Day 16- Arrivederci Roma!

After a good night's rest at Darius and Erica's place in Roma, I set out to see a couple of sites up in the Parco Borghese. It was a beautiful day, so I walked, pleased at how I'm beginning to know my way around Rome without a map. Since there is no grid to the city, the best navigation is from landmark to landmark, so I went from Sant'Ivo, past the Pantheon and the Palazzo Colonna up to the Piazza del Popolo, then up the hill to to the Museum of Modern Art, in the middle of the park. I had only learned last year that the museum actually contains work made from about the 18th century on, a considerably broader definition of "modern" than we would use in the U.S.A. The museum is housed in a grand Beaux-Arts style building designed by Cesare Bazzani, though the interior has mostly been unfortunately "modernized" into featureless white boxes that will not compete with some of the minimal contemporary art in the newer galleries. 

Exterior of the Modern Art Gallery, building by Cesare Bazzani

There's loads to see in this often overlooked gem, with a few international big name artists like Van Gogh and Gustav Klimt, but also an eye-opening array of Italian work that was really nice to learn about and see. Works by Sartorio, Nino Costa, Gaetano Previati, De Carolis, and an amazing set of 18 paintings depicting putti in artistic toil that were created for the 1900 Exposition at Paris by Paolo Gaidano. Giorgio di Chirico is well represented in the collection, and I hadn't realized that he was such a prolific painter of self- portraits. There were also contemporary works there, and a good show of contemporary Italian ceramic work.

Cherubs making ceramics, from a set of 18 panels by Paolo Gaidano

Did a few hours of looking and clicking there, then meandered up through the park to see the Borghese gallery for the second time. I know that they tell you that you need reservations to get in, but if you show up right before they let the next group in (visits are limited to two hours, and they enter on the odd hours- 9,11,1,3,5) you can find they ofter have available tickets. I was lucky and got there just at 3, bought my ticket and walked right in. And, (drum roll please!) they now allow photography!! Last time it was so hard to resist the temptation to sneak one or two (I think I did shoot a few in the stairwells) but now the only hard part is finding something to brace the camera against for the inevitably long exposures due to low light levels. 

Hard to choose what to look at in the Borghese, there's just so much!

I usually go pretty slowly because of my camera obsession, added to by the numerous tour groups jostling and distracting, but eventually they pass on and I had many galleries almost to myself by the end. I figured out that a good strategy for future visits would be to make straight for the farthest away gallery first, then tour in reverse, with just a bit of crossing over in the middle part when they've already begun to thin out. It's hard to decide what's best in the gallery; it has equally phenomenal holdings in antique Roman statuary and mosaics, paintings and sculpture from the Renaissance, and then the walls with their decorative work. It is as dense a jewel box as one could look for anywhere, and I will definitely be back for more next time. Plus I ran out of battery towards the end!

Detail of paint on marble panels of a new-classical table at the Borghese

I was still taking in the Bronzinos and Parmigianinos towards the end when they kicked everyone out, so I headed back leisurely to Darius and Erica's across town, had a very nice dinner with them, and hit the hay, dreading somewhat the early departure time to make my flight to England the next day.

Last pic I caught before my camera quit. Guess I'll just have to go back again! Boohoo!

Day two 2015- I could get used to this!

Spent our first real day in Italy trying to get back what the travel demons took away- a little bit of sleep, a fair amount of exercise, and an excessive amount of good things to eat.

Started out by sleeping in after a fairly toss and turning night. Must be all the adrenaline produced by having to meet all kinds of deadlines and keeping our stuff from disappearing. We took 6 different trips yesterday via different modes of transport, each one with its own set of possible failure points. I was very glad we had negotiated the Roman buses before, because that might have been a very challenging end to a long day of travel had we not done it already.

Bus queue at Heathrow Airport. We had to transfer to Luton Airport, about an hour north, to catch our flight to Rome.

