9th May 2000 Rome
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2000
1
13
81
Trip End
Aug 09, 2000
Rome,
Italy
Thursday, February 27, 2003
After breakfast, I ducked around the street to several of our favourite shops; the Alimentari for fresh bred rolls (long wholemeal) and ham, and the pasticceria for fresh cannoli. Had the cannoli with espresso, and made up fresh ham and tomato rolls before setting out on the usual long walk the length of Via Cavour to San Pietro in Vincoli which is almost down as far as the Forum. As we began to climb the steps off Via Cavour, we were swamped by another party of Huns. One thing about them, they are on such tight schedules that if you are patient, they are gone in five minutes, and you get a brief period with only a few other tourists, before the next wave arrives. David Dale had said that the Michelangelo "Moses" is one of the absolute "must sees", and in retrospect I have to agree, and say I found it much more enjoyable than the "Pieta" we saw later in the week. It is said that Charlton Heston was only cast in the role of Moses because he resembled this statue. You can see the resemblance, but what an awful major feature to highlight. Also on display are the two chains with which Peter was shackled in the Mamertine Prison. Supposedly, one was sent to Constantinople, and when returned many years later, fused with the other. Every second church has a relic of this nature.
From here we walked down to the Forum. As usual, Ches was in desperate need of another "pit stop", and fortunately ducked into an information centre-the sort of place we normally ignore (it is at the very bottom of Via Cavour). We discovered a wealth of information, particularly aligning the various "Forums" that were developed by Caesar, Trajan, and Augustus when the Roman Forum became too small to house all the administrative functions of the expanding empire. They also had a video presentation which involved models of how the various buildings appeared at the time, and how the destruction of the area, was superseded by the building of a medieval city over the ruins, which survived until the thirties when Mussolini, cleared much of the area, primarily to open up the space and build the Via Dei Fori Imperiali. This is the wide avenue that runs between the Roman Forum and Trajan and Augustus' Forums, from the Colosseum to Il Vittoriano. He wanted a vast avenue on which to parade his troops. The only benefit is that they are now beginning to excavate the lawn areas on either side of the road and discovering many new buildings. This put everything into perspective for us, and made it easier later in the week, when we had time to wander the entire area. For now however, we only had another half an hour to explore Augustus and Trajan's Forums before the heavens opened up. We stood under the trees beside Caesars Statue while we ate our rolls, hoping that the showers would pass. It just set in. We had left our jackets and umbrella back at the hotel (we always do when it rains).
With no hope of it clearing up, we were close enough to Il Vittoriano, that we decided to take shelter there, and visit the Monet exhibition. Surprise, surprise. We missed Monet in Paris, and this wasn't the L'Orangerie exhibition that is on tour while they are renovating. It is a collection made up of privately owned and other museum loans. It was a fabulous exhibit because it had such a fantastic cross section of his work. From early to late, from coast to countryside, from France to London (the Parliament and Waterloo Bridge paintings-fantastic), from summer to winter, from sunny to stormy. One of the best exhibits we have ever seen. We spent many hours going back and forth. Eventually we had to leave, and it was still pouring. Bugger!!!, had to relent and buy an umbrella from a Pakindian. Ten thousand lira ($8.50) for such a cheap shoddy umbrella, that I later saw in a shop around the corner from our pensione for 5,000 lira. We both huddled under the umbrella for the first couple of hundred meters up Via Cavour, and then I decided we would make much better progress if I walked close to the buildings, and only got a little wet. Two kilometres later, we were back in our pensione. Cooked again. Steamed asparagus, butter, pepper and Grand Padano. The mince from the remaining two Italian sausages, diced Pancetta, finely diced fennel, garlic, yellow pepper and a tin of tomatoes (that does it, I've been patriotic long enough, tinned tomatoes are not just tinned tomatoes, Italian tinned tomatoes are sensational.), served over Barilla "Fusilli Bucati Lungi" which Ches calls "Niclole Kidman". It is pasta like spaghetti but curly like her hair, and it is long and curved back on itself.
