Arrivederci Roma

Last blog entry in Roma,

We leave tomorrow morning from our apartment to Fumicino Airport at an ungodly early hour (4:45 a.m.). We've been taking it kind of low-key the last few days just visiting some old favorites and making sure we get our naps. Did Castel Sant'Angelo a few more times, including today, did bicycle riding in Villa Borghese for the third time...stuff like that. Just got back from gelato for the last time (at Gelateria del Teatro). Kids are a bit sugared up right now so putting them to bed will be a challenge. This is why we don't give them a big dose of ice cream just before bedtime at home.

Some final Rome thoughts and insights:

• Rome is filthy. Like any big city, most surfaces are covered in grime/soot/dirt. The Rome streets really do trash your shoes and your children. Especially if they lay down in the street and eat gelato. 
• Gelato is almost as common as cappuccino as an afternoon treat. I now think nothing of 3 guys in suits walking down the street having gelato cones. 
• Rome will never have enough money to preserve all the historical stuff they have here. As a result, there will always be things closed or in disrepair. Deal with it. 
• Vatican City looks like Rome would if it had oodles of money to keep all its stuff in great shape and clean.
• Not sure why Rome bothers with bus schedules. It's rather meaningless as they seem to come whenver they want. To save everyone anxiety and have just three categories: (1) comes all the time - don't worry about it, (2) comes every now-and-then, and (3) comes once in a long while - try your luck.
• If you take enough taxi rides, eventually they will try and pull a fast one on you. If you call them on it, they will back off and pretend it didn't happen.
• A good cappuccino should cost you no more than one Euro (if you drink it standing at the bar and not sitting at a table). This is in contrast with Cafe Greco on Via Condotti where a cappuccino and 3 pastries will run you 25 Euros (ouch!).
• A sure-fire way to start a conversation is to wear a A.S. Roma or S.S. Lazio shirt (or any other piece of apparel). Everyone seems to have something to say about it. 
• Strangers really DO sigh and say things like "bella bambina" about your kids as you walk by. It happens quite often. 
• A ten minute walk without kids is a 30 minute walk with kids.
• Store employees in meat shops are almost always gruff and short with you. They can't understand why you don't know the exact Italian word for the odd cut of meat you need for some sort of dish. Heck, I don't even know the English name for it.
• There is a lot of poop on the streets of Rome. Mostly dog poop I imagine. 
• Romans must be experts at "holding it". There are few public restrooms in Rome. And if you are lucky enough to find one it may be out of service. If Rome has 10% of the per capita restrooms as a standard U.S. city, I'd be surprised.
• Our favorite places in Rome (Bing map): http://binged.it/uO1g2a 

Teatro di Marcello. Used to be a Roman theater until a family built a palazzo on top of it.
An extreme case of hermit -crabbing (but rather standard in Rome).

One of our last times at Bar Giulia. 

Hadden helps Clara climb San Giovanni di Fiorentini as we wait for the 116 bus.

The kids with our super-great baby sitter, Ginny. She's an American studying abroad here and the kids LOVED her. 

Ciao, See you in Seattle,

Stefano

The Italian Military, High Art and More Busted Buildings

Ciao,

It's been a few days but the activity keeps on coming. In fact, it's been an entire week. Must be near the end of our stay because I am starting to fall behind. This last week we saw the Italian Military (yes, that's right), another soccer game, the Vatican Museum, Hadrian's Villa and Pompeii.

Italian Military
It was the Italian equivalent of "Armed Forces Day" on November 4th and they had a party through the weekend where they loaded up Circo Massimo (the big - and normally empty - space where Circo Massimo used to be) with bunches of military stuff. They had tanks, parachutists, boats, sailboats sailing in a large pool, the sottomarini (submariners), air force, Carabinieri (a strange hybrid of military police that polices civilians), and even the Guardia di Finanza - another military police (they do financial crimes and, as it turns out, drug enforcement). Almost everyone there was a local...except us. This was a BIG function - they had thousands there all day long. Yvonne noticed some differences between such a function in Italy and the U.S.