As I said, we slept in a while, and were about to slip out around 11 when our friend Erica (whose place we are staying at) texted to say she was coming home soon and would we be there. So we hung around a bit longer to chat and finally hit the streets around 1:30 to stroll up and meet their six-year-old daughter Xanthe, who goes to a school above the Spanish Steps. First stop was a delicious bakery where we picked up some nutty cookies. Almonds and hazelnuts, to be precise. So much Italian food is simple: unrefined things, sugar, eggs, but put together so as to be as complex and compelling as anything Nabisco or Keebler could ever come up with. They just won't last 3 years in the package. Thank God!

Panorama of the market at Campo di Fiori- here every day!

We then crossed the busy Corso Vittorio Emanuele and entered onto the Piazza Navona in full afternoon sun, which won't be possible in a month, but wasn't too bad right now. Having been studying the table model of Antique Rome last week, I could see in my mind's eye the structure of the underlying stadium of Domitian, and the Egyptian obelisk still standing there, having been brought from the Circus of Maxentius to top Bernini's writhing  Fountain of the Four Rivers, a masterwork of Baroque sculpture. Rome is like a giant onion of historical layers, each one revealing something distinctive about the next.

Marianne in the Piazza Navona, built over the site of  the Stadium of Domitian.

As we munched our cookies and strolled the Piazza, I kept thinking of how much a space like this would work in a city like Los Angeles, if bottom line oriented developers could ever devote that much open space to a non- commercial endeavor, let alone allowing the water in the fountains to evaporate, at least this summer of drought.

Water coming and going in the Piazza Navona.

We hugged the shade as we slipped over to the Pantheon,  a favorite stop of Marianne's, though the tourist flow was so heavy we decided to postpone entry until later in the day, and instead went around the side to the ever cool and shadowy Santa Maria sopra Minerva, so-called for its construction atop a site formerly occupied by a temple to Minerva. The church has a beautiful melange of Renaissance and later decorations, including Philippino Lippi's wondrous Carafa chapel, with some of the earliest grottesca panels in Rome.  Lippi, then in his 30's, interrupted his work on the Strozzi chapel in Florence, at the behest of Pope Alexander VI, the notorious Borgia ruler, to come to Rome for this commission, completed by 1493. (How could he say no?) The church also has some really elegant trompe l'oeil work decorating various chapels.

Outrageously good trompe l'oeil work in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

We also stopped in at the the church of Sant'Ignazio di , with Andrea Pozzo's stunning quadratura ceiling that seems to break down all normal laws of space, with figures that spiral upwards off trompe l'oeil architecture, and some that actually seem to enter the real space of the church (though they'd be mighty large if they did!) 

Giant feet from Andrea Pozzo in the church of Sant'Ignazio

Then we walked up the hill to pick up our friends' daughter, Xanthe, from the French run school on top of the Spanish Steps. It was fun to tell the guard we were picking her up, making us feel like locals, and then walking down the steps with her to go find her dad at the Piazza Colonna, where he was filming a bit of a TV show. Darius is an archeologist of some renown, having appeared a number of times on shows about Roman history on the Discovery and History channels. As it turned out, we just missed his shoot, so we ambled towards their house, stopping briefly to go inside the Pantheon for a taste of the one intact Roman temple space that has never fallen into disrepair, having been adopted as a church early on in the Christian era.

Walking with Xanthe down the Spanish Steps

Made it home and reunited the family (Erica was working on the web from home) and after a bit, we left (again with Xanthe) to meet up with Eli Baird, who is coordinating the Roman program for the Beaux-Arts Academy, which recently relocated to Salt Lake City from New York. The BAA is a multidisciplinary arts program (modeled on the French Ecole des Beaux Arts) that is deepening and broadening the education of (mostly) architectural students with an emphasis on knowledge of the history of architecture and art (including ornament) and drawing, painting and sculpture. 

Marianne and Xanthe waiting for Eli, who mysteriously avoided being in any of my photos!

