A Roman Holiday (part 2)

I know, finally….but here goes!! (Part 1 can be viewed here)

Sunday, 29 June 2014

I woke up in our darkened room with butterflies in my stomach, so excited I could barely contain myself. But it was still early, and after a VERY long day, I promised the girls the night before that we could all sleep in a bit on Sunday. Except that, clearly, there was going to be no sleeping in for me.

I ended up reading with the bed light on, waiting for a decent time to wake up the girls, who were both sleeping as if they were never ever going to wake up. Eventually at 9am, I decided that they (surely) must have had enough sleep now, and woke them up. I had showered already, and was ready to go in search of some breakfast and coffee.

Bianca and I set out in search for a coffee shop or bakery. But it seemed like most of Rome was still fast asleep. Even our Al Forno spot from the day before was still closed. But, not too far down the road, we found a little bakery and ordered some cappuccino’s and a selection of croissants (or rather cornetti and brioche). No better way to kick start the day!!

Around 10am, we were ready to start our day. We needed to pop around a cellphone network provider to sort out the iPad 3G card, as I was using the iPad as a wifi hotspot so that we all could access the Internet. Which meant walking to the station on a Sunday morning. We also had to buy blister plasters for Bianca, who’s ‘comfortable walking shoes’ were definitely not made for cobblestones…

Our first stop was the Museo Nazionale Romano, more specifically the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, which promised to house one of the biggest collections of Classic art, sculptures, frescoes and mosaics. It was magnificent. The ground and first floor was devoted to sculptures and art of the period between the late Roman Republic and the early imperial period (according to Wikipedia between 2nd century BC to 1st century AD).

An ancient Roman calendar

The resting boxer

Sarcophagus of Portonaccio

Sleeping Hermaphroditus (Bianca’s picture)

Mosaics (Bianca’s picture)

Discobolus

The second floor were filled with frescoes and the most magnificent mosaics I have ever seen, several of which were from the Villa of Livia (the wife of Augustus), at Prima Porta on the Via Flaminia. The mosaics are from the 1st century BC to the 4th centure AD. I was awed by the painted garden of the Villa of Livia, filled with exotic images of birds, trees, flowers all against a blue-grey background that invites you to sit down and rest your weary feet (which, of course we did).

The girls in the painted garden of the villa of Livia

Stunning mosaics

The basement housed the largest numismatics collection in Italy. And since I now work for a Mint, which produces numismatic coins (i.e. collectors items), I was especially interested.

Part of the Numismatic collections

Anya posing in front of some VERY valuable medallions

Leaving the museum, it was already after lunch time and our feet were very tired, so we walked back to the apartment (by now the 2km walk to our apartment felt like 10km…). We shared some delicious pane stuffed with parma ham and cheese and stretched out on the beds of our air conditioned apartment for a siesta.

Late afternoon, we braved the Rome bus system again, this time travelling to the Campius Martius, bordering on the banks of the Tiber river. We walked along the river, turning into Via dei Coronari, across the river from Castle Sant’ Angelo. Our first stop was the Piazza Navona, a long oblong shaped square with no less than 3 fountains. On the northern end is the Fountain of Neptune. The centrepiece is Fontana dei Quattro Fiuimi or Fountain of the Four Rivers, by Bernini, next to the Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone by Bernini’s arch rival Borromini, who was initially commissioned to design the fountain. On the southern end of the square is the Fontana del Moro, with a basin and four tritons.

Along the Via dei Coronari

Fontana del Moro

Piazza Navona with the Church of Sant’Agnese (Bianca’s picture)

Along the Piazza Navona

Typical late afternoon scene on Piazza Navona

Fountain of Neptune (Bianca’s picture)

Fontana dei Quattro Fiuimi

Our next stop was the Pantheon. Stepping onto the Piazza della Rotunda, I felt utterly dwarfed by this two thousand year old Roman building. The interior consist of a rotunda or dome with an oculus in the centre providing natural light to the church, measuring 43.3 metres high.  It is indeed an architectural wonder. Afterwards, we just sat on the steps of the Fontana del Pantheon, with its 20-foot high red marble Egyptian obelisk and savoured the moment whilst eating gelato (and resting our feet)…

Pantheon (Bianca’s picture)

The inside dome of the Pantheon 43m high

Inside the Pantheon (Bianca’s picture)

In front of the Pantheon (pic by some random stranger)

Gelato time…

Our next planned stop was the Column of Marcus Aurelius, but en route we walked past the Church of Saint Ignatius (Chiesa di Sant’Ignazio di Loyola), which I read about somewhere. The girls were a bit sceptical, but curiosity won and a ‘quick’ look inside turned out to be one of the best surprises of the afternoon. What wonder. A baroque style church built between 1626 and 1650, on the foundations of the humble Church of the Annunciation which was part of the Collegio Romano. The most impressive feature (in my book), is the grandiose fresco that stretches across the nave ceiling by Andrea Pozzo, including a fake dome, painted to give the impression that the roof had a cupola. This is rivalled by coloured marbled arches, and richly gilded ornaments and altars.

