Ah Roma, The Eternal City, our holidays here always start with a tanned buff Italian man with a three day growth, tight white Tshirt(and matching white teeth) well cut blue jeans and mirror aviator sunnies driving us from the airport into the city at break neck speed.
Nico was no exception, lights flashing and horn blowing at those that dare to drive under 140km. He took us right to the door of our hotel in record time. Ummmm, there is no hotel here only a green door with brass door knockers, have you taken us to the right address? questions Rosie. Maybe my Italian pronunciation was really bad….maybe the handsome Italian couldn’t read, he was a taxi driver and didn’t want a bar of my Booking.com print out to check the address at the airport. 69 Via Riesciemento it is here, said Nico as he is pulling our bags out of the Taxi and dumping them on the footpath. Well there is no hotel, just wait, said Rosie I will check the address…..as Nico burns away into the morning traffic horn blaring. The operator was checking out the green door and a small brass plaque and a buzzer welcomed us to the Navona Hotel.
So, after Rosie expressed gushingly how excited she was to be here and how long our flight was and we have come all the way from New Zealand (not to confuse us with Americans) and I even pulled out the ole 20th Anniversary trip…..our room will not be ready till 2.00pm. So, at 8.15am on a Sunday morning Rosie and The Operator are let loose on Rome after a 12 hour flight.
First stop the coffee shop….’due caffe latte per favor’, 1.50 euros great value, great coffee.
What to do first, on Sunday the Vatican Museums are closed but the Pope gives the crowds a blessing in Vatican Square at noon, OK, the pope is currently in America.
Most of the shops are closed on Sunday and Sunday is the only day the market close by is closed….to the edge of town we went. Out along the ancient Appia Antica, the first 90km of cobbles were laid in 312 BC, the road was then extended another 540km in 190 BC stretching to the Adriatic coast. This area has 300km of underground tunnels which were used as burial chambers for the early Christians.
In the catacombs of St Callisto where we had our guided tour over 500,000 people were buried here alone, of which 200,000 were babies and children due to the high infant mortality rate of the day. Corpses in sheets were placed in niches in the soft stone walls. The complex is 4 stories deep and the niches are so economically spaced, carved to the exact height of the person going in there.
Popes and martyrs are buried there too and these venerable inhabitants have small chapels built in there honor so Christians could go and worship them. An American in our group asked what Rosie was thinking, where are all the bodies? All we have seen is empty niches….they have been removed and re interned into the areas that are not on display to the public. Stink. Anyway, it was a good tour and very enjoyable.
Wandering around in long, black, fitted cassocks that swept the ground were a few priests. Talk about designer sunnies, shoes and man bags, those guys looked way too cool to be priests! Italian priests certainly don’t eschew materialism here and practice austerity…..it seems only the Pope does, you think these guys would follow suit.
I know you are thinking, Rosie, cut the yack, where are the photos? Rosie herself still doesn’t know why she has none…OK we were not allowed to take photos inside the catacombs, but she has none of the lovely cobbled ancient road, the beautiful villas bordering it, the tall straight cypress trees lining the road and the magnificent city walls. She even forgot to buy postcards! Rosie is blaming it on the jet lag and the 26c heat beating down on her from the clear blue sky, after coming out of New Zealands winter hibernation the day was all abit overwhelming.
Anyway time for lunch, a nice pizza Napoli and a half carafe of the Casa Vino Bianchi….it was terrible wine but the view in the piazza was a good start.
We formally checked into the hotel and the staircases we had to climb and the narrow winding corridors opened out to the best view in town.
Welcome to the Piazza Navona in the hub of the Centro Storico.
Not too shabby, the view, sun and people watching from the balcony was sublime.
Our balcony is the top left one with the flowers along the railing. Laid out on the ruins of an ancient arena made in AD86 Piazza Navona was paved over in the 15th century and for almost 300 years hosted the cities main market.
During the day the Piazza is swarming with people, all admiring the view of the crumbling pastel coloured buildings, the 3 fountains, one of which is a Bernini masterpiece, the Fountain of the Four Rivers (middle fountain with the obelisk in the middle) which featured in the Dan Brown movie Angels and Demons, where the cardinal was tied to a chair and tipped into the fountain to drown. Street artists perform for the crowds, Musicians play violins and piano accordions for the lunchtime diners at the restaurant’s that ring the square and artists gather in the middle to sell their paintings as mementos of your Roman holiday.
In the evening we wandered across the river into the Trastevere district of Rome. A bohemian grittiness envelopes this neighborhood and the residents consider themselves the true descendant’s of Ancient Rome.
The small, winding alleyways are covered in dangling ivy, tiny fronted shops are flush with the walls of houses and there is a small bar or restaurant at every turn. It was dusk and there was a hum in the air as people started getting their fill of Happy Hour and enjoying the balmy coolness of the evening.
Wandering around we even came across a wee bar that was playing the All Blacks vs Argentina rugby game, we watched the last 12 mins of the game with Willy and Shirley from Mokau…they were a middle aged couple on honeymoon and had tickets to the semis and finals in England.
Night had fallen and it was so beautifully cool, a band was playing in the main square and people were sitting on the steps of a small shrine listening, a few people were dancing and you could kind of tell the night was only just starting…..it was 9.00 and Rosie and The Operator lingered awhile and then walked home with a gelato.
Arriving home, the square was just as busy, and just as magical. Rosie and The Operator went to bed and slept like logs. Tomorrow we are going to visit the sights and catch the morning markets….
That's funny how you travel to the other side of the world just to bump into your neighbours!