We met up with Eli and went to get a gelato (of course!) and then went to a park to let Xanthe run off some of her sugar induced energy. We saved a bit of it to hike up the hill and check out the Tempietto of Bramante, a touchstone classical building that sits in the courtyard of a church with a great view of Rome from the other side of the Tiber river on the Janiculum hill. 

Bramante's Tempietto, built at the beginning of the 16th century

Descending as the swallows began to emerge for their dusk exercises, we said goodbye to Eli and went back to the house, turning around quickly to get a bite of Roman style food at a homey Campo di Fiori taverna called Lucifero. Eggs with white truffles, some fondue, roasted vegetables, and some tartare for our hosts, then heading back to the house to crash in time to be up to catch the train tomorrow for Lecce. 

Day 7- The Ides of March!

Beware! Today may make you so tired that you have to post the next day!

Started out the day with coffee with our friend Erica (fellow blogger-read it at http://ericafirpo.com/moscerina/)  with her daughter Xanthe at the Palazzo Braschi. Erica's the one who lent us her flat while she and her family were up north scouting the wilds of Saint Moritz for a review. Tough job! Actually, we had already gotten a coffee rush going at our new B&B, which left us refreshed after a nice quiet night (actually still as a tomb- it's weird to be in the middle of town and have it be so quiet!) Our new host is a chatty and friendly Roman woman named Michela who runs this two room place and served us a nice breakfast. You can find her rooms at http://unpostoaroma.eu/?lang=en.  It's a great bargain, recently redone, in a central locale close to the Piazza Navona and Campo de Fiori.

Xanthe models the latest in Roman fashions! Oversized is IN!

After quick coffees, we headed to the nearby Largo Argentina, which is a modern transport hub and cat sanctuary, but a also a cluster of 4 republican era temples that were located near the Theater of Pompey, where Julius Caesar was actually killed. There, a historical group was reenacting the event, which we only caught the tail end of, though we did get to see the costumes, which was fun for Xanthe. Chatted at their flat for a little, then Marianne and I walked up to visit the Vatican museums, always a favorite spot for me. 

Erica, Xanthe, Brutus and Marianne. Et tu?

Spent quite a while in the Hall of Maps there, four hundred feet of ornamental bliss! There is not a square inch of that hall that has not been lovingly caressed with a paint brush! They're still working on some kind of exterior renovation with scaffolding that covers a significant portion of the interior, but there is nevertheless many square feet of things to look at, even if you skip over the main narrative panels as I mostly do. The maps are exquisite- with all kinds of fascinating details, from sea monsters to landscapes, with beautiful legend cartouches interesting insets showing what the cities looked like at the time (1580's roughly.) I could easily spend a month in this room just perusing and copying things- it is so rich!

Just a little mascheron in the gigantic Hall of Maps at the Vatican, yet look at how skillfully it is painted.  Not one square inch of this room is wasted!

But we had to move on, so we went through Raphael's Stanze (rooms) with their amazing images of artists, philosophers, and religious images, and the earlier rooms by Pinturicchio, painted for the notorious Borgia pope Alexander VI in the late 1400's. These are interesting to me as one of the first places that grottesca work is seen after the uncovering of Nero's palace, the Domus Aurea, in about 1490. They also have intricate majolica tile floors and 500 year old graffiti that is all over if you look closely at the walls. 

Pinturicchio's ceiling in one of the Borgia apartments is a very early example of modern use of grottesca ornament, inspired by the uncovering of the Domus Aurea

Then we entered the holy of holies, the Sistine Chapel. This is the third time I have visited this room, and it just gets better each time. It was a tad less crowded this time of year, though the guards are still doing their "Shhhhhh!" act and shouting "no photos!". I usually don't shoot in there, as there are very good books that have wonderful details of most of it, but someone had asked me to try to shoot the painted curtains that run around the room, so i took a handful of those, and got scolded accordingly. There is no doubt that this room is one of the great wonders of the world in so many ways, and the fact that Michelangelo was able to pull it off in four years (at age 33!) is enough to make any artist walk away from their brushes!

