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!"

More Churches and the Layers of Rome

One reason to visit the churches of Rome is to see the various layers of Roman history embedded in them.  I'm reading the sections on the Centro Storico in National Geographic Traveler: Rome along with my iPhone so that I can look up the images of each site on Google.  That way I hope they stick in my mind a bit better and I'll know what they are talking about.  Of course it means it takes about an hour to read each page because of all the distracting side trips that Google leads me on.

I started with the chapter "Pantheon to Piazza Venezia"  and of course we'll all go see the Pantheon which was built by the Emperor Hadrian as a pagan temple and also as an astronomical instrument (depending on where the light from the oculus struck the floor at different times of the year).  Even Mother remembers the Pantheon from their 1958 Triumph Rally through Europe.  The Pantheon was converted early to a Christian church and so survived pretty much intact, although its bronze was carried away a couple of times.  Since we are there in November we'll have to run visit it during a rainstorm when the water comes pouring in through the oculus.  There are few major artworks inside but there is the tomb of Raffaello.

Very close to the Pantheon is Santa Maria sopra Minerva, originally built over a temple to the Roman goddess of war and wisdom (?) Minerva, equated with the Greek goddess Athena.  The exterior is early Renaissance but the interior is a lovely Gothic with soaring blue ceilings which is enough reason to visit it.  Evidently I'm partial to Gothic and less carried away by the Romanesque, Renaissance and Baroque, especially the exteriors, although maybe I should find out exactly what the latter are characterized by before I say anything.  While in the area, we should hop into the Jesuit churches of San'Ignatio and Il Gesu, since they are nearby and also take a look at the Borsa, the Italian stock exchange with its 11 Corinthian columns dating from 145 AD embedded into it.

And then, (or maybe we should do this one first when our legs are fresh) we should walk the 124 steps up the Campidoglio (the Capitoline Hill) to Santa Maria d'Aracoeli which was built on the ruins of a temple to Juno, the patron goddess of Rome, and has 22 recycled Roman columns in its interior.  The DK guide says that there is a popular belief that if you climb the 124 steps on your knees, you'll win the national lottery...

But it is San Clemente, near the Colosseum, that really shows the layers of Roman history.  Looking for images of San Clemente, I ran across this August 2013 blog posting by Ex Urbe on The Shape of Rome, which begins with the new mayor of Rome announcing his intention to destroy one of the city’s central roads, the Via dei Fori Imperiali, built by Mussolini, details the multiple layers of historic construction underneath the church of San Clemente, and ends with the geologic and social processes that created these layers of construction in Rome, and why Rome is so unique in that sense.  It's a long article but very informative and one I will reread before visiting.

And for a walk around "medieval Rome" follow the walk sketched out by Delightfully Italy: A dive in medieval Rome.  He takes you to San Clemente but also to Santissimi Quattro Coronati (a 4th/5th century church), Santo Stefano Rotondo (built in the 5th century on the remains of a 2nd-century Mithraic temple and featuring 34 frescos of martyrdom), and Santi Giovanni e Paolo (built in 398 over the home of two Roman soldiers, John and Paul, martyred under Julian in 362).  "What you can’t miss is the visit to the original Roman Houses buried under the church, and discovered in the 19th century."

So many layers!!  Just like in Fellini's 1972 movie Roma, the scene where they are excavating for the Roman subway and run into a buried Roman house, and of course they have to halt excavation and the air entering the caverns destroys the frescos, sort of what happened to the madonna fresco in San Clemente, which was good in the sense that it laid bare the original Empress Theodora  beneath it.

Water in Rome

Drinking from a nasoni

Remember that carafe I got from the l'Eau de Paris?  Now I'm investigating Rome's water scene.  First, it's the nasoni.  These are the water spigots that you can plug up with you finger so that the water spouts out of the top for a drinking fountain.  The water is supposed to be very good so that you can drink it without any qualms and there are 2,500 of them around the city so you should never go thirsty.  (Now if only there were that many public toilets...)

