Good Friday the Third

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Although we managed to get to sleep not long after 9:00, John was up early and took a walk – to Campo di Fiori, then Piazza Navona, then Forte San Angelo, then Piazza Vaticano, then back to the hotel – with some great pictures of the moon rising on Good Friday over the Vatican. We had a wonderful breakfast on the roof of the hotel, overlooking the morning sun and the “wedding cake” (Vittorio Emmanuel’s huge monument dedicated to the unknown soldier).

After a planning session for the day, we walked over to Campo di Fiori to look at the produce (fabulous with large amounts of artichokes), flowers (always beautiful) and miscellaneous clothing items for sale. On our way east we stopped at the San Andrew, a beautiful church with a bas relief of Andrew blessed by the holy spirit. It is a wonderful not-too-heavy-duty baroque church. As we continued our walk we came to the Trevi Fountain (being repaired) and stopped to look at a shoe store highly recommended by a friend from Mill Valley. She drops by for a new pair of shoes every trip to Rome. The store sells wonderfully designed but inexpensive shoes. And we came back later to purchase a pair for John!

Our destination was the Palazzo Barbarini with its incredible collection of paintings. What a huge palace, multiples stories set in a large park, with a large reception hall and too many rooms to count. The paintings were wonderful, with some new names we were not used from previous visits to other museums. And there were a few pieces we recognized: a beautiful Giovanni Bellini of Christ looking straight out of the picture, and three busts of the Barbarinis as bishop and cardinal and pope. There was also an exhibit of the sketches Bernini did for various pieces of art and architecture, including the Ecstasy of St Mary (at Santa Maria Vittoria down the street), the high altar of St Peter’s Basilica, various fountains and lots of buildings and men and women’s bodies. We had started counting the Bernini’s we had seen and were up to about 20 as of end of Thursday. But with the walk to the Barbarini (we passed the Triton Fountain), John’s walk this morning (the bridge to San Angelo has 8 Bernini statues gracing its crossing) and the visit to his sketches, we were into the hundreds and simply had to quit.

However, we were determined to see the Ecstasy and made our way to the little church where we were let in by the priest and folks after us were told the church was closing for the Good Friday celebration. So we saw the sculpture (exquisite and under renovation) and were let out through the Sacristy and the padre’s rectory. Very special.

Hungry we made our way up the Via Veneto to a terrific little restaurant – Vladimiro Ristorante – on Via Aurora across from the palazzo now the Swiss Embassy. The view was wonderful, the food was terrific (Peggy had the Roman special pepper pasta and John had pasta with artichokes). The waiter, Ramazan, was from Turkey (southeastern and a Kurd) so we had some enjoyable conversation about Turkey. But somehow he was able to persuade us to try the special dessert – tiramisu made at the table. It was very rich, very filling, and terrific.

We tried to walk off the meal on our way home, stopping at the top of the Spanish Steps where Peggy found a set of earings with ancient coins (Constantine II, who divided up the Roman Empire and then tried to conquer Italy, only to be repelled and killed in an ambush by his brother). Great story and great earings.



On our return to the hotel we stopped for a nice blouse, a cheap but good looking pair of shoes, and a simple leather belt (Peggy got the blouse and John the shoes and belt). What a day, and we still had a walk to dinner and the evening in front of us. We took our time, stopping in Piazza Navona to Skype Mary Suydam and check into the art (extensive collection of caricatures and Italian scenes. We arrived at the restaurant – Osteria del Pegno – a little early and sat down to a terrific meal. The owner was most generous with his attention and the chef was perfect in his preparation. Peggy had gluten-free pasta with shrimp and asparagus and John had gluten-free pasta with artichoke. Both were the best we had ever tasted. Combine that with the vegetables, broccoli and artichokes, and a fine amarone from Valpolicceli in northern Italy, and it was a happy evening. Quiet walk home and we relaxed into bed.

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