The planning for this Italian road trip began years before it actually occurred. It had originally been planned for July 2020. But as we all know, Italy was hard hit during Covid. I won’t tell you all the effort I took to try to save this vacation with the number of hours on the phone lines with the airline, trying to reschedule, switch locations, then finally leave an open ended ticket because of the pandemic. I had pretty much given up even being able to take this trip for the near future. I am glad I didn’t though!
April of 2022, we were able to make the trip to Italy. I didn’t even tell my son till a few weeks before the trip because I had rescheduled so much, that he had seemed to just loose hope, and I’m sure he didn’t want to hear the word Covid again!
But that April, we got the flight to Italy, had to prove our immunization status and was able to fly to Rome. We landed approx. 24 hours after our first flight, had to wait for the rental car office to open and then drove into Rome to our Hotel. The Grand Hotel del Gianicolo was a beautiful old hotel with all the modern necessities. Another bonus is that it sits right down from an old Roman gate, right above the Trastevere district. Yes, you better be prepared to walk up and down those steps everytime you want to walk into the old part of the city, but it is well worth it! This fountain to the left was the Paola Water Fountain. The view of the city is great and the fountain is a view in the evening with all the spotlights on it!
The first day that we were in Rome, we went to 3 places, even before we formally checked into our hotel (they let us leave the car and luggage there).
1st place we went to was the Pantheon. I found a couple of fascinating things concerning this building. You can see from the outside how the Romans built almost all their architecture: using arches. Using these, as we know, has really strengthened then to last through the ages. Another thing I found what the guide told us about the inside of this masterpiece. The marble, with their multiple colors were quarried from multiple areas and it even ran out the supply of red colored marble at that time. He also stated that it is believed that the open ceiling was painted black and had golden stars hanging from each of those squares. So when they lit the fires at night inside long ago, the firelight flickered off these stars, recreating the outside night sky. As I have stated just a minute ago, this was an open ceiling so whenever it rained, the inside of the floor did get wet. But it also washed the floor and then drained into the drainage holes drilled into the marble during ancient times.
The second day in Rome, was for more sightseeing. The first place we went to was the Colusseum and the Roman Forum. It’s quite spectacular to imagine that this whole building was covered in white marble at one time. Even the seats and walkways were covered in marble. The nobility had their names carved into these seats but when those people died, the seat was rotated and a new name carved into the side. Talk about assigned seating! They appear to be recreating the stage that was once there over the labyrinth of paths. One thing that I noticed throughout this tour and in all of Rome is that Romans like to put their names on things. They graffiti all over the city. It has been going on for ages. If you think of graffiti as a dirty habit like many Americans did in the 80s, you won’t like it but I think of it like a cultural thing. One thing though, if you go on a group tour through here, keep your money close to you. I was warned about possible pickpockets when going to Italy. It was only during this tour with hundreds of people, that I found my purse partially opened after I left. Thankfully, I kept my paperwork, cash and cards on an inside pocket and nothing was taken.
We took the Roman Forum tour afterwards. I learned several things during this walk too. First major bit is that the river flooded the City many times. This is the reason why all the ancient buildings are on a different level than the modern day city. In fact, when they went to excavate this building to the right, the mud from these floods had covered the steps all the way up to the gigantic front doors! I can’t imaging the amount of work excavating this entire sight! The road that Marc Anthony, Ceasar and others road in on past the main square!
The second place we toured through was the Sistine Chapel. I definitely recommend to get the tour stating it skips the line! The line for the Sistine Chapel, even with Covid, Was crazy long! We were able to walk through with this ‘skip the line” pass quite easy. The sheer amount of artwork that you can see in the Vatican Museums are amazing! You probably need all day to just study each piece. There is sculptures and paintings everywhere. Beautiful old maps of what they thought the world was. even the hallways of the museum are covered in artwork! It’s far more than the eye can take in quickly! The picture to the left is from one of the hallway ceilings. You aren’t allowed to take pictures of the actual Sistine Chapel.
This first evening, we ate our first ever authentic Carbonara. We both fell in love with this dish! I’m not really sure which one of the dishes we tried on this trip was our all time favorite but this was definitely #1 or 2!
The next tour we had after getting a small snack at a sweet shop, was to the Castel Sant’Angelo. Originally built in the 2nd century, this circular fortress was a tomb for Hadrian but was later converted into a fortress in the middle ages followed by a Papal residence. It is intriguing to me how each Pope put a signature on certain rooms, making them their own. The artwork inside, the frescos are amazing! And the story of the Archangel on top is a good story too!
After finishing the Castel Sant’Angelo, we had an aperitivo followed by a long walk up the old Il Gianicolo. This led up the back way to our hotel. This road gave us great views of the city in the late afternoon sunshine. That evening we ate at Babybao. It was a cute little place in the Trestavere District. Justin picked it out and I’m glad we did, the food was very good!
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