Trastevere

I've planned on doing a post on Trastevere for a long time but I didn't know where to start.

Lonely Planet recommends entering Trastevere via the Ponte Sisto stone footbridge at its northeast corner and then taking Via del Moro, with its many cafes and shops, to the Piazza di Santa Maria.  At Via del Moro #37B we'll need to stop at Pasticceria Valzani to pick up some pastries for breakfast and eat them at  the Piazza, where we can people-watch.   Then we can visit the 12th century Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere (actually first constructed in 377 AD) with golden mosaics illustrating the life of Mary by Pietro Cavallini (1291).  It is supported by Roman columns taken from the Baths of Caracalla.

Then Lonely Planet suggests crossing over to the other side of the main Viale Trastevere to see the Basilica di Santa Cecilia, where there is an altar sculpture of the Martyrdom of Santa Cecilia by Stefano Maderno (1600) who supposedly used her uncorrupted body that had been exhumed for his model.  It predates Bernini "by decades".  There are also the last remaining frescoes by Pietro Cavallini (1293) but you have to "ring a bell" to see them.

Not to slight Gian Lorenzo, we'll have to leave LP's itinerary and walk south  to the Chiesa di San Francesco a Ripa because it has one of his ecstatic statues: Beata Ludovica Albertoni (1671).  On our walk back to the other side of Viale Trastevere, we can stop by the mercato at the Piazza San Cosimato (6:30am-1:30pm) to pick up some fruit, cheese and bread for lunch.

Or we can stop by the Antica Caciara on Via di San Francesco a Ripa, 140A/B, a cheese and salami store that we will pass.  It was founded when cheese was still called cacio in Rome.  They also have guanciale in case we haven't yet picked some up for our bacon and eggs.  Eating Italy Tours has a short video in Italian (with English subtitles) on the proprietor Roberto Polica.

So far we have walked about 1 mile and we should have been able to rest our legs in the three churches.  And we shouldn't be hungry.  But we have LOTS MORE TO SEE!

Whoops.  Maybe we shouldn't have taken Lonely Planet's advice.  It looks like we should have started with the Villa Farnesina (5 euros for seniors) because it is only open from 9am-2pm Mon-Sat.  Fernando wants to see the frescoes by Raffaello.  The Villa was built by a banker from Sienna, Agostino Chigi, from 1506 to 1510 but unfortunately was later bought by the Farnese family and so given their name.  How unfair!  No matter what it is called, it has beautiful ceilings.

Somewhat nearby the Villa Farnesina is the Casa della Fornarina where Raffaello's mistress was supposed to have lived while he was working on the Villa.  It is now a Guest House and we could have stayed there for $1,194 for 10 nights, unrefundable or $1,571 refundable, with breakfast.  Of course, that is just for 2 people and there is no kitchen and no place to go read if the other person wants to sleep.  But Fernando could have pretended he was Raffaello. 

About 1000 feet further south on Via Garibaldi is a 17th century convent church by Borromini: Santa Maria dei Sette Dolori (Santa Maria of the Seven Griefs).  Apparently it has been turned into the Hotel Donna Camilla Savelli where we could have rented a suite for € 3,230.00.  We are going to have to content ourselves with viewing the exterior, and the hotel's website doesn't even mention Borromini.

I forgot to mention that between the Villa Farnesina and the Casa della Fornarina lies John Cabot University but Fernando would complain that it has no engineering school so he might not be as keen on visiting it.  The American Academy in Rome is also in Trastevere and has a School of Fine Arts, a School of Classical Studies, and The Rome Sustainable Food Project.  Unfortunately there is no restaurant attached to it.

Orto Botanico

Do we want to take Via Garibaldi up the Janiculum Hill for a view of Rome?  It's supposed to take 20 minutes walking (it's about a mile from the Sette Dolori) but there is a bus that goes up: #115 Largo Fiorentini from Trastevere or #870 from Piazza Fiorentini (off Corso Vittorio Emanuele, where it meets the Tiber).   Rachel in her Rome Writings approaches the hill from the Vatican side and says there are steps up it in stages where you can appreciate the view.  At noon they fire a cannon.  (By the way, one of my bookgroup members said that the view from St. Peter's Dome was absolutely stunning and that we simply couldn't miss it.)  And how could I forget?  At the foot of the Janiculum Hill near the Villa Farnesina is the Orto Botanico, the botanical garden, which Rachel also mentions.