After the Sistine, the rest of the museum is a denouement, but there are still some real treats. The room of the Aldobrandini Wedding, which has a small collection of Roman fresco panels and mosaics, is a stand out. The panels of landscapes based on Homer's Odyssey are remarkably atmospheric for their time, and the room itself has panels by Guido Reni on the ceiling that are also outstanding. The Sistine Library, which was recently closed off to the public, has yet more amazing grottesca work. 

Naturally, I am completely pooped after this experience, but I agreed to go inside St Peter's on our way back to our place. Again, as always, it is an uncanny experience. Michelangelo's Pieta is so moving! The way Mary's left hand releases the body on her lap, and seems to be forming the expression of "why?" is absolutely wrenching! Michelangelo had such an uncanny ability to get inside of the emotions we portray through our body language, in a way that is both natural and artistic. Right as we got there a ceremony  at the main altar was wrapping up, we just barely caught some of the smoke and singing, and Marianne swears she saw the Pope (and JFK, and Elvis) on the little balcony, even though everyone we talked to said it was just a regular Saturday evening service. We had a good laugh about it as we ambled away on our way home.

St Peter's at dusk

We made a vain attempt to get our phone service in order (it's working now!) and then stopped at a fun little fish restaurant near Largo Argentina where I had my second great octopus dish in as many weeks! Cruised back here and crashed hard. 

Got up for Marianne's last day here (at least for the week- she has to show up at work this week- long story!) and went over to see the interior of Sant'Ivo, Borromini's corkscrew topped church. The interior is elegantly plain (not severe, but unpainted), and then we went to see the inside of the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, a beautiful old house that is only open once a year, in celebration of the brief resurrection of one the Massimo family's ancestors. The family still lives in the house, and while we were there they were also receiving a variety of Rome's hoi polloi, including a Cardinal in his red propeller hat, and a woman who was having her hand kissed in a very regal manner. It was dark and cozy.

This fellow was waiting in his period costume to allow us into the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne. That was the real deal- not a copy.

After that we fixed the phone problem and headed back for a light lunch and computer time so I could keep you up to date.

Day 6- whole lotta nuttin!

Didn't have much on the agenda to begin with today, which was a good thing, since moving our base took up some time, then checking back on the dog (our friends don't get back until late tonight) and making sure all the laundry and dishes were done. 

Told you we were close- this is the view from our window looking down on Campo de' Fiori

The new place we found is very nice- about 6 blocks away on a much quieter street (won't miss that noise!) It's a 5th floor walkup - puff puff! -but it's a newly renovated old building with plenty of charm and a super friendly owner-it's a B and B. At 75 Euro per night it's a steal, with breakfast and a jacuzzi tub too!. After we settled there we did some more wandering down by the Tiber, which supposedly was very high a couple weeks ago, as evidenced by the many plastic bags adorning the trees on the banks.

I took this one because it reminded me of a Maurice Utrillo print my parents had in our den for many years.

We crossed over into Trastevere (which name translates as "across the Tiber") and went down to Santa Maria in Trastevere, the old church in the heart of that part of town. It's a very pretty church, with a big 13th century mosaic above the altar, and columns that were recycled from the Baths of Caracalla. The fountain outside is a great gathering place (when will the US ever have public spaces that work as well as here?)

Fountain in front of Santa Maria in Trastevere. Like so many great places to hang out all over Italy.

Grabbed a gelato and ate it crossing back over the river on the island that is connected by the oldest bridge in town- there since Roman times- then checked out a few more Roman era ruins- the temples of Portunus, Hercules, and the 4 way Arch of Janus across the way. Just a block away is San Nicolas in Carcere, a Christian church that incorporated the columns of an earlier Republican temple right into its walls, which are now exposed. This connects to the Theater of Marcellus, the Temple of Apollo Sosianus,and the Portico of Ottavia (and the knee bone connected to the thigh bone…) taking us right back to our friends' apartment to walk the dog one last time and put away the dishes.

