To Napoli, 5 June 2019

We woke up early, packed and ready to go, and headed to the nearby taxi stand for the train station. The public transit card in Rome has worked really well, but e decided not to do this with suitcases, even though ours are small. We got to the train station, found our very nice high-speed train seats, and whoosh we were off to Naples. Arriving Naples at the Centrale/Garibaldi station, we got our Campagnia pass there at the train station, and took a taxi to our hotel. The guy did not know where it was, so the guy in charge of taxis explained it to him, somewhat exasperatedly. He pulled up in the middle of a tiny square and let us out. No idea where the hotel was from here, so used the Google Maps and thought it was a block away, turned out it was right near the square. Unassuming entry, but they were very friendly. Our room was not ready yet (we were early) so they led us to a nice salon area to wait. The hotel is the former residence of Cardinal Sforza who was also Archbishop of Naples. There is a large white and gold room that is the breakfast area that was some sort of reception room during the time of the cardinal. Our room was nice, spacious with a high ceiling. We dropped our things and were off to Pompeii!

Naples is definitely grittier and much more worn out than Rome. Lots of buildings with missing plaster, broken icees, and graffiti on every surface up to about 8 feet almost everywhere. There is a loft more garbage on the street, and general debris. It feels darker, and people do not look you in the eye as much. Very different than Rome. 

The route to the Metro was circuitous to say the least. Across the small piazza, down three flight os straits in between drying laundry and a few tiny shops, we got to the Universita Metro, and headed to the Centrale station. There is another station nearby which is supposed to be much easier to get a seat at, but we wandered around and could not find it. We did find a rather sketchy market, with food, guys with shoes and jeans on blankets on the ground, and it did not feel very good. We walked back to the main train station, and found a the Circumvesuviana train headed to Pompeii, which was packed. 

Observations about people: while in Rome folks mostly seemed well-dressed (except some tourists) in Naples things are more casual. At least half the people are tattooed, of almost all ages. And the dress is much more casual. Tourists stick out here even more than in Rome I think. 

It was already hot by the time we arrived around 2:00pm, and Barney got some ice cream while we found the Askos guide we booked through airbnb. Her name was Antonia and she is an archaeologist who dug in Pompeii for 9 years, was very knowledgeable. We really enjoyed the tour with her, she explained the how to tell the various types of stores we were seeing, how the houses ranged from very simple to quite nice. The Forum was really something. Because most of the ceilings collapsed from the weight of the ash, everything is one story or less. After the 2-hour tour ended, we continued on ourselves, exploring various places, got some cold drinks, and really experiencing the Napoli sun. So many people were sunburned, thank goodness for SFP60. At the end of the day, we went to then Grande Teatro, a very large half-circle with large numbers of seats. There were folks coming in and out, but finally we had a moment when no one was there. I sang the entire “Come in quest ora bruna” by Verdi from Simon Boccanegra. I was really able to sing out, and did it fell great!  We then headed to our final stop, the large amphitheater, and then to the train station not far away. We caught the Campagnia Regionale fancy train back, with nice seats and AC,  very comfy after a long hot day. 

We got back to the hotel, asked for a recommendation for dinner, and they sent us up the street to the Pulcinella Bistro. It was small and nice, very friendly, very nice food. I had some lovely grilled octopus and Barney had a nice steak, plus a bottle of local red wine. We came back, showered after a long hot day, and settled into the comfy bed.

Colosseum, Crowds, and Serenity, Tuesday, 4 June 2019

We woke up early and headed out for the day ... first stop the Colosseum. We were prepared fo the crowds, but it was really quite intense. Luckily the advance tickets gave us a way to go by lots of folks, and our only wait was to get the audio guide. We saw the Rome Universal exhibit on the second floor, which had artifacts and wonderful historical info on the Colosseum and ancient and Medieval Rome, really enjoyed that, gave some great perspective. When we finally emerged out into the sunlight of the Colosseum, it was definitely a wow moment. The immensity of it really hits you, as does the fact that this was built almost 2,000 years ago and all the metal supports have been removed. I would not want to be there in an earthquake. There was a huge mass of people everywhere ... folks shoving their selfie sticks almost in your face, groups plowing through an area with no regard to the people already there, it was a bit tiring. But we really enjoyed the sense of history and the short tour, perhaps next time we will do the underground where all the cool machinery was located.

