ROMA!

“When one looks at it, all else seems little: the edifice is so vast, that one can not hold the image of it in one’s soul; in memory we think it smaller, and then return to it again to find it every time greater than before.”

J. W. Goethe, Italian Journey (Reflecting on the scale of the Coliseum)

This is exactly how we felt the second time Michael and I were in Rome.

Carmen had been here for about five weeks, when the rest of the Grisaffi family joined her on Friday, July 21st to begin the second part of the 2017 Italy trip.

As we landed in Rome, William and Rachael looked out across the countryside out to the water, and watched the plane’s shadow drift across the fields.

We arrived in the airport terminal jet lagged from the flight and took a pre-booked taxi to the UW Rome Center where Carmen would meet us. We spent most of the ride over staring out the window at the outskirts of Rome, the warm-colored houses scattered across the hillside.

After arrival at the Rome Center, we immediately took off to a nearby place for lunch. Yes, it is all about food everywhere our family goes. I think that we sometimes spend more time to figure out when and where to eat for our three meals than trying to schedule our sightseeing. We had a lovely and relatively light lunch, since everyone (except for Carmen) was so jet-lagged and had no appetite.

The Airbnb place in which we stayed is in St. Pietro, a bit off the beaten path. Definitely not as popular as Trastevere where you hear English every time you turn your head. But this forced us to use the little Italian we have when we went to the neighborhood bakery shop every morning for our breakfast. We got really good at using hand gestures and saying the numbers in Italian.

We managed to hit as many sites as possible when we were in Rome. Still, we did not go to some of the places that we wanted to revisit, such as St. John Lateran and Santa Maria Maggiore, or some new places that we had intended to see, such as Nostia Antica. I guess we will have to go back someday SOON!

Some of the highlights and observations of our days in Rome:

We had a 11 am reservation at Borghese Gallery the second day we were in Rome. We thought that we had budgeted enough time to get there on the bus. However, the bus was terribly late. We had to change our route last minute and got to the gallery 20 minutes late. Fortunately they let us in. Lesson learned: Budget more than enough time when relying on public transportation. I guess this is true of any city in the world. Housed in a cardinal’s mansion in Villa Borghese Gardens, the gallery offers “one of Europe’s most sumptuous art experiences.”
One of the evenings, we strolled over to Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. Along the way, we picked up some wonderful four-euro pasta to go. As we were approaching the piazza in front of St. Catherine of Sienna, we heard a beautiful soprano voice floating in the air. Because of the acoustics created by the square and buildings, the young woman did not need a microphone. Her angelic voice just filled the entire piazza. We stood there and listened to her for a while, completely mesmerized. Five minutes later, when we were sitting down next to the Pantheon to have our dinner, we started hearing some Pink Floyd. Turned out that someone was singing Pink Floyd in front of the Pantheon. He played quite a few tracks from “The Wall”, my all-time favorite. What a mix of sounds and musical experiences! This is definitely not something you get to experience on a daily basis.
We celebrated Carmen’s 18th birthday while in Rome.
We had our Sunday mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. We walked there from our Airbnb apartment and arrived at the Basilica for the 9am mass. This was before the rush. We did not have to wait in line at all to get into the Basilica. Once in, we went up to the front and center, where the mass was going to be held right in front of the CHAIR. The security guard only admitted us when we informed him that we were there for the mass, not to VISIT. The mass was in Italian. And thank God for the universal mass. We followed along and tried our best to say our prayers in English. The communion was a little surprising to us: It is a free-for-all. Everybody got up to go to the front to receive communion at the same time, whether you were sitting in the first row or the last. Carmen, having been in Rome for five weeks, told us that this is the norm. Well, okay then… Oh, there was no wine either.
The Basilica itself was filled with treasures of art, one of the fixations being the Pieta near the entrance. While it was a shame that we couldn’t get closer as it was in a separate room behind glass, I imagine they started doing this after some maniac, Laszlo Toth, came at the Pieta with a hammer in 1972. An absolutely gorgeous statue among the many others that are housed there.
On the last day, we roamed the ruins of Rome, the Forum and the Colosseum, and were able to visit the Vatican Museum in the last two hours that they were open. There was no way to see and appreciate all of it in one day, so we stuck to just a few places. Some thoughts:
- 1. I’m glad they didn’t build a hotel inside the Colosseum, something architecturally interesting even as a ruin.
- 2. Noted by Carmen – mummies are not as scary as they are made out to be.
- 3. The Sistine Chapel is breathtaking and it’s a shame that they prohibited taking photos of it. 😦 Rachael took pictures anyways and has justified it with “Michelangelo would have wanted this”.
The graffiti/wall art in Rome is far more interesting than those found in America. On the first day while walking the river, Carmen pointed out a series that depicted the world going into ruin, created by power-washing the dirt off of the wall. In a few years, it will disappear unless redone, as the dirt will build up over time. One artist in particular, K2M, has posters spread throughout the town, often found near another set that parodies famous paintings (artist unknown unless it is also K2M).

K2M and the parodies

street art done with chalk near the Piazza del Popolo