7-15-08
Last night we arrived in Rome. We got off the plane and hopped the surburban railway to Roma San Pietro. When we get off our stop and got out of the train station and looked up we immediately saw the lit up dome of St. Peters Basilica. It was absolutely beautiful and much bigger than I imagined it would be. It also surprised me how much of the detailing in the dome you are able to see from a distance. But i guess that's what makes Michelangelo a genious. After a bit of confusion on where the apartment we were supposed to be staying at was we finally arrived at Francescos. The apartment is very clean and the bathroom modern and everything appears to be decorated in IKEA. He gave us a bunch of maps and suggestions on his favorite places to eat and places to go.
This morning we woke up and wandered around to a cafe next to an awesome open-air market a few streets (and steps!) away from where we were staying. Since we are located outside of the city nobody really speaks much English out here. Somehow we muddled through buying two espressos for ourselves, downed them and had to watch a few cusometers before we realized quite how to pay. Then since it was nearing lunch we made our way through the markey and bought four fresh balls of mozzarella cheese, two big slices of prosciutto, four loaves of ciabatta-esque bread (i meant only to get two but my hand symbols were misread) and two peaches. We took our purchases and walked 10 minutes over to St. Peter's square. It is a giant, round square with a billion columns making up a collonnade that makes a perfect, shady place for a picnic lunch.
The food was great and I could tell less-savvy tourists were jealous of our semi-homemade lunch. After that we followed our Rick Steves guide's advice and went to the Vatican Museum in the early afternoon. We faced no line and wandered through the innumerable rooms of the former Papal Palace and saw the most extensive collection of sculpture and paintings from the greeks, romans and the renaissance. We then went through the Raphael-designed rooms that had floor to ceiling murals (to be fair, almost everything in the place was floor to/and including the ceiling). Then we finally got to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. The place was mobbed with all of these people listening to their audioguide headsets, not-so-sneakily taking pictures and craning their necks. The thing is pretty dang impressive, considering that one guy pretty much did the whole thing. It's beautiful and very interesting to look for all the different symbols in the painting that reference interesting things in history, the church, or Michelangelo's own life. Then we took the sneaky, "tour groups only" exit to the actual church of St. Peters.
There are really only two words that can accurately describe St. Peters: ginormous and gilded. It is, without a doubt, the most opulent place of worship I have ever seen. The size alone is
impressive but add in the intricately-inlaid marble floors, giant columns, innumerable statues of angels, exorbitantly decorated Pope's Tombs, elaborate and colorful paintings and mosaics, as well as all of the carved moldings, mini-chapels, smaller domes, gilding, and huge 7-feet high Latin inscriptions, you begin to understand why Luther though the church was being a little too "indulgent". (Pun intended- the entire place was funded by the sale of indulgences, aka letting rich people give money to the church to be forgiven for sins.) But regardless of the dubious funding, the place is absolutely amazing. My favorite thing was the sculpted faces in the Bernini-built altar piece that depict a women's face as she goes through the various stages of childbirth. Slightly odd for the the piece that stands over the tomb of the original Saint Peter.
After the afternoon spent exploring the Pope's place, we wandered over to the Pantheon to meet up with Bobby's professor for dinner. We couldn't remember what time we were supposed to meet him so we wound up having some time to kill. After changing into our shorts at the McDonalds at the Pantheon (you have to wear long pants or skirts and cover your shoulders to be let into the Vatican and St. Peter's) we sat on the steps by the big fountain in the middle of the piazza. We decided to eat one of the peaches we bought at the market earlier that day but two bites in a policewoman blew her whistle and shook her finger and said "That is forbidden!". Another poor man with a homemade sandwich was also reprimanded for his senseless act of eating. We were very confused as we looked around and saw people eating gelato, pizza and Big Macs free as birds on the steps. We decided that there must be a rule about eating the food you bring into the piazza, thus driving people to purchase from the marked up, tourist places lining the square! Damn Fascists!
Finally we saw Professor Morton by the Pantheon and we headed straight for his favorite pizza place. We decided to go along with anything he suggested as this was his 20th visit to Rome. The
pizza was awesome and we sat inside right next to the chef so we could watch him prepare the pies. After hearing about Professor Morton's travels to Tunisia and Algeria we went for gelato at Giolittis. Bobby and I had chocolate with 'Fruitti di Bosco' (i have now taken to calling bobby by the nickname of Frutti di Bobby) and it was absolutely delicioso. Professor Morton let us in on a secret way to tell whether a gelato place was really good or not by scoping out their banana flavor. If their banana gelato was yellow then it was a bad place because real, fresh, banana gelato will actually be gray in color because the real bananas in it will have turned. Makes you never want to sample the banana flavor!
Sidenote: Bobby, in all his excitement in photographing the dome of the basilica, left behind his famous red hat in St. Peters. Apparently God thought it appropriate to lay the hat to rest among the popes.