When should we go to Trastevere?  On a Sunday when they have the Porta Portese flea market?  That should provide a lot of local color, although I've never had much luck with flea markets (except maybe those hats we bought in Paris), and Fernando doesn't have an adequate appreciation of them.  But look at that photo of pepper mills!  One can always use another pepper mill.  Since the flea market is known for pick pockets we will go with very little cash which also means that means we can't buy much.  It is located around the old city gate called Porta Portese at the southeast end of Trastevere and open from 7 am to 2 pm.

Borghese Gallery...and Caravaggio

The Borghese Gallery offers Bernini sculptures and paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael, and Titian in a Baroque palazzo set idyllically but inconveniently in the vast Villa Borghese Gardens.  You get to see art commissioned by the Borghese family displayed in the very rooms for which it was created.

"Rome - 16 May 1605.  Camillo Borghese is elected Pope Paul V and immediately names his sister's son, Scipione Caffarella, as Cardinal-Nephew.  Not content with being a pope's nephew, Scipione becomes the adopted son of his uncle and is known thereafter as Scipione Borghese.  He becomes the most unscrupulous collector the art world has ever seen."

Cathy pointed me to a treasure-trove blog, "The Pines of Rome," by an unnamed blogger (Tiffany?).  It's loaded with info on art and Rome.  She has several blogs on The Borghese Gallery.  The first paragraph above is from one of them.  But before we continue, how do we get there?
Cathy's lovely Google map shows that our apartment is just over a mile away.  But, as we can't travel as the crow flies, some further investigation is in order.  Rick Steves tells me that bus #910 goes from Termini train station (and Piazza Repubblica) to the Via Pinciana stop, 100 yards from the museum.  And be sure to allow plenty of time because entrance is timed and you don't want to miss it.

Don't make the rookie mistake of showing up at the popular Galleria Borghese without tickets. Only 360 visitors are admitted every two hours (at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and 5 p.m.), and advance tickets (about $14) are required before you can see the heartbreakingly beautiful works here, including those by Titian and Bernini. You can drop by a day or two in advance to make your reservation for a specific date and time, or reserve at galleriaborghese.it. Then, collect your tickets in person at least 30 minutes before your scheduled admission time.  And note that baggage check is free, mandatory, and strictly enforced.   Even small purses must be checked, although the checkroom does not take coats (!?).  And no photos allowed.  You must check your camera (wonder how they handle phones?).

Back to Scipione...Scipione must have realized that as Cardinal-Nephew in corrupt 17th-century Rome, he would have more than ample access to any funds he might require, and so he traded his right of inheritance with his cousin Marcantonio, in exchange for every piece in the family's art collection. Despite his position of immense influence, he chose not to involve himself in affairs of state, and instead used his power to satisfy his obsession to possess the world's greatest art.

Now, boys and girls, get out your checklist of art you want to see:

In Room 1...Antonio Canova's Pauline Borghese as Venus.  Yes, the Pauline (Paolina) that was Napoleon's sister.

Bernini's David

Bernini's Apollo and Daphne

Room II...Bernini's David (with 25 year-old Bernini's face)
Room III...Bernini's Apollo and Daphne with her fingers turning to leaves.

More Bernini In Rooms IV (The Rape of Proserpina) and Room VI (Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius)
And in Room VII lots of Caravaggio.  This room holds the greatest collection of Caravaggio paintings anywhere.  His Self-Portrait as Bacchus shows Caravaggio as he first arrived in Rome.

Self-Portrait as Bacchus, 1593

Caravaggio's unique style combined two striking elements:  uncompromising realism and stong Light-dark contrasts.  His models were ordinary people with bodily flaws.  He lived a reckless, agressive and short life. 

Madonna of Palafrenieri, 1605-06

 His Madonna of Palafrenieri was forbidden to hang in St. Peter's because the boy Jesus was naked, and the Modonna's likeness had been inspired by Rome's best-known prostitute.

The Borghese's collection continues with more Bernini's including painting and two self-portraits.  The Gallery, of course contains much more than mentioned here.

Room IX has works by Raphael, including Deposition.  (We'll see Caravaggio's Deposition in the Vatican Museum)

Raffaello Deposizione, 1507

Room XX closes with Titian's Sacred and Profane Love. 

