Good travel writing

The New York Times runs a great series of travel articles written by Matt Gross called The Frugal Traveller.

An article posted today has a great description of visiting Venice in Winter.  The article is heavy on describing travelling with a 6-week-old baby, but we non-parents can skip over those bits.  I will be noting down the hotel details for if we ever make it to Venice.

What got me turned on to this column was a 2007 series of a cross-country road trip in America.

To our English readers:  The American series give a great glimpse into the diversity and wonderfulness of small town America.

Rome – Next visit

Steve and I generally enjoy countryside travel much more than the big cities, but we both really enjoyed our time in Rome.  So much so that we would like to go back someday should the opportunity present itself.  Since there is so much to see in Rome, we think it wise to write down now what we want to see next.

• Catacombs  and Cappuccin Crypt – the more macabre side of Rome.  The  Catacombs of Priscilla look the most compelling.  Interestingly, the catacombs were one of the things  we didn’t quite make it to in Paris.  I think there is something about travelling in the winter that makes visits to caves unlikely.
• National Museum – this museum has an amazing amount of important stuff, which means that it is probably completely overwhelming.  It is very near the train station, and would make a good first or last stop if using the train station for transport.
• Vatican crypt – the crypt at the Vatican looks very interesting.  We didn’t ran out of time at the Vatican for a visit.
• Bags – a return trip must involve more bag shopping.
• Warmer weather – while going in the off season was perfect for a first visit, I’d like to have warmer weather on a return trip.  The sort of weather that encouraged sitting in parks and in squares people watching.
• Rome is full of impressive and historically important cathedrals.  There are at least two more that look very interesting.
  • Santa Maria Maggiore – Bernini is buried here
  • Santa Maria della Vittoria -  another Bernini statue of St Theresa in Ecstasy
• If we had a day trip we’d head to Ostia Antica, a port outside the city.  Along the way we’d stop at the practially named church, St Paul Outside the Wall.

Rome – Recommendations

Our #1 tip:  There is so much to see in Rome!  Pick a few key things you want to see and focus on taking enough time to really enjoy them.  We had one major thing each day, and anything else we did was just a bonus.

Sights

• The Borghese Gallery is a must-see.  It is squarely my favourite museum in the whole world (at this point).  It’s consumable size and cohesive collection was very enjoyable, even though I am no art expert.  You must book ahead, but it is worth it.
• The Vatican was really nice.  Allow plenty of time to not be rushed.

Food

• Take your Lactaid!  It is almost impossible to avoid dairy, but this is the place to splurge on dairy for all the cappuccinos, cheese and cream sauce.
• If you are trying to save money, stop at a market for a few picnic supplies and eat out at one of the monuments instead of restaurants or cafes.  It is hard to eat inexpensively and your evening meal is worth the splurge.
• We had a beautiful lunch (our main meal that day) at Osteria Margutta.  Expensive, but excellent.  We both had tortellini with truffles.  The best tortellini we’ve ever had.  Via Margutta 82 (06 361 1025)
• Pizzeria ‘Al Marmi’  Viale Trastevere 53  Low key pizza place – great atmosphere.

Hotel

• We would recommend our hotel.  Very well placed, clean, efficient and on a quiet street.  Hotel Smeraldo  www.smeraldoroma.com

Transport

• First thing pick up a big tourist map (the free one is fine).  The streets are not on a grid, and a good map is essential.
• Rome’s historic centre is very compact, and easily walk able.  The bus is great for taking you home after working your way across the city all day.  The Rick Steves’ book has plenty of bus information.
• The Fiumicino airport is very easy to use.  There is a train into the city centre for €11.  A bus from the main train station is easy to grab (identify why bus you’ll want to get to your hotel before leaving home).

Books

• As always the Rick Steves’ guidebook is an excellent source.  (we used Rick Steves’ Rome 2009)
• We also had a Blue Guide Rome, Ninth Edition, borrowed from a friend – it had extensive information on the many art museums and historical sites.  It is a good supplement to your primary guidebook if you are going to be spending significant time at several museums.  It good to study before you leave on your trip.  (just be aware is a heavy book to carry around all day)

Shopping

• I am a shoes and handbags girl and Rome was wonderful!  There were lots of small shops carrying high-quality, classic things.  If you are into this type of thing and can carve out some time to enjoy looking, and have some room in your budget, I really recommend it.
• Il Gancio  Leather bags.  Really nice simple things.  (I did not leave empty handed)  Via del Seminario 82-83  Right near the Pantheon.
• Il Bisonte  Really fabulous bags if you have at least €400 saved up.  (I, unfortunately, left empty handed)  Shop is on Via del Coronari
• Via del Coronari  Great street for window shopping among serious art and antique shops.
• Campo di Fiori  This was the neighbourhood our hotel was located in, and I found the shops to be a great mix of boutique and kitsch.
• The neighbourhood around the Spanish Steps has all the high end boutiques.  If you want to window shop don’t go on Saturday, it was a mob scene.  I read that there are gems in among the side streets, but it was just too crowded to be enjoyable…maybe it was better that way:-)

Rome Day 4 – The Colosseum

Sunday was our last day in Rome.  We had a late flight, so the whole day was open to explore.  We visited the main ancient sites (all within sight of each other, much like a university campus) then a couple of churches a bit further afield.  Lots of pictures at Flickr.