• There were ZERO bathrooms. No port-a-potties, no public restrooms, no pit toilets, nothing. People in Italy must be really good at holding it. 
• There may have been 10 trash cans. And no recycling containers. Unreal. Where do you put your trash? Then again, there was probably less trash than at a U.S. event because...
• There was ONE pizza stand for food. They had quite a long line needless to say. 
• Safety was kind of lax. The kids were allowed to climb all over the tanks, rappel down a tower, run across a rope bridge, do an obstacle course, sail in a boat and pretty much anything else short of igniting a flare. 

Hadden went crazy. He and Clara got to sit on a Guardia di Finanza motocicli, sit in a GdF super-fast boat, sit in a helicopter (GdF again), get AMI (Aeronautica Militare Italiana - air force) posters of their planes and get in the driver's seat of a Esercito Italiano (army) armored personnel carrier. He was even wearing his Lazio shirt, which elicited some excited conversation among the AMI guys (we believe they were Lazio fans). They asked him a bunch of stuff in Italian (not believing that any tourists would be there) and he answered with "Forza Roma!" Which is the worst thing your could say. It would be like a Sox fan asking who your favorite Red Sox player is and you answer "Go Yankees!" (while wearing a Sox shirt). 

It is so cool to be in the driver's seat! Of a boat!

Hadden, the AMI pilot.

Clara doing her best T. Cruise impersonation.

Hadden on top of an armored personnel carrier with another Italian kid.

The quite small away team cheering section for Parma at the Lazio game. It's not that far to travel from Parma. Perhaps they just don't have that many fans. At least we can say that they won't be harassed by any nearby Lazio fans.

Later that day Yvonne and I went to a Lazio vs. Parma game while the kids stayed home with Ginny, the awesome babysitter. Lazio won 1-0 on an 84th minute goal. Yvonne had "un cafe" before the game at the one single refreshment stand that was open. 

Yvonne sporting her Lazio scarf. 

Museo di Vaticano

On Wednesday afternoon Yvonne and I went to the Vatican Museum while the kids once again hung out with Ginny (whom they love!). It's a rather large museum with LOTS of stuff. Pretty much the spaces are jam packed. Highlights only:

• Statue of cousin Cole.
• Sistine chapel (ceiling and alter wall by Michaelangelo). They walls were painted by other famous guys of their time but compared to Michaelangelo's stuff, they sucked. 
• Raphael's "School of Athens" where he painted the great Greek philosophers and math/science guys on the wall of a pope's office. He used likenesses of current artists for all the famous Greek guys (e.g., da Vinci was Plato). Even put himself in the painting. 
• Serious downer Santa Claus - in a Raphael room that was actually painted by his students...it wasn't as good as his stuff.

I even had a beer in the courtyard when we were done. Gotta love the Catholic Church for that - alcohol tolerance. I don't think you can have a beer inside the LDS headquarters in Salt Lake City. At least not one they serve you.

Cousin Cole in the Vatican Museum.

Naked Cousin Cole! Actually, Cole has a better physique. 

One of the more elite parking lots in the world - inside the Vatican Museum.

Raphael's School of Athens.

That's Raphael (just out of camera shot in the previous photo) looking out at the crowd. Sweet beard.

After "Raffy" went next door to the Sistine Chapel and saw the stuff Michaelangelo was doing he was seriously impressed. So much so that he went back into his "School of Athens" fresco and added one more guy in the front - Michaelangelo. Cool boots. 

This is a serious "downer Santa Claus" in the last Raphael Room. He's naked being carried out by his son.  Actually he's Aeneas' father being carried out by Aeneas from a fire in Rome. But you've got to wonder why he was naked except for a red Santa cap when his son came and got him. "Dad, get out of the shower...Rome's on fire and we've got to leave NOW!"
"Wait, let me get my Santa hat first."
This is NOT jolly old St. Nick.

The Crucifixion of the Grinch. This is what happened after the Church elders got a hold of him. After all, he DID try and steal Christmas. Whooville got its revenge. 

Beer me...Vatican style.

