wandering July 2, 2009

I have a restless soul, probably developed over the years by many, many family vacations and always having exciting and new experiences. For some reason I just feel better when I’m moving. Of course the same goes with my life in general but that’s a whole other issue. And what better time than summer to travel and have new experiences? You’ve already read about my fantastic journey to Rome. Now I’m fantasizing about places I want to travel, starting with my U.S. list.

1. Austin, TX- I have this strong desire, a completely random desire really, to travel to Texas and see what it’s all about. I have heard great things about the artsy Austin scene with lots of music and fun hang-outs. I want to see Texas but its creative side.

2. Pittsburgh, PA- Okay, not the most obvious choice for a summer trip but Pennsylvania is beautiful in the summer, especially to drive through which is exactly how I would get there…road trip! I am also dying to visit the home city of Andy Warhol and visit his Factory and museum. Plus the historic preservationist in me wants to check out the architecture of city built when the steel industry was hot.

3. Colorado- I’m not sure where I want to go in Colorado, though I’m leaning heavily towards Boulder because I’ve heard its a great city that really shows off the beauty of Colorado. I’m not picky; Colorado is on my travel list and no matter where I pick, I’ll make it there someday.

4. Nashville, TN- the home of country music is the perfect place for me to explore. Plus Karen Elson, the famous red haired model, has a vintage clothing store there that I read about in May’s Vogue and put on my list of places I’ve always wanted to shop (I’m a girl with a lot of lists, okay?) I also just want to be down south again, I’m missing their boys!

5. Chicago- I do want to go there, though I’m not sure I want to head there this summer. There a lot of other places I’ve been that I would go to first but I still want to head to the big Midwestern city. Obviously I want to hit up all the Chicago museums which have some of the best artwork in the nation and of course to hit up the miracle mile of shopping.

That’s my list of places in the U.S. that I haven’t been to and would love to visit soon. I limited to 5 places but there are lots more that I’m on the fence about visiting like Louisville, Phoenix, Raliegh, Tampa (which I kind of visited but not really, it’s a long story), and Santa Fe. There are also plenty of places that I’ve visited and want to again: Savannah, Boston, DC, and Charleston to name a few. Not to mention my huge craving for an awesome road trip. Seriously, I love to travel.

final thoughts on rome June 4, 2009

I finally got all of my Rome diary posted! I figured I would do a little reflection on the trip because it was just such a fabulous one. Also because I feel like I need to make more than one post since I have been neglecting blogging though I promised I would be better at it. 

I think if someone asked me to, I would live in Rome. I love cities but I really loved Rome, almost on par with Paris (Paris only wins by a small margin because I speak the language there, though I am seriously considering Italian lessons this fall). It’s an accessible city with wonderful food, friendly people, and wonderful art and history. I liked the neighborhoods and that you could pretty much walk everywhere, though it did cause my feet to ache. Mom is already planning a return trip with only a little worry that we won’t have enough to see. I don’t think that’s the case with Rome at all. Everywhere you go, there are small things to discover all over the city. We would walk down a tiny via and then walk out and there would be church with Raphael frescoes or Bernini sculptures. And it’s not just the art of course but there are all sorts of food, markets, and shopping to discover. 

Rome also made me reflect on the way I want to live in the future. I’m not sure if it’s possible in the U.S. outside of New York City but I want to live in a city where everything I need is easily accessible. Instead of buying a ton of groceries once a week, I want to be able to walk over to my local market and pick up what I need to make dinner that night, or preferably to have a little farmers’ market not too far away. I want to be able to walk to church, the library, work, and have all sorts of entertainment right outside my door. That’s not the way we live in the U.S. with all of our suburbs and cars. I want the convenience of having everything right there, fresh and at your fingertips, just like in Rome. This might necessitate a move overseas.

