We arrived after an uneventful flight. Quite smooth actually
except for a few short bursts of choppy - of course those were just when dinner
or coffee were being served. Our transfer was waiting for us at the airport and
we had the treat of flying down the Italian Autostrada from Fumicino Airport to
downtown. Couldn't see just how fast we were going, but we didn't move out of
the passing lane very much! Carlo was a very good driver and had us to the
hotel in about 40 minutes.
Our hotel, the Intercontinental Hotel de la Ville, is right
next door to one of the THE most exclusive hotels in Rome, the Hotel Hassler,
at the top of the Spanish Steps. We don't have quite the same view over the
city from our itty bitty terrace, but the hotel has a very nice Terrace Bar/Restaurant
just down the hall from us and it is a beautiful lookout over the city from the
Spanish Steps across the river to one of the other two hills of Rome.
After taking a brief nap to get our second wind, we headed
out for a short walk around. As the nearest major attraction after the Spanish
Steps is the Trevi Fountain, we thought we'd head over there and check out just
how manic the crowds are at this time of year. Our previous trips have been in
May and September, outside of high tourist season, and we thought some of the
crowds were a little crazy then. That's nothing compared to late August! The
number of tour groups we passed, with guides holding up umbrellas and talking
into microphones for those AudioVox units were far too many to count.
We finally reached the Piazza di Trevi and found........you
guessed it! Scaffolding!!!!! We can now add yet another world site to our
'Scaffolding from around the world' collection. As we approached the piazza we
noticed high glass walls where the fountain should be, and when we got the full
view, we found this:
Even so, there must have been hundreds of people in the
piazza. It wasn't a huge deal to us, since we've already seen the fountain
twice, but for anyone on the trip of a lifetime, it must be a real let-down to
come to see the famous fountain and find most of the sculptures behind multiple
levels of scaffold. There is still a walkway over the empty fountain so people
can get closer to the figures and see what is being done, and also a small 'pool'
of fountain water with a sign "Throw Coins Here", but it certainly
isn't anything like the normal view.
We did, however, carry on our tradition. We stopped at one
of the Gelaterias and bought our first gelatos of the trip.
We meandered our way back via the Via del Corso and the
Piazza del Popolo, and decided to check out the Terrace. It is a beautiful spot
that serves drinks, wines and has an outdoor kitchen serving homemade pizzas
and a full dinner menu.
One of the wines Monica has always wanted to try but could
never find by the glass because of its price is the Banfi Brunello di
Montalcino. Fortunately it is available here, and it tastes superb.
Since we didn't know how long we would last before falling asleep, and the pizza
that another couple ordered looked really delicious, that's where we had our
dinner. Roman thin-crust Pizza Margherita with that view...well, you can see
for yourselves:
The sun has just set here and we have a couple of pictures
from our little terrace.
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| St. Peter's is the large dome farther away |
We're planning a fairly full day of walking for tomorrow
including Castel Sant' Angelo and St. Peter's, so it's best to get a good
night's sleep. See you tomorrow!
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