Day 84-85: Rome

We got out of Naples as quickly as we could. Who could blame us? The streets were dirty, the cars and motorcycles appeared to target us, and we had bedded with bed bugs. Our experience in the city, save the pizza and our trip to Pompeii, had been a disaster.

We took the short 1.5 hour train ride into Rome and stepped off of the train in high spirits. Rome is the only city on our trip that we have previously visited (with Daryl’s family in March of this year) and it felt welcoming and familiar. We walked the 30 minutes with our bags to Campo de Fiori, the market area where our apartment was located.

We were greeted by Alessandro the owner, and a very thoughtful birthday card from Daryl’s sister that she had sent all the way from Australia. Alessandro toured us around the very cute studio apartment, which features symmetrical loft spaces on each end that act as the bedrooms. He pointed out some areas of interest and then took his leave. While we were pretty exhausted from the walk over, we decided it was best not to sit on anything until we had laundered all of our clothes (re: bed bug incident). We unpacked any non-cloth items from our luggage and left those in the apartment. Everything else we lugged to the other side of Campo de Fiori to a laundromat. We spent the next two hours washing and drying every article of clothing we brought on the trip, save the clothes we were wearing. Poor Daryl…what a crappy way to spend the afternoon of your birthday.

When we returned to the apartment, we put the outfits we were wearing in a sealed plastic bag and showered to ensure any last trace of the bugs were oblitereated. Finally, Daryl’s birthday celebrations could commence. He got his traditional birthday poem and a new leather wallet (from the leather school in Florence). We then set out to enjoy some gelato at our favourite joint in Rome, Gelateria del Teatro (once again, thanks to Virtual Guide Dave for the suggestion).

Afterwards, we did some strolling, stopping by the Piazza Navona and taking in the Four Rivers statue completed by the god of Baroque-sculpture, Bernini. The Piazza was packed with people buying art, eating gelato, and listening to the street musicians. We looked for our favourite street artist, but couldn’t find him. We resolved to search him out again later in our stay.

We then continued on to the Pantheon, which is one of our favourite sites in Rome. It is a true engineering masterpiece. Daryl likes to stop by about once a day and just gaze up at the dome. Unfortunately, he makes a funny face when he does so (kind of like a hockey player checking out his stats on the jumbotron).

*In all fairness, I told him to make a funny face

We picked up some groceries and headed home. Once there, we remembered that one of my sweaters had appeared to shrink as a result of the washing. It should never have gone in the dryer, but we didn’t want to take any chances with the bed bugs. When we examined it again, we realized that it had shrunk a lot, not just a little.

 *I really liked the sweater and decided to give it a go…not even close

Later, we struck out once more for Daryl’s birthday dinner at Alfredo and Ada’s, a really small and cute restaurant that we discovered on our last trip. It was exactly as we remembered. There is no menu. Instead, Alfredo lists off 2 or 3 pasta dishes for your 1st course, or Primi, and then once you are finished, he returns and lists off another 2 or 3 meat dishes for your 2nd course, or Secondi. We both started with Carbonara (an egg and bacon pasta), followed by the veal for me and the beef for Daryl. The meal was accompanied by some house red wine (vino de cassa rosso) and finished with biscotti. Our favourite sidekick, Leonardo, was even there to slyly top up our carafe of wine when Alfredo wasn’t looking. It was a great cap to the day, and hopefully for Daryl a marked improvement from the activities of the morning and early afternoon.

*Primi course (taken with iPhone…sorry about picture quality)

Today, we started with a trip to Campo de Fiori to check out the market. Unfortunately, most stalls where closed since it was Sunday (should have guessed). We continued through the major sights of Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain (see picture) to find the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, which houses a statue by Bernini that we had missed on our previous trip. The statue, The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, is quite famous and considered one of the sculptural masterpieces of the High Baroque period (details here).

We then continued up into the Villa Borghese, the large park space to the north of central Rome, where the Galleria Borghese is housed. This museum, which was originally a villa of Cardinal Borghese, contains many famous sculptures and pieces of art that the Cardinal himself commissioned. It is particularly cool because you get to see very beautiful art in a very beautiful villa in the setting for which it was designed. The museum houses three of the most famous works by Bernini (I am a little obsessed): The Rape of Proserpina (details here), David (details here), and Apollo and Daphne (details here). Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed, but I have included photographs from other sources to give you an idea of Bernini’s skill.

*The Rape of Proserpina

*Bernini's David

 *Apollo and Daphne

We slowly walked back to the apartment, taking our time winding through the streets and stopping at shops here and there. At this point, I was feeling rather sick (I have been coming down with a cold for a few days and it seems to have reached its pinnacle). Once back at the apartment, Daryl struck out alone to round up the rest of the ingredients for our dinner. The rest of the evening will be spent in the comforts of our apartment, reading and trying to overcome illness. Tomorrow is another day! (I just finished reading Gone With the Wind, so I felt that ending was appropriate).