Where were we?

Kathryn and I came to Rome for the first time in August of 2008.  It was the beginning of a two week cruise that took us north as far as Monte Carlo and then south through the Greek Islands ending in Athens.  Too many ports of call to list, but we hit the highlights.  We arrived in Rome about 7am on a Sunday morning red eye from NYC.  Completely exhausted but having been told to stay up until night to help adjust the body clock.   After a walk around the Spanish Steps, our first time lost in Rome and some other stuff we had a private car tour set up for about Noon.  Our handsome Italian driver was named Giancarlo, he had a lovely Mercedes sedan, was perfectly coiffed and dressed to perfection.  I knew Kathryn was happy.  I was happy too but could barely keep my eyes open.  Giancarlo drove us around for 2-3 hours showing us the highlights of Rome.  However, we were so tired and so disoriented that we really had no idea where any of these places we were seeing were.  As we close out our time in Rome this time, after walking countless miles (we think we've averaged 5 miles per day) we have a pretty good feel for where things are, so much so that occasionally we actual help tourists that look hopelessly lost with their maps.

One of the places Giancarlo took us in 2008 was into a square where he told us to get out of the car, walk to a doorway and look through the keyhole.

We did and were amazed by what we saw.  Then away we went, back into the maze of Rome, as I dosed off in the back of the car, fighting my eyelids.

As we planned to come back to Rome for an extended visit this year, one of the things we wanted to do was find this keyhole and take another look.

I speculated that it was quite some distance from the city center.  I often speculate wrong.  It turns out to be up a hill a short walk from Circus Maximus (the chariot race track for you "Ben Hur" fans.)  We had walked by the hill at least three times during our stay headed to the Roman Forum, Testravede and the chariot race site.  Turning up the hill, past a magnificent memorial rose garden, we began to see amazing overlook vistas of Rome, and fellow tourists.  Finally we had found the spot.  Five years later and wide awake we had found it.

OK, this is the best my iPhone camera can do.  Looking through the  keyhole, a lovely hedgerow, perfectly coiffed.

As we took our turn looking a group of English speaking tourists, right behind us, that had been dropped by their driver were talking.  "I don't know, he just said that he wouldn't tell us and that we should look for ourselves."  I resisted the temptation to spill the beans and just smiled at them.

"You'll be glad he didn't tell you", I said  as I walked away.  I gave their driver a thumbs up, one of the international hand gestures I've come to rely on here.  (I have one picked out for the gypsies, but I'm waiting for the last day to try it out)




Here it is, taken by a professional:

To learn more:

http://everything-everywhere.com/2009/05/12/behind-the-lens-the-story-of-the-rome-keyhole-photo/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Malta

Rome is full of stuff like this.  Kathryn and I are blessed to have had the time to discover and place into perspective many places like this.  If you ever have the chance to visit Rome, .....  Take it!

Giovanni

PS - We are now opera fans.  The Barber of Seville earlier in the week and last night, the beautiful, but sad
La Bohème.

The view from our front rows seats:

Functional and Beautiful--What A Concept!

Every few blocks in Rome there's a public fountain. Not just The Trevi or the Tritone, but smaller fountains that supply water for the public to drink from, to wash their hands or refresh themselves with a quick splash on the face and neck. These smaller ones are more accurately called "basins".










The fountains, basins, and famous Roman baths were all served by the elaborate aqueduct system. During the height of the Roman Empire nine aqueducts fed about forty fountains, nearly 600 public basins, the baths, and private villas of the Imperial family. Two aqueducts led to each fountain in case one was broken.







Everything worked fine until the famous fall of the Roman empire. Then maintenance of the water system was neglected and things started to fall apart. In the 14th century the Popes began rebuilding  things and reworking the aqueducts. [Editorial comment: Just another example of something great the Catholic church did for the world.] It took a few centuries, but everything is working fine now using a combination of gravity and mechanical pumps to keep the water flowing.

It's constantly amazing that the Romans were not just great engineers of their public works, but they also went to great efforts to make sure whatever they built was beautiful to look at, as well.

With the exception of the dark age hiatus, everything has been working continuously for 2000+ years.

Trained to drink

On our eating tour through Trastavere we were taught the proper way to drink from a Roman fountain. Only Mr. C was brave enough to try the technique. I was very proud of him. Basically, when you do it right, the water arches up from the spigot so you can drink without getting wet--it works just like a modern day water fountain.

Oh, on another note...we found out Romans didn't have soap so they had their slaves scrape them down with clay pot shards before they entered into a series of hot and cold baths to get clean.