Titian, Sacred and Profane Love, 1515

And Rick Steve's concludes his tour with the following.  "This exquisite painting expresses the spirit of the Renaissance - that earth and heaven are two sides of the same coin.  And here in the Borghese Gallery, that love of earthly beauty can be spiritually uplifting - as long as you feel it within two hours."

Before we go will have to draw up a battle plan.  Should we go early when we are fresh?  Or will be be more crowded then?  And remember it's closed on Monday.

Romeo Cheapo and Vino Sfuso

I'm cruising through the EuroCheapo website, looking for ways to save euros in Rome.  Since we don't want to be eating pizza al taglio for every meal (obviously not for collazione of course) I thought I'd check out some other options.  Of course there are also suppli and in EuroCheapo's "4 Kosher restaurants in Rome's Jewish Quarter" they mention Shilo with "good value set menus, which include a coke, slice of pizza and a suppli (deep-fried balls of rice) for €5".  Already I have indigestion.  More interesting is Chagat, "a casual kosher restaurant that boasts a happy hour buffet (and drink) from 5 p.m. for €7.50", Shabat "kits" on Friday - evidently take-out for the sabbath, and "falafel fatti in casa".

Then EuroCheapo has an article on "5 vegetarian restaurants for a great (meatless) meal".  Evidently their readers (or authors) are all on special diets -- don't they know that beggars can't be choosers?  But they do have two articles on affordable local trattorie that we can add to our map in case we are in the neighborhood.

EuroCheapo also recommends buying vino sfuso (loose wine) rather than a bottle of DOC or DOCG  So I had to go look that up and Girl in Florence has an article on "Why I love Vino Sfuso" explaining that

"Vino sfuso is traditionally known as wine that comes from inferior grapes not considered worthy of bottling and thus made to be consumed fresh and soon. It is most commonly sold as vino della casa or “house wine” at local trattoria’s...Expect the price to be around 1-3 euros a bottle."

I hope vino sfuso isn't mainly a Florence thing since Studentsville Florence also has "A 10-Point Introduction To Vino Sfuso: Your Solution to Good, Cheap Wine in Italy."  They say "It used to be that vino sfuso was made from the grapes that didn’t make the cut for higher priced wines, but these days, vineyards are dedicating themselves to its specific production."  So it can't be all that bad and you can ask for a taste before you buy it.

I know there is a vino sfuso place in the Mercato Trionfale by the Vatican and Just VASGO buys his at the Mercato Testaccio but I haven't been able to locate one near the apartment.  Just VASGO says that "Sfuso vendors typically are located at the major outdoor Italian Markets. I have occasionally found the set-up in random neighborhood supermarkets as well. You just have to look for them."  So I'll check the SMA supermarket down by Santa Maria Maggiore (which is open daily 8am to 9pm, btw) and the Nuovo Mercato Esquilino by Termini.  And we'll want to go exploring for vino sfuso as soon as we get there, not like in Paris, where we only managed to get to the Red Baron near the end of our stay.  There's something charming about getting your wine from a spigot.

And of course, there's the ecological side of it: reusing bottles, although I don't know how ecological (or safe) plastic bottles and jugs would be. And that 5-liter jug would weigh 10 pounds, right?  But less than glass...

 And then image searches on Google are even better at bringing up relevant postings about vini sfusi and it turns out that EATALY also dispenses it!!  Looks like I'm going to have to bring my big day-pack after all.  How else are we going to carry all that wine home from Testaccio??

Via Napoli

Can I remember that the apartment is at Via Napoli 51 and not Via Napoli 55, the address I've been using for all of my directions?    Evidently I got the 55 as the address for the cross street of Via Nazionale and further away from that busy main street is better.  According to Google Maps, this is what the edifice and entrance look like, facing north towards the dead-end at the Ministry of Defense (that pretty pink building).  Number 51 is that big green door.  Do you think they will go and change the color of it like they did for the apartment on Rue St. Paul in Paris?

If we look south down Via Napoli we can see the cross street, Via Nazionale and then just beyond that on the left the Episcopal church: Saint Paul's within the Walls, surrounded by trees.  And then way in the background is a church tower that belongs to the Basilica di Santa Prassede, which is just beyond Santa Maria Maggiore, which doesn't have a tall tower, just some domes.  We're on the second floor, which should correspond to our third floor which would be where the pink starts above the stone facade.  Via Napoli is a very short street, just four blocks (of varying lengths) long.  Here's a map of where it is located and you can see that we can easily walk to the Termini train station and to the Trevi Fountain.