First, after some general wondering about, we visited the Mamerine Prison.  It is where Peter and Paul were imprisoned in Rome.  You are able to just walk right in.  It was amazing to be somewhere that you read so much about in the Bible. 

From there we headed over to the Colosseum.  It was crowded, but it didn’t bother me as it was a stadium, so it was like seeing it in its natural state.  It was another sunny, cold day, so reminded me of Memorial Stadium in the fall.

Then we explored the Forum a bit.  Lots of old stuff.  Oh, and we saw the Brits again.  Four days in a row.  Definitely creepy.

After having enough of the really old stuff, we set off to find a spot of pizza then up to San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains).  The church contains, you guessed it, the chains of St Peter.  It is actually more famous for the fabulous statue of Moses by Michelangelo.

We then made a quick dash over to San Giovanni in Laterano.  It was the first Christian church in Rome (A.D. 318) and is the home church of the Pope. 

The Holy Stairs are in a building across the street.  I remember seeing photos of people climbing the stairs on their knees when I was a very small child.

We took the bus back to get our bags at the hotel and head to the airport.  We got a taxi to the train station, which was a great experience of Italian driving.  Crazy.

We had a very late flight back to LHR, but everything went really smoothly, iris scan through passport control, we were one of the first bags off the carousel, the parking van came right away and the roads were wide open.

When we got home we had sandbags across the door, but we lifted the bags over,  happy to find the downstairs still dry.

Rome Day 3 – Borghese and Shopping

Saturday we had reservations to visit the Borghese museum.  The Borghese is a villa filled with a fabulous art collection acquired by the Borghese family, and now a publically owned and run as a museum.  The unique thing about the museum is that they strictly manage the number of visitors, by offering a set number of tickets for 2 hour sessions.  You must book the tickets in advance, which in a rare moment of holiday pre-planning, I actually accomplished.

We arrived at the museum and picked up our tickets.  We ran into the Brits again.  (the ones seated next to us at dinner on Thursday)  This was the third day in a row.  It was starting to get a little freaky.

The highlight of the museum, for us, were the Bernini sculptures.  Apollo and Daphne and The Rape of Proserpine.  Both were absolutely incredible.  The life likeness and detail were amazing.  The environment of the museum was really nice, we went straight upstairs to look at the paintings for the first half hour, and then came downstairs to look at the sculpture after the main crush of people had already see the main sculptures.  By the end of the two hour window we had the place practically to ourselves.  Anyway, can’t say enough about the Borghese, but they didn’t let us take cameras in, so no pics.

After the museum we walked over to the Spanish Steps.   Definitely overrated.

(self portrait interrupted by man selling flowers)

Then to lunch, a beautiful little restaurant tucked away on a side street.  We had the most amazing tortellini with truffles.  Really fabulous.  Best cream sauce I’ve ever had. 

Then it was time to work our way back to our hotel, oh, accidently having to walk through some prime shopping spots:-(   We did end up passing Tivoli fountain (right after passing the undercover cops nabbing a guy).  The second majorly overrated and overrun sight of the day (the fountain, not the takedown).  Most people toss a coin over their shoulder, hoping to return to Rome.  We hope we never return to this particular spot in Rome, so we passed on the tradition. 

I stopped in a handbag shop I had seen on our first day and came out with a souvenir of the trip. 

I also found a pair of black boots at a very old school shop.  I had looked all fall and winter for a pair of black boots, both in England and America and hadn’t found anything.  But I saw several in shop windows that would have worked, and the second pair fit.  I have rather scrawny calves and most bots gape, but these fit like a glove.  Now I can retire the pair I bought 8 years ago.

For dinner we went south across the river to the Trastevere neighbourhood where we ate at a great pizza restaurant.  A really nice end to my 30th Valentine’s Day.

Rome Day 2 – The Vatican

By now I had a full blown cold, so we got a very late start on Friday, not leaving the hotel until almost noon.  We took a bus across the river to go see the Vatican.  My head was in a bit of a fog, so we ended up completely circumnavigating the Vatican City.  Probably the only sovereign state that I will ever circumnavigate on foot.

Every guide book and every individual we had talked to had been preparing us for the terribly long line to get into the Vatican museum.  Well, at 1pm on the second Friday in February there was NO LINE.  At all.  we just put our bags on the x-ray machines.  This was a good thing, because after circumnavigating the Vatican City I was not in the mood to stand in line for an hour.