My mom and I used to fantasize about how cool it would be to live in the era of the Roman baths, hand-laid mosaic tiles on the floors and walls, surrounded by beautiful art, etc. Then we'd realize we wouldn't be part of any noble family and we'd laugh. I wish she was around. She'd get a kick out of hearing we'd be the slaves scraping some fat, sweaty guy's skin off before he jumped into the hot tub.


Katerina

A day in Ariccia

We have had such a great time here in Italy.  Mostly in Rome, with a 2 day trip to Venice & Milan.  Using walking tours form the Frommer's guide we have seen the usual tourist sites and many less known treasures.  As some of you know, we've been studying Italian for the trip, Kathryn far more than me, including continuing her studies while here at a language school.  For me the goal was to be able to be reasonably polite (please, thank you, excuse me, where is the men's room, etc.)

One of my hopes was that I would find a regular place for morning coffee and that I could order and wish the staff a good day each morning.  We discovered the place on day one.  http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187791-d2598504-r150878561-Elen_Bar-Rome_Lazio.html

 The proprieter's name is Romolo (call me "Romo") who along with his wife, Josephina ("Pina") two sons and an employee, Camillia are part of our daily life in Rome.  Romo and Camillia take the morning shift, overlapping with Pina and the boys over lunch hour when Pina takes over until about 6pm when they close.  Romo and Pina have not taken a day off in the three weeks we have been here.

I stroll about 50 meters to see Romo and Camillia every morning purchasing due cafe Americano's and due pasti to go ("apertti via") and wander back to the apartment.  My morning cost has trended down as they have gotten to know me.  From $5 euros day one, as low as 3.50 one day last week.  Camillia has gone to asking for 4 euros and tossing something in the tip jar as change.  I think she's charging me 3.50 and keeping 0.50.  No problem.   We have started having lunch there more often as the sandwiches are fresh and reasonable.  I finally tried some of the pork roast on display in a sandwich.  It is called "Porchetta".  Yum!

So Romo and I have daily chats.  He speaks very little English and I speak very little Italian.  It must be hilarious to watch.  I suppose we are about the same age, both a bit weathered by time.  I was complimenting him on how good the porchetta sandwich was when he began pointing to a poster behind the counter and saying "Ariccia" over and over; speaking Italian with his hands and slowly, so maybe I would get it.  In what should have been a 30 second exchange but took several minutes, I finally figured out that Ariccia is 1) famous for porchetta; 2) not far from Rome; 3) Romo lived there for 20 years; 4) one of his son's commutes from nearby every day and 5) We should go there.

I return with coffee and rolls to Kathryn wondering why I had been gone so long.  I announce that I now know about Ariccia and that we should go.  So, Friday we headed out.  Take the metro to the end of the line Anganina station and the the Cotral bus to Ariccia.  Sounds easy.  Metro part was easy, buying the bus ticket was easy.  Boarding bus asked the driver if the bus stopped in Ariccia.  No and no to speaking English.  Eventually we did figure out that it stops in Albano and there is a "short" walk to Ariccia.  OK.


Now I'm tossing the backpack up to the rack above our seat when the bus starts to move and I fall into my seat narrowly missing Kathryn with what would have been a devastating body blow.  This causes Melissa, the Italian college student that rides this bus every day to giggle.  Ha-Ha.  (Aside - I believe in Angels Hebrews 1:14).  So, I ask Melissa (who is studying English in school) how we will know when the bus has reached Albano, where we are supposed to get off?  She says, "Don't get off in Albano.  Follow me, I am going to Ariccia."  Funny thing about the Italians we have met.  As we were passing through Albano, two different people came to us and said that we were in Albano and this is where we should get off.  Melissa jumped in with both and said she was taking care of us.  Very nice people.


Melissa had us get off the bus with her about a mile from where we would have otherwise at the bottom of a deep valley.  She had taken us to a lift, kind of like a short ski lift from the bottom of the hill leading to Ariccia.  The lift takes us to the Piazza Chigi.  Going home she said we will need to walk back to Albano to catch the return bus.  Time for a photo with our Angel and goodbye.  "Oh, Melissa, one more thing....  Where is the Piazza Chigi?"  One last giggle.  "You are there!"  Arrivederci, Melissa.  Thanks for being our angel.

Ariccia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariccia) is a lovely place in the Alban hills of the Lazio region.  Unlike our trip to Venice which was teaming with tourists and very frenetic we are among very few people out and about on Friday afternoon.  Time for porchetta.  Can't go to the first place we see, just because.  So we wander the length of the porchetta row and get to the end, with a remarkable scene to the valley.  Back up the line to, the first place we saw!  L'Osteria de mi' Zia.  You cannot order a porchetta sandwich.  You have to order some meat, cheese, bread & this day, some roasted eggplant in olive oil and construct your ow sandwich.   We also had some bruschetta, spaghetti with clams, sparkling water and a coke.  20 euro total for what might have been 40 or 50 in downtown Rome.

