Today's main mission was to head back to the Pantheon area to find an historic art supply store we had been to on previous occassions. Ditta G. Pogge is a 180 year old company/store with great selections covering many art media...
After about an hour in the store, Kris decided on a set of Winsor & Newton water colour paints for 150 euro and Brian picked out a spiffy little eraser for 3 euro (go figure). Leaving there we decided to head for Campo de Fiori, stopping periodically for shelter from the intermittent brief downpours, one of which let loose a torrent of small hailstones (who knew?). We wandered through the market area...
... it is still hard to believe that this market place has been set up every morning and taken down every afternoon for nearly 150 years. After the market stroll we continued along Via di Monserrato, where we stopped in at a little place that sells pizza by the slice for lunch. Excellent. This type of place does it different than at home... the pizzas are long oblong shape (more like long skinny rectangles with rounded corners), you pick the type you want to try, the pizza person motions/asks you how big a chunk you want then hacks it off with scissors or a large cleaver. You pay by the weight. We had more than enough for the two of us for about $12 CDN.
After lunch we headed back towards Campo de Fiori to see if we could find Palazzo Spada, home of Borromini's Perspective one of the neatest things you'll see anywhere. The "forced perspective" uses a rising floor and diminishing columns to give an illusion of a courtyard 37 metres long with a life size sculpture at the end of the gallery. The courtyard is actually only 8 metres long and the sculpture stands a mere 60 cm (pic is a bit fuzzy as it is through a window, but still beautiful)...
After admiring this for a bit, while waiting out another rain outburst, we wandered back over to the Campo de Fiori for more market wandering and an after lunch treat at the Forno Campo de Fiori where they make what must be the best tasting Brutti ma Buoni (Ugly but Good) cookies ever! Drool!
Still raining, so we headed back through the Piazza Navona to the Pantheon area and a return to Ditta G. Poggi where Kris decided she just needed to try a different brand of water colour paint, Schmincke. She went in and said to the guy that helped her earlier "you probably think I'm crazy, but I need to try this other set too" to which he replied "... all artists are crazy". Guess what has kept them in business for the last 180 years?
Leaving the store we stepped into the Pantheon, along with many others, for a brief respite from the rain. What an absolutely fabulous place. It would take a long time to get tired of this place. We then continued north a couple of blocks for ice cream at Grom.
Tuesday was just a do very little type of day. Rainy again. The tram 19 line runs right past our place so we hoped on it and took a ride up the other side of the Borghese Gardens and got off on Viale Regina Margherita where there is a Coin store. The Coin store was a bit of a bust, sort of like a small branch store which took mere minutes to peruse. Wandering down the street Kris lucked into a sewing goods store, Caponnetto Antonella, which also sells pretty well any kind of button a person might ever want or need. A collection of Chanel buttons in hand we departed the store. We wandered around the area for a bit, had a decent lunch in a place packed with white collar office workers taking their lunch breaks then jumped on a returning 19 tram. Later we tried out a wine bar, Gran Cafe Mazzini, a couple of blocks up the street. Nice but not as good as Piccolo Diavolo down on the corner at Via Cola di Rienzo where the people watching is much better.
Tuesday evening Kris discovered that one of her Chanel buttons was badly flawed so Wednesday morning we started the day with a repeat journey on tram 19 to exchange the offending button. Easy peasy. Task accomplished, we hoped a bus down to the Barberini metro station then the metro to Termini, the main station in Rome. From the time we got on the metro to the time we got off, the skies opened up once again so we hung around inside Termini awaiting a lull in the downpour. After a bit it eased and we headed out for the Santa Maria della Vittoria church to have a renewed look at Bernini's Ecstacy of Saint Teresa...
... every bit as fabulous as we remembered.
