Anniversary Trip 2010

Rome

Wednesday/Thursday March 3-4

We start our journey at 9:30 in the morning at Grand Rapids airport.  From there, it is off to Cincinnati, then to New York.  At 5:00 pm we are in the skies en route to Rome.  We land at 8am Roman time.  After a short train ride, we arrive to our hotel, in the rain and check in.  We change, freshen up and go out to explore the area near our hotel and grab lunch.  We stop in a little deli which serves panini and made to order pizza.  Gelato was also on my mind and oh...how to describe such creamy, rich decadence?  It was pure heaven.  We were in Piazza Barberini.  Luckily, the rain stopped and we were free to roam Rome.  Jet lag quickly set in for me.  We found our way to the Pantheon and walked in.  It was amazing.  It still didn't quite sink into me yet that we were actually in Rome.  We decide to head back to the hotel for a quick nap before we went out for dinner.

For our first dinner, we went to a restaurant that had a pretty good rating in our guidebook and was close to our hotel.  It was a nice restaurant, although a little pricy.  The food was good but as we would later find out, there were many other options for a less expensive, and every bit as good dinner.  The restaurant was Babbo and it was a quaint little ristorante.  Quick note to any soon to be traverlers to Italy:  ristorantes are a bit more expensive and serve many courses than other options such as tratorias or osterias.  For our appetizers, we ordered bruschetta (correct pronunciation:  broosh-sketta) which was honey and brie with bread.  I got the shrimp gnocchi and Joe got the mushroom risotto.  Again, as in France and Belgium, the food in Europe doesn't even compare to food here in the U.S.  The restaurants don't use frozen foods and they don't use preservatives...everything is fresh and local.  It gives a remarkable and wholesome flavor to an otherwise simple dish.  For dessert, we got one of the dishes I will definitely be trying to recreate:  pistachio profiteroles with white chocolate sauce and powdered sugar.  It was divine!!  For a digestif, they gave us mini almond biscotti with thimbles of grappa.  It was a good Italian dining experience for our first night.  After dinner we walked to what I was really excited about seeing; the Trevi Fountain.  Legend has it that you toss a coin in and wish to come back to Rome and it will come true.  We shall see!

Friday, March 5

We woke up early and excited.  We headed to the Forum to step back in time to centuries old ruins and marvel at the sheer fact that they are still standing despite hundreds and hundreds of years.  To think that these structures were there at the time of Julius Cesar and Remus and Romulus is astounding.  The architecture is beautiful and amazing even by today's standards.  We spent a good hour among the ruins, mostly in silence, just looking around in awe and amazement. 

Next to the ruins stands the Coloseum.  I don't think I need to describe just how amazing this structure is.  To be in it and walk the corridors to the stairs and just be a person among the rows and rows of stands...was otherwordly.  I tried to imagine what I might be wearing and what I might be seeing if I were standing there a thousand years ago like millions of people did...it kind of boggles my mind.  We were blessed with such a beautiful morning to see such history.  It was one of those life experiences where you just don't need to say anything really...just stand and look and be...absorb every detail and commit it to memory.  That is exactly what I did as I looked at the old brick and stone juxtaposed to the brilliant blue, cloudless sky that was behind it...again, otherwordly. 

We spent a good bit of time at the Coloseum, then we headed up to Palatine Hill.  This is where Remus and Romulus lived. You can see why they picked this spot...you literally feel like you are on top of Rome, looking down at all the history and yet fast-paced, modern life that is going on below you.  We looked down on the Forum, looking at a birds-eye view of the ruins we were just mixed in with...and next to it you see the collosal Coloseum that now looks so small.  We sat on a park bench at the top of the hill and just took it all in for awhile.  After that, we took off in search of more sites and lunch...after seeing all these incredible sites, it wasn't even lunch time yet!

Next we went to Bocca della Verita or Mouth of Truth.  This is the large medallion stucture that Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck stuck their hands in and fell in love in the movie Roman Holiday.  The legend is that you stick your hand in the mouth of the sculpture and if you tell a lie, it will bite your hand off.  This sculpture actually adorns the entrance of a church, Santa Maria in Cosmedin.  We went inside the church and were blown away with the serene beauty of this church.  It was dimly lit with candles and beautiful old paintings and mosaics.  I was particularly enchanted with a beautiful mosaic of the Blessed Mother and Child.  I said a prayer, lighted a couple of candles and felt deeply connected with the spirituality of this beautiful church. 

Ok, now it was time for lunch.  Joe read in a guidebook that the best pizza place in Rome was "just" over the river.  Well, "just" isn't quite accurate.  Not only was it farther than "just", but also, it began to rain at this point.  So there we were, lost, hungry and still a little jet lagged, roaming aimlessly through a maze of rainy, cobblestone streets looking for this pizza mirage...and you know you don't want to be around me when I'm hungry!  Luckily we finally found this pizza mecca, Dar Poeta...and it was worth every moment of frustration and hunger.   The place was not very big.  We got a well deserved liter of wine and each ordered our own pizzas...which yes, we ate every bite.  I got the eggplant pizza and Joe got the mushroom pizza.  My favorite thing about the pizza was the cheese, the fresh cream taste of the cheese and the velvety, melty, stringiness of it; then the perfectly thick/thin, bubbly and just a touch burnt crust with the salty, corn meal bottom...perfection.  Great, I'm salivating...