Ponte Fabricio is an original Roman bridge, created in 62 BC!

Temple of Hercules Victor

We got dinner at a cute, very Italian place called "da Tonino" that was inexpensive and old school. Then we wandered around the outer edges of the Piazza Navona looking at the pumping night life and wondering if we're really getting old. Decided we'd better have another gelato to prove that it's not so. Came back here and wrote this down. There you have it.

Spring is springing!

Day 3, I think

Got nice and sunny today, a crispy spring day. Walked the dog and brought her back, then left for the morning, starting out with a church nearby that I knew would close at noon. Sant'Andrea della Valle is a nice baroque church with the second highest dome in Rome, designed by Carlo Rainaldi. Not much to say other than that, but I like each and every one of them for whatever they bring, on down to the tiny Santa Barbara chapel on the Giubbonari street where our house is, which is minute, but painted from top to bottom with faux marble, trompe l'oeil ornament, and little scenes. 

I almost had the feeling these guys were peering over my shoulder !

We then walked back past our place (notice how I've already adopted our hosts house to be our own?) to look at the exterior of the Palazzo Farnese, where they were filming some goofy looking artsy crap out in the Piazza. Had to laugh at their craft services table, which consisted of a plastic bin half full of dried up sandwiches on white bread and some box juices. Even a low budget film in LA knows actors are all about the food!

The back yard of the Palazzo Farnese looks out over the Tiber river and has a bridge that Michelangelo had planned to connect it to the Villa Farnesina on the far side of the river. It never got further than crossing the street.

Went into the Palazzo Spada next, where the famous disappearing perspective hallway by Borromini sits on the ground floor. Sorry, but if you want to see that, you'll have to Google it, since they were adamant about no pics. They were adamant about the inside too, but all the guards were either talking or snoozing, so i managed to catch a few good ones.Their collection is not very exciting, but the house is pretty cool and still has a bit of a "lived in" feeling to it, including a very nice citrus garden outside.

The exterior of the Palazzo Spada has fabulous stucco work all over 

After that we walked along the Via Giulia a ways, parallel to the Tiber, on a street with a lot of charm and a cool church with lots of skulls on its exterior. Went back to the pad for lunch, then went up to the Palazzo Venezia just across from the Emanuele monument. Another amazing staircase there, with different thematic capitals on all the pilasters, and again a mostly ho-hum collection of paintings, but again in a cool setting. Mussolini lived here for a while, and a couple of rooms were done up in the 30's with amazing iron and ceramic chandeliers. It also had cool majolica floors throughout, and no restrictions on photography. I've gotten in the habit of shooting before asking now, but it's nice when they really don't seem to care.

Strange but cool chandelier in the Palazzo Venezia. It's said that Mussolini used to meet his mistress in this room. 

Took in the museum of the Market of Trajan, which was kind of overpriced at 9.50 Euros, but it had some interesting info about, and fragments from, all the Imperial Fora, as well as great views from the parapets looking down on the forum built by Trajan. I love imagining the vast marble floored spaces that covered many acres of the Roman Forum, where it was mostly only foot traffic and definitely no machine noises, thought there could have been lots of hammering whenever they were constructing a new one for some emperor. After we exited we walked past all the spaces, with me trying to paint the picture for Marianne's eyes, while she struggled to stay awake!

"listen to husband? Fall asleep on this bench? Hmmm....."

Stopped off at the Church of the Gesu on the way home. Called the first Baroque church by historians, it has a ton of relics (arm bones, skulls under glass) and a gigantic gold, silver and lapis lazuli chapel dedicated to Saint Ignatius that was designed by Andrea Pozzo, master of perspective. The ceiling in the nave also has some really good trompe l'oeil effects of figures floating on clouds and seeming to enter the real space of the church. It was painted by Giovanni Battista Gaulli around 1670.

