrived from the top of them which was nice not to have to climb them to get the view. Here is where it got really sunny. We baked until I felt my face start to burn and we took some pictures, people watched and then headed to the Metro stop then to our bus stop.
While we were waiting for our bus I spotted a movie theatre that we saw the other day. I told Luke, “see they are too showing Spider Man 3.” We decided that since it was only 1500 that we would go watch a movie if it was showing. It was showing but with dubbed speech in Italian. We got advice from the ticket lady to where it was showing “originale.” Lucky for us it was only 1 metro stop the other direction. We hit that and checked times, we were 5 min early. Luke got 2 tickets for €7.50 each. Not too bad I thought. The movie made me forget I was in Italy for a bit. I guess it was being in a dark theatre and having people around me speaking English to their kids. We had popcorn, it was like €3.50 for a medium tub, a pretty big tub, and there was no option of butter. The popcorn was AWESOME. We really enjoyed it. We took the metro to our bus stop again and then took the short electric bus to the apartment.
There were some doings going on in the Campo di Fiori. A band playing with accordion, bass, violin etc. Then there was what looked like a parade at first. I saw a banner on a stick and heard the drum beats. Then I heard the little finger symbols and saw a line of shaved heads and ladies wearing sarongs or ethnic dress of some variation. It was the Hare Krishnas. I thought that was pretty interesting and funny. We ignored the short 15 person long procession and headed back to the apartment. Luke was craving the Peroni Beer after the sun this afternoon and we were thirsty too. So we unloaded our bags and headed up to our Private rooftop area and enjoyed the views of pigeons and enjoyed the taste of the beer. We had some “Combo” style stuffed pretzels to enjoy with the brewskis.
Luke called Kevin our friend on the cell who has just arrived to Tuscany they talked a bit and Luke gave a few important tips about driving and how to buy cheese, that sort of life or death stuff. Luke said Kevin must have been cranky because he wasn’t in the mood to chat like usual. They had been on Italian soil for less than 6 hours or so. I would think not being chatty is the least of Kev’s worries.
We came back in to prepare dinner as it was like 7.30- we are eating like the Italians now. We had leftover cold pasta (we have no microwave and no ambiton to get another pot dirty) and Luke steamed some artichokes that we bought this AM. The chokes were really good even just dipped in a tiny smidge of the red wine vinegar. They are a bit of work to eat, but I suppose that is the fun of it. We also had and devoured the lettuce salad again. For some reason we really enjoy those. We’ll get some fresh mixed and cut salad in the am at the market, oh, and some more artichokes. Dishes are done but the rest of the apartment is mish mash mess. Oh well. Another museum is planned for tomorrow and some Roman bath ruins, and Cappucin monk bone remains artistically decorating a church. Good night as Luke is already asleep on the bed. Ljf
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Don’t they say something about the best laid plans….Luke and I got a modest start this am. We were all set to go to the market for the artichokes and salad etc. Then we realized that today is Sunday and there is no market today. So.. then we decided to go to the Museo Nazionale di Roma.
We got there the usual way, bus to metro. There were much fewer of our busses running today so we waited around a bit more. We found the museum and Rick and Luke guided us around. We saw the greek discus thrower also a beautiful Aprhodite. Rick taught us lots about the rise and fall of roman history along with the museum. We went into the basement where we walked into a vault. There was a priceless collection of Roman coins. I couldn’t believe how many there were. They all looked like they were in really good condition, only some showed wear on the raised image. Saw a wimpy collection of jewelry too. They had a nice collection of frescos and mosaics taken off walls and placed in the museum.

We decided to go to the church where you could see the Ecstasy of St. Teresa by Bernini. We went there as the sky went from blue with sparse sprinkles to a pretty good pour. We saw lots of people at the covered entrance just sitting. We went in a bit further and found the door closed. I looked at the hours posted at the door and we missed the closing time by 15 min. We ate our lunch as we sat and stayed out of the rain. We looked at the other church we were going to see the artwork in and they were at their closing hours too. We would have gone to the Baths of Diocletian which was included in our museum except it was raining gatos and canes (cats and dogs). So, we grudgingly decided to go home and have a café and perhaps a nap if that didn’t keep us awake.

We had been having instant espresso which was present in our apartment kitchen. Yesterday we had about 2 double espressos. I was expecting to bounce off the walls at that much caffeine, but we were still yawning. Luke decided to conquer the little stovetop espresso pot. He did and the coffee was really good. In Italy the Italians put milk in their coffee. In the US we put cream in our coffee so Luke and I went out to find some panne (cream). We found some panne in a hi-c type box for €1.10. When we snipped the end and tried to pour it into the coffee it came out in glops. Apparently it has thickner added to it for sauces. We had to add it to a bottle and supplement with a bit of milk and shake it up to make thinner cream. Now that made our coffee and the right color and taste.

We had an early dinner of a hotdog on sliced bread and some creamy asparagus risotto. It hit the spot. We will go out and dink around in the Campo some. Maybe do some shopping and post this. Tomorrow is an EARLY day to Naples and Pompeii for the scavi (excavations). Til then. ljf