.

After lunch, we wandered around, stopped for a coffee and just counted our blessings.

For more on porchetta:

http://thehideside.blogspot.it/2008/12/la-porchetta-di-ariccia.html

http://www.ciolis.it/index.php?lingua=1&page=products-delicatessen

Unable to get the bus back by taking the lift we headed across the bridge.  Earlier in the day we had asked Melissa from the bottom of this bridge, what the nets were for.  Good question, gruesome answer.  Melissa made a hand gesture indicating a person diving and said this was the "suicide bridge."  Apparently more than 60 Italians have chosen this bridge as their final place to literally jump off.  The "Netting" is chain link type material and has discouraged the already discouraged to end things somewhere else.  Needless to say the walk over was made a bit more uncomfortable with this knowledge......



We walked off our calories on the 2km trek back to Albano and the bus.  While on the way, some more young people assured us that we would know the bus stop when we got there.  I always like reassurances.

Saturday morning I showed the pictures from our adventure to Romo and he was so excited for us.  He knew the restaurant we ate at and knows the family of our waitress, the woman with glasses next to me in the group shot.  This was one of my favorite days in Italy as we would never have found it without establishing some relationships.

Oh, and AS Roma is now 7 and 0 and in first place of Series-A futlbol in Italy.  And my St. Louis Blues improved to 2 and 0 last night at home.

Ciao.

Giovanni

Bones

It seems to me that Romans have a fascination with bones, skulls, skeletons, death, and everything that goes with them. Nowhere is that more evident than at the Capuchin Crypt--otherwise known as The Bone Church.


Before you get to the bone area, you have to go through a museum that tells the story of Capuchin monks and their history in Rome. Of course we paid extra for the headphones.
The Capuchins big claim to fame is their extreme vow of poverty. Started around 1500, their rules allow each monk one pointed-hood tunic and a rope belt. Everything else is received through begging. Cappucino coffee drinks are named after Capucins because they're the same color brown as the monks' tunics.

The new pope--Francis--likes these guys a lot. He chose his pope name after St. Francis of Assisi. SFOA founded the order for a life of solitude, penance, and serving the poor...all hot buttons for Pope Francis.

After you finish the museum tour, you're rewarded with a trip through the underground Capuchin crypt, or ossuary. 

Here the skeletons of nearly 4000 dead monks have been used to create 5 chapels of individually decorated scenes. This is not a bone tossed here and there. Each chapel has intricately composed scenes and decor all made of different bones. There are niches and chair rails, frescoes and arches, chandeliers and wall art, even fully-posed skeletons dressed in their Capuchin habits as if they're conversing or just observing us observing them.

One of the first rooms has a skeleton monk standing by a sign with this message:

"What you are, we once were.

What we are, you someday will be."

That should get you thinking.

The Marquis de Sade visited the crypt in 1776 and called it "fascinating."

Mark Twain came in 1867 and wrote about it in The Innocents Abroad. BTW, Twain's book is worth wading through. It's a travelogue of his experiences on a cruise and tour he took of Europe and The Holy Land with a bunch of American travelers. It alternates from pure observation to biting sarcasm to laugh out loud humor. The Innocents Abroad is still one of the most-read travelogues ever written.

Oh, something else you should know. Italians NEVER drink cappucinos after morning. If you order a cappucino after about 10am, they'll make it and bring it to you...but they'll also snicker at you when you're not looking.

Katerina

Trastavere--the other side of the river

Trastavere is considered the most authentic Italian neighborhood in Rome. It's on the west bank of the Tiber, literally--'across the river.' Trastavere is the Rome you see in Fellini films.











We took a walking, gastronomical, twilight tour of Trastavere that was definitely a highlight of our trip so far.












We went to 8 different local places and sampled plates and plates of food. We had a mozzarella cheese that was more cream than cheese, stopped in an underground wine cellar that was the first synagogue in Rome (circa 800 BC), went to a meat market for samples of different salami, ate meatballs, three different kinds of pasta, hung out at a bakery that's been a family business for more than a hundred years, and topped the night off with gelato.








If all that wasn't magical enough....

...we made a surprise stop to a monastery that houses the oldest apothecary in the world. (That could be hyperbole, but that's what the tour guide told us). The monks who lived and worked here blended, brewed, mortared and pestled all sorts of concoctions to keep the popes and other Catholic hierarchy--as well as the rest of the Romans--healthy. It was open from the 1200s to the mid-20th century.