Villa Adriana

Went to Emperor Hadrian's villa outside of Tivoli on Thursday. He built a "modest" 120 hectare villa to pass the time. Like most Roman stuff it has been significantly plundered but lots of stuff still stands. It sucks getting there. We took a taxi to the Ponte Mammolo metro stop/bus station and then took the regional COTRAL bus to a remote stop, walked 1/2 km and finally got there. First, the Mammolo bus terminal rivals any shitty Greyhound terminal in the U.S. Why is it that intercity buses and terminals are always smelly pits? You get off at the correct stop and there are about two signs that guide you only part of the way to this UNESCO world heritage site. Then...you're on your own. Start asking locals. Anyway, the time there was pretty good (great day for it even if it was in lieu of the kids' naps). At least the tortuous flow path to get there thinned out the crowds. Took a cab all the way back for 60 Euros rather than repeat the bus nightmare. 

Villa Adriana's Maritime Theater. It was not a theater but there was a water pool around a central island where he hung out. Hadden's highlight of the visit was the tourist here that let him feed some bread to the talapia-like fish in the pond. Yuck.

What a roman bath house looks like just before its roof collapses. 

Cute Clara climbing on the ruins.

Pompeii

I went to Pompeii on Friday to check it out for the Engineering Rome class I am planning. Yvonne and kids went to the zoo for the day. I think I made it all the way to Pompeii (150 miles) faster than it took us to get to Villa Adriana (15 miles). Took the 40 Express from just around the corner to Termini Station. At 6:30 am there is only one other person on the bus. During normal hours this bus is packed like a Japanese train at rush hour. Took the Frecciarossa ("fast train") to Napoli. Beautiful, clean, non-smelly (a super plus) Euro train that took on 1:07 go get to Napoli. Took the local from Napoli to Pompeii Scavi (35 minutes) and I was there. Even got 45 minutes of paper-writing for work done on the Frecciarossa. Spent 3 hours touring Pompeii. Highlights in pictures below. 

Looking down main street in Pompeii from the Forum. The three big blocks there are traffic obstructions to keep you from driving your chariot into the forum. 

Some original Roman lead pipes. Only a nerd would photograph this...five times.

Evidence of a really old paving job. In the background you can see deep chariot ruts but in the foreground they're gone. The interpretation by the guidebook is that this street was being repaved in 79 AD when Vesuvius blew and buried Pompeii. For the record, it appears that when the ruts get to be about 6 inches deep, it's time to repave. 

A fresco from the brothel in the bad part of town. You can tell your kids that these two are "wrestling". The interpretation here is a primative "menu" of services. There are two other frescos depicting different menu items.

Yvonne's day off

Today, Yvonne "took the day off" and did he own thing all day (museum, shopping, enoteca, etc.). The rest of us went to the usual park in the former moat of Castel Sant'Angelo for 1.5 hours and then took the 116 over to Pizza Zaza for lunch. Best Pizza a Taglio (pizza by the slice, more or less) I've had. We've now been there 3 times. Then, gelato after lunch that we ate in the Piazza dei Rotonda in front of the Pantheon. Yvonne went to a museum and had lunch at an Enoteca (wine bar). Then went shopping. Get this: SHE DIDN'T BUY ANYTHING. "What?" you're saying. I know. Go figure. There are still several days to make up for this. 

Ciao,

Steve

Roads, food, water, and running

In the last few days we've done some things but the touristico pace may have slowed a bit. That's just fine. Some brief highlights:

Appia Antica
On Wednesday the 2nd, Steve went to Via Appia Antica again as part of his work. My intentions were to bicycle south of the drop-off point for the 660 bus (the last time we were here we walked north - back towards Rome - from this point). Got about 95% of the way there and Yvonne phoned to remind me that I had taken the only set of apartment keys with me. So...no way for Yvonne or kids to leave the apartment and hope to get back in. So, I took a taxi back to Castel Sant'Angelo where they were playing and handed off the keys. Another taxi back to Via Appia Antica and it was about 2:15pm when I finally got the bike rented from the cafe. The bike, as is usual, is way too small for me (the work is designed for the person who's 5' 8" tall) and a bit of a beater. No matter it works. Rode south for about 5 miles then turned around and came back. There were plenty of busted up monuments along the road but at this point in history they are just piles of concrete and brick - all the facades, statues, and anything else of value is long gone. No matter, the road was really pleasant (quite and tranquil) and is essentially surrounded by a huge linear park. Great ride in the afternoon golden sunlight. Most of the pavement has since been replaced but there are random locations where the original Roman surface still exists. Those places are really bumpy for bikes. Chain came off once due to bumpiness.

