Wednesday, August 29, 1979
Upon arriving in Roma/Rome, we checked our baggage and walked to
Borghese Villa Park. Along the way we found the American Embassy where we checked the
office hours. We sat in Borghese Villa Park eating brunch, watching work men mostly lean
on their rakes. We saw a verbal fight between two American and possibly New
York City girls. The especially loud one of the two finally stomped off toward the museum. We passed a girl leading two kids in awful exercises (for pulling
muscles and ruining knees!). We explored the museum which had a lot of neat
Bernini statues and a supposedly famous statue by Canova of a lady reclining on
a very real-looking mattress.
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| Borghese Gallery ticket |
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| Apollo and Daphne by Gian Lorenzo Bernini |
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| Rape of Proserpina by Gian Lorenzo Bernini |
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| Pauline Bonaparte by Antonio Canova |
We walked back along the Via Veneto, known for its exclusive sidewalk cafes which weren't open at the time. We found the Church of the Cappuchin monks where we had heard there was a cemetery of bones. Our “$10” book told us to take the stairs to the right after entering the church. So we entered the church and wandered back behind the altar, probably ending up where we didn't belong because a spooky monk who was washing floors directed us outside to where there was a separate entrance. The cemetery was a rather eerie place, but fascinating nevertheless. There were simple wood crosses to mark graves, but the bones of the monks had been used to decorate. Not only did they have robed full skeletons, but they had religious designs made up from the vertebrae. Every single bone of the body was used in some pattern!
From there we passed through the Bernini Square towards the Trevi Fountain.
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| Trevi Fountain |
At the fountain we threw in two telephone tokens each, the first in hopes of returning to Rome and the second for luck in love. We explored some shops in the area, where I found a souvenir for one of my sisters, a disco purse as they are known as in the U.S. We ended up walking down the main shopping street of Rome to see the Mussolini balcony and the memorial to Vittorio Emanuele. We went behind the Vittoriana to the Capitoline building where we climbed all those stairs to get to the square designed by Michelangelo. The mis-proportioned statue was covered by scaffolding, but we think we saw where it was mis-proportioned! We went into an entrance of the museum and bought tickets for both Capitoline Museums.
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| Capitoline Museums ticket |
The first museum was tiny and we didn't see any of the things promised by the “$10” book. We weren't sure where the other museum was located, so we decided to try the building next door to the right. It turned out that to enter that other building, you had to go all the way down the steps and back up a separate set. We walked down the steps under a cool arbor, then started the steep climb to the building next door. For some reason we weren't convinced that this was the other museum; it looked like a church (which it was) and there were too few people. So we went back down the many steps we had climbed, and dragged ourselves up the steps to Michelangelo’s square again. We tried the building to the left and it was the right place. However, once inside, we ended up climbing more and more steps! In this museum we found the boy picking the thorn out of his foot (must be stuck in pretty good, because we couldn't see the thorn and he’s still there trying to pull it out!), and the statue of the twin founders of Rome with the she-wolf. Going down stairs was definitely easier. We walked around the Vittoriana which was closed to the public and we didn't even see any guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier. The tourist season isn't over yet?
We passed by the ruins of the agoras and squares of ancient Rome and by the famous ruins of the Roman Forum which was an understatement after Athens. We walked to the Coliseum (where I managed to hear a special song on someone’s radio). Inside the Coliseum there was not the abundance of cats I had observed on my previous visit. From the Coliseum we took the Metro to the train station and started our search for a hotel in that area. We went to a pensione recommended by the “$10” book. It was run by a little old man and his wife who showed us the facilities and quoted a price much higher than the book said. We wanted to continue looking for places, but the old man rambled on that at his price we really couldn't do much better, and mentioned the money problems of the U.S. and Italy, and kept listing all that we could get for breakfast. We finally broke away and tried another pensione recommended by the “$10” book. They had a real nice room at a better rate, so we took it. We got ourselves some pizza slices for lunch and went to catch a bus to the Vatican City. As we hesitated about which bus to take, the one we wanted pulled away from the curb. But another immediately came up to the stop, so we hopped right on. It immediately pulled away as I was trying to pull out some change; I wasn't holding on and fell into Kathy’s arms. Finally balance and fare were settled and we were on our way. There was a woman on crutches who had a leg amputation who wanted absolutely no help when she needed to get off the bus. There was a priest who started talking to two girls because they spoke French. The two girls seemed in a hurry to get off the bus, and we hurried off also. We started the long trek around the walls of the Vatican to reach the entrance of the Vatican Museums. We arrived in time to have maybe three hours to explore the museums. We practically flew past the murals in the first section. Then in following the tour signs we somehow found ourselves outside the entrance again! The fastest Vatican museum tour ever, of only five minutes! We weren't the only ones to get misdirected immediately to the exit, so we all went back in the entrance to start over. We got on the right track and saw many sculptures, tapestries, paintings, ceramics, etc., etc. A complete tour takes 7-9 hours, but we managed to make almost a complete tour in our three hours. It was simply a matter of keeping the feet moving and the head swiveling.
