10th May 2000 Rome
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2000
1
14
81
Trip End
Aug 09, 2000
Rome,
Italy
Thursday, February 27, 2003
We finally discovered the "bus and metro" ticket. For 6,000 lira each, we had a ticket that could be used all day on either busses or metro trains. How many pairs of feet could we have saved wearing out in the previous three days. We must have been averaging 6 kilometres just in getting around, not to mention actually being on our feet for 8 hours or so. We took the 40, which is the express to the Vatican. Only an Irishman could have been involved in naming a bus that travels through the heart of Rome, an "express". We arrived down the street from St Peter's, and were suitably impressed as we walked toward it. We suddenly became conscious of the fact that there were some thousands of other pedestrians descending on it. Low and behold, it was a major "audience" day, with tens of thousands of people being screened through hundreds of security gates, and seated in the Piazza.
Change of plans. We worked around the Vatican walls, beside the street that I had driven down when entering Rome on Saturday, till we came to the entrance to the Vatican Museum. We spent the day here. We discovered that many rooms or exhibitions close for periods during the day. We don't know if it is to relieve staff for a lunch break or what. What we do know, is that you can be heading toward an exhibit, and find the staircase or room roped off, and pass by hours later and find it open. We had several snack breaks in the museum, as we did our best to see all the 15th-18th century art, the Egyptian Museum, Etruscan Museum, Greek and Roman statuary, the Raphael Rooms and of course, the Sistine Chapel. Toss up as to which was the highlight for me. Either the Sistine Chapel or Michaelangelo's unfinished painting of St Jerome??????? Probably the latter. An amazing emaciated head, and the muscle/sinew definition of the right shoulder, which is all that is completed. It is probably that the rest of the painting is only blocks of colour over the sketch lines that provides the contrast, and highlights the strength of his painting of "anatomy". We were in grave danger of being totally overwhelmed by everything. Your senses are totally overloaded. Managed to get the best seat in the house in the Sistine Chapel. A bench in the middle of the room. We sat for 20 minutes or more, gazing upward, and working through the "map" of the ceiling. Very quietly placed my finger over the red light on my video, pointed it ceilingward, and filmed for some minutes. Highly illegal, but I inherited my grandmother's genes.
We bussed home, showered and changed, and headed off to "Checchino", our first "plate" restaurant, and the restaurant that has specialised in traditional roman offal dishes since 1887. This was our first trip on the Metro. They only have three lines, which radiate out from the Termini, which is only 500 meters from our pensione. You can't help but compare it with the metro in Paris, and it just doesn't compare. Occasional stench of "pee", grubby walls, floors, everything. The trains make the Manhattan subway look pristine. The entire outside of every carriage is "tagged", most of the glass windows have been scratched (a new form of tagging), and the seats torn and tagged. A very grubby experience. We didn't experience any attempt at pickpocketing, unlike Paris, where it was only the vigilance of a fellow passenger who stopped a young girl from dipping into Cheryl's handbag. We hopped off at "Piramide" and exited the station to see the Pyramid itself, surrounded by traffic. Amazing that something built by a rather minor official managed to survive intact. Then again, it's his mausoleum. With map of Rome clutched in my hand, we set off into the unknown. After a detour through a street full of panel beaters and small factories, there it is. The most unlikely spot for a restaurant, and no wonder when paying the bill that they ask if you require a taxi.
We were the first to arrive, and felt a little uncomfortable sitting with the entire staff lined up waiting to serve. The restaurant is shaped like an aircraft hanger-semicircular. Immaculately painted, carpeted and every dining table had an accompanying serving table- round and set lower that the dining table. Every table set with a vase of yellow roses. The round ceiling had a most peculiar effect. At various times during the night, as the restaurant filled up, we could hear certain voices so clearly, it was as if they were sitting at our table. We would look down the far side of the restaurant, to identify whose lips were in sync with the voice we could hear. Truly peculiar. Service was 5 star. In particular, we were amazed by the wine waiter. Having assisted in the selection, he would then bring out the appropriate number of suitable glasses. Pour a drop into one glass, swirl it to coat the inside of the glass, then pour it into the next glass and repeat, and so on for all glasses. For one group, he even brought out his own tasting glass, tasted it, and decided that the glasses he had selected weren't appropriate. He then changed all six glasses, and resumed the routine. Ches had Veal Trotter Salad, Pasta and Bean Soup, Baby Lamb Hunter Style (which was the plate dish), and Panna Cotta. I had Calf's Head Cheese, Spaghetti with Ewe's Milk Cheese and Pig's Cheek, Oxtail Stew, and Gorgonzola with Unprocessed Honey and a glass of Marsala. Espresso to finish. Fantastic. Worth the wait for the past two years.