And lastly, Rome made me want to take someone there. I loved being with my Mom; we always have so much fun together. But now that I’m older I want to share my experiences with someone in a different way. Rome was pretty romantic, with the food and decadent art and just the overall feeling. I love to share my life with everyone because I love all the different things about life. I feel like people should be just excited about all these things I discover. That gets multipled ten times whenever I travel somewhere. I want to take someone to Rome and show them the birds over the Wedding Cake at night and explain what makes Bernini sculptures so amazing in my eyes. That’s all I want.

“Each, in its own way, was unforgettable. It would be difficult to- Rome! By all means, Rome. I will cherish my visit here in memory as long as I live. ” -Princess Ann, Roman Holiday

Roma the last day June 2, 2009

Day 5, May 26^th

 

            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.

roma day 2 May 31, 2009

Day Two, May 23^rd

 

            I could have slept for hours and hours after that first day, only a slight part of this based on jet lag. Dragging ourselves out of bed, we had to hurry to get dressed and ready before 10am, the time when breakfast ended at the Hotel Celio. Under a tent in a little stone courtyard, we were served cappuccinos (though later I would change my order to a hot chocolate, my favorite European breakfast beverage) croissants filled something unidentifiable but delicious, and rolls with butter. There were also slices of cheese, packaged toast, and yogurt but their weird seemingly German-ness on our Roman breakfast table kept me from trying them.

            Today after breakfast, we ventured about a mile from our hotel, navigating again the hectic Roman traffic and confusing little streets, over to Campo dei Fiori. It was basically a small square where local vendors set up a market of all sorts of products from fresh flowers and herbs to balsamic vinaigrette and wine. The vegetables and fruits and plants were the best part of it; they were so brightly colored and so fresh and it was so unlike going to a boring supermarket in the States. Mom bought this pasta shaped like mini columns along with olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. Even though it was before noon, we were already roasting and sat down for a little bit at Joe’s Wine Bar, a small café on one side of the square. We planned our next stop, the Pantheon, but first I sidetracked us down a small street and over to Palazzo Farnese. Though we couldn’t get in, since it’s the French embassy, I was happy to see the place Prof. Och talked of tirelessly as she described Annibale Carracci’s ceiling painting there.

            On our way to the Pantheon, we saw a small open courtyard and, since we had already discovered that a small step off the beaten path could mean seeing something amazing, we walked in. This is where we saw Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza, another church I studied in my Baroque class and one of my favorites because of its weirdly beautiful church topper. It was closed but I felt lucky to discover the church when I wasn’t even looking. Further along, almost right before finding the Pantheon, we saw an open church. Pushing through the doors we found out that we were walking right into a wedding. The church was beautiful (and I still haven’t figured out which one it is) and there were only a few wedding guests since the bride and groom were older. The bride’s dress was simple and beautiful and it made me wish I was Italian so I had the opportunity to get married in an opulent Baroque church (maybe though when the time comes…)

            Mom and I knew we found the Pantheon when we saw the huge crowds in a piazza. Of course the Pantheon could not be complete without horse carriages parked out front or gladiators trying to get you to take a picture with them. The Pantheon with its coffered dome and occulus was more amazing in person than art history lectures. I can’t even put into words what makes it so amazing; it just is. Escaping the crowds from the Pantheon, we went around the corner to Santa Maria sopra Minerva and the Piazza Minerva where Bernini’s elephant and obelisk sculpture sat in the center. The church is the site of the tomb of Fra Angelica and had a fresco by Fra Filippo Lippi of the Annunciation. I never thought I would be able to see works by Renaissance masters but here I was in Rome and they just seemed to show up in churches we stumbled upon.

            We stopped for a basic lunch at Café Argentina before heading off towards our next destination: the Trevi Fountain. It wasn’t far but it seemed farther because we were cutting down small streets, a process that led us to Sant’Ignazio. We weren’t even planning on seeing it, and though I felt like I had mapped out the churches I wanted to see, I completely forgot about this one. Sant’Ignazio contains Andrea Pozzo’s trompe l’oiel dome and amazing four continents ceiling painting. The colors seemed so rich as though they hadn’t changed over hundreds of years.