Church of Ignatius inside

Marbled pillars with the frescoed ceiling

The frescoed ceiling

The Column of Marcus Aurelius was next on the list, even though we did see the column the previous night, in search for bus 71. The spiral column on Piazza Colonna, with the bronze statue of Saint Paul on top of it, flanked by Fontana di Piazza.

Column of Marcus Aurelius

Our next stop was the Fontana di Trevi, which I was really looking forward to, but which ended being the biggest disappointment of the day, as it was closed for construction.

With promises that this would be the last stop of the day, we started uphill towards the Spanish steps, which was also covered by construction screening, but still provided a glorious view of the sunset over ancient Rome.

View from the top of the Spanish steps

Walking down the steps, we tried to find the Caffe Grecco along the Via dei Condotti, but only spotted the entrance upon retracing our steps. It was nestled between a selection of designer shops in this prestigious high end street, which (probably wisely) prompted us to rather find a place along a side street for dinner. We eventually found a little trattoria a couple of streets away which served prosecco by the glass (for me), and Fanta Orange for the girls (they LOVED the Fanta Orange in Italy, which tastes like real oranges) and delicious pasta. By now our feet were achingly sore, and I located the closest bus stop for our route home (ever reliable bus line 71!!).

Dinner time! (and a little rest for the feet…)

We plopped down in bed, exhausted. But we had to get up early the next morning, as we were going to none other than the Vatican on a tour.

To be continued…

PS. I thought I would be able to finish the rest of Rome in one post, but alas that was not to be…

 

A break in transmission…

For all of you eagerly awaiting the next installment in my Roman holiday series, I have to apologise profusely!

As I am sitting here, I am typing this (it will be short) post with my right arm in a sling. Yup! I had a small little shoulder operation last week, and unfortunately this has forced a break in transmission, which I am hoping to fix soon!

A few years ago, I had to have a shoulder op (the correct term is an Arthoscope), to remove calcific deposits between the rotator cuff and the tendons of my left shoulder. This was after I finally visited an orthopeadic surgeon after a few years of on and off pain in my shoulder and arm. At the time, the doctor told me that we would probably need to do the same in the other shoulder as well, at some stage.

This was three years ago. Of course I’v had pain in my shoulder a few times, but it has been bearable enough to postpone the inevitable visit. But it seems schlepping all over Italy in a whirlwind trip with suitcases and handbags laden with iPads, notebooks, guidebooks etc, affected my shoulder a bit more than I thought initially, and once I managed to rest my feet enough not to feel like I was still walking on cobblestones in my sleep, the shoulder pain kicked in.

In the first week, the intensity was at the level of saying “I really should go and see that orthopead sometime”, but by Monday last week I knew that I would need to fit in a visit, and SOON. By Tuesday morning I was in PAIN and managed to get a same day appointment, due to a last minute cancellation (bless whoever that was…). Tuesday afternoon went by in a haze of pain, X-rays, tears and ended off with a very early night after I took a cocktail of pain killers early evening. And with the knowledge that it will all be better soon, as the dear doctor managed to squeeze me in on Wednesday for the procedure.

All went well on Wednesday afternoon, but I have to wear this sling for a week or so and go for physio to get all the movement in my arm back. But I am back on the recovery path and even though I am a bit useless at the moment, trying to do everything with my left arm (driving, washing my hair, getting dressed are all challenges…), I will be back on track soon.

And of course, then I can resume the sharing of our Italian holiday…

(And thanks to WordPress, I understand that today is the second anniversary of my blog, so I had to do an update post!!)

So, please bear with me through this break in transmission. Normal posts will resume soon!!

 

A Roman Holiday (part 1)

I am exhausted. And a bit bankrupt. Okay, quite a bit.

But my heart is soaring. Because we have just returned from another trip of a lifetime. It was a bit of a whirlwind trip, but it was fantastic.

I’ve just returned from Italy. From a trip with my girls. A very special trip with my girls. We had pasta and pizza every day, and ended it off with gelato (yes, every day).

I won’t be able to share everything in one post as, for starters, I took too many pictures and experienced so much, that I will break it down into the cities we visited.

So, here we go!!

Friday, 27 June 2014

Knowing that we had a very long trip ahead of us, we all went to bed early on Thursday evening. It has been a stressful week, trying to finish off work and with last minute scares as the South African government changed the regulations for travelling with underage kids at the last minute. (The fact that Anya and I tried to squeeze in as many movies about Italy as possible, didn’t help…) But, our bags were (mostly) packed and I just had to organise a few last minute things and then we were ready for our transfer to the airport at 10:30am.

But, of course, with all the excitement, I didn’t sleep much all night and was wide awake by 5:30am. And, to be honest I was stressing a bit. What if there was a problem with one of our passports? What if they didn’t allow Bianca on the plane with her child passport? She just turned 16, and there was not enough time to get her a proper adult passport. What if??

