Day 5, May 26th
It was our last day in Rome and we started it the same as always, breakfast at the hotel then heading out on foot into some part of the city. This time we were going all the way out to Villa Borghese, a huge park in Rome that was land formerly owned by the Borghese family. We were going to visit the Galleria Borghese because I just had to see a few Caravaggio works before I left and of course there’s always room for more Bernini.
We decided to start off by visiting one of the other basilicas in Rome that was on our way, Santa Maria Maggiore. It was only about a mile from our hotel but we had to walk up Via Cavour which was a nice steady incline. As we walked to Santa Maria Maggiore, we saw one of the funniest things of our whole trip. A taxi cab and a large coach bus got in a small accident; it wasn’t really clear who had hit whom but nobody was hurt and the vehicles weren’t even dented. But both drivers were really upset and had gotten out and were yelling at each other. The argument got heated and the taxi driver took a swing at the bus driver who happened to be much larger than him. This started a minor slapping match and suddenly all these Italian men ran out to try to break it up. The bus driver and taxi driver continued to chase one another while the other men tried to break it up. It stopped traffic on both sides of the street and men were getting out of their cars trying to break it up. The bus that was part of the accident happened to be filled with Asian tourists who watched as their driver chased the taxi driver up the street. At one point, another man hopped into the taxi and drove it off to the side so that traffic could keep moving while the two drivers still tried to slap each other. Another man on his scooter made it his job to direct traffic. The bus driver decided that the taxi driver might try to get away so he went over to the cab and took the keys out of the ignition. Finally both drivers grabbed their phones, presumably to call the police. Like Stefano said, “It’s the Italian way.”
We finally made it up the hill to Santa Maria Maggiore. It was another church I had studied in my art history classes and it proved to be just as beautiful and elaborate as all the rest. This church had beautiful mosaics though the ones in the apse were harder to see because of the dim lighting. After our visit to the church, we spotted Upim, a discount department store in Rome. Mom bought some olive oil beauty products and I really wanted to buy these pajamas that were a pale pink short-sleeved pajama top with short bloomer bottoms but I didn’t.
We passed a lot of things on our way to Villa Borghese and were in a very different part of Rome, a much more commercial area where a lot of office buildings were. At the Piazza della Republica, we stopped at a magazine vendor where Mom got some Italian home and gardening magazines and I picked up ten postcards for 3 euros. The old man at cash register told me, “Thank you, bella.” It would be nice if American men just went around calling you beautiful all the time. We stopped for lunch not far from there at a restaurant called Papa Bacchus. We ate inside where it was nice and quiet and air conditioned. I had tonarelli with cheese and pepper and for our appetizer we shared eggplant fondue. The eggplant fondue was excellent; it was basically stacked eggplant in a cheese shell. The tonarelli was al dente and handmade. Seriously, Rome was pushing me in the direction of the Culinary Institute. Maybe I could be like Sabrina?
We finally made it over to the Villa Borghese after passing through the Aurelian Wall and weaving down a few more streets. When we got to the Galleria Borghese, we found out the tickets had to be bought in advance but thankfully a couple of people didn’t show up for their reservations and we claimed them.
The Galleria Borghese is a gorgeous setting for a museum. And of course the collection is beyond wonderful. As an art history major that spent so many hours locked in a dark room seeing these objects on slides, it was stunning to finally see them in person. Especially Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne. I love the way her fingers change into leaves and her toes start growing roots. The bodies look like they’re moving forward in flight. It simply took my breath away. Canova’s Paolina Borghese was actually really provocative for a statue, much more so in real life than when I had seen it in class. Then there were Caravaggio’s works, Sick Bacchus, David with the Head of Goliath, and the Boy with the Basket of Fruit. Again being in person you could see how much skill he had, the play of dark and light and the realism injected into the canvas. It’s sufficient to say that I loved the Galleria Borghese.
We kind of wound through the city on our way back, ending up walking down Via Veneto down to the Piazza Barberini and discovering Bernini’s drinking fountain with its large bees. This also meant that we had to walk up a huge hill to get back to our hotel. But we got back to where Bernini’s four fountains are and San Carlo was open this time. I was so happy to see the church that I wanted to see so badly. I loved its cool white interior with the intricate coffered ceiling, a mix of crosses and shapes. Sant’Andrea al Quirinale also happened to be open, though we had to go in through the seminary entrance. Sant’Andrea was more opulent than San Carlo and we got a chance to sneak a peak at the special dome above the altar.
We had our last afternoon shower to get rid of all the dust and dirt of Rome. Mom and I decided our last dinner would have to be the same as our first: pizza at Pizzeria da Baffetto. We waited a lot longer this time but the food was just as good. Giovanni called and offered to take us for drinks and show us a bit of Rome at night. We agreed to meet at Campo dei Fiori.
Campo dei Fiori is very different at night than it is during the morning. Most of the places surrounding the square are bars and, mostly because of the huge Champions League match between Barcelona and Manchester United, there were tons of people out drinking. But Rome, in an effort to curb the violence that usually accompanies the soccer matches, placed an 11pm drinking curfew on the parts of the city closest to the Colosseum area where it was being held. We found Giovannia and he offered to take us for a drive around Rome. Seeing Rome by car is a very different experience than walking. Zooming around the streets and through traffic is exhilarating and everything just looks different. It was a great way to spend our last evening.
The next morning we got up super early and, despite our driver being late, we made it to the airport with little incident. Of course the airport was another perfect place for people watching. We had a lay-over in Milan which turned out to be 3 hours instead of one because of a delay. I actually enjoyed the airport there since it was clean and the view of the Alps was beautiful. It was another 9 hours on the plane before we were finally back at JFK and our Rome adventure was officially over.
