Rachael and I came to Rome for the first time in 2006, as the starting and ending point for a tour of Puglia, the Amalfi Coast, and Sardinia. At the beginning of our tour we arrived in Rome late in the day, spent the evening assembling our bicycles and scoring a meal, and departed by train for Taranto early the next morning. At the end of the tour in early June we spent two nights in Rome, with a hurried day visiting some of the historical highlights and the Vatican. It was too hot, too crowded, and too busy. We didn’t really care for the experience or the city, and have never really considered coming back. We’re here this time only because it looked like the best way to fill in a few rainy days.
So, we’ve both been quite surprised at how attractive we’ve found the city. The ride along the Tiber was great, and we both enjoyed wonderful walking tours through the city. And of course, Rome being Rome, we really only scratched the surface and would like to come back again some day.
Today promises to be rainy, but that’s no reason to avoid walking around with so many options for dashing under cover if the rains get too severe. Rachael is keen on returning to Villa Borghese, which we saw briefly when biked through yesterday. I decide to join her at the beginning, after which we split up and go our ways. We both have a wonderful time and are reasonably lucky with the rains, which shower off and on during the day but don’t turn severe until the evening after we’re safely back at the hotel. A fine, memorable day. A good start.
At the Porta Pinciana, the southeast gate into the Villa Borgese gardens. several of the walkways are named for figures from literature and cinema: this one, Marcello Mastroianni, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Goethe.
There is a long underground walkway that lets you access the gardens without crossing the busy Corso d’Italia and through the Porta Pinciana. We took it, especially appreciating this option on a rainy morning. Unfortunately when we emerged at the other side we were disoriented and walked back out of the park again to rhe place we started from.
The Museum of Pietro Canonica. I was interested in entering it to look around, but needed vaccine information and hadn’t thought to bring it. Pretty from the outside though.
Along the Viale Pietro Canonica. The way is lined with torsi - mostly decapitated, and all concrete copies of the originals created in 1990. The originals are undoubtedly stored away in some museum, but it’s more evocative seeing their replicas in situ.
This sculpture atop a fountain is a modern work from the 1920’s, alternatively known as the Fountain of Joy, or of Satyrs, or of Rabbits. Take your pick.
A fleet of geese on the pond in front of the Temple of Aesculapius. They’ve arrived after sailing the pond, in tight formation the whole way. From here they executed a tight U-turn and then completed a circle, as if they were trying to create an eddy and stir something up from the bottom.
The Moro Torto, an ancient retaining wall built along the west side of Pincio Hill, another site filled with gardens and important monuments and allegedly offering the best views from above of Ancient Rome. Which I might have been aware of and chosen to visit if I’d read anything about Rome before we arrived.
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A side chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo. These can be briefly illuminated for 2 euros, but I failed to bring any change so I had to resort to freeloading by scurrying from one illuminated chapel after another.
The Neptune Fountain in the Piazza del Populo. Above is the viewing platform overlooking the city on Pincio Hill. We should really go up there next time.
On the Piazza de Petra: the colonnade of the 2nd century Temple of Hadrian, now incorporated in the 17th century as the facade of the customs building; later the home of the Rome stock exchange, now the chamber of commerce.
