Blogging from Rome …

Ciao!

Well, Houston, it seems we have a problem – the WiFi signal in our room is not strong enough to get through, and we are going to try to see what happens from the lobby.  The odd thing, though, is that our phones and my iPad are fine getting messages in and out … who knows?!  I am writing now, and then we’ll head downstairs to see if I can get anything out on a timely basis. 

Me in front of glass hotel restaurant on Via Veneto

Bridge over the Tiber (Tevere)

Piazza Spada; lovely courtyard

LOTS of flat artwork!

The perspective gallery

Just some columns in a building!

Boat on Tevere; St. Pauls in background

1st C. AD Carved chair

R at lunch!

My pasta with black truffles!

R's spicy pasta

And a bit of limoncello!

The oculus in the Pantheon!

A little gelato ... in front of Pantheon

Piazza Colonna

Trevi Fountain!  At last!

So!  We were up this morning about 4 am.  I am still trying to figure out why I wanted to be on such an early flight.  [Me, too! – R]  However, be that as it may, we were downstairs and checking out by 5 am.  The taxi left us at the airport about 5:30 am and then we walked into complete and utter chaos!  I know I said that Malta’s airport was lovely on the way in, but wow, what a mess on the way out!  First of all, there were many, many more people than we thought would be at the airport at 5:30 am.  Second of all, it was very confusing to figure out which line exactly to be in.  R and I managed to get into the line with – seriously – the world’s slowest clerk!  Hand him the passports … he would look all around the room and then eventually look at one of them and from there into his computer.  Then, he looks up.  Then he picks up passport number 2 and we have a repeat performance!  Can I tell you how long it took him to ticket the six guys in front of us who had no baggage to check?  It was SO frustrating I wanted to SCREAM.  I didn’t … although I probably should have!  Once that frustration was over, we still had to get through security, but that, fortunately, went very quickly – and nobody was looking around at all! What a concept!

Today is also our 36/37 anniversary – 36 years of marriage, and one year of dating.  To wonder where the time has gone – it had better slow down, there is still much that we want to do!  

So … back to the airport. There was a fair amount of people truly badly sunburned and looking hung over, to put it mildly.  I’m thinking that with Ryan Air and EasyJet, Malta may be an ideal getaway for lots of different folks looking for some sunshine! Certainly appeals to us!  Our flight was right on time, and in something like an hour and 15 minutes, we were landing in Rome.  Unlike when we first entered Italy, this arrival was fine (since we didn’t have to go through passport control), and our bags came out fairly quickly.  We had asked that the hotel arrange for a driver to pick us up, and he was easy to find and we were on our way.  To say that driving with a local is exciting is quite the understatement.  Suffice to say that we were at our hotel somewhere around 10:30 am – and, obviously, our room wasn’t ready.  We are staying at the Hotel Alexandra where we have stayed once before.  It is directly on the Via Veneto, which is a great location and we are pretty familiar with the area.  I was able to remember where I had packed our StreetWise Rome map and then we left our luggage with the hotel and out we went to explore.  The weather was very, very windy, and there was lots of dust blowing around.  R was able to go without his jacket, but I know I definitely needed mine.  Now, however, my jacket is in desperate need of a wash, as I also managed to get some gelato on it …

Most places in Rome – museums and the like, are closed on Monday.  However, I had found two – Palazzo and Museo Spada and Palazzo Corsini that close other days instead of today.  Our first stop was the Barberini metro station, where we were able to buy 24 hour transportation passes for 7€ each.  We also purchased a Rome bus map (we do this every time we come) and R got us on the 83 bus from Barberini to the Tevere (River Tiber), just two bridges down from Spada.  To be honest, neither of us were at all impressed by Spada.  It started life as Cardinal Spada’s famous baroque collection, and contained masterpieces by Guercino and Titian among others.  We thought the paintings (neither of us are really flat-painting fans) rather boring actually, but the visit ends in the Secret Garden where architect Francesco Borromini created one of the main Roman baroque illusions, the so-called False Perspective Colonnade.  That was really quite something!  

From there, we crossed to the other side of the Tevere, and eventually managed to unearth the Palazzo Corsini, which is actually part of the national art museum. You’d never know it, though, from its lack of signage, which put us WAY out of our way.  (Also, I have to be honest, that entire area of Rome is basically walking on cobbled streets – and those are rough on both the legs and the feet!  UGH!) Again, not a very great visit, with little to nothing in English, although there was lots of French floating around!  I am going to have to seriously revisit our Museum list for this trip, or I am going to lose Robert entirely!  (Tomorrow starts, though, with Villa Borghese, which we have visited once and liked very much, and will then proceed to Villa Giulia, the National Etruscan Museum, where we have been several times, and absolutely LOVE!)

By this point, we were both in desperate need of a sit down, and I was beginning to have tummy rumbles from lack of food!  (The Hilton provided juice, croissants and coffee in the lobby this morning, but neither of us felt inclined…)  Robert had spotted a tram crossing the Tevere, and we are both certain that this is new since our last time in Rome. So, as it was heading in our direction, in we went and enjoyed a few stops until we got off at the end of the route, Piazza Venezia.  

From there, we headed toward the Pantheon, one of my favorite buildings in the entire world! However, before we got there, we ran into Osteria Agrippa and decided to have lunch.  Nice location not quite on the tourist track, and we got a nice table at the back of the restaurant.  We had a large bottle of sparkling wine, as well as a bottle of Frascati white wine. Then, R had penne arribiata (spicy pasta) and I had huge noodles with a butter and cream sauce with bacon and shavings of black truffles … incredible!  We also split a serving of excellent strawberries for dessert, with a glass of lemoncello.  

Headed to the Pantheon for a look around and picked up my first gelato … and headed next to the Trevi Fountain, which we had actually missed seeing the last time we were in Rome! Heavens!!  Quelle horreur!  By this time, we about at collapsing point, so we caught a bus up Tritone and were soon dropped off almost in front of our hotel. As it was definitely after 2 now, our room was ready, and our luggage was also waiting inside for us.  We have a nice room in front, and I was able to unpack and get everything situated.  It’ll be nice not to have to deal with a suitcase for a day or two.  R then tried to get the computer to connect to the internet, and not much luck. Again, oddly enough, my iPad and our iPhones are fine!  Oh well! I will now take a look at photos and we’ll see if we can post from downstairs lobby!  Wish us luck!

Much love,

m

xxx

PS - It looks like the computer connection is fine in the hotel lobby ... so I will be publishing from here until we get to our next stop!

m