Travel Blog: If All Roads Lead to Rome...

If All Roads Lead to Rome...

...then all roads in Rome lead to: a church, a piazza, a restaurant or a gelateria!

Since it is so busy at this time of year, we had already figured to stay away from the major sites like the Colosseum and the Forum, so our plan was to start off at Castel Sant' Angelo and then head toward St. Peter's Square and see if we could get into the Basilica. After a very nice buffet breakfast in a little outside courtyard on the 2nd floor of the hotel, we grabbed our stuff - hats, sunglasses, sunscreen and cameras, and headed out before the crowds could start getting too heavy.

It almost seemed like a Catholic holiday we didn't know about. Walking down the via Condotti, the street with the highest proportion of designer shops in Rome (such as Gucci being across from Tiffany's), we barely passed a dozen people in 15 minutes! Some of the stores were even open, waiting for customers. But we had places to go and things to do...

We arrived at Castel Sant' Angelo to find hardly anyone there, so we bought our entrance tickets and started on the tour. This fortress was originally built to be a tomb monument for the Emperor Hadrian. He died in 275 before it was completed and his successor finished the building. Subsequent emperors converted it into a fortress and prison. Hadrian wasn't necessarily liked much, so at one point his remains and the decoration in the mausoleum room were removed and destroyed, and the room became a prison. Even the artist and sculptor Bernini spent some time there before he got an artist's reprieve. Good thing - otherwise we wouldn't have pieces like the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona. Castel Sant' Angelo became a pontifical residence in about 600 A.D. and various popes made changes to the rooms and the decor. Pope Paul III seems to have done quite a bit, and this is much of what is still in place today.

There is apparently a tunnel between the Vatican and Castel Sant' Angelo, but they don't show the tourists where it is or may have been. Apparently it was used during the Sack of Rome by Pope Clement VII to sneak out of the Vatican to a safer haven.

Here are some photos:

The Ponte Sant' Angelo

Buildings on the inner walls

The sign pretty much says it all about the floors

The mausoleum room. That little bright white spot in the
lower right is the only piece of marble left in the place.

Angel Michele, or Michael. One of about 6 that
have at some time graced the top of the Castel.
This one was moved into a courtyard before it
could be destroyed by lightning.

In the Courtyard of the Angel, this window gives
light to the papal chapel. It is one of the first
architectural designs by Michelangelo

This is a small bar/snack area on the highest outdoor level.
There is also a restaurant with dinner service. That would be interesting.

The ceiling frescoes inside the Papal Library

The view from the terrace, looking along the
Via della Conciliazione toward St. Peter's Basilica

After leaving the Castel Sant' Angelo, we decided to check out St. Peter's. The concierge at the hotel said that Larry wouldn't be able to get in wearing shorts (just above the knee) but we wondered if the dress code wasn't relaxed a little in high summer and thought we'd take a chance. In the end, it wasn't the dress code but the hour-long lineup to get through the metal detectors that put us off going inside. But, again, we had seen it twice already and wouldn't be missing much. Pope Francis has changed a lot of things, but we don't think he's started to redecorate the Basilica just yet.

Of course, in keeping with the current theme, we did have to find some more scaffolding:

One of the fountains in St. Peter's Square is under restoration,
so the other one is turned off, too.

Just to say he's been there - again

Having decided that meandering back through the spider-web of little streets and piazzas would be much more entertaining than standing in line, we headed back across the river and in the general direction of the Piazza Navona. From previous experience, we knew that there were some good restaurants in the streets around the piazza and thought that would be a good spot for lunch.

At the Osteria dell' Anima. The building across the
street with the vines on it is the Raphael Hotel - even
more exclusive than the Hassler.

The Fountain of the Four Rivers, a Bernini masterpiece

Looking back on the Piazza Navona

Continuing on after our bruschetta and pizza lunch, which was quite delicious, we found ourselves in the Piazza Campo de' Fiori. This square is known for its market, so we checked out some of the stalls:

From there we worked our way around to the Pantheon, where the crowd was a little larger but not too bad. No lineup to get in, either. Every time we see it we marvel at the fact that this huge dome, 143 ft across, was poured in concrete in the 120s A.D.! Talk about marvels of engineering for their time. Rapahel's tomb is here.

It was then time to head back to our hotel, but not before dessert - more gelato, of course! We passed so many gelaterias that it was almost a problem to pick a good one. We must have lucked out with the one we chose, since this is what we ended up with:

Don't worry, we shared it - and the cup of crema, or whipped cream, the waiter delivered to go with it. And don't be concerned about us eating too much. The temperature has been somewhere around 30° C and the humidity much higher than what we've been used to at home, so we've been a little damp to say the least. We also both hit 10,000 steps on our fitbits by then, and we had yet to climb to Spanish Steps to get 'home'.

See? More scaffolding. This is covering the Church of Trinita di Monti. By the way, there are 133 Spanish Steps in total, in case anybody is interested.

After preparing for the evening, we went up to the Terrazza for a pre-dinner cocktail. The drinks may be a little on the expensive side, but Monica's Campari and Soda would have been at least 2 drinks at home. While we were up there the clouds that had been forming since we got back thickened and started to spew some thunder, lightning and a little rain.

Clouds brewing over St. Peter's before the rain started

We had planned to have dinner on the Terrazza but that wasn't going to work. As we were trying to figure out what else to do, the rain really started to come down and the staff moved the dinner service into the Caffe de Ville, the lobby bar area of the hotel. It is set up to take meal service if the weather is not too good. The staff were excellent, as was our dinner, which finished off with Tiramisu. Was it good?