Arriving at the airport, I was feeling a bit nauseated from the nerves. I just wanted to get through the check in, through passport control, and on the other side where we could have some lunch, relax and wait for our plane to board. And, alas…the lady at the check in counter were unable to find our booking with our surname. Really?? She tried to find it with our e-ticket numbers, but still  struggled to check us in. By now, I was a bundle of nerves, literally!

Eventually, she called a manager, who promptly took over and exclaimed, “You are on the wrong date!”. Unbelievable. 20 Minutes later we were able to collect our forex and from there it was a breeze. The passport man barely gave our passports a second look, and the next moment we were through passport control and having lunch. And I had a big glass of wine!

Finally through passport control, eagerly awaiting boarding time

Our flight was fairly uneventful, and we arrived in Addis Ababa about 5 hours later, where we had a 3.5 hour layover. And let me tell you, Addis is not one of the airports you want to spend too much time at. A bit chaotic and tired, we boarded our plane just after 12am and were on our way to Rome. I managed a little catnap, knowing that we had a hectic day ahead of us.

Saturday, 28 June 2014

We arrived in Rome at just before 7:00am, took over the toilets, getting rid of our winter clothes, brushing our teeth and we were ready for the experience of a lifetime!

Taking over the bathroom at Fiumicino!

A bus ride later, we arrived at Rome Termini station. Of course, I had the address, and directions printed out, and off we were. Except that we didn’t quite know which direction…Eventually, after a few wrong turns, we finally found our apartment at at Via dei Irpini, 36. Patrizia, our friendly host, spent a full hour highlighting all (literally ALL) the most popular sites in Rome. There was no way I was going to take in even half of it, but we were armed with a marked up map, and comfortable shoes, and off we went.

After a quick lunch at Patrizia’s recommendation ‘Al Forno’, we decided to walk to the station and get a Roma Pass. This would enable us to get entry into 2 museums, discounts on more and  free use of the Rome public transport system for 3 days.

Selection at Al Forno (Bianca’s picture)

Hitting the streets of Rome

First stop was the Colosseum. That is right, the Colosseum. When we exited the Metro station, I was like a child with a new toy. I could hardly contain my excitement at seeing this centuries old work of art. And it was truly magnificent. With our Roma Passes, we were able to skip the (very long) queue, and the next moment we were inside.

Magnifico!!

Inside the Colosseum (Bianca’s pic)

View of the Arch of Constantinople from the Colosseum

In front of the Colosseum (courtesy of a friendly stranger)

View of the Colosseum from the Arch of Constantinople

After the Colosseum, we walked past the Arch of Constantinople, and entered the Roman Forum complex. Unfortunately, by now, the walking (don’t underestimate the effects of walking on cobblestones), the heat (it was extremely hot), the lack of proper sleep and probably some dehydration was getting to us, so the kids were less than keen to walk all over the Roman Forum complex. But, we saw the main highlights, including the Palantine hills, the house of Vestals, temple of Saturn the magnificent Basilica of Maxentius, Arch of Titus and the temple of Antoninus and Faustina.

View of the stadium in the Roman Forum complex

The Roman Forum complex from the House of Livia

On the patio of the house of Livia

The only remaining pillars of the Temple of Castor and Pollux

The temple of Antoninus and Faustina

Remains of the temple of Saturn

Stumbling out of the Roman Forum complex, we stopped at the first and best place that sold gelato. Heavinly gelato! The start of a love affair. (The girls also loved the free wifi!).

Our first (but not the last) gelato

I promised the girls an afternoon nap, as we had a concert planned for the evening. By now, the 15min walk to from the station to the flat seemed much further than it did the morning, but the shower and air conditioned apartment was a welcome relief after the heat of the afternoon.

A couple of hours later, we were on our way again, ready (and dressed up) for an evening of opera and ballet. The concert was held at Chiesa Evangelica Valdese, a church built in 1883, close to the Piazza Venezia. The show was called ‘Opera e Balletto: La Grande Opera sulle Punte‘ (Great Opera meets Ballet in Rome) and was spectacular.

 

 

On the bill were three magnificent singers; the tenor, soprano and baritone performed various arias, including Verdi and Puccini and the concert featured two dancers from the Academy of Lyric and Dance in Rome. They even performed a short dance from Swan Lake. For the first time (and not the last), I wished I could understand Italian, as the singers had the audience at their feet, with laughs and expressions that made you smile, even if we could not understand a word.

Swan lake

After a truly memorable evening, it took us a while to get back to the apartment, as it appears that not ALL buses in Rome departs every 15 minutes (as Google maps made us believe). But eventually we found Line 71, which ended being our saving grace a few times late at night. We fell in bed, exhausted, but looking forward to some more adventure the next day (I did promise the girls a bit of a lie in…).

 

 

The Piazza Venezia at night

And with that, it is time for me to get into bed and catch up on some lost sleep!

Ciao for now!!

(View Part 2 here…)