THE LAST DAY IN ITALY

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The last day in Italy would be as jammed packed as any other day on this trip. The only difference, we slept in until 8 and went down to breakfast at 10. So, we started our day about an hour behind what we had planned, but it was fine since it was our last day and we intended on exploring parts of Rome yet seen.

It was already hot and humid, so one more day of being wet all day. The first stop was to be the Palazzo Barberini, just 2 blocks from our hotel, we changed that because the only time sensitive place on our agenda today was the Basilica San Celemente, the last church of the trip. It was near the colosseum, but on the opposite side of where we were the first part of the trip. We headed to the Metro and then walked to the Basilica. It closed at 12:30, with the last admission at 12.

The reason San Celemente was on the list, is because not only was it a 12^th century church but it was built on top of a 4^th century church, which was build over a 2^nd century pagan temple to the god Mithras and 1^st century Roman apartments. It is possible to see all three levels. We Arrived at the basilica at 11:55 and were third in line, however it true Italian style they closed the window after the person currently there paid for the ticket. It was not twelve so we should have still gotten in, but you can’t argue with the Italians. As we were walking out of the church, the bell began to ring 12 times, so our suspicion that we had in fact arrived in time was confirmed by the church itself.

A bit disappointed but determined to still make the best of our day, we headed to the next stop Piazza Della Repubblica, then lunch. We walked from the basilica to the colosseum and back on to the Metro. To annoying things to note here. First, how many times to you have to tell someone “no we are not going to the coliseum” before they stop harassing you. If I am going in, I will go to the ticket booth, stop trying to sell me something I don’t want or need. Second, the metro ticket said it was good for 100 minutes, it had been less than 60 since we had purchased the ticket but yet, had to buy another one. It’s a small thing, but if your going to put something like that in English, then it should be true.

We took the metro to Piazza della Repubblica, this is a large roundabout that is often the first thing people see when they are walking from the train station. The central focus is the statue in the middle of the roundabout, “Fontana del Naiadi”. We walked around the piazza and then down via Nazionale until we came to Via delle Quarttro Fontane, this was the street the place for lunch was on. We had originally wanted to have lunch in a place near the coliseum, which is supposed to be the best pizza in Rome, unfortunately it is only open for dinner. So, instead we opted for a place we found searching online called Berzitello Ristorante. Turned out to be a perfect choice, we were the only non-Italian in the place.

Pizza

We both ordered a pizza, Jerry had a margherita with prosciutto and I had a carpaccio (spelling is not correct). My pizza had artichokes pepperoni, prosciutto and other vegetables. Both were very good, best pizza since the one we made ourselves. I had a couple of glasses of wine with lunch.

After our lunch we headed back out on to Via delle Quarttro, at the top of the hill was an intersection that had a fountain on each corner. Next to the intersection was a small church called San Carline. We were unable to go in but did get some pictures from the outside. From here we walked down the Via del Quirinale until we arrived at the Piazza del Quirinale. This is a major piazza that houses the constitutional court and the presidential palace. It is on the highest of the seven hills of Rome. You could tell we were in a more politically sensitive area because of the large police and military presence. We managed to arrive at the changing of the guard, not the pomp and circumstance of Buckingham Palace, but interesting.

From the palace we walked down the hill, while many tour groups were walking up, wrong direction in my opinion. This brought us back to Via Corso, close to Piazza Venezia, near where we stayed on the first part of our trip. Here we were going to go into Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, the family still lives in part of it, but opted to go back and do the Palazzo Barberini that we had skipped at first.

We walked up Via Corso until it interested with Via triton, this lead right back to our hotel. We stopped and got a nice cold bottle of wine, to have later. Then we went back to the hotel, took a quick break and then off to the Palazzo.