            The Trevi Fountain was another landmark that could be spotted by the crowds and it was probably the biggest crowd we saw in all of Rome. Mom and I both tossed our coins into the fountain (and took pictures to prove it) and spent a little time people-watching before deciding we needed some gelato. The best gelato place in Rome, according to several sources, was just a few blocks from the fountain. Il Gelato di San Crispini is basically a little hallway where you order your gelato and get out but it was delicious. I had chocolate chip and caramel. After the gelato, we still had our tickets for the Colosseum. I can’t say the Colosseum was more exciting on the inside that the Roman Forum or the Palantine. It was interesting to imagine it as it might have been back during the Roman Empire but I was hot and exhausted and dirty so maybe I didn’t appreciate it like I should.

            After a shower at the hotel to clean off all the grime we’d picked up wandering through Rome, we went to have drinks at the Café Rossi Martini, the one right down the street from our hotel where we’d been persuaded to have drinks by the waiter, Giovanni. It turns out it was a good decision since a bachelorette party showed up complete with a big white limo and the bachelorette in pink bunny ears and hot pants with a fluffy tail. An accordion player serenaded us and, when Mom tipped him, he played “I did it my way” for us. It was entertaining but we had to make our way around the ruins to another neighborhood where we had dinner at a fun little outdoor terrace restaurant called In Roma. They gave us champagne cocktails to start, then we had more delicious and fresh grilled vegetables (though I’m still not a fan of artichokes) and I ordered rigatoni all’amatriciana, a very Roman pasta dish. Dessert was this really good flaky pastry in crème fraiche with powdered sugar. As a dedicated foodie, Rome was like heaven!

overseas adventures May 29, 2009

To cut to the chase, I just spent the past 5 days in Rome, the eternal city and now one of my favorites. Since I have vowed to talk about my adventures on this blog, I’m busy writing up the story of my travels. I’ll post them in installments, since having just written about day 1, I realized there’s a whole lot to tell. 

Day One, May 22^nd

 

            Nobody emerges from an eight and a half hour flight feeling ready to go. Least of all coming off of an All’Italia flight where most of the passengers enjoy wandering up and down the aisles the entire flight, sneezing old men, flight attendants who feel very little need to help you, and the general discomfort of sleeping sitting up. So I can’t say I felt my best when I walked off the plane, into a bus (since that’s how they do it in Europe) and made my way through the immense crowd at Customs. But I was finally in Rome! A whole five days in a brand new city, these five days to escape everything I left behind in the States, two of the most important being an unsuccessful job search and a broken heart (though it’s hard to leave that one completely behind).

            Our hotel had told my mother that a car would be waiting to take us right to the hotel. Coming out into the main part of the airport, we realized finding our ride was going to be anything but easy. There were so many people, mostly men holding signs with last names on them, but all of them bunched together and very hard to see. After going through the crowd several times, we realized that we had no driver in sight and found a shuttle service that would take us where we needed to go. This is how we met Luca, our shuttle driver. Settled in a Mercedes mini-van we careened out of the airport and onto the highway leading us into Rome.

            Seeing Rome for the first time was just as amazing as every other time I’ve been to a new place in Europe. The drivers were crazy, squeezing down tiny cobblestoned streets and around every corner there was some amazing building built hundreds of years ago. Luca dropped off the other passengers in our van, a middle-aged Italian couple staying near the Vatican and a couple with their 30 year old daughter staying on the outskirts of Villa Borghese. He was much friendlier after these other groups left and explained his many vacations to Cuba, Key West, and a desire to go to Miami, though his English wasn’t the best. He asked us if we liked cappuccinos and moments later he double-parked a bunch of scooters (which we would learn is the ride of choice for most Romans) and had us follow him into the Theatre Café. That’s where I had my first Italian cappuccino and it was fantastic.

