7DaysInRome

Touring: Sites, Shops, Piazzas ~ Piatti / Plates ~ Chiesas / Churches ~ Places / Side Trips
Wow Moments ~ Portfolio: ~ Views/End Notes The Book

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The Tour Plates

Wow Portfolio

The Book

Churches

Views

Places & Side Trips

*This page shows "side trips" outside the central historic Rome, or those places I explored on my own. I also "had a thing" about capturing the Colosseum in all it's diverse moods, especially with those golden arches lit against a twilight sky. Below are a few of those images.

Vatican

Piazzas & Fountains:
*P. Navona     *P. Spagna
*Fiori Market

Trastevere       Castelo San Angelo

Beach       Colosseum

See other places at Wow Moments:
*Ostia Antica *Catacombs

*A little anecdote
regarding a "side" trip in a taxi back from a distant piazza:

Remember all the clichéd taxi rides in movies, especially in Italy? The hair-raising rides that speed through narrow streets, swerve around other speeding cars, and the cabbie has his head turned around, talking back at you? This ride was like that, minus the talking cabbie. I swear, with 3 cars vying for 2 lanes, the car next to us was 4" from my door handle. As a hometown reporter noted when in Italy, lock your seat belt, put your helmet on, and don't say anything.

The Vatican Museum is a looong building, approx. 4 blocks full of hallways and inner rooms. The tapestries, ceiling murals and huge maps of ancient Rome are impressive. Raphael's paintings are my favorite, altho one of his main rooms was closed off. Also impressive is the Sistiine Chapel ceiling - with Michaelangelo's realism in contrast with Raphael's idealism.		Fountain in St. Peter's Square The doors to St. Peter's Basilica are being prepared for Pope Francis to open them on World Prayer Day.

Piazzas - offering fountains, musicians, artists, and the occasional buggy ride, too. Piazza Navona, everyone's favorite square	Piazza Spagna	Piazza Navona The Fountain Of The Four Rivers

back to Top Vegies arranged as bouquet, or cut into curly-ques.	Campo de Fiori is a large open piazza that hosts a market in the mornings. What a market! Italian cooking is known for its freshness and here, I can see why. It all looked so rich. And I found the balsemic vinegar I was looking for - thick as honey, dark, and so flavorful. It was almost Halloween and the pumpkins were everywhere.	Below are lined up jug after jug of flavored liquors, free tastes just for the asking. There were lemoncello, amaretto, strawberry, various fruits, and honey. I tried a few, but thought honey was the best. The others generally had a higher alcohol content. But then I tried grappa. Whew! "47% alcohol", the man said. No more for me.
	I had asked Stephanie how to get to Trastevere, so she walked with me to the square, pointed me to the river and helped get me oriented from the market. Getting there was fun, but getting back was a mix-up.
Ponte Sisto is a walking bridge and is easy to cross to the other side. Trastevere is like a hill town with its winding cobbled streets, tiny shops, and open squares. I found a wonderful shop with leather-bound, handmade paper books; old-style compasses, sextants, globes,telescopes, and jewelry displayed in antique cabinets. I bought a small kaleidoscope that reminded me of the rose windows I saw in cathedrals. "Is it a gift?" asked the clerk. "Only for me," I said. But it was wrapped in a special bag and stamped closed with sealing wax. Bella!

Trastevere
The squares are lively and it always seems someone is waving large bubbles for the kids. Musicians set up a spontaneous show and "living statues" pose for the crowds.	Suddenly I realized it was getting late, getting dark, and I needed to find my way back before our dinner that night. Too far to walk, I looked for the bus stop and asked directions several times. Too confusing with my very limited Italian (some said it would have taken 4 transfers) and I decided to walk as far as the nearest square on the other side. But that was confusing, too, and I turned back.
	I crossed the bridge 4 times before heading back to Campo Fiori. On the way, I found a bus and made it back to the hotel in time. But in spite of the dilemma, I found those who knew English (and those who didn't) to be very helpful.

	Later, Susan and I went back to Trastevere. It was Halloween and the kids were out in costume and crowds filled the squares, as we searched for a special ristorante. We finally found it and took a table on the street. A whole bus actually squeezed down that narrow street, not inches from our table as we sat outside the door at Tony's Place. (more about this place: Piatti.) .Opposite our table was another restaurant where a guitarist and his friend sat and played for us. His style seemed sorta jazzy, with staccato vocals and beating and strumming the guitar at the same time. Very entertaining!

Castel Sant'Angelo Always curious about this ancient fortress, I wanted to see it close up and walk the Bridge of Angels. The guy sitting on the ground at left of the wall must have been on his "acting" break. He was covered in metallic clothes and blue paint from head to foot. Altho I didn't go inside, I explored it's outer ring (inside the round wall), which is now a cobbled walkway lined with planters.		The Beach The Tyrrhenian Sea was a sparkling teal when we arrived and the bus parked by the main pier, which just happened to have a gelato shop on either side of the street. What a treat! As was also playing with a new puppy I met on the pier. "Sit'a for the camera," the man said, and the puppy did. Very cute.The beach was a great interlude, though the temps were not for tanning and few people were there. Still, beautiful and refreshing. This side trip was part of our visit to Ostia Antica. After crossing the Bridge of Angels the road led to Via Governo, celebrated street of shopping. Beautiful, high-fashioned clothes shared space next door to motorcycle repair, or antiques, or high-end ristoranti next to a hodgepodge of housewares. Diners were served at tables in the street, chair-to-bumper of cars or scooters. Below: street cafe, stained-glass gift shop, fixing cycles in the street , antiques, & display of souvenir tiles and postcards. I couldn't decide which one to get, so snapped a photo. Now I have all of them.

Last night: Our final group dinner together ended at a ristorante near the park above the Colosseum. Coming back, a few of us split from the group to climb some very steep, tall steps and circle around the block, through the park and meet the others again at the corner below. Very dark under the trees. "Night people" slept on the ground, but no one else was around. Suddenly the path ended at a tall iron gate. Locked? Luckily, no. We slipped through and skipped down the path to just meet up with the others. Back at the hotel we rested and packed. On TV: a "spaghetti western" - Clint Eastwood with Shirley MacClaine on a mule, speaking Italian.	The pigeons loved my sandwich crusts and a flock of them followed me down the path.	above the Colosseum
The next morning's breakfast was full of good-byes and more travel plans. I later went back to the park for lunch, reading, and sketching. By day, this park is a beautiful natural habitat with hills, trails lined with benches, flower trellises, ivy-covered sculpture, tall, sculptural cypress and the iconic umbrella pines.

	the Colosseum* in some of its diverse moods...*
	Continuing:	Plates ~ Wow ~ Portfolio Back to Top