Palazzo Barberini, is one of Rome’s more splendid 17^th century palaces done in the Baroque style. Pope Urban VIII acquired it and gave it to his nephew who turned it into the splendor it is today. The palace is quite large, but again, not the decadence of Versailles or Chambord. It is primarily an art museum, so you don’t get much since of what the initial purpose of the rooms were, except for a very brief description. The main focus was on the art and the paintings on the ceiling. The grandest room of all was the Gran Salone, a very large central room, likely ballroom that had a large painting on the ceiling by Pietro da Cortona (considered by some the third greatest painter of the Roman Baroque period). The painting is entitled Glorification of Urban VIII’s Reign, so very slanted to the supposed greatness of this Pope.

This concluded our activities for the day. We headed back to the hotel hoping to use the roof top pool, unfortunately the pool was small and it was full of the young “Beautiful” people. When did people under 30 suddenly get all this money. It has taken us years to be able to travel the way we do, and we still are as economical as possible, yes, we have our splurges, but certainly didn’t when we were 30 something.

So instead of the pool, we went back to our room and enjoyed some wine and relaxed before we headed out to the final dinner of the trip. In continuation with our theme, our last dinner would be at the oldest restaurant in Rome, La Campana.

La Campana

If it wouldn’t have been our last night and not so humid, we would have made the 20-minute walk through the streets of Rome. However, at the end of a trip, the luxury of a taxi is well deserved. When we got in the taxi we must have said bona sera with the exact correct accent, because he evidently thought we spoke Italian as he just talked non-stop the entire trip and we didn’t understand a word he was saying.

We arrived a bit early, so Jerry took some pictures. When we entered it was not at all what we expected, it didn’t have the feel of the oldest restaurant in Rome and was very brightly lit. We were escorted to a dining room off the main dining room. The room was a mix of locals and unfortunately one very large tour group, who were loud not property dressed and had children. They treated the dinning room as if it was in their house. Not a good start to the last dinner.

We put that out of our minds an ordered the final glass of prosecco of the trip. We toasted to a great vacation and the trips to come. We then dove into the menu. We had an English menu, but actually asked for the Italian one (actually Jerry just got up and got one.) Sometimes the English translation just doesn’t capture the dish, such as Amatriciana on the English menu just says tomato sauce and basil, when it fact it is the best sauce of the trip.

We made our decisions and ordered our meal.

Starters:

*Stuffed Zucchini Flowers – not as good as the first night nor as good as what we made in Bologna, but still tasty.
*Arancini - Stuffed rice balls, this was the first time the entire trip we ordered any, they were good just needed red sauce.

Primi:

*Rigatoni Amatriciana – the last of the trip, it had to be ordered, was good but not like others we have had.
*Ravioli stuffed with Ricotta in a butter sage sauce - again very tasty, but just ok.

Entrees:

*Jerry had the grilled sole. When done right this is one of our favorite dishes, the best we ever had was in our last night in Paris a in 2016. This was good, but did not have the depth of flavor, why you may ask, no sauce. Which should have been just a light white wine butter sauce.
*I had what was suppose to be the roast baby lamb, what it was, over cooked roast suckling pig. So very try and very little flavor.

Dessert:

Jerry had of all things an orange pie, it was ok, and I had wild strawberries with ice cream. It is pretty clear that we are at the end of strawberry season as these were the worst of the trip.

We did have a nice bottle of Barolo with dinner.

Overall it was a bit disappointing for the last dinner of the trip, but those are the chances you take when you choose to dine at the oldest place in the city. Sometimes it just isn’t the establishment that is old, but it is everything about it that is tired and old and past its prime. Not that it could not be outstanding under a new chef, as long as they stuck with traditional Roman food and didn’t go all fusion on you.

After dinner we walked to the Tiber river then along it until we found a taxi stand. The taxi driver was very scary, buy he didn’t kill us so it was ok.

And thus, ends our last full day in Rome, all that is left is the plane ride home.

Dish of the Day: Pizza

Site of the Day: Palazzo Barberini

Stopped counting steps in Pisa.

Next entry Prologue to Italy.

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Photos

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Fountains Via Delle Quarttro Fontane

Pizza
Dish of the Day

Arancini
Where is the sauce for gods sake