amberwavestour: Rome wasn't BUILT in a day...

But we sure did try to see a whole lot of it in one.

Today was a balancing act. On the one hand, we knew we only had a few days in this great city; on the other hand, we know that we always appreciate a city most when we take time to wander off the beaten path and see things other than that city’s “greatest hits.” So… we tried to have the best of both worlds. No shocker, then, that it is 12:30 a.m. as I write this blog, after we have all showered to get ready for our 7:00 a.m. wake-up call… tomorrow morning is, you see, the day we will visit the Colosseum!

From my trusty Fodor’s (yes, I still must purchase a Fodor’s to help plan each of our trips, despite the ample resources now available online), I learned of two less frequently cited but worthwhile places to visit. One, the Keats Shelley Memorial House, is literally at the bottom of the Spanish Steps, so that was stop #1. As I will be teaching British Literature again this coming year for the first time in several years, I was especially excited to visit the home the Romantic poets made their base when living in Rome. While they all considered a trip to Rome a must to complete their cultural education, John Keats was also coming here in the hopes that the weather in Rome might improve his health. Instead, he died here. The room where he died has been recreated to appear just as it did during the months he lived here, looking out over the Spanish Steps and bemoaning that the life outside his window was one he would never again be able to live. The museum is filled with letters written to and from Lord Byron, Percy and Mary Shelley, and Keats, along with drafts of the many poems they wrote while in Rome or inspired by their time here. We shared the museum space with only a few other visitors, though the crowds were already bustling outside by the Fontana della Barcaccia, which, after our myriad treks around it last night, already felt like “our” fountain. Dana kept called me a nerd for geeking out as I was throughout the museum, but it was totally worth being mocked to be in this sacred space. :)

The famous painting of Keats, which I have looked at for years in my British Lit textbook, was painted by his dear friend, in who's arms he died in this very house.

The view of the Spanish Steps from the window in the Keats Shelley home/museum

The Steps, as you can see, are barricaded, but still visible.

Spot #2 - the Trevi Fountain, which we didn’t need Fodors to tell us about. Needing coins to throw in said fountain was all the reason we needed to make a gelato stop on the way. Maddie noted that much like there are fudge shops lining the streets in Mackinac Island, one cannot walk a half a block without running into yet another gelato shop. She was not complaining, I should point out, when she made this observation.

The Trevi Fountain is stunning, even when surrounded by hundreds of tourists. We hope to go back tomorrow night to view both the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona at night, when it promises to be just a tad less crowded and a whole less hot!

We all made our respective wishes, took lots of photos and enjoyed the people watching, before heading to Fodor’s suggestion #2, the magnificent Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, a Patrician palace still belonging to members of the Pamphilj family (the current heir, Jonathan’s audio tour was particularly wonderful, and helped by the additional voice talent of Dame Judi Dench - or someone who does one hell of an impersonation!), who are ancestors of Pope Innocent X, who, before his time as Pope (in the early 1600’s, when he was just Giovanni Battista Pamphilj), was one hell of an art collector. Having the rare idea to legally require that all the works he acquired be maintained as one complete collection means that all these centuries later, dear Jonathan has quite the collection to curate. The museum becomes a walk through life for an elite family in Rome throughout the centuries, along with the opportunity to not only see magnificent sculptures by Bernini and canvases painted by Caravaggio, but to hear the stories of how Pamphilj knew these men and came to acquire these pieces of art. It is an astounding place - and I can already tell will be one of the highlights of our time in Rome.

Pamphilj's Palace

Enjoying Dame Judi's commentary!

The velvet walls were considered a type of art; the worn pieces are original.

We appreciated the humble fans added throughout the otherwise glorious spaces

A bust of Innocent X by Bernini

When the roof caved in after a snowstorm, this statue was broken into 25 pieces... this is quite the restoration!

The Hall of Mirrors, where the multiple windows and mirrors would reflect on the gold and make the room shimmer

Imaginary sword fight; many of the statues in this room had been damaged

The rooms were every bit as impressive as the art they housed.

Next up, more walking and lunch - pizza, of course - before heading to the famed Piazza Navona, now all the more intimate to us because of what we had learned about Bernini, whose famous three fountains are the centerpiece of the piazza, during our previous stop. Along the way, we stopped into several churches, as Maddie knew that we were likely to see great art works within (in addition, of course, to the glorious churches themselves). Indeed, we came upon three more Caravaggio’s in one of the churches and a rehearsal for an upcoming Bach concert in another.

Rehearsing Bach

Stumbling upon this rehearsal was an unexpected surprise

Caravaggio paintings tucked away in one corner of this church

Our final ambitious stop for the day was the Pantheon, which, lucky for us, was closed for an hour for a liturgy, giving us the opportunity to sit in a cafe a few streets off the crowded area immediately surrounding the Pantheon, and replenish our water bottles and our energy supplies. Our tour through the Pantheon was made more special by Daniel’s ability to share all sorts of interesting information he had learned this past year in World History. Often, it is Maddie who is telling us tales about the great art works we are viewing, so it was wonderful for Daniel to have the chance to show off his knowledge, too.

By the time we left the Pantheon, it was just about 7:00 p.m., so we opted to take a horse and buggy ride through some of the sites we had explored during the day, over the Tiber, and past the Palace of Justice, which was quite stunning as the sun was nearly setting. Our buggy driver kindly dropped us off at the foot of the Spanish Steps, where we arrived for dinner at Cucina & Vista, which was molto bene! Back to the hotel for a short rest before hitting the Via Veneto for more walking (!!) and a gelato for dessert (yes, we’ll be able to have a blog devoted to nothing but ranking the various gelato spots in Italy by the time our trip is done :) - and now we’re finally going to sleep.