Gaulli's ceiling fresco really does seem to be floating off the structure of the building. 

Another gluten free pizza rounded out the day- I might get even fatter on this trip!

I'm going to need to go on a diet after this trip!

Day Three, but really one, so I'll call it Two.

So, today was our first real day, even though I've been in Europe three days now. Got a bit of sleep after listening fairly late to the carrying on that goes on every night in the Campo de' Fiori  (I can't imagine how our friends do it in the summer when it goes on 'til all hours, and they have to keep the windows open!) We finally got up around 11, made some caffe and figured out where we were heading by about 1. 

First photo of the day- a charming little building front just off the Campo de' Fiori

Headed first to the Museo Barracco, an interesting collection of antique sculpture assembled in what was a Farnese palace originally, designed by Anthony da Sangallo (maybe) with a  few remnants of nice 17th century fresco decoration on some of the ceilings. Mr Barracco (1829-1914) collected these pieces, and there are some good photos showing how he displayed them when he lived there. 

cool ceiling frescos in the loggia of the Palazzo Farnesina ai Baullari- now the Museo Barracco

We then went across the street to the Museo di Roma, housed in the Palazzo Braschi, at the south end of the Piazza Navona. The grand stairs are truly that, with tons of marble and good light from the skylight flooding through, even on an overcast day like today was. You could really picture the grand dames and dukes moving stately up and down the gently rising stairs. 

I found Will Shakespeare! Living in the stairs of the Palazzo Braschi!

The collection is a rather forgettable assemblage of popes, cardinals, and other Romans, but the setting is pretty nice, with several cool painted rooms, including a funny Chinoiserie room with fake Chinese script, and the jaw dropper of the day, a room that once belonged to the Torlonia family, with very fine and elegant painted grottesche and trompe l'oeil niches. It did have some fun paintings of celebrations around town, and some 19th century views of Rome by a painter named Ippolito Caffi that were very nice. 

I think this guy is trying to copy my beard!

Wandered over to see the outside of Borromini's crazy Church of Sant'Ivo, with it's corkscrew top, and then Sant Agostino, which has a panel by Raphael and an altar piece by Caravaggio, set in a profusion of colored marbles. Always astounds me  to see how many churches here have decorations that would make them a central attraction in any US city, but are just one more of the crowd here.

Crazy crown of the Chiesa di Sant'Ivo, by Borromini. Vino, anyone?

Passed by a  French bakery that had some wheat-free bread (bought it!) and then we headed back early to make some dinner and settle in to reading and writing about the day. All in all, a nice start.

Marianne taking a drink from one of the many public fountains in Rome. Anyone that buys water in plastic bottles here has been sold a bill of goods!  The water in Rome is as good as it gets, and it's all over the place for free!

Day Two 2014- Recovery Mode

Was rousted from a deep dream state this morning to find that Marianne (the Miraculous) (aka the wife) had overcome her usual lack of inner map to make it all the way from the Rome airport to the door of the apartment here. This was a good thing, since she also had no other real way of contacting me or our friends. She had not run into any of the blocks that I did, and made it straight through LA-DC-Rome.

It's Artichoke season!!

 Took a few cups of coffee to get my motor to idle correctly, then we took the little puppy (Bella, a Yorkie) out for an excursion to the market at Campo di Fiori, which is literally about 10 steps away from the front door. OMG! I love farmers markets, and especially somewhere foreign, where there's always something different to explore. Right now is artichoke season, so we picked up a couple of fresh looking ones. They also have (real) new potatoes, which are about the size of a malted milk ball, and several great looking mushrooms.

Fresh fruits and vegetables at the Campo di Fiori

Darius and Erica's flat is very nice; not huge, but carved out of an old palazzo with exposed wooden ceilings and curious little brick niches that look like ancient ossuaries in the bathroom- perfect for storing toiletries! They actually got chosen to do one of those HGTV shows on apartment hunting a few years ago, so we had already seen it before we got here. Darius is also on TV fairly often in his professional capacity as an archeologist. They took off for an all expenses paid ski junket thanks to Erica's gig as an online reviewer for a variety of magazines, so we have the place to ourselves for a few days- whee!

little brick niches in the bathroom- perfect for shampoo and towels!

