Rome, Sunday, April 28
Opinions were divided on Norse Air! It does give new meaning to “no frills:” You get nothing, not even coffee in the morning. I had to virtually beg for a cup of water (the first flight attendant told me water was only for passengers who had purchased meals). And Sue found the seats unusually uncomfortable and slept very little. I, on the other hand, genius of sleep that I am, slept for six hours, surely a record on a transatlantic flight.
Fiumicino is an easy airport and we were soon in a taxi rolling into the center of Rome. We were staying in a place we knew from a decade before, “serviced rooms”called Dimori degli Dei (the abode of the gods); the rooms are simple but very comfortable, and the location is unbeatable: 40 yards from the Pantheon. Vladimir had already arrived from Croatia, and the B’s and Sue put their feet up for an hour while I did a quick refresher tour.
My first sight of the Piazza del Rotondo almost sent me scurrying back to the airport. We knew in the abstract that Rome was one of the places that had become “overtouristed,” but until you experience the crowds surging through the square, you can’t really understand the term.
Things get better as you move away from the sites on the greatest hits list. I turned south to get a look at Bernini’s elephant in front of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
And then to Sant’ Eustachio il Caffé for what is still a great coffee…even if the tiny place was a total mob scene. People were standing three deep at the bar, so you had to wave your receipt in the air, pass it over people’s heads, and wait until one of the baristas put your cup on the counter.
I finished my circumnavigation with a quick dip into Piazza Navona before returning to the hotel to pick up the rest of the tr0upe.
We then recreated the walk I had just done, stopping this time to go into Santa Maria. The church was built by the Dominicans in 1280; as a pure Gothic structure it remains a rarity in Rome. The picture below shows the fine bones of the original church, but also the rather ridiculous nineteenth century reimagining of the Middle Ages, with the garish colors of the ceiling and pillars. Curses on the head of Viollet-le-Duc!
Sue popped into Sant’ Eustachio for her own “welcome to Rome” coffee. We then decided it was time for a welcome to Rome drink as well, so we found a ringside table in Piazza Navona for a spritz (Aperol for the other three, Campari for me). The huge piazza, once the stadium of Domitian, is surely one of the great public spaces anywhere. The central area is dominated by Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers of 1651.
The bearded figure with a punt pole and an elephant beneath him represents the Ganges. The Danube is personified by a figure with his hair tied back, a huge fish beneath him and a horse below. The Rio della Plata (holding his arm up) has a pile of coins beside him, a reference to the riches of the New World. Lastly comes the Nile (veiled), with a lion on the rocks beside a palm tree.
Behind the fountain rises the remarkable facade of Borromini’s Sant’ Agnese in Agone (Agone is a false cognate: it is a reference to the agon or competitions that once took place in the stadium, and not to the saint’s agony).
The interior offers a surprisingly harmonious vision of the Roman baroque.
And the dome isn’t bad either.
Dinner was at the Hosteria Grappolo d’Oro in the Piazza della Cancelleria; we had a wonderful succession of Roman food.
A trio of appetizers: panzanella (a kind of composed salad of tomatoes and bread), a polpetta with beef and salsa verde, and baccalá with artichokes. Connie and I had the kind of carbonara you dream about, while Sue and Vladimir ordered Tonnarelli, a kind of fat spaghetti, with cacio e pepe. Just when we thought we couldn’t eat another bite, they brought our main courses; braised beef cheeks for Sue and me, roast lamb for Vladimir, and more baccalá for Connie. Dessert was a marvelous zabaglione with caramelized nuts. The price of this bounteous prix fixe? 34 Euros! We drank a lovely 2018 Barbaresco Rabat-Bas from the Castello di Verduno.
On the way home, I snapped a few illuminated monuments.