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| Vatican Museums ticket |
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| Tile mosaic in the Vatican Museums |
We found the mummy
room with real mummies in various states of decay; you could see hair and skin
and fingernails! Then, of course, there were the sarcophagi, etc.; really neat!
We saw ancient Egyptian relics, too. Then we entered the Raphael rooms with
impressive ceilings and walls. Next we got headed into the modern art section
which was terrible. Finally we arrived at the Sistine Chapel which is impressive
mostly because of its size. Supposedly Michelangelo did it in only four years.
We stood in awe for a while, and then took our time going through the rest of the
museums. We saw some nice mosaics and saw the swan sculpture the U.S gave to
Pope Paul VI when he had visited the States. We wandered out of the museum as
they were closing up after going through a new section with ugly modern
displays of old pieces of sculpture. We had the idea of taking a mimic photo,
but decided to be respectful. Later we saw an old man stand behind a headless
sculpture while a kid snapped his picture. An indignant guard wiped the man’s
footprints from the pedestal. From the museums we made our way back around the
walls to St Peter’s Square, where a huge crowd of people were already gathering
for the Papal audience. We went back into Rome to find a series of Bernini
statues and fountains in one square (nothing special) and especially to find
Tartufi. To find Tartufi was relatively easy, but expensive. One sits at a
table at a sidewalk café. After being ignored for a while by the waiters, you
are suddenly attacked by two, one claiming you are American while the other
tells you to get your feet off the chair. You counterattack by asking for a
Tartufo and the request is fulfilled. A Tartufo is a delicious concoction of a
liquored-up cherry surrounded by chocolate ice cream surrounded by flecks of
chocolate chips and nuts. The frozen affair is doused by whipped cream with two
rolled wafers stuck in it. We were also given glasses of water which we drank,
but for all we knew they could have been to clean the ice cream spoons. At a
nearby table we noticed the two girls who had been arguing in Borghese Villa Park
that morning. The loud one was saying things like “What’s a doctor doing at this
little café?” and “Why do you want to give a tour to a couple Americans like
us?” to one of the two men at their table. We thought the last question was a
really good one! The four of them left together and we hoped they all had fun.
In the square a caricaturist was at work, and he totally ruined a really
good-looking guy as we watched. After the Tartufi we made our way past the
Vittoriana and the Coliseum to St John’s Cathedral. Near the cathedral we found
the church with the Holy Steps where one does penance by ascending the stairs
on their knees. We saw many people climbing the stairs this way, but we
declined to join them. We went over to St John’s and started exploring inside
when a guard suddenly ushered everyone out; it was closing time already. We headed
to the train station passing St Mary Major Cathedral on the way; it was under
scaffolding. We checked restaurants along the way, but either were not
impressed by the menu or were too impressed by the prices. We also did a lot of
window shopping. We picked up our bags from the station and settled into the
hotel. We got their recommendation for a restaurant; the one down the on the
corner. Kathy had a salad and agnolotti and I had tortellini and a beefsteak.
We returned to the hotel where I went down the hall to take a shower. I forgot
to bring my towel which Kathy was kind enough to bring to me. But at first she
knocked at the wrong door, and realizing her mistake she ran back to the room
to hide as the occupants answered the door! As we got into bed and turned out
the lights, we discovered the plates around the light switches glowed in the
dark which would distract me from falling asleep. So I switched beds with
Kathy. We also discovered a switch which turned on music, so we were lullabyed
to sleep.