A really nice part of the Via Appia Antica.
There is still the occasional  car that uses this road.

One of the more stunning monuments along the Via Appia Antica.
It's big, but it's eroded away to a lump of concrete.

Me on THE MOTHER ROAD (it's not Route 66).

Yvonne's Dinner
The next day I took the kids to the park (same Castel Sant'Angelo park - called Parco Adriano I think) while Yvonne went shopping for a while. She got ingredients for a delicious risotto dinner (risotto, pumpkin, sage, pine nuts) and pantarelle salad (chickory). We had a wine I went and got from "our" local wine shop (those guys are great) and a dessert wine too.

Yvonne cooks in our kitchen.

The kids wait for dinner with baited breath.
While watching "Surf's Up" again on the DVD player. 

Dinner (the picture doesn't do it justice). It's risotto with pumpkin, pine nuts and sage; and puntarelle, a traditional Roman salad with chickory and oranges (with anchovy dressing). Very good. 

Villa D'Este

On Friday, Yvonne convinced us all to go to Villa D'Este. Good idea, fun place. It is in Tivoli, about 20 km outside of Rome. Originally we were going to take a taxi to the bus station and then take the bus there but once in the taxi, Yvonne asked the driver if he could take us all the way there and what it would cost. So...we went all the way in the taxi (50 Euros). It was luxurious and Yvonne's continued praise of "being pampered" made me a bit nervous regarding the level of luxury that she would like. To be fair, we took the train back for 4,60 Euros. But then we took a taxi from the train station to home for 15 Euros.

Villa D'Este is a really, really big estate built by Cardinal Ippolito D'Este in Tivoli. He must have really liked water because it has 51 fountains and nymphaeums (try the link if, like me, you do not know what a nymphaeum is - this blog is educational too!), 364 jets, 64 waterfalls, 220 basins and 875 meters of water canals. It has been mostly restored with a vast majority of the water features working. The kids loved all the fountains and we appreciated the lack of security personnel on the grounds enabling us to let the run a bit. Of course, I'm interested in the real genius behind this villa (not the Cardinal), Pirro Ligorio, the engineer. All the fountains, save 2 that were installed in 1927, operate on gravity alone. A working hydraulic engineering classroom. Too bad that's not what I teach.

The Oval Fountain. It's pretty.

The aptly named Hundred Fountains (although I think these qualify as "spouts".)

Hadden brandishing his banana sword in front of the pirate ship.
Hey, if you're going to have 300 fountains in your villa you better have a pirate ship too.

My lovely wife.

So, I asked Clara to go up to the top of this sloped walkway so I could take a picture of her. Every 10 feet or so (sorry, 3 meters or so, we're in Europe) she would turn around and yell at me, "Daddy, don't take a picture of me yet!" and then walk another 10 feet. This is one such incident just before she realized I was taking unauthorized photographs.

Okay, so this one is a stumper. This is a fountain with a woman who has, I think, 13 boobs. Each one spouting water (why not). There's no explanation in the guide or at the fountain about why this woman has 13 boobs. And, it's in a Cardinal's backyard. What's he doing with a 13-boobed fountain? I can imagine the conversation with the designer...

"I want a fountain of a naked chick with lots of tits."
"How many would you like?"
"As many as you can cram in there."
(time passes)
"Okay your excellency, we've got an idea for one with 13 tits."
"That's it? Only 13?"
"Well your excellency, 14 would border on tasteless."
"And don't forget to make each one spew water too."
"Well, that goes without saying."

Capitoline
We went for a short jaunt over to see the Pantheon again - just for fun 'cause it's so cool - and then over to the Capitoline Hill to let the kids run in the Michaelangelo-designed piazza. Hadden pouted quite a bit at first. Hadden and I sat down for a bit and discussed all the things we didn't like (a good thing to do if you're in a pouting mood). I don't like this statue. I don't like that foot. I don't like these stairs. I don't like this bench - it's too cold. I don't like it when mommy says we have to go here. I don't like that poster advertising a Tarik Aziz memorial (true thing). I don't like those white statues of guys all over the place. etc. But...after a while who can resist chasing pigeons? Not our kids. Clara ran herself ragged and didn't catch a single one. These are veteran, battle-tested pigeons here - they only fly away as far as they need to, no further. Hadden found the secret back entrance to the view deck of the Victor Emanuel monument and even pointed the right way when I led everyone astray. Back to our house for quite time, naps, and the highlight of the day...Kung Fu Panda on the DVD player. Some things never change.