Then we took the Metro to the Spanish Steps, and got out for some photos. It was, as I remember it, underwhelming, pretty but not all that special, but lots of people. We then walked down to the Trevi Fountain, where there were MOBS of people. It was a little unnerving, as people jostled for position, I could not wait to get out of there. We walked to the bus stop and took the good old #87 over to the Capitoline Museum. Needing some lunch, we found a sweet place and had our first pizza and salad, just what we needed. We then went to the Capitoline Museum, the perfect antidote to the crowds. Here were relatively few people, amazing works of art, and a chance to really understand Roman history and archaeology. The special setting of the Marcus Aurelius statue was quite lovely. The Caravaggios, the Greek statues, the Medieval paintings, the Tintorettos, the Rubens, all were amazing. In one huge room filled with paintings were six cabinets inlaid with precious stones and colored marbles, absolutely beautiful. The highlight was the She-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus (even though the children were added later during the Medieval period), the wolf was gorgeous, all kinds of different effects to indicate her fur in different places. Truly astonishing that this has survived for 2,000 years. Then we went up to the overlook, took lots of photos of the view, and had an aperitif.



Back on the us to the loft, packing up, and getting ready to head out tomorrow morning. we went to a neighborhood place we had walked by. Had a nice simple salad, fish, and risotto, and climbed  into bed. Tomorrow to Naples ...

Vatican and St. Peter’s, 3 June 2019

We arose early and headed out to the meeting spot near St. Peter’s. There were almost 100 people there waiting like us for the 9:00 entrance. We walked quickly over to the entrance, about 1 mile away from the gathering spot, always trying to keep the yellow flag in view. It must have been national school field trip day in Rome, because we saw thousands of school kids in groups at the museum. When we finally arrived, they scanned our cards and gave us tickets, and we were off. I found a map (which turned out to be quite useless) and we headed toward the Egyptian and Etruscan galleries. Apparently ALL the tours start in the Egyptian galleries, so it was massively crowded, though we enjoyed so many of the pieces. There were many fine pieces there, but we moved quickly to the Etruscan galleries which were way less crowded. There were many splendid pieces, and it was interesting to see the evolution of the pottery work over time.

We found we had to rejoin the herd, so met up with the flow heading toward the Rafael rooms, apparently stop #3 on most of the tours. They were indeed crowded, but most folks stayed only long enough to hear what their guide had to say. We read the signs and spent some time with the works. Rafael’s painted figures have a certain grace to them, and even though the figures are often muscular, they are nothing like the body-builder-types that Michelangelo often painted. They seem calm and inviting.

Then the herd moved on to the Sistine Chapel, which I have been looking forward to seeing since I last viewed it in 1974 before the big restoration and cleaning. I remember it being very dark and dismal. The new ceiling was vibrant and beautiful, with oranges, yellows, blues, greens, and reds that were so much brighter than what I remembered. I know that they did some serious work to match the colors to the Michelangelo original, and this looks like what he would have pointed. We found a place to sit on the side and just sat there for about 30 minutes, absorbing the beauty of it all. I felt a little sorry for the guards who mostly keep saying “move to the center” and “no photos” over and over to the hordes coming through. Most people seemed to walk through, look up a few times, and then continue on, what a shame.

We continued on to the painting gallery with the beautiful two-sided Giotto altarpiece, paintings by Caravaggio and more, and bibles in many languages including hieroglyphs!  We. had a quick snack, and then descended the beautiful elliptical staircase. I noted with annoyance how many people would get to the bottom of the stairs anywhere and stop to take a photo, not minding that people were coming up behind them. Between the selfie-stick and the go-pro camera, people spend way too much time taking photos or videos of things and not enough time actually looking at them.

We then moved over to the Basilica of St. Peter, a massive building, with all the gold and marble you could imagine would be in the church of the Popes. It was magnificent, and we went into the side chapels (some of which were as big as churches themselves), saw Michelangelo's emotional Piéta, went into the crypt of the popes, and listened as as Mass was celebrated (not sure how one gets in, it seems that people simply approached the security guy). The enormity of the dome was so different than Brunelleschi’s dome in Florence, or Notre Dame in Paris. It seemed somehow lighter than either of those, more airborne, less tied to earth.