In case you weren't aware (although I don't know how) Joe is a bit of a beer enthusiast.  Our honeymoon trip to Belgium to expeirence Belgium beer was a testament to that.  Well, by chance, just before our trip, Joe learned that the best beer bar in the world as rated by Ratebeer.com, Ma Che Siete Venuti a Fa, was in Rome and was - I hate to overuse this word - literally right around the corner from Dar Poeta.  Unfortunately it still had a good hour before it opened.  So, we took the time to tour through a couple more charming and beautiful churches in the Trestavare neighborhood.  Then we had an espresso (standing up at the bar sipping a shot of it as they do in Italy) at a quaint little coffee shop and then the bar opened.  The bar wasn't much bigger than the size of a closet.  But it did have some good beers and it was a good atmosphere.  We talked for quite some time to a couple of Swedish guys who wanted to know all about America, in particular how we liked the new Swedish player for the Pistons (I shamelessly need to follow up more on my good ol' team)...after that we went to Bir and Fud, a sort of gastropub owned by an Italian who lived in LA for awhile.  He talked with Joe for a long time about beer and living in America.  We then realized that it was quite late and we had quite a long walk back to the hotel.  Fueled and warmed by the beers we had, we somehow made it back to our hotel, and took a very nice detour past the Coloseum in all its night light glory on the way back.  It was a very full and very good day.

Saturday, March 6

We again woke up early.  We had an appointment with the Vatican.  Again we were blessed with a beautiful cloudless sky, although the temperature could have stood to be a couple of degrees warmer (it was only in the high 40s that early in the morning.)  St. Peter's Square is such a large and grand thing to stand in the middle of.  In the center of the "square" is a large obelisk.  Around this obelisk are large columns, on top of the tall columns are many statutes.  These were designed by Bernini and they represent his favorite saints.  It was very surreal to be standing so close to where the Pope sleeps and conducts business.  We had more on our agenda though than just standing in the square and going through the musuem.  Joe and I were able to get tickets to the Scavi tour.  This is an exclusive tour that takes you under the Vatican, and not everyone gets to do it.  You have to email the Vatican in advance and ask for an appointment.  You pay $20, and voila, you have an exclusive once in a lifetime tour.

Our tour guide's name was Anthony.  He was a young guy, about our age, who just finished getting his masters in theology and was from Indiana.  Also in our tour group was a bachelor party (believe it or not) of guys from Scottland, a father and daughter from Missouri and a girl from Austrailia.

Anthony gave us a brief history of how St. Peter’s Tomb came to be. We learned that the emperor Constantine commissioned that St. Peter’s Square be built upon the spot where it was believed St. Peter was buried in Rome.

We went down some stairs, underneath St. Peter’s square, and ended up in what felt like an old basement, only an ancient basement with paintings on the walls and sarcophaguses of people from ancient times. Anthony explained to us that the Vatican always knew that under St. Peter’s Square were probably large cemeteries and of course the tomb of St. Peter. In the late 1930s, the Pope at the time finally decided that it was time to do some digging and discover just where St. Peter was buried. Of course this was during a sensitive time in European history. To cover their tracks and not raise suspicions of world leaders who might like to come in and stake their claim to what was discovered on this dig, the Vatican covertly called this operation a “garden renovation”. We toured an ornate chapel in the shape of an upside down cross (St. Peter was crucified upside down on cross.) We stopped for a moment in this chapel with gold and rich blue colors. It was a small chapel, only a few pews , and just sat for a minute, absorbing all the history and majesty of the place. It was just beyond this chapel that they found the bones of St. Peter. They now lay in a clear plastic box built by NASA. One by one, each person in our group went up to the glass and looked at the box of bones. We all stood in silence and said a prayer in this spot; it was a religious experience that I can’t describe and knowing it is something that not everyone will get to experience, really made things feel so real; not so much like these things happened “once upon a time” but that they really happened – here, in that spot and that these early Christians really sacrificed. It made me feel very fortunate to be able to believe in my religion and be able to worship freely, unlike the times of St. Peter where Christians were not so free to believe what they believed.

We walked back upstairs and were brought up behind the guard rails, close to St. Peter’s tomb, in front of the crowds all wondering how we were able to get to be able to go behind the scenes in such a place. It was our favorite experience of our trip.

After St. Peter’s Square, we went to the Vatican museum. This was on par with the Louvre to me. Maybe not as many famous works of art, but just as many sculptures, paintings, grand ceilings and ornate detail on every corner of the building.  I was amazed at how big this museum was.  Of course the end of the musuem is the Sistine Chapel.  It blows the mind to stand in this room packed shoulder to shoulder with people and try to imagine Michaelangelo painstakingly painting each intricate detail of the walls, the ceiling, on his back...it is truly a wonder.  Unfortunately, (or fortunately) you can't take pictures in the Sistine Chapel so it will forever be in my memory.