Talking about what we don't like. As you can see the pouting is pretty much over.

What is Clara DOING? (as she runs around crazy-like after pigeons)

Someone find the parents of those crazy American kids. 

Watch out pigeons!

The reward for...heck I'm not sure why I bought a pastry at 1pm after all they had for lunch was a couple of chicken bites and fried potatoes. 

Ciao,

Steve

An Easy Day?

Just a short post here - mostly in pictures. This was supposed to be a low-key easy day. A quick jaunt up Gianicolo Hill in the AM, naps in the afternoon and the usual playtime at Castel Sant'Angelo before a dinner at home. What transpired was a couple of tired kids, LOTS of crying and whining and a night out for dinner (what better thing to do with to whiny, tired kids?)

The walk up Janiculum Hill (Gionicolo) starts with a picturesque slog up these stairs.
When Nona did it I think she counted 83 stairs. 

Hadden got a head start but here's Clara (doing it herself) and Yvonne carrying her stroller up those same 83 stairs.
I don't think anyone cried on these stairs, which is a highlight.

Hadden doing one of his favorite things in Rome: checking out the plastic toy junk at a newstand (actually this one doesn't even have news - just toys). They usually have lots of gun toys. Great.

Clara trying to fill up a water bottle while a runner patiently waits her turn. What the photo does not capture is the in-the-stream, out-of-the-stream method she's using. It takes longer but I suppose it's more satisfying. The runner did eventually get her sip of water.

About 1/2 way up there is a statue of Anita Garibaldi (wife of Rome defender of 1849,  Guiseppe Garibaldi). The statue depicts her riding a bucking horse side saddle, carrying a newborn baby and shooting a revolver in the air. That's one serious, multi-tasking lady. I think Yvonne admires her.

There was a puppet show at the top - the tour book says "authentic" but I might label it as "cheap." We put three Euros in the offering dish to watch. It was in Italian so we had no idea what the story was about.

Mostly the story involved puppets hitting each other in the back of the head with a big stick. You can kind of see the stick here. Both Hadden and Clara said the puppets weren't being very nice to one another.

Nonetheless, we were into this show for 3 Euros so we stuck it out.

Afterwards, we went to the other side of the Piazzale Guiseppe Garibaldi and dropped some coin in this little combo funhouse (video games, standard carnival fare), merry-go-round place. Kids had been here twice before (once with Nona, once with Leslie). What better name to use for such a facility than "Bimbo Time at Gianicolo". So, we had some "bimbo time." As an aside, I'm SURE the use of Donald Duck's likeness is fully authorized by the Disney Company.

After having one too many, Hadden gets behind the wheel of a motorcycle on the merry-go-round. 

Clara rocks her outfit on an equally tricked-out horsey.

The shoot a cannon from this Piazzale every day at noon to synchronize the church bells around town (I think I mentioned this in a previous post). Does anyone want to see the cannon? Only taker was Steve. Here it is shooting.

Why no other takers? Hadden and Clara are busy under a tree digging up  imaginary dinosaur bones with a couple of sticks. It's quite cute but really dirty. Mommy tried to clean them off with wipes but it was only a partial success. There was much crying when we had to leave. Between this scene and the next we had two aborted naps and much crying and whining about everything. Since I was up "doing work" Yvonne bore the brunt of this. I think they about cracked her.

Happiest picture of the afternoon/evening. We are at Baffetto's (famous pizza joint near Piazza Novana). Just finished three pizzas and, for a moment, nobody is crying. We decided to eat out because Hadden really wanted to. However, later on we found out that what he really wanted to do was play Angry Birds on my iPhone while we waited for our order (as has become the custom over the last week). He got banned from the iPads today so he was sneaky enough to figure this out. So, he's conniving but smart. I suppose I can live with that. Finished off the day with Gelato, much crying, a bath and more crying. 

Now they are sleeping and wonderfully cute again. ;-)

Ciao,

Steve