Will Climb for View??

How are our knees?  Despite my initial misgivings about climbing the Eiffel Tower along with all the other tourists, I really enjoyed it.  So where can we go in Rome for a view, considering that there aren't any skyscrapers in the Centro Storico?  Do you think we will be able to climb to the top of St. Peter's Basilica if we take the elevator part way up?

The Foodlover's Odyssey blog has a post on Rome with a View, listing the terrace on Castel St. Angelo (we'll have to watch the movie based on Dan Brown's Angels and Demons again), the Garden of Oranges on the Aventine Hill, St. Peter's Dome, Monte Gianicolo (in Trastevere), and the Campidoglio.  Dark Rome adds the Palatino so maybe we need to hit all seven hills.  We can also take a glass elevator to the top of the King Victor Emanuel monument (otherwise known as the wedding cake) for a 360 panoramic view of the city.  And there is il Pincio in the Villa Borghese overlooking the Piazza del Populo.

How do we get to these places?

1.  St Peter's Basilica.
We can walk up Nazionale to Piazza della Repubblica and take the Metro A towards Battistini and get off at Ottaviano and walk over to Vatican City (22 minutes).  Or we can walk down Nazionale to Quattro Fontane and take the #64 bus (the Pickpocket Express) to Saint Peter's (28 minutes).  Or walk up (left) on Nazionale to the Nazionale/Torino bus stop and take the #40 bus towards Borgo Sant'Angelo and get off at Traspontina- Conciliazione near the Castel Sant'Angelo (31 minutes).  Delightfully Italy has a post on Climbing up St. Peter's Basilica's Dome: "You can take the elevator to the roof level (saving 320 steps), but if you want to be on the top of the cupola you must take the stairs for the last portion (551 steps in total). The entrance cost is 7 Euros for elevator, 5 Euros for stairs."  That still leaves quite a few stairs and they are narrow and dark but you can also view the inside of St. Peter's from the gallery at the elevator stop.  In case we chicken out of those 231 additional steps to the top.

2. Castel Sant'Angelo
From the above posting we can see that the #40 bus is a good way to get directly to Castel Sant'Angelo.  The entrance fee is €10.  The best time to go is in the morning or evening so that the sun isn't in your eyes for the view south.

3. The Garden of Oranges on the Aventine Hill (Giardino degli Aranci)
This is a bit longer and involves a half mile walk uphill at the end (on a narrow road without sidewalks?).  You take the #170 towards Agricola from the bus stop at Quattro Fontane on Via Nazionale and get off at the Bocca della Verita (good time to see it), and then walk from the Via della Greca to the Clivo dei Publicii which becomes Via di Santa Sabina and goes up the Aventine Hill.  Maybe there are steps or a path we could take instead of the road.  And while we're on the Aventine Hill, we can visit the Knights of Malta.  The photo was taken in January but it might look about the same in November.

4. Monte Gianicolo (The Janiculum Hill)
To get to Trastevere we could take the bus #40 and then the tram #8 at the Piazza Venezia.  Or we could walk to Trastevere: it's about a mile and a half from Via Napoli and there are lots of things to see.  Of course we could hit all seven hills with a Vespa Tour but it is a bit pricey at $232.  This photo was taken in February 2012 when Rome had an unusual snow storm.  You can check out the other photos of "Snow in Rome" if you think the skies are always blue and sunny there.  I'm getting us prepared for the worst!

5. The Capitoline Hill (Campidoglio)
This will be easy since it is in the middle of the Centro Storico and we'll need to climb the hill to see some other things.  We can walk down Via Nazionale to the Quattro Fontane bus stop and take #70, #64 or #N8 to the Piazza Venezia and from there walk around the east side of the Campidoglio.  That means we miss the 124 steps up to Santa Maria d'Aracoeli and Michelangelo's Cordonata up to the Piazza del Campidoglio.  My knees are better going uphill than down so maybe we should approach it from the west, although we don't have to walk up the 124 steps on our knees.  This is where the ancient Romans built their Temple to Jupiter.