The ACEA (Rome's municipal water authority) not only provides maps of the nasoni in Rome but now has an app to help you locate them.  The water from the nasoni is the same water that comes out of the tap in Rome but since they run constantly the water is always cool.  Don't worry, the excess water is recycled for use in Rome's parks.  Even with this excellent source of water at their fingertips, Romans in restaurants prefer bottled water, although there is a movement against all those plastic water bottles (the PET version).  On Fodor's online forum, one contributor says: "It is the custom to order bottled water in Roman restaurants. To ask for tap water [l'acqua del rubinetto] is like asking for a doggie bag; it simply isn't done."  The Italians have to maintain "La Bella Figura".

So what kind of bottled water should we order in a restaurant?  Your waiter usually asks you, "Acqua con gas o senza gas?"  Should it be fizzy (frizzante) or still (liscia o naturale)?  Lazio Explorer, an English expatriate named Peter, says his Italian in-laws consider Acqua di Nepi to be the best quality and "that while I'm not usually a fan of frizzante, Acqua di Nepi frizzante (the green label) is wonderfully sweet with a soft sparkle".  Others say to order the fizzy stuff to make sure that the restaurant didn't just fill up bottles with tap water, passing it off as bottled.  That's fine with me since I prefer fizzwater, it settles the stomach, and according to Mary Roach, the author of Gulp, it's the best thing for upset stomachs, alka seltzer being liable to cause an explosion.

When speaking of Water in Rome, I suppose one should mention the 11 aqueducts of ancient Rome, after all that is how the water got to the nasoni (not really: nasoni are from the 19th century).  According to Wikipedia: "Their combined capacity was capable of supplying at least 1,127,220 cubic meters (nearly 300 million gallons) of water to the city each day from the Apennine mountains."

When the invading barbarians cut the aqueducts, that was the end of Rome and the population fell from over a million to about 30,000.  It was not until the Renaissance that some of the popes undertook the restoration of the aqueducts.  You can read more about Water and Wastewater Systems in Imperial Rome at waterhistory.org.  And we can also go visit the Parco degli Acquedotti which is part of the Appian Way Regional Park (which I hope we manage to visit along with the Baths of Caracalla) and can be reached by taking the Metro line A to Lucio Sestio or Giulio Agricola.  We can follow the detailed instructions from davlynmitaly's blogspot, a blog which I'll have to explore and which has a blogroll of other blogs on Italy.  And which provided that lovely October photo of the ancient acqueduct.

Rome on the Cheap

I'm perusing Let's Go Budget Rome where I'm finally finding very cheap eats and where Termini and San Lorenzo are neighborhoods to visit rather than to avoid.  I always thought Lonely Planet catered to the backpacking hostel crowd but their Rome guide is definitely mainstream tourist with the cheapest restaurants (marked with one €) as anything below €25 for primo, seconde, dolce and vino (of course that is a lot of food).  Let's Go concentrates on a lot of pizzerias, bakeries, cafes, and gelaterias.  And they mention that there is a "huge" SMA grocery store (does that make it an ipermercato?) at Piazza dell'Esquilino - next to Santa Maria Maggiore, not quite half a mile from the apartment, according to the handy measuring tape on google maps, one new feature that I really appreciate.

As to be expected, Let's Go also concentrates on "nightlife" and suggests buying a bottle of wine at the supermarket and heading to the nearest Piazza to join the crowds of young Italians, which might not pertain to us.  It also mentions that drinking outside after 11 pm has recently been made illegal and that conforms to our bedtime very well, because we will barely have finished dinner by 11 if we start eating at the customary 9 pm.  Let's not forget to check out the free concerts at oggiroma.it and timeout.com/rome/ in case we get finished with dinner early.

Lonely Planet Rome does have some good sidebars about less touristy and free features of Rome, like the Madonnelle, the little street-corner madonnas that, according to Virtual Roma, stem from the ancient Roman custom of building "small public shrines dedicated to the lares compitales, the pagan tutelary deities who presided over the crossroads."  Sort of the roadside lares familiares.  PhotoRoma has photos of many madonelle for those who aren't able to go see them, arranged by street and neighborhood.  The Spanish Steps on Pinterest also has a page of madonnelle photos and they also have a blog posting: The Madonnelle, Rome's Beautiful Little Shrines.

