3/15/17- More Rome

View of Eternal City from Trastevere

Called a slight audible on today.  We had originally planned to do the Roman Forum, Capitoline Museum, and other sites in the area.  This would require a lot of walking and I was worried about dad's ability to keep up.  Our tour yesterday was successful so I enlisted our guide for a second day.  Our goal?  See some of Rome but take advantage of some sites outside the walls like the Appian Way and Tivoli.

Our guide called an audible of his own and showed up in a Fiat rental and a revised agenda.  I didn't have the determination or the Italian language proficiency to argue so I opted to let him run with his plan.

Under the Oculus 

The grand tour, as grand as a tour could be inside a car the size of a piano, started with a drive through some of the major city landmarks.  This included the Castel Sant'Angelo, Trastevere, Forum, and the Circus Maximus.  The two items that really moved the needle for me were the view, see above picture, and the Pantheon.  Let's spend a brief moment on that grandest of all buildings.

I've always been amazed at the precision, beauty, and uniqueness of this structure.  For lovers of architecture this is the pinnacle and sine qua non visit that needs to be made. The best preserved building from antiquity, thanks Hadrian, this structure has served as the inspiration for every building from St. Peters Basilica to the Hagia Sophia to our Capitol Building and everything in between.  Read this link and be amazed at the engineering brilliance of ancient Rome.

A bit of lunch

From there we headed back to Trastevere for lunch.  We were taken to Da Enzo, one of the must visit trattorias in the hottest neighborhood in Rome. Our intrepid Italian guide quickly proceeded to order a good portion of the menu.  I would have been more enthused if I wasn't the person picking up the check.  We sampled the typical Roman pastas (Amatriciana, Cacio E Pepe, Carbonara, and Gricia. To be honest I'm not a real 'al dente' kind of guy.  I know that makes me an uncouth American slob in the eyes of the pasta purists. The real highlight was the Fiore de zucca which is a courgette flower stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies.  We also enjoyed the artichoke (carciofo) and tolerated  their cod.  

We were soon south of Rome and visiting the Catacombs of San Sebastiano.  It was a nice change of pace but I was surprised and a little disappointed that they completely cleaned out the catacombs and relocated the bones.  I was expecting to see something like the Capuchin Crypt.  It did offer some interesting insights into the challenges faced by early Christianity as it was striving to establish a foothold within Imperial Rome.  

Now that's a road! Next stop Neapolis.

The real highlight for me was time spent along the Appian Way.  I've always had a vision of walking along the same road and stretch of land that was once used by Cicero, Caesar, Plutarch and others.  It is simply amazing that we have a road that is still functioning after 2 millennia.  And we can't even build a highway that lasts 15 years?  These days the path is popular with joggers and bikers.  We relaxed and spent some time there recording one of the videos for my dad's personal history.

We spent the rest of the day freelancing through other parts of the city.  We braved the tourist crowds to chuck some coins into the Trevi Fountain.  We sampled some Sardinian honey gelato at San Crispino.  We witnessed some African immigrants get very confrontational and angry with the local carabinieri just outside the Colosseum .  We even spent some awkward moments having to renegotiate the price of our tour as the day drew to a close.

All in all a solid day.  I was a little disappointed to not be able to visit the Capitoline, especially since they had a temporary DaVinci exhibit I wanted to see.  But we saw enough to make up for any loss. We were pretty spent at the end of the day and not wanting to expend the energy required to do a traditional Italian dinner we did what many tourists, facing similar circumstances, do.  We found the nearest McDonald's and got a cheap and predictable meal.

Other notes/highlights:

• Italian tip of the day-  One more reason not to drive in the middle of Italian cities?  Town centers are usually designated only for local traffic and the Italians are very good at given unknowing foreigners tickets for accidentally venturing in there. They are known as ZTL's. 
• Most offensive action of the day-  Surprisingly we were well behaved today.
• Food highlight- Fiore de zucca

Love being a block from the Spanish Steps.  St. Peters at dusk.