Finally 9.5 hours after we started, it was time to go. We went to a restaurant Madeleine had recommended, but it was closed on Mondays. We found another that was well-rated, and had a lovely dinner of fried tuna balls, veal cheeks with red wine sauce for Barney and codfish with onions and raisins for me, plus some roasted vegetables, and a small tiramisu, and interesting wines.  We found the 492 bus which dropped us off hear our place, and came back to do laundry and notes. And now to sleep. Tomorrow, the Colosseum...

Republic Day in Rome, Sunday, 2 June 2019

With shutters pulled tight, the cacophony of seagulls was a bit less and I was able to sleep. They quoted down near mornin (do they ever sleep?) so we slept in until 8:30am. Still not hot water, so we waited for the plumber, then Simone, who finally fixed it. A hot shower felt great. This is the one day we do not have anything early.

Our plan was to get the Roma Pass bus and ride it a bit, walk around a new area such as the Spanish Steps, then go to the Capitoline Museum for the afternoon. Our plans were foiled by Republic Day, the Italian version of 4th of July. A military parade closed most of the area around Piazza Navona and the Colosseum, so all regular busses were diverted, and the Roma Pass bus was nowhere in sight, after waiting a total of one hour at two different stops (neither of which was marked by a sign, so we thought we were in the wrong place). We did see the Italian Air Force fly over with green, white, and red smoke screen trailing behind. We went to the Roma Pass office, which seemed closed at first, and asked about the bus, were told that they were not running until 3pm. Getting warm and tired, we took a regular bus, very crowded and hot, over to San Giovanni Laterna, the church of the Pope. It was quite stunning, a gilded ceiling and baldacchino, large stone carvings commemorating each Pope throughout, not very crowded. The huge bronze doors are opened only in a Jubilee Year, such as 2000. It felt like a real demonstration of the massive wealth of the Popes. We went outside and found a bench, ate our leftover veggies, charcuterie and cheese, which were delicious. Then off to another regular bus to the Palatine Hill.

We had thought we’d walk the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum and then still go to the Capitoline Musuem, but we ended up spending three-and-a-half hours at the Palatine Hill and Forum alone, so that was our day. The Palatine Hill was often quiet and very open, with amazing views of Rome. This was the place where emperors lived, and aristocrats, and the remains of their palaces studded the area. Very interesting was the dig where they have discovered the remains of the earliest huts there (the huts of Romulus) from about 800BC. The huge stone arches of the Severus arcade were quite an engineering feat, it is hard to believe that the mortar binding these bricks is almost 2,000 years old and still going strong. By the Medieval period, all the history seemed forgotten, the palaces crumbled and pieces reused for other buildings, and the area covered over with rubble and vegetation. The Farnese family spent years purchasing what was then farmland (17th century) creating massive gardens, and restoring some of the ruins. Later they too fell from power and more serious archaeological work began.

We went down the many steps to the lower level, the Roman Forum, which we had seen from up above. The building and remains there covered nearly 1,000 years, some right next to each other, so there was very little context. A 600AD column was near a 100BC temple. One of the most interesting was the Temple of Romulus, which had been restored inside, and displayed some heads and torsos from around 100AD which had been shattered and used for foundation fill, hard to imagine. They had a wonderful film which showed the restoration and how the pieces of the sculpture were reclaimed and put back together and then on display.  It was interesting to think how these people whose names we do not know were important enough at one time to ahve someone sculpt them in marble. They were a bit haunting. We stayed walking among the columns and brick walls and random bits of marble big enough to sit on, until they were closing down (in the Nelson-Smits tradition). Then over to Piazza Venezia for the 87 bus back to our place.

Quite tired after a long day, we stopped at a charcuterie filled with prosciutto and guanciale hanging from the ceiling.  Then we went to restaurant a block from the loft, called Virginiae, and got a table upstairs. It was very nice, relaxing, excellent food and wine, just what we needed. Barney had some delicious roast lamb and potatoes, and I had a wonderful saltimbocca, and we shared an unusual caprese salad, one whole tomato cut party open enclosing a whole ball of buffalo mozzarella with the the most delicious balsamic vinegar I have ever had. We had a nice wine I had never heard of called Bulghari that we both liked. Back to the loft, we had a good Skype session with Madeleine to catch up on what she had been doing and tell her about the trip. I am so glad she has this time to reconnect with her friends, though I am often thinking how I wish she were with us on this trip.