Another interesting thing to see for free are the statue parlanti or talking statues where people would post criticisms of the government (including the pope) beginning in the 1500s, according to one story, with the tailor Pasquino who posted satirical commentary on gossip he gleaned from the Vatican.  Do  you think they posted anything about Berlusconi during his term?

Even more exciting (especially if it rains hard and there is flooding) is a walk along the Tiber and across its multiple bridges.  We can walk along the river at its level or above it, depending on the weather.  Do you think it will be warm enough in November for an evening stroll?  Will our knees hold out?

A Food Awakening

I just read and article in NY Magazine by blogger Amanda Ruggeri entitled  "Want Real Italian Food?  Skip These Eight Dishes.http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/09/for-real-italian-food-skip-these-seven-dishes.html 
And she proceeds to list all the food I consider Italian, like spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread,  fettuccini alfredo, veal parmesan,  penne with vodka sauce,  chicken on pasta, etc.  It seems these are all Italian-American inventions from when peasants arrived in the US and finally had plentiful food.  
Luckily, she provides a list of what we should try.  I'd better take lots of notes.  I was heartened to read that real Italian food doesn't use all that much garlic.  Think that's true?

The Coperta and Doggy Bags

I was reading/perusing the 10th edition (2014) of Fodor's 25 Best: Rome where I ran across this information about "The Bill" in the Eat chapter. 

"The bill (check), il conto, usually includes extras such as servizio (service). Iniquitous cover charges (pane e coperto) have now been outlawed, but some restaurants still try to get around the regulations.  Only pay for bread (pane) if you have asked for it."

That's the first time I've heard that the coperta has been outlawed, yet Walks in Italy in a 2011 blog posting said the same thing.  Concierge in Umbria in their blog, Post Cards from Italy, explains the coperta as a cover charge that is determined by the restaurant's management and tends to be higher in touristy areas.  However they go on to say:

"Some areas in Italy have banned the coperto (including Lazio, where Rome is located), but it still routinely appears on menus."

 They say the coperta (€1 to €2 per diner), as well as the servizio (10-20%), must be listed on the menu, where it is generally in very tiny print at the top or bottom.

Oh, and they also say: "Doggie bags. They are taboo."

Cacio (Cheese) or Formaggio

Fernando probably hoped this posting would get off of food and talk about calcio (soccer).  I'll let him identify the Roman soccer team and its rivals.

This is about cacio, as in cacio e pepe, the cheese and pepper pasta dish we will absolutely have to try.  There are two words for cheese in Italian:  cacio and formaggio (the word one usually hears).  Evidently cacio is a more southern term (from the Latin caseus - cheese) and formaggio is northern (maybe the French influence of fromage - from the Latin forma - shape or mold).  However we call it, we need to learn about the local cheeses in Rome so that we don't make the mistake of asking for parmigiana instead of pecorino romano.

Pecorino Romano
Pecorino Romano is made from sheep’s milk (pecora is sheep) because Lazio (Rome's province) raises lots of sheep.  According to Eating Italy Food Tours, it is a key ingredient in all Roman pasta dishes and in the spring time (again) it is typically eaten with fresh fava beans on scampagnate (picnics).  They also like it with sweet things like figs and pears.  According to Wikipedia, it is a cheese from Ancient Rome but vegetarians can't eat it because it has to be made using lamb rennet.  A lot of the production now has been shifted to Sardinia but at Volpetti's you can get Pecorino Romano from Lazio.

Ricotta Romana
There is a Ricotta Romana DOP but I don't know if we can get it in the supermarkets, although except for the Sapori and Dintorni under the Termini train station, I haven't located many to put on my Google map.  I have read that they don't stand out like the ones in the suburbs with giant parking lots.  I wonder what we can get at the mercati.

According to formaggio.it, there are 50 cheeses from Rome and Lazio.  Cheese.com has descriptions of many Italian cheeses.

Burrata

Burrata
This is a mozzarella cheese originally from nearby Puglia that is stuffed with cream and more mozzarella.  Katie Parla first had it in New Jersey... but it seems everyone recommends getting it Roscioli's.  This New York Times article says you can get it everywhere in Rome.  But they say you have to eat it within 48 hours.  There also is a burrata di bufala.