The museum is designed to take you through a long series of rooms, seeing lots of stuff before you see the Sistine Chapel.  Whether or not you are actually interested in the other stuff.  Not sure if this is primarily to manage the crowds in the Sistine Chapel or to make sure that you see the other stuff.  Some folks just treat it as a mile long purgatory to sprint through to see the Sistine Chapel. 

Anyway, lots of beautiful things.  We spent a couple of hours enjoying looking – but there is just so much you can only look a few things in each room.  Here are a couple pictures, there are more at Flickr.

 

The Sistine Chapel was really amazing, to think that one person painted the whole ceiling and that person was Michelangelo, who was actually a person, not someone you just read about in books.  Steve loved it, and we spent 45 minutes in there.  I, on the other hand, had expectations that it would be a bit more than it was.  It seemed so small for all I had heard about it over the years.

After the Chapel we went over to St Peter’s Basilica.  This was much more impressive to me.  All of the mosaics were so vast and beautiful.  To see them up close up inside the dome was my highlight.

 

We took a ton of pictures – a few more are up over at Flickr.

After St Peters we walked back across the river and had browsed along a street of high-end antique shops.  There were also some jewellers and the most fabulous leather shop I’d ever been in.  Il Bisonte  If you ever want to buy me something, anything from here will do.  :-)

We had a nice dinner and then headed back to the hotel after a good, long day.

(BTW – I’ll be finishing up the series with a ‘recommendations’ post with details for those of you who are headed to Rome in the near future.)

The Hi-gene-ist

I had my first cleaning at the dentist since moving over here.  (yes, it was overdue)  When I got in the hygienist (hi-gene-ist as they say over here) first asked me how often I floss and I said a couple of times a week (being honest).  She then told me I need to floss more.  Then she looked in my mouth and went on and on about how beautiful my teeth are.  (um, don’t you see the dozen or so fillings and 2 inlays?)  She was talking about how ALL Americans have beautiful teeth.  It was sort of embarrassing.  She couldn’t believe I hadn’t had a cleaning in 18 months, since my teeth looked so good.  She said I must be a great brusher.  I told her I didn’t drink tea (a notorious tooth-stainer).  She said that was good, and asked what I drank instead.  Pop.  “Oh, don’t tell me that.”  Then, more talk about how seriously good looking my teeth were, even asking me if my husband’s teeth looked as good, as if it were some sort of requirement for finding a mate.

Before I left she nagged me again about flossing more.  I think hygienists the world over are taught in training, no matter what, thou must chide patient for at least 3 minutes per session about flossing more.

(Rome posts will resume once my photo uploading starts working again)

Rome Day 1

We had a great trip to Rome.  Here is the first of a series of posts on the trip, to be followed by our recommendations and what we would do if we get to go back sometime.

We had an early flight out of LHR (7:20) so we had to leave the house about 4:30, so about 2 1/2 hours sleep given that we spent the night before pulling belongings upstairs in case the river kept rising.  We got into Rome about noon, but we were so tired that we just took a nap when we got in.  (Steve quipped that this was not much better than when we lived in the States and arrived in Europe jetlagged)

The only sightseeing we managed on Thursday was a short walk over to check out the Pantheon.  It is neat, you just walk in and take a look around.  There is a hole in the roof (skylight without glass) and the section of floor directly underneath it was roped off.  Not sure why.  Just sort of odd.

After that we just walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner.  We sat next to a British couple.  They became a theme during the trip.

Sorry for the boring report, Friday was a bit more exciting.  (at least I have a few interesting pictures)

Welcome home from Italy

Thursday – Sunday we spent four really nice days in Rome, enjoying the city and taking in a few sights.  We had an eventful time getting out of town (as seems to be the norm for us now, unfortunately).  The night before our departure we got home late Wednesday after helping with an event at our church, and I was already stressing over the fact I hadn’t even started packing and we had a 3:30 wake up call to catch an early flight.  Coming down the lane to the house I thought I could see the reflection of the moon in the fields on both sides of the road.  Not a good sign.  I grabbed a flashlight and walked out to the backyard, or where the back yard should have been.  Our entire back garden was covered in water, the Thames was all the way up to our back patio.

This is not a sight that you really ever want to see.  It was a huge reminder that, as much as I would like to think, I am really not in control.  You just figure out what the best thing is you can do, and then you go from there.  So, we spent some time putting a good number of our things up from the ground floor to higher ground.  Jotted off a quick note to some friends asking them to keep an eye on things and prayed for the best.

I’m still piecing together what happened while we were gone, but short story is the river got higher, then it went back down, but not before they had sandbagged.  This was the sight we were greeted with when we returned Sunday night.

Someone put our garbage bins up on the porch railings so they wouldn’t float away.

Roadsigns of life

Steve and I pass this roadsign on our way to work every morning.  Today I passed it in more ways than one.