After the Vatican, we went back to our hotel and took a nap (long day you know) and tried to decide where to go for dinner.  We decided on the Birra Peroni brewery.  This is the most famous beer in Italy and you can find it here in the States.  It's one of my favorite beers (next to Fighting Brewers of course!)  The food there was really good. We had bruschetta which was just garlic rubbed grilled bread with proscuitto on top, we each had a pasta dish and a liter of beer for extremely cheap and it was really good.  After that, we walked off our dinner by just going to various spots, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain.  Its so beautiful at night in Rome, not quite as crowded.  It just could have stood to be a little bit warmer!

Sunday, March 7

We woke up to an absolutely gorgeous sky. Today we were going to be walking to Borghese Gallery. This is the former home of Napoleon’s sister, Pauline. She married Prince Camillo Borghese and at the time, they owned most of the world's most famous works of art.  When Napoleon heard this, naturally he wanted such a nice collection, which is why he forced Camillo to sell them and they now reside at the Louvre.

The cool thing about this museum was not only just how old and beautiful the building was itself, but it was possible to even be able to see things. My one problem with the Louvre and the Vatican museum is that the museums are so packed with tour group after tour group, school field trips, tourists all snapping pictures and hoping to see the same major works of art at the same time, that it isn’t very easy to get up close and really study the piece of art. With the Borghese however, they don’t let you bring in cameras, and you have to have an appointment to see the museum at a certain time. You have two hours to see the museum (which is entirely possible, we saw everything in an hour and a half.) They only allow about 80 visitors at one time. It was nice to see pieces like Canova's Venus and Bernini's Apollo and Daphne without masses of people in your way. My one word of advice would be to go into the museum and immediately locate the stairs and go to the top floor, do the tour backwards and you’ll never have a crowd.

After the museum we went to the gardens, walked to an artisian market, bought some handmade lavender soap and then walked back to our hotel. It was a beautiful day for walking. And we did a lot of walking that day.  We saw a few more churches including the church St. Peter in Chains which has the chains that St. Peter wore.  After that, we found a little Irish pub (we did this in Paris too, I don't know what it is about Irish style pubs in Europe) and had a couple beers.  After that, we did some more walking in search of a place in the guidebooks that I had as a must see.  Trattoria Der Pallaro.  This restuarant was run by a little old Italian woman and what she made that day is what you ate.  It was quite a difficult place to find, especially in the dark but eventually we did find it and it was worth the extra effort.  We were quickly seated and the only option we had was red or white.  We got a carafe of red and the plates of food started pouring out of the kitchen on to our table.  First we had a plate of bruschetta which was garlic rubbed grilled bread with proscuitto, a plate of olives, a plate of fennel and a plate of garlic lentils.  This was for starters.  Next was our pasta course.  We each got a little bowl of two differnet types of pasta: the one side was a light red sauced rigatoni; something that I swear came out of my Grandma Bergman's kitchen, the other side was a simple buttered rigatoni with salt and pepper.  It was heavenly.  Next course was a lightly breaded and fried veal cutlet that absolutely melted in your mouth and a plate of brocolli.  Oh no, we are not done yet.  Although I could hardly look at any more food, when the slice of apricot tart was placed in front of me, I had to find the will to finish it off and to my surprise, didn't have too hard of a time making it disappear.  It was the stuff of dreams - exactly the kind of meal I had hoped to have in Italy.  We made the trek back to our hotel and slept like precious bambinos.

Monday, March 8

Our last day in Rome!  It was one of the warmest days of our trip and another cloudless sky.  We didn't have anything planned so we decided to do a lot of walking and hit all the neighborhoods of Rome we hadn't yet been to.  We went to Piazza Del Popolo, and people watched.  Next we went to Via Veneto, this is basically the 5th Avenue or Rodeo Drive of Rome.  Gucci, Cavalli, Dolce...oh my!  We went into one of these places (I can't remember which one) and it was just too sad for me to see all these beautiful things and not take them home!  Even window shopping was bittersweet. After that we walked the bridges of the Tiber river while eating gelatto.  Mmm...I really wish I would have had gelatto everyday.  Throughout our time in Rome I was absolutely enchanted with the many shrines to Mary.  It seemed that every street corner in every neighborhood had them.  Some you could tell were probably a hundred years old, some were very simple and some were very intricate and elaborate.  We even saw a graffiti Mary and Jesus.  I spent a lot of our Monday meandering taking pictures of all these beautiful tributes. 

For our last meals in Rome, we decided to go back to Trastevere and get our last fix of the most incredible pizza in the world at Dar Poeta, we went to Ma Che Siete Venuit a Fa to have one last beer in the world's top rated beer bar one last time.  On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Trevi and had our picture taken together.  It was such a lovely, unforgetable trip.  Ah, on an evening in Roma!