After coming back with the dog, we went down and had delicious pizza- vegan for Marianne and Gluten free for me! Been so long since I've had a nice pizza, and to have it be wheat free was fabulous! Then we moseyed on up to the Piazza Navona, poking our heads into any church door that was open. The sky was marbled with clouds that looked like rain, but it didn't, and the temperature is actually quite mild now, having risen a bit in the last week. Made the requisite stop in the Pantheon to pay our respects to all the gods (and artists and architects) of our ancestors, then had our first gelati (I got Limone and Nocciola- Hazlenut.)

Marianne sees the light in front of the Pantheon

I like this attitude! "Well, we know the pillars will have pigeons on them, so let's beat them to the punch!" On Sant'Agnese in Agone on the Piazza Navona

After a bit more wandering, taking in the Caravaggios in the Contarelli Chapel, we found ourselves once again at the Trevi fountain, which is remarkably crowded considering we're just in to March and it's still cool here. I guess there's already a pretty heavy dose of spring breakers on the loose, as we've seen the marauding bands of teens all over. We threw in our coins for returning next time, then went home as the sun faded, stopping to pick up a phone card so that I can use text and google maps here. Flat rate of $35 to put a different card in my phone and have enough phone, text, and data to easily get me  through 3 weeks. Easy Peasy! 

Saint Hilarius, patron of comedians, died in a tickle fight with the Devil.

Back to the flat to walk the dog and whip up a fab dinner of salad with some weird octopus-like green i've never seen before, leftover pizza from lunch, and our two magnificent artichokes. topped it all off with some amazing real amaretti, which are nothing like what you get in a bag in the states, and some herbal tea. Then it's now! Time to post!

These weren't ours tonight, but they may be soon! Nipples of Venus!!

Long Day's Journey into Night (s)

On around my god-only-knows hour of travel time I am sitting on a train heading to Rome from Milan taking the scenic route via Genoa and the coast, but it's all beginning to blur into a constant state of sitting and looking out a window. My day began at least one night ago in Washington DC, which was as far as I got on standby on my real first leg (day) of this trip. I waited for the flight to Rome with about 200 very excitable spring break students, who would soon be where I wanted to be (little turds!) taking in gelati and whining about how few McDonalds they could find! Fortunately I have an awesome DC backup team in my old friend Dan Gorham and his wife Michela, who keep a room permanently set aside for my casual drop ins (we call it the Shriver Suite.) Dan has been a friend since kindergarten, and has been a long time supporter of what I do by commissioning and purchasing numerous artworks since I first started out. After a plush night of some really good Greek food and a cocooned sleep in my luxurious suite, they dropped me off at Dulles to take a second shot at standby on the 5 o'clock flight to Rome, which looked to be a lot less crowded than the Friday flight. It was an illusion unfortunately, as I missed getting on by ONE person, who incidentally showed up 5 minutes before the gate closed with no check in status, but had checked a box in a different way than I, thus gaining superiority over my status. ARRRRGH!

I was feeling quite frustrated at that point, as I'm supposed to meet my friend Darius in Rome to pick up his keys and learn what his dog will need for the next few days as I take care of her. The gate attendants suggested I try to get on a flight to Zurich, from whence I would have to pay for transport to Rome, as the free pass that we've been flying with (courtesy of Marianne's aunt, who used to work for United) does not transfer to other airlines within Europe. So that's what I did.

 I sure wish I could sleep on planes and trains- I do envy Marianne's ability to sleep sitting up (even though I tease her about it mercilessly.) Instead I watched three movies and tried to make sure I was drinking enough water to make it necessary to visit the head at least four times during the flight. Watching movies on the little seat back monitor is a great distraction, but it does a real number on my eyes after 8 hours! So when we got off, my eyes felt a bit like martini olives as I negotiated the impeccably Swiss airport. Is there any other adjective one can use for the Swiss? 

