Day 8: Rome

We packed up and took a short train ride to Rome this morning, where we will hang for the next week. We're staying just south of the Tremini train station, so away from a lot of the tourist spots, but about a 1 minute walk to a metro station. For those of you who also use AirBnB, this apartment had a special approval for business travels…not sure how or why, but it is very nice. It is by far the most spacious place we've had. Susan has a bedroom with a queen size bed, and I have a King size bed. The previous places had one bedroom with a queen and one with two twins, so we both took a turn staying in the room with twin beds. It is nice that neither of us has to do this for this week….twin beds are small!

Note to Mark and Erin: I missed a golden opportunity. In Venice and Florence, the cable TV included a channel called Fine Living that was a combination of HGTV and FYI shows. (I watched the same channel when I was in Toronto). Here, there are very bad voiceovers in Italian, including Chip and Joanna! I was going to get video of Chip and Joanna talking in Italian to throw Lyla off, but I forgot and now I don't have the channel in Rome. Bummer! But now I have a tennis channel, so at least I have some TV to watch.

Back to today….We arrived, picked up a piece of pizza, then took a short walk to the Colosseum. Like David, it is one of those things I've seen in pictures a zillion times, but it is still stunning to see in person. We then headed towards the papal bascilica of ST. John Laterno, and en route, saw another church to pop into. It was, I think, the oldest church I've ever been in. It was called St. Stefano Rotando, because the church is in the round. The actual parish was formed in the 5th centuty, but I can't figure out what year the building I walked through was built. I may go back there and take the audio tour to try and figure it out. We were the only visitors in the place. After that we headed to the Bascilica, what was unreal.

Sidenote: One week into the trip, the oppulance of the churches is becoming uncomfortable. When put in context with some reading I did on the Renaissance era to prepare for the trip, (it is no secret that there were plenty of corrupt leaders of the Catholic church during this time) the churches (the physical buildings) start to feel vulgar. I said this to Susan as we were leaving the bascillica, and she (who is not Catholic) pointed out the artists whose careers can be credited to the church, the tradespeople who made a living building the churches, etc. I don't know. My first trip to France I was very impacted by the damage done to the French churches during the Revoution, when the peasants rose up and ransacked the churches, decapitating heads off statues, etc. Many of the churches left the damaged statues in place. It is easy to understand how starving peasants could revolt against the church that was trying to charge them for indulgences, especially when you see the grander of these churches. And it is certainly easy to see how and why the reformation occurred.

Back to today, again. We took a midday break, then headed out this evening to see the Spanish Steps, Trevi fountain, and have dinner, which, of course, was insanely good. We split a first course of spaghetti carbonara (spaghetti with egg, bacon and cheese). OUT OF THIS WORLD. I had a second course of scaloppini, which I thought was scallops, but turned out to be veal. The menu was only in Italian, and apparently "scaloppini" means thinly cut meat. It wasn't what I expected, but it was still excellent. Susan had lamb and roasted potatoes. After that, we rolled ourselves home. Seriously, I don't like to eat out that much, and when I do, there is usually just a couple things on the menu that sounds good. Every-freaking-thing sounds and tastes good here. The food is unreal. I keep expecting us to hit a dud restaurant, but it isn't happening. Everything tastes fresh and is cooked perfectly. The only thing I don't like is the lack of variety in vegetables (or really, just a lack of ANY vegetables) on the menus. The first thing I'll eat when I get home is a bag of broccoli.

The only prescheduled item on the agenda for tomorrow is a Scavi tour, which is a lesser-known tour of the Vatican crypt, including the tomb of St. Peter. Group size is limited to 12, and you typically have to request tickets months and months in advance. We lucked out in scoring these. While at the Vatican, I'm hoping I can pick up my tickets for Midnight Mass. Ciao!