We just returned from a 4-day trip to Rome, which was part business (Nabil's part) and part pleasure (my part)! Other than a brief stopover en route to other destinations, and a few short holidays in Venice, I had never spent any time in Italy. After our Roman holiday, you can be sure we will return to see more of this beautiful country.
We arrived in the city by taxi, whirring past the backlit Coliseum and through the cobblestone streets to The Empire Palace Hotel, a charming old style 4-star hotel near the US Embassy. It was a perfect summer evening so we dropped our bags and went for a stroll down the Via Veneto, fell into chairs at a curbside cafe and drank red wine under the moonlit sky. Rome is a feast for the senses, spilling over with history and art. Good food is like a religion to the locals, with restaraunts and churches jockeying for real estate supremacy. Even the junk food snacks served on Air Italia were a cut above. Who else would think to season breadstick nuggets with sea salt and rosemary and roast them in a brick oven?
The next morning we headed back to the streets under a cloudless blue sky and walked to the Spanish Steppes and then to the Trevi Fountain. These amazing sculpted fountains draw hoards of tourists from all over the world, and so some of the magic of turning a corner and stumbling on their beauty is spoiled by the crowds milling in the streets. Still they are magnificent. We were lucky to have been in Rome during Ferragusto, when most of the locals head out of town, making it one of the least busy weeks of the year. The downside; lots of small boutique businesses were closed for the holiday and the service providers who stayed behind all seemed over-scheduled and over-worked.
From the north east corner of the city, we trekked to the old ruins in central Rome where the gutted remains of one civilization was laid bare for viewing by throngs of people stumbling through their own short history. The scale of these remains is mind boggling. The sophistication and aesthetic temperament of the leaders of the Roman Empire is awe-inspiring and it makes you wonder what legacy we will leave behind ....will our structures and art withstand thousands of years of decay and if so, what will future generations think when they view the patchwork quilt of leftovers from our communal efforts?
We spent hours winding through the Coliseum, the Forum, the Palladin, and the other central antiquities, and then finally dropped into another sidewalk cafe for lunch, where we resisted the urge to eat pasta, but gave into the desire for a cappuccino. We decided to hoof it all the way back to the hotel and of course, got just a little bit lost...by the time we arrived at the hotel I was sporting two foot blisters and had endured a twenty minute lecture on the choice of proper footwear for tourist activities. However, I am not sure there is a pair of shoes designed for 9 hours of city hiking across cobblestones and up hills.
That night we taxied to a charming restaurant we discovered while we were lost, and again resisted pasta, but feasted on fresh fish, vegetables and fresh baked bread with local cheeses surrounded by flowering vines and candlelight.
The next morning we crawled out of bed, eased our sore feet back into "the wrong shoes" and struck out to see the Pantheon and do a little window shopping. Free to view, this amazing relic was wedged into a corner of Rome that seems too small to hold it, both figuratively and literally. From there we wandered off, picking out points of interest on the map, toured the Castle of San Angelo and then headed back to our hotel to catch a tour to Tivoli Gardens and Hadrian Villa, both a thirty minute bus ride from the city center. These are must-see sites, each spectacular in their own rite, and best seen with a guide who is knowledgeable. Luckily, our guide was competent and personable, fluent in five languages...which really made me feel terrible about my spotty effort to learn Turkish. The Tivoli gardens are breathtaking and if you are looking for inspiration to fuel your passion for gardening, (with particular emphasis on architectural water elements), then this is the place! Fountains, sculptures, ponds on a scale not to be believed...and in a setting that spills out from a hillside overlooking all of Rome.
Hadrian's Villa is another complex that has been ravaged by time, but the bones of this sprawling estate are still fighting to hold their ground. The complex is just one of hundreds of building projects sponsored by this visionary Emperor, who,designed this palatial villa for efficiency and practicality as well as for beauty.
Even with the bus ride, we spent most of the day walking, and by day's end, my blisters had blisters. We hobbled off the bus, walked the last few blocks to our hotel, showered and dined at the corner cafe recommended by the front desk of our hotel. Too tired for conversation, we ate quickly and quietly and bedded down with sore feet.
On Monday we toured the Vatican Museum. Again we lucked out with a fabulous guide who was well versed in both art and history. He guided us through the spectacular galleries, pointing out the most interesting and valuable of the artworks...of which there is an unfathomable number. The breadth and depth of the collection is incredible. This hallowed ground stained by power, wealth and politics is visited by 40-70,000 people a day and rakes in close to a billion dollars a year just in museum revenue, but no matter your politics or faith, you have to admire the beauty of both the artworks and the architecture.
We taxied back to the hotel, and then walked to the Villa Borghese museum and park, but the museum was closed. This reopened the conversation on shoes as well as planning and research. If I had an extra pair of shoes, I might have thrown them. Instead, I walked on with my blisters.
We headed down the Via Veneto stopping for lunch and finally succumbed to the temptation of,freshly made pasta...and then wondered why we had deprived ourselves for so long. After a nap and a shower, we took a taxi to the river front where the summer festival was in full swing. We had another fabulous meal in a small cafe tucked in an alley that was crammed with locals feasting on wild boar, roasted quail and freshly made tagliatelle. We skipped the boar, but had the pasta! And the tiramisu...our discipline eating program unravelling slowly as waiters sauntered past delivering their goodies to,the laughing crowd. If I lived in Rome, I would definitely be a plus size woman!
After dinner, we wandered past the carnival hawkers, and the booths tended by artisans and fortune tellers. We got lost, then found, then lost again, before taking a taxi back to our rendezvous point . The next day it was good bye to Rome, and back to Ankara...but you can be sure we will return to Italy again ....
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