The man at the transfer counter there told me if I wanted to fly to Rome it would cost about $450 from Zurich to Rome, so I decided I'd take my chances with the train, especially after hearing that it's a very scenic route through the Alps to Milano. The prices for the train were a bit higher than what the airline man had quoted, which influenced me to take my chances on getting the second leg (Milan to Rome) at the Milan station. Glad I did, as it saved me about 30 Euros. And the trip through the Alps was as rich as promised, with Matterhorn like peaks and chalets perched on impossibly steep hillsides. 

Gorgeous views in the Swiss Alps- rain stains on the window. 

With my next to negligible German language skills (let alone the Swiss dialects, which are undoubtedly only spoken correctly by the impeccable Swiss), I was a tad relieved to see signs and hear announcements made in the much more familiar Italian, as we schussed down the backside of the Alps into Lugano. I just managed to drop off into some kind of alpha state when I was awoken by the announcement that we were arriving in Milan. 

In my bleary state, I was glad to be at least nominally familiar with the (gorgeous white marble) station there from the trip last summer, especially as the train to Rome was leaving in about 15 minutes from our arrival. I made my way downstairs to the ticket kiosks and had my first reminder that I was no longer in Switzerland from the "kindly" gentleman who offered to help me negotiate the ticketing kiosk. These guys are hustlers, and whether or not they are trying to steal your credit card info-or the card itself- they will at the very least pester you for some kind of tip if you allow them to push your buttons for you. DON'T do it! It did have the upside of shaking me out of my dazed state into savvy traveler mode so that I could score my ticket and get back upstairs with about 5 minutes to spare before the train doors closed. 

Thus far I have been keeping myself going with a mix of spelt bread that I brought from home, (I have a wheat allergy.) some salmon jerky from Trader Joe's, (which tastes pretty good though I'm certain it smells like a dead seal at low tide) and a baggie full of Mike and Ike candies that Michela filled up for me before I left their house. I'm telling you, they spare no expense chez Gorham! So I'm really looking forward to arriving in Rome and getting a little something to mangia! 

If the ticket is correct, we will be arriving at Termini station in Rome tonight at 8 pm. I won't even hazard a guess as to how many hours I will have been up at that point, with all the time changes along the way and the various seats I've occupied, but I'm definitely starting to feel a bit spacey. I suppose I could use the old tried and true "beard growth guide" to estimate it. Starting to feel fairly scruffy, especially since I didn't bother to shave at Dan and Michela's house. I'll still need to get down to Campo di Fiori to Erica and Darius' place, and figure out some way of getting a hold of him, since my phone is not working here (yet). Hopefully by tomorrow this will all seem like some gauzy opium dream, and I can help Marianne find her way into town on the flight she hopefully gets on. This standby thing is amazingly cheap, and has allowed us to take some trips that would have been unaffordable otherwise, but it does have its drawbacks.

 

Carnivale is winding down too, leading to some pretty funny costumes all over the place.

Epilog: I ended up the train ride having a nice conversation in my broken French with an Algerian guy who works as a baker in Belgium. Hope it doesn't impact my fragile Italian skills too much! We kept each other going (he had been on an equally long train trek across France.) and parted as good friends when we finally pulled into Termini station. I changed some money, found the bus line to Largo Argentina, and rolled my rollie over the cobbled streets to find Darius and Erica's place, where I stood nervously in front waiting for the doorbell to be answered. Had Darius not been there I would have been really screwed- Sunday evening with no phone and no internet and tired to the bone. Somehow, I'm still awake three hours later, yakking with Darius and getting the low down on the dog care, where the circuit breakers are, etc. I'm going to post this now and crawl up the spiral stairs to nest in the loft. Ciao, ciao ciao.