Our guide told us they just locked the place up and walked out when they decided to stop apothecarying. The bottles are still full, there are hand-labeled boxes with dried (really dry) herbs, brass urns, floor to ceiling shelves, alabaster containers, marble floors. It looks like the set for a Harry Potter movie.







Very fun night.


Katerina

Il Treno

Government shutdowns aside, why can't the United States come up with a decent train system? 

Friday Mr. C. and I took the train from Rome to Venice. We arrived in Venice in mid-day and stayed until about 8pm. Later, Friday night we went from Venice to Milan and returned to Rome Saturday night.

There were no delays. The trains were clean. The seats were comfortable. We had internet almost the entire way. 

If I lived in Rome I'd take the train everywhere. There are high speed trains, commuter trains, locals. First class, business class, second class, regular. It was easier, more comfortable and less expensive than any domestic flights we've taken the last several years.

Katerina

Il Papa - A gentle man

I've been going to church most of my life.  I am a believer and draw inspiration and peaceful feelings from attending church services.  For me, it's really just that simple.  I don't argue my beliefs with others.  They are my beliefs and I know I'm not alone in them.

Until the fall of 2012, I had attended only a handful of Catholic masses in 60 years.  Kathryn's mom, Avis, spent her final days at Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis.  Nazareth was originally built as a retirement home for  the
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and a large percentage of the residents are retired sisters.  While Avis was at Nazareth , Kathryn and I took her to Mass in the facility every Sunday.  The resident Priest and the Sisters were wonderfully welcoming and we enjoyed our Sunday mornings there.

Since we began travelling in 2008, We've visited some of the most impressive churches in Italy but mostly as  tourists.  But after our experience of last Fall at Nazareth and the naming of a new Pope, Francesco, earlier this year we really wanted to see the Pope while in Rome.

Saturday, in Milan, we visited the Duomo, supposedly the third largest church in the world.  When we went in it was packed as a Saturday Mass was in progress.  It was very inspiring to see such a large group worshiping even as tourists wandered around the perimeter.

As an aside, we loved Milan.  Planning to go back and spend more time in the future.


So, it was with great enthusiasm as we headed to St. Peter's square at the Vatican this morning for outdoor mass.  The metro was jammed and the crowds walking to St. Peters from the metro stop was large.  We hoped we would be able to see Pope Francis but what we didn't realize what that he would be officiating the mass and delivering a homily.


We did not have a ticket so we were in the open area behind the seating.  As a concession to the 21st century, but I'm grateful, they have a wonderful PA system and three large screens setup in the square.  So even as we were way back, we could see and hear.

After some opening music and a bunch of Ave Maria's, we could see that there was a procession coming from inside the basilica and and the end was Pope Francis.  He emerged to polite applause from the 100,000+ in attendance.  Not what happens for most parish priests but to be expected from a crowd hoping to see Pope Francis. The mass went on and the the Pope stepped to the alter and gave his homily, in Italian.  (English translation - http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/09/29/pope_francis:_homily_at_mass_for_catechists/en1-732802 )  He is remarkably soft spoken and a gentle man.  Even as I wasn't able to know what he was saying, it still felt great being there.

After the homily we moved on to let others move up to our vantage point.  The experience was moving and I came away with a warm feeling towards the Church and their leader.

Ciao.

Giovanni

I read once that some years ask questions and some years answer questions.

2012 and most of 2013 only asked questions. One after another.

Giovanni and I have always been pretty rock solid in our spiritual beliefs. Then 2012 hit and everything was shaken to its core. What had previously been a source of great comfort, and a place for our service (both physical and monetary) became unrecognizable to us. The shifts and changes we experienced, the demands on us to accept, conform, and comply knocked us off center and left us spiritually homeless.

Since that time we haven't been at peace.

Sunday morning we joined 100,000 people  (give or take a few thousand) in St. Peter's Square for a worship service. There was singing, praying, preaching. Nothing too radical. The experience took my breath away. It brought tears to my eyes. It was moving and healing and appropriate.

Pope Francis' homily could have been given 1500 years ago and it would have still been relevant. It could also have been given in any modern day church in the U.S. and been equally relevant.

There were no apologies for embracing traditions or decorum, dogma or doctrine.

The service was reverent, the crowd was respectful. In fact, this was the first time in two years I've felt totally at peace spiritually.

Today there are 1.2 billion members of the Catholic church, and its growth outpaces population growth every year. It was an honor to share space with believers and Il Papa.

Katerina