6.  Altare della Patria (Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II or Il Vittoriano or The Wedding Cake or The Typewriter)
Whatever it is called, you can take the glass elevator (Roma dal Cielo) to the roof for a 360 degree view of Rome.  According to Italy Heaven: "The top panoramic terrace and lift ('Quadrigas Terrace') are open...until 6:30pm Monday-Thursday and until 7:30pm Friday-Sunday, and are best reached from an entrance in the Piazza Ara Coeli side of the Vittoriano, or via the staircase from Piazza del Campidoglio. The glass lift does not descend to ground level, so if you can't manage the steps, head inside the Vittoriano and use the internal lifts to reach the lower terrace."  It is next to the Campidoglio so we should hit both at once.

7. The Palatine Hill (Il Palatino)

We could walk the 1.7 km (21 minutes) to the Palatino because the Google directions for taking the bus or metro only seem to complicate matters.  The Palatine Hill, where Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus, and the Roman Forum beneath it, is now a large open-air museum and can be visited on the same ticket as the Colosseum.  Is that a one day activity?

8. Il Pincio
Do we walk uphill from the Spanish Steps or do we approach it from the other side in the Villa Borghese?  For the Spanish Steps side we can walk up Via Nazionale to Piazza della Repubblica and take Metro A towards Battistini and get off at Spagna (a 2 minute ride).  Then it is about a half kilometer up the hill to the Pincio.  If we want to go the back way and also see the Via Veneto, we can walk up Via Nazionale to Piazza della Repubblica and catch the #N1 bus towards Battistini-Soria and go 7 stops (8 min) to Victor Hugo.  Then walk about half a kilometer west to il Pincio.  Maybe we can go one way and return the other.

What we should wear in Rome

My goodness, I had forgotten how much fun I had posting about Parisian Fashions before our trip to Paris.  Milan is the larger fashion capital in Italy but Rome is still big, being the 4th largest in the world after Milan, New York and Paris.  So we are going to have to watch our Bella Figura.  Let's see what's happening in the Rome fashion world that we can use.

Beginning in 2015, Fendi's headquarters will be in the EUR's Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, also knows as the Colosseo Quadrato, an icon of fascist architecture from Mussolini.  Fendi was founded in Rome in 1925 and specializes in furs, leather goods and "Ready to Wear" (the stuff normal people buy...).

Here are some of Fendi's fall/winter styles and, believe it or not, I have a pair of burgundy wool pants that might match the first outfit but I have nothing close to the second.  Yellow is not one of my colors.  Although maybe we should trade in our backpacks for their peekaboo purse.  It comes in other colors of course but yellow seems to be the current fashion.

I also like Dolce and Gabanna who apparently are partial to fairy tales and enchanted forests.  They are the ones with the foxes, swans, owls, rabbits and squirrels and the sfilata video with classical music.  Or you can just look at photos of the fall and winter styles.  How about these lovely flowing dresses with the beautiful prints?

Or maybe just a standard black suit if we want to fit in with all those other nonnas.  Or a lemon print dress to match our majolica dishware (it only comes in size 6). 

And then there are a few things here for Fernando.  I think we are going to have to get him a crown but he shouldn't ever feel cold.  Not very colorful but, hey, it is the winter and the motifs will fit in perfectly with all the historical sites.

The Italian Fashion Scene

Penny reminded me that we need to brush up on La Nostra Bella Figura for Rome.  The Milan (and New York) fall fashion week just happened but we can't really take advantage of it because they preview the spring and summer styles for next year.  We'll have to go back to last spring's fashion week for this November's fashions.  However there is an upcoming fashion that will appeal to Isabel, Moschino's take on Barbie.

Or, here's an idea.  It will be way too cold to take our bathing suits and visit the beach but we can still wear our bikinis.

I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed looking at the fashions when I was preparing that homework assignment for Italian II.  They are a hoot!  Many have lovely material with intricate patterns.   I'm sure we'll be able to find something to wear from this year's fall and winter collection.  These, of course, are for women.  I'll have to do a separate posting for men.

How about the long one on the left?  Or the foxes?  Although it might be a bit chilly when the wind blows.

That one in the center with the foxes (vixen?) looks cozy but the colors of the orange, brown and green cape can't be beat.

Oh!  I like that silver/blue one in the center: "Beam me up, Scotty!"