            Zooming through the streets we passed Il Vittoriano which is also known as the Wedding Cake for its elaborate decoration. Suddenly we began passing bunches of ruins and then came up the biggest one of all, the Colosseum. Seeing it for the first time is so awesome, the way it just stands there while modern day traffic whips by it and thousands of tourists circle it. A couple of days later it would become common place being so close to our hotel but for that first day I could hardly believe I was seeing the Colosseum. We dropped off our luggage and checked into our hotel, the Hotel Celio, just a block away from the Colosseum. Since it was only 11am, we couldn’t go to our room so we decided to explore the ruins. Our first stop was the Palantine and Roman forum ruins after circling the Colosseum and passing around the Arch of Constantine. It was amazing to see where Roman rulers walked and lived. We saw a stadium for chariot racing and the home of Livia, one of the emperor’s wives. I had wanted to come to Rome to see all the Baroque art I had just studied but I can’t deny how interesting it is to see something that has withstood centuries and centuries of change. But it was hot, probably a little over 90 degrees that day, and after almost 9 hours on a plane with little sleep, we were exhausted. A little bit dirty from the dusty ruins and very sweaty from the Roman heat, we walked back towards our hotel. Being around lunch time, we walked to a small place at the end of our street.

We still don’t know the name of the restaurant but it was a great first dining experience. The staff spoke little to no English and the food was fantastic. Mom and I shared fresh, fresh, fresh grilled vegetables then I had polpette, or meatballs, with potatoes in a tomato sauce. I still dream of those meatballs. After our meal, the room was ready and so were we for a shower and a quick nap before more exploration of the city.

I don’t think the sun set before 8pm any of the nights that we were there, so we had plenty of light to explore the city. Which turned out of be great for me, the navigator, as I tried to identify which miniscule street we were wandering down. We set out for dinner the first night to what many claimed to be the best pizza in Rome, Pizzeria da Baffetto. Our walk led us by the Wedding Cake in Piazza Venezia. Pizza Venezia has probably the largest and craziest traffic circle in Rome with no lights to help pedestrians cross. This was where we got our education in Roman street crossing: just walk out and the cars, scooters, buses, and trucks will most likely see you, though these vehicles have no problem stopping right at your knee caps. Talk to my ex-boyfriend, I am a nervous street crosser thanks to some close calls when I was younger. I wanted to close my eyes but was too terrified of what would happen if I did. But I made it, I survived the whole trip! As we wandered towards the restaurant, we made our way past Il Gesu, one of the churches I had studied in my many art history classes. It amazed me that I could just walk around a corner and there was that building that I had spent a whole class hour discussing. Our walk led us to Piazza Navona, which became my favorite piazza in Rome. With St. Agnes in Agone dominating one side and Bernini’s amazing Four Rivers Fountain in the middle, it was filled with tourists and Romans mingling at sunset. This fountain was my first time seeing Bernini’s work up close and personal. Despite the many hours Prof. Och spent extolling Bernini’s expertise, I didn’t see his mastery until I was face-to-face with it there in Piazza Navona. And thus began my stalking of all things Bernini, not a difficult pastime in Rome.

Finally finding the little Pizzeria da Baffetto, we decided it was the perfect place for our first dinner in Rome. The owner, a grandpa with thick Buddy Holly glasses embraced neighbors on the street, not even hesitating to stop scooters. Picnic tables covered in white paper sat six diners and we were sat with a young Italian couple, the boy looking like Harry Potter with small round glasses and the girl looked like the woman from Raiders of the Lost Ark. I got pizza with onions and proscuitto, my idea of heaven, and we shared small pitchettes of wine. It was probably the best pizza I’ve ever had. We even bought pitchettes, which I am now looking at sitting on my dresser. Stuffed with good food, we made our way back to the hotel stopping to take pictures of the Wedding Cake at night where birds flew back and forth through the light like moths.