Bella Roma

After being in Europe for 2.5 years Barrie still hadn’t been to Rome. So for Easter 2007 we thought we’d spend this Christian holiday in the most Christian of Christian cities, Rome.

We arrived on Good Thursday night and shared a cab into town with a nice French couple who could thankfully speak a little Italian. Our hostel turned out to be Mamma’s house. A large apartment where Mamma, Pappa, daughter and granddaughters lived in the centre of Roma. It was charming.

Contrary to what you might think, everything is open on Good Friday in Roma, except St Peter’s. So first stop, the Vatican Museum. A few hours later after being Moo’ed through the amazing artworks, gardens and architecture, we emerged impressed and hungry. We found a cute little alfresco pizza place down a pretty deserted side street and Barrie enjoyed his first Roman pizza.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city visiting all the main sites, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps etc. Just wandering through the streets, finding little squares and exploring the markets.

That night we thought we’d try out one of the local restaurants to our hostel (as we had the night before) and we weren’t disappointed.

On Easter Saturday the shops all close at noon and Barrie had his eye on a new leather jacket. Of course, this shop was just closed. So we wandered back down to St Peter’s to visit the largest cathedral in the world. And fear not, Barrie did not spontaneously combust as he walked over the threshold. Although I did detect a mild sulphur aroma…

After that we made our way down to the Coloseum and took a tour. It’s pretty impressive when you think that once upon a time it was one of the most prominent buildings in Rome and today it’s presence is still imposing.

We dined a little further a field that night, but not that far. By now I had eaten my body weight in meat and pasta and wasn’t sure that having both a primi and secondi every night was actually necessary. Eh, I can eat lettuce when I get home.

On Easter Sunday we avoided St Peter’s. I wouldn’t have minded swanning past to hear the Pope, but when I saw the set up and realised that once you were in you weren’t coming out and reconciled it with the fact that the service would all be in either Latin, Italian or Polish, I conceded. Barrie was suitably relieved, as he had been hammering his horns back into his head for fear of being recognised by old Popey.

So we spent the day on a tour of Palantine Hill with a pregnant Irish tour guide. Of course. In the afternoon we crossed the river to a part of the city that I can’t remember the name of, it’s where all the locals go for a good feed. We found most of the places closing up for the afternoon as most of them had been filled with entire families for the festive day. We finally found a place that was happy to feed us and had a lovely late lunch in the sun. We then decided to try and make our way to some gardens that Baz had found where we could apparently watch an amazing sunset. We’re pretty confident we didn’t find it, but we did find a garden to chill in, until it started raining. That night we meandered back through the forgotten named and found a really lively square to have dinner in. It had been our mission to have Roman Artichokes, cooked the traditional way. And of course we found it, in the most expensive restaurant in the square. But damn it was good!

It’s traditional in Rome to go to the Villa Doria Pamphilli gardens on Easter Monday for a picnic of percorino cheese and red wine. So that’s what we did. It’s a bit of a way outside the city, but it was beautiful. We ate cheese, drank wine, watched ducks, geese and turtles, watched children try and kill the turtles and then each other. It was the perfect way to end our holiday. Perfectly relaxed.

---

---

---