All over Rome, Saturday, 1 June 2019

At 2:30am, I awoke to the high-decibel screeching of a mob of seagulls near the window. They seem to congregate near the church, and spend the night fighting over something. It was like trying to sleep next to fighting cats. Even with earplugs I could not sleep. I finally got up at 5:30am, did some email and searched for Colosseum tickets, and then had a nice egg and coffee breakfast with Barney. Then unfortunately the hot water was not working so we had cold showers, and waited for the plumber to arrive.

We then headed over to St. Peter’s to see the square and get our Roma Pass tickets. After a few false starts, we found the right place, got the tickets, and confirmed the Vatican Museum, but sadly the Borghese Museum was booked. St. Peter’s Square was impressive as can be, it of course mobbed with tourists and people trying to sell you various tours and tickets, which is a bit exhausting. I hate having to avoid looking at people in that way.

After St. Peter’s, we walked up to the Ottaviano Metro Red line, so Barney could have his usual new city metro experience. The subway was fairly crowded but the trains arrived quickly. We got to the Termine station and transferred to the other Blue line to the Garbatella station. This area was quite deserted, a bit of a shock after the massive crowds at St. Peter’s, and seemed to be mostly abandoned warehouses and public housing high rises. We walked to the Centrale Montemartini Museum, a former electric powerhouse now filled with early Roman statues and related artifacts, sarcophagi, mosaics, and more. The huge black power generating machinery is still there, and the juxtaposition of the sleek white marble of the heads and torsos is quite a contrast yet somehow fits with the overall mood. There were very few people, we almost had the place to ourselves, and we really had the chance to see the pieces up close.

We then took a 15 minute walk to a restaurant on our list, through a rather depressed area, few people, most stores closed, little activity. It seemed odd so close to the center of Rome. We reached the restaurant, Flavio al Velavevodeto, which had nice homemade pasta but seemed utterly uninterested in any type of service or interaction. We left, walked about 10 minutes to the Piramide station, and took the Metro to Cavour for our 4:00pm Domus Aureus tour.

The Rome Metro has no escalators at street level, only stairs and elevators. They do have escalators lower down, just not at the street level.Perhpas they save a lot on maintenance that way.

Google maps took us to the wrong station, then to a dead end street which stopped at a locked gate, then up a street through a park, all of which the map said would be close to the entrance, none were right. I finally figured out where the tickets office was near the Colosseum, we ran over, and got there 5 minutes after the tour started. The people were very nice, we got our hard hats, and off we went. The archaeological work done there was significant, emptying out 20-25 feet of dirt that had buried this sumptuous palace. Some of the frescoes remained, and there was a virtual reality experience to show what it looked like, which was amazing. In one of the last most luxurious rooms used by Nero, the octagonal space is supposed to have great acoustics, so of course I asked if I could sing, and did a few bars of “Piangero” which did sound nice there. It is an active archaeological site, cool and damp, so rather a relief from the building heat outside.

Afterwards, quite tired, we headed for the Colosseum Metro for bus tickets, saw the new Metro LIne C which is being built through all kinds of active archaeological digs and areas of artifacts. We took the 87 bus back to our area, had a refreshing ice cream at the Frigidarium Madeleine had recommended, and came back to the loft to recharge.

By 8:30, we were hungry, not sure where to go on a busy Saturday night. We found a place called Prosciutteria Cantina dei Papi which was tiny, really a deli with some small boxes for seating and wooden tables. We had a mixed plate of antipasti which was incredible, plus a tricolore salad and a Toscano salad, both of which were huge. We ate mostly the greens we have been craving, and because it is mostly a deli, we took much of the charcuterie and cheese and sun-dried tomatoes back for a lunch tomorrow. The young woman and man running the place were very nice and quite busy, as the place filled up after we arrived with Italians. We felt lucky to find something so authentic and delicious.

Back to the loft, trying to figure out how to get Colossseum tickets, a nd I think I finally figured it out, for 9:30 Tuesday, our last day here. Hope it works.