Mozzarella
There is cow's milk mozzarella but the more famous one is buffalo milk mozzarella from Campania (as in Naples).  Since Campania is so close, we should take advantage of that.  We could try Obika Mozzarella Bar, which I thought was a Japanese restaurant when I first saw the name on a Google map, except their menu says they don't use any garlic or onions so what fun is that?  (Oh no!  they have a location in LA at Century City.) Katie Parla gives it a thumbs down.

Caciocavallo
No, this isn't cheese made from mare's milk but "cheese on horseback", getting its name from the manner in which the cheese is always tied together in pairs and dangled over a wooden board to drain and age.  It is made in different regions of southern Italy and from different animals: cows, buffalo and sheep.

Apps for Rome

I was looking at the "press and reviews" section of Elizabeth Minchilli's blog and ran across this 2012 article from the Huffington Post: Top Apps for Rome.  The three apps it picks for food include Minchilli's Eat Rome (which I bought), Katie Parla's Rome (which I also just bought), and an Italian one covering all of Italy: Cibando, which is free.  The last one also has a website, cibando.com where we can search for restaurants in Rome and narrow them down by price but not by neighborhood.   It also gives the Trip Advisor ranking.  For the Italian interface  go to cibando.com/it.  I'm not sold on it but it will make me practice my Italian.

The ones listed for transport require an internet connection which we won't have on the streets of Rome.  There aren't any Starbucks to dip into when we need wifi to check the bus schedule so we'll have to plan trips with Google Maps in the apartment before we go out.  I wonder if there will ever be a time (within our lifetime) when we can use our cellphones abroad like we do at home --  I remember when we used to incur "roaming" charges when we went to California so perhaps there is hope...Maybe globalization of AT&T and Verizon.

There is another review of Rome apps at Top 10 Travel Apps but the reviewer is British and can use her iPhone on the streets, where she can find what is nearby and when the next bus arrives.  Top 10 also chooses Eat Rome and Katie Parla's Rome.  The free ones are
Triposo Rome Travel Guide, which you can use offline
Guida Verde Rome Touring
Ulmon Rome Travel Guide and Offline City Map, where it says "Search by name, browse by category or discover nearby places using your device’s GPS -- even without an internet connection."  How's that??
Rome Pocket Guide, which is free but has a lot of in-app purchases for their tours, like $5.99 for the coliseum (how free is that?).

SWG City Guide - Rome, this one appears to be for business men and includes continual updates in Eventi, Nightlife, Happy Hour e Promozioni.  But they do love the colors from Leone Limentani on their facebook page.

The ones you have to pay for are a guide to the Leonardo da Vinci airport (can it be that difficult to navigate?), one on the Rome Metro (but they only have 2 lines!), and a Rome Shopping Guide (does it include coupons?).  3 not worth investigating.

Then there are these that I ran across and will have to test out (I better make more room on my iPhone).
Hidden Rome which shows some unusual sites but then you have to pay $2.99 for 60 additional ones.  I guess nothing is really free.

Rome Map and Walks - Full Version for $4.99 includes 16 walks with turn-by-turn directions that you can use offline.  I sort of feel that using ready-made walks destroys the fun of planning your own but the app developer has other apps for Rome that sound interesting like Roman Gelaterias, Top 10 Food Markets (I can just use MarketsofRome instead) and Rome Local Food (they don't mean "local" in the foodie sense) or MyCityCuisine.  I wonder if there is a public library that lends apps.

The Spanish Steps Apartment collected a page of Rome apps (67) on Pinterest.   How about Mangia?  An Italian Menu Decoder with 1800 entries for $4.99?  Or David Downie's Food Wine Rome, although it looks like Downie would be better for Paris where he has lived in the Marais for 25 years and conducts tours including "a leisurely walk down the atmospheric alleys of the Saint-Paul neighborhood".  Ah, Paris!

Then there are some free apps for a couple of neighborhoods in Rome: Testaccio and Aventino.  These link to the Italian app store so perhaps I'll test some from there.  Maybe even an offline Vatican Museum...