Last night we arrived in Rome. We got off the plane and hopped the surburban railway to Roma San Pietro. When we get off our stop and got out of the train station and looked up we immediately saw the lit up dome of St. Peters Basilica. It was absolutely beautiful and much bigger than I imagined it would be. It also surprised me how much of the detailing in the dome you are able to see from a distance. But i guess that's what makes Michelangelo a genious. After a bit of confusion on where the apartment we were supposed to be staying at was we finally arrived at Francescos. The apartment is very clean and the bathroom modern and everything appears to be decorated in IKEA. He gave us a bunch of maps and suggestions on his favorite places to eat and places to go.
This morning we woke up and wandered around to a cafe next to an awesome open-air market a few streets (and steps!) away from where we were staying. Since we are located outside of the city nobody really speaks much English out here. Somehow we muddled through buying two espressos for ourselves, downed them and had to watch a few cusometers before we realized quite how to pay. Then since it was nearing lunch we made our way through the markey and bought four fresh balls of mozzarella cheese, two big slices of prosciutto, four loaves of ciabatta-esque bread (i meant only to get two but my hand symbols were misread) and two peaches. We took our purchases and walked 10 minutes over to St. Peter's square. It is a giant, round square with a billion columns making up a collonnade that makes a perfect, shady place for a picnic lunch.
The food was great and I could tell less-savvy tourists were jealous of our semi-homemade lunch. After that we followed our Rick Steves guide's advice and went to the Vatican Museum in the early afternoon. We faced no line and wandered through the innumerable rooms of the former Papal Palace and saw the most extensive collection of sculpture and paintings from the greeks, romans and the renaissance. We then went through the Raphael-designed rooms that had floor to ceiling murals (to be fair, almost everything in the place was floor to/and including the ceiling). Then we finally got to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. The place was mobbed with all of these people listening to their audioguide headsets, not-so-sneakily taking pictures and craning their necks. The thing is pretty dang impressive, considering that one guy pretty much did the whole thing. It's beautiful and very interesting to look for all the different symbols in the painting that reference interesting things in history, the church, or Michelangelo's own life. Then we took the sneaky, "tour groups only" exit to the actual church of St. Peters.There are really only two words that can accurately describe St. Peters: ginormous and gilded. It is, without a doubt, the most opulent place of worship I have ever seen. The size alone is
impressive but add in the intricately-inlaid marble floors, giant columns, innumerable statues of angels, exorbitantly decorated Pope's Tombs, elaborate and colorful paintings and mosaics, as well as all of the carved moldings, mini-chapels, smaller domes, gilding, and huge 7-feet high Latin inscriptions, you begin to understand why Luther though the church was being a little too "indulgent". (Pun intended- the entire place was funded by the sale of indulgences, aka letting rich people give money to the church to be forgiven for sins.) But regardless of the dubious funding, the place is absolutely amazing. My favorite thing was the sculpted faces in the Bernini-built altar piece that depict a women's face as she goes through the various stages of childbirth. Slightly odd for the the piece that stands over the tomb of the original Saint Peter.After the afternoon spent exploring the Pope's place, we wandered over to the Pantheon to meet up with Bobby's professor for dinner. We couldn't remember what time we were supposed to meet him so we wound up having some time to kill. After changing into our shorts at the McDonalds at the Pantheon (you have to wear long pants or skirts and cover your shoulders to be let into the Vatican and St. Peter's) we sat on the steps by the big fountain in the middle of the piazza. We decided to eat one of the peaches we bought at the market earlier that day but two bites in a policewoman blew her whistle and shook her finger and said "That is forbidden!". Another poor man with a homemade sandwich was also reprimanded for his senseless act of eating. We were very confused as we looked around and saw people eating gelato, pizza and Big Macs free as birds on the steps. We decided that there must be a rule about eating the food you bring into the piazza, thus driving people to purchase from the marked up, tourist places lining the square! Damn Fascists!
Finally we saw Professor Morton by the Pantheon and we headed straight for his favorite pizza place. We decided to go along with anything he suggested as this was his 20th visit to Rome. The
pizza was awesome and we sat inside right next to the chef so we could watch him prepare the pies. After hearing about Professor Morton's travels to Tunisia and Algeria we went for gelato at Giolittis. Bobby and I had chocolate with 'Fruitti di Bosco' (i have now taken to calling bobby by the nickname of Frutti di Bobby) and it was absolutely delicioso. Professor Morton let us in on a secret way to tell whether a gelato place was really good or not by scoping out their banana flavor. If their banana gelato was yellow then it was a bad place because real, fresh, banana gelato will actually be gray in color because the real bananas in it will have turned. Makes you never want to sample the banana flavor!Sidenote: Bobby, in all his excitement in photographing the dome of the basilica, left behind his famous red hat in St. Peters. Apparently God thought it appropriate to lay the hat to rest among the popes.
3 comments:
It's ok -- Bob has at least four other "red" hats...
When's the next post coming...you leave me craving more!
Oh no. Not the hat. This is a sad day, but I don't think there is a place in this whole world that Bobby would have rather left it.
Great story. Keep 'em coming!
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