Afterward, we attempted to find the National Museum of Rome, but apparently we walked right passed it. Asked several people for directions but they led us progessively farther away from our goal. Eventually, on the Via Nazionale we came across a tourist info kiosk where the very helpful young man pointed us back the way we had come. The one we were looking for is actually one of 4 sites for the National Museum, the Palazzo Massimo. Found it, paid our way in, got frisked at security, and in we went. Unfortunately, this was a day of many teenage school groups. The boys were more interested in setting off the proximity alarms around the sculptures and the girls were more interested in their cell phones. Oh well, maybe a bit of knowledge was imparted during the day. They do have some wonderful pieces on display...
By now it was time for lunch. We stopped in at an Irish pub on Via Nazionale for a couple of salads before wandering down to the Piazza Venezia, in front of the Vittorio Emanuele Monument, then back over near the Pantheon, through numerous back streets, where we came directly to, you guessed it... Ditta G Poggi, the art supply store. Sometimes it seems that not only do all roads lead to Rome, but maybe to Ditta G. Poggi (it is, afterall, almost in the geographical centre of Rome)..
.
... but we managed to skip past it on our way to Grom for an ice cream. Yummm... And called it a day.
Thursday was another rainy sort of do nothing kind of day. Took the metro over to the San Giovanni station. Upon emerging to the world we were right in front of a much larger Coin store. Checked it out but came away empty handed. Not far from the station is the Archbasilica of St John Lateran. This absolutely beautiful church is the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome (aka The Pope) so it ranks above all other Catholic churches inluding St Peter's Basilica, hence the name Archbasilica...
Across the street is the Scala Sancta (Holy Steps) up which you can climb, but only on your knees...
... it should be noted that there is a sign at the bottom of the stairs warning believers that "climbing the stairs on your knees does not absolve you of your sins".
Leaving the area we decided to take the #3 tram over to Trastevere. Unbeknownst to us however, is that there are two #3 trams. One that goes where you want to go and one that doesn't. Guess which one we got on? We thought we were good to go until the tram essentially pulled a u-turn... end of the line! Lucky for us it was near a metro stop. The Pyramide station was the first on the B-line for us on this trip and what a difference from the A-line we have been using. This one has truely entered the grunge zone and the train we got on was totally covered in graffiti inside and out. Only a few stops to Termini and off we went. We decided to just head for Piazza Navona but didn't want to walk that far. Not wanting to take a taxi we bought an excellent plastc coated map (you know, the rain) showing the Rome bus routes. Picked out bus #64, found it in the maze of bus stands outside Termini where one was just leaving and 10 minutes later we were in Piazza Navona. Sweet. Last time here, in Rome, we had excellent lunches at a little place just off the piazza so we decided to give it a go again. Hmmm... Ristorante la Fraschetta seems to be run by the same guys, bruschetta still excellent but the rest of our meals... blandy bland mediocre at best. Likely won't return unless we have a hankering for their bruschetta.
Leaving Piazza Navona we went over to Campio de Fiori for some more of those "ugly but good" cookies, then along Via Monserrato to a little costume jewelry place named "Old & New" where Kris picked up a few nice pieces. Then, using our trusty new found bus map we walked over to the Lungotevere where we caught bus #23 across the river to Piazza del Risorgimento, near the Vatican and walked home from there.
Friday was a designated museum day and we chose the Capitoline Hill Museum. To get there we took the metro to Termini then a #70 bus down Via Nazionale to Piazza Venezia; dodged the cars as we walked across the huge traffic circle and up the Michelangelo steps to the piazza featuring the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius...
... and it just gets better from there. We spent several hours in the museum stopping periodically to do a bit of sketching, but what a fabulous collection of sculptures (and other stuff)...
... and the view over the Forum from the Tabularium is way cool...
By the time we got out of there it was mid afternoon and definitely lunchtime. Being not that far from Campo de Fiori, we decided a return to the little pizza place on Via Monserrato was in order. Once again excellent. After lunch we walked across the river and caught a #23 bus (going the other way from yesterday) out into Testaccio specifically to visit the gastronomia Volpetti on Via Marmorata. Yummm... the aroma as you enter... They offer up taste tests of various cheeses and salami and it is virtually impossible to walk out of there without a supply of both, they are all so good! Be careful on the cheese though, the sample we tasted was 55 euro/kg (ouch). From there we discovered that the #280 bus stops right outside Volpetti and also stops right at the corner of our street. Now that's a good one to know about!