Thursday, August 30, 1979
We were given a wake-up call the next morning and went down
for the breakfast of tea and croissants. Not typically Italian, but the place
was owned by an Austrian woman. We left our bags at the desk for the day and
headed first for the American Embassy. Being a U.S. government employee, Kathy
was able to cash her vacation checks there. I had to wait in the lobby to be
the conversation piece for the receptionist and guard. Kathy was apparently
stopped at every opportunity by the Marine on guard inside for some sort of
chat. She said the place was really fortified, no door opened freely but had to
be buzzed open. She left through another exit and had to come back in the
entrance to retrieve me. We did a lot of window shopping on the way to the
Vatican City. We found a store where Kathy tried on several pairs of jeans, and
picked out the “Fruit of the Loom.” I found the “Capitan Harlock” 45rpm record
there. In another department store we got much needed underwear. We found the
Pantheon where we saw the huge minimally supported dome with the hole in it.
Finally we arrived at St Peter’s Square to see the Swiss Guard guarding the
gate and the Swiss Guard guarding the guard. We entered St Peter’s Basilica to
marvel at the interior and to see
the amazing Pietà by Michelangelo. There was
also the statue of St Peter in bronze whose toes were being worn away by
constant rubbing for luck. We joined the long lines of people going underneath
the cathedral to see St Peter’s Crypt and the tombs of the popes. There were
numerous chapels down there and several tombs including those of Pope Paul VI and
Pope John Paul I, but there was no way we saw all the popes’ tombs. We popped
up in daylight in St Peter’s Square again. We mailed some postcards and letters
at the Vatican post office.
We made our way to the American Express Tourist
Office, passing down the street of very expensive boutiques and seeing the
Spanish Steps. The American Express office wasn't selling tickets for their
tours at that time, so we took their recommendation of a restaurant for lunch.
We had cheese omelets and Kathy, like a proper Italian, had a pasta dish first
(spaghetti). Then we ran to buy our tickets and hop on the bus for Tour D.
There was a total of eight persons on the beautifully upholstered
air-conditioned tour bus. The guide was a little dippy fellow with a strong
accent and with all the knowledge and cutesy humor in the world; he was not
appreciated. The bus took a route managing to pass all the major sights we had
already seen. Then it passed the Palatine palace ruins and the Baths of
Caracalla. It drove along the ancient Appian Way where we saw one culture built
on top of another: a TV antenna on top of an old home built on top of a
cemetery. We passed through the walls of ancient Rome before noting any
cemeteries, because ancient law stated one could not be buried within the city.
We stopped at one of the catacombs where we were given a tour by a priest who
seemed to have a German accent. We went through only a small section of
supposedly 10 miles of tunnels with little shelves along both sides which
formerly held the corpses. It was stressed that there is no proof that
persecuted Christians ever lived in the catacombs. And that the Christians
continued the concept of catacombs from the Jews. And that all cemeteries were
sacred according to ancient Roman law, even Christian cemeteries during
Christian persecution. Our tour took us to St Paul’s Outside the Walls, a
beautiful cathedral with a beautiful courtyard where supposedly one learned
doctrines before being allowed in the church. The cloister of the adjoining
monastery was also beautiful. Inside this church were portraits of all the
popes since St Peter. It is said that when the thirteen remaining spaces are
filled, the world will end. Next the tour took us to St Peter in Chains to see
the Michelangelo statue of Moses, where he put horns on the head through a
mis-translation of symbolism. We passed St Mary Major and the train station (an
example of Fascist architecture) on our return to the American Express office.
There we found the address of the TWA office where I wanted to exchange
my plane ticket. On our way to the TWA office we found a sporting goods store
where I bought windbreakers for all my brothers. The salesman wondered why I
wanted to buy the too-large jacket I tried on! The TWA office was closed, so we
went to the train station to see when the train for Milano left. We had enough
time to go to the Wimpies on Via Veneto for dinner where we had hamburger steaks
and French fries, and Kathy had her pasta dish, lasagna this time. We tried an
ice cream soda for dessert, but it wasn't too good. We walked up to Borghese Villa Park to take a bus to the hotel to pick up our luggage. We missed the first bus
as we studied the sign to figure out which bus to take. We missed the second
bus because the doors closed in our faces. We did manage to catch the third bus
going our way. We got off at the hotel, retrieved our suitcases, walked to the
station and parked ourselves at our track waiting for the train to Milano. The
time for the train to leave approached, but no sign of the train. We checked
and rechecked the schedule until I overheard that there was a train strike and
no trains were going to Milano that night! We sat around rather discouraged
until I found out they were letting one train go through to Venice. So we
hopped on it, hoping to get off in Florence. We got seats in a compartment with
a black couple, and the man kindly offered us our own row of seats so that we
could stretch out to sleep.
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| Map of Rome |
Next: Florence.
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