It was such a nice evening, weather wise, that we walked up to Piazza Mazzini to sit at a sidewalk cafe, sip some wine and watch life go by. It will be even nicer after this weekend because it is time here to spring our clocks ahead an hour so it will be lighter later; plus the forecast is finally showing a good break from the rainy weather we have been having since we arrived in Rome.
Saturday we awoke to the first full blue sky since arriving in Rome. Maybe time to try our hand at some Rome sketching. Supplies in hand, we jumped on a #280 bus and hoped off right outside the entrance to Castel Sant'Angelo, paid the 11.50 euro fee each and climbed the long winding ramp to the top. Didn't take any pics so just take our word for it - the panoramic view is pretty darn good.
Tim Taylor, the instructor for our 1/2 day drawing course here a few years ago, told us "... when you pull out a pencil and paper here, in Rome, you are an artist and everyone will want to see what you are doing". That was true then and it is still true today. As we sat or stood sketching, on the terrace, numerous people came and watched over our shoulders. Kinda fun.... a couple of our rough renderings...
Anyway, after a couple of hours it was time to head off for lunch. Leaving the Castel Sant'Angelo we walked across the Ponte Sant'Angelo (St Angelo bridge) toward the historic centre, picked a sidewalk pizza cafe at random and had a decent lunch. After lunch we walked over to Corso Vittorio Emanuele II to catch a #64 bus to Termini from where we walked the 4 blocks or so to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. This is a beautiful church but we always find it somewhat ironic that Bernini, perhaps one of the greatest sculptors of all time and the sculptor of many magnificent memorials, is left with only his name in a step to the side of the alter in this church...
Leaving the church we decided it was time for a cappucino break and picked a place across from the church plaza where they had a nice shaded patio. Well, we have now had our most expensive "coffee" of this trip... 14 euro for two cappucino smaller than we would get at home. That would be $21.28 CDN at today's conversion rate. That done, we went back to Termini to get our Eurail train pass validated and to make reservations to go south to Naples for an overnighter next week. Done for the day... transit back to near home and a glass of wine or two. We chose Piccolo Diavolo again.
Sunday, another fine day, we decided a day trip out to Ostia Antica was in order. Our weekly transit passes expired at midnight last night so we bought a couple more and were on our way. We thought we would take the #280 bus over to the Piramide metro station but after waiting a good 20 minutes we gave up on the bus and headed underground for the metro (faster but far less scenic). That wait for the bus cost us as we arrived at Piramide just in tme to watch the train to Ostia Antica pull out of the station... another half hour wait for the next one. At least it wasn't raining. Anyway, it turned out to be a great day to wander around the ruins, have lunch in their cafeteria, stroll the fabulous museum etc, etc, etc...
And, to top it off, Kris even got to accrue a great deal of good karma by noticing that someone had left a purse on a chairback in the cafeteria. She turned it in to the cashier... over half an hour later a young woman came in and frantically searched the area... Kris went over and told her that the cashier had her purse. Great relief!
Coming back into Rome we thought we would see if we could find the stop for bus #280 outside the Piramide station. Leaving the station we checked a couple of bus stop areas with no luck but as we approached a third area, doesn't a #280 pull up right in front of us. Sweet. We got off a block past our place then walked another block to Piazza Mazzini where we sat outside at the Gran Caffe Mazzini and enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine. The clocks were set ahead last night so it was a very nice evening to sit out today. While there we noticed some tents across the traffic circle in the Piazza Mazzini... Checked it out and it turned out to be an excellent flea market, not to mention a beautiful fountain in the middle of the piazza.
A pretty nice end to the week!
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