Mark, Anita, Jim, and Al celebrating Rome
After an easy, comfortable, and almost shockingly fast train from Naples (why can’t we do that in the U.S.?) we finished our three-week Italy trip with five days in Rome to celebrate my birthday and our 39th anniversary, and to spend time with my brother Al and his wife Anita. They were in Europe to see their daughter who is doing a semester abroad in Madrid and so they tacked on a couple of days in Rome with us. I first fell in love with Rome way back in 1975 when I was stationed in Naples and would take a train up for the weekend; at the time I was so adept at navigating the city that I would take shipmates up and be the tour guide. And while the city is famously eternal, I have seen a couple of changes over these 50+ years.
The biggest change from my perspective at least is just how many more tourists there are. We came here in mid-October to avoid the intense heat of a Roman summer in this era of climate change, but I also sort of expected that in the “shoulder season” there would be perhaps somewhat fewer tourists. That was so not the case.The crowds were just unbelievable. We didn’t even try to go over to the Vatican or St. Peter’s, but the crowds around Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon were almost unbelievable. I remember – not just 50 years ago, but even in the 1990s – you could just walk into the Pantheon or sidle up to the Trevi Fountain to toss your coin in. No more. Now there are massive lines to get tickets to the Pantheon and the crowds are so thick around the Trevi Fountain that it was all but impossible to just walk through the square. And everywhere around the historic core of the city hordes of tour groups traipsing through.
Now, we’ve been to Rome enough that we didn’t need to do all of what I’ll call “entry level” tourism, but the crowds were really something.
The Largo di Torre Argentina, excavated to the level of the city around 50 BC. Julius Caesar was assassinated right about where that tree stands in the middle of the picture.
Another change that I find interesting is that while the city is eternal, the history is still emerging. One place of particular interest to me is a square called Largo di Torre Argentina. It turns out this square doesn’t have anything to da with the country, but rather derives from the ancient silver men or bankers (Argentario) who worked there. But while I remember it mostly for the colony of stray cats who live there and lounge on the old ruins, relatively recent excavations have determined that it is the site where Julius Ceasar was assassinated on the Ides of March. Pretty cool!
And then there’s the ongoing excavation and reconstruction of Trajan’s Forum, named for the early second century emperor who built it and near the original Roman Forum. I don’t have any recollection of what was here before – a street? relatively modern buildings? – but they have done significant archeological work in recent years and even started to rebuild some of the ancient architecture. It’s kind of surprising to find new 2,000-year-old ruins where they were previously invisible.
Part of the Trajan Forum. Those columns and all weren’t there when we were last in Rome.
On top of all that there were the new/old museums we discovered that were really fun. First up was the Palazzo Barberini, a Baroque palace developed in the early 17th century by Pope Urban VIII, the former Maffeo Barberini. Descendants of the Barberini family lived in the palace until 1955, but today it is part of the National Galleries of Ancient Art. There was a bunch of good stuff there, but one room in particular stood out with four original Caravaggios. It had been closed for a number of years for a major renovation which could be why we’d never encountered it before, but it was very fun to discover a new museum.
Caravaggio’s John the Baptist in the Palazzo Barberini, one of four of his works there
And interestingly it’s partnered with the Galleria Corsini, another Baroque palace across the Tiber River in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome. This palace wasn’t built by a pope, merely Cardinal Corsini, but he was at least a nephew to Pope Clement XII who was himself a Corsini. All of which just really drives home the fact that through much of the last 2,000 years popes were very much regal figures who advanced their families as much as any hereditary monarchy of the time. Oh, as for the art, the interesting thing about the Galleria Corsini is that the Corsini collection is largely displayed just as it was when the Corsini family still lived there so you get the distinct flavor of just how those semi-royal families lived.
Just one of the rooms in the Palazzo Corsini
OK, one more new find for us, the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, housed in a palace built by the Pamphilj family whose most famous member was at one time Cardinal Giovan Battista Pamphilj but who later became Pope Innocent X. We’re starting to see a pattern here, right, of fabulous palaces built by popes and their families. It’s a wonder ordinary people didn’t rebel against such ostentatious displays of wealth and power among those supposedly representing Christ on earth. Oh right, there was that Reformation thing. Makes even more sense when you start spending time in the papal palaces.
At any rate this was another great exhibit of art, the masterpiece of which is a Velázques portrait of Innocent X that makes him look almost evil. And there were a couple more Caravaggios and other great works. Unusually, this palace and art collection is still in private hands. Descendants of the Pamphilj family not only still own it – believed to be the largest Roman palace in private hands – but even live in part of it. We didn’t see any of them though.
The steps up to the Galleria Doria Pamphilj
So that was all the culture stuff. One of my favorite things to do in Rome is just wander aimlessly and stop into random churches where you can sometimes find ordinary churches but other times pieces of genuine beauty, so there was some of that too.
Celebrating my birthday with pizza at Mariuccia, a Neapolitan pizzeria with a couple locations in Rome
And then there was all the food and family time. It was great fun to spend time with Al & Anita and experiment with all the great restaurants in the city. It has to be noted that in a city with that many tourists there are going to be a lot of mediocre-to-bad restaurants but with a little research, including the old spreadsheet of expenses we kept while we were nomads, we sussed out some good finds. The highlight for me at least was a Neapolitan pizza place where we had lunch on my birthday. I don’t eat a lot of pizza but when I splurge I want it to be worthy and this one was definitely worthy.
And so, after three-and-a-half months of what felt like almost constant travel, we’re home. We loved returning to some of our favorite haunts and discovering some new ones, but we’re decidedly happy to be home for a bit.
Mark at a very cute alley-way restaurant that was not as good as we’d hoped but not nearly as bad as some of the reviews. We looked at a bunch of places that would have mostly good reviews but then some just absolutely terrible ones. We thought it was strange.
Al, Mark, & Jim in our hotel lobby
Al and Anita at lunch just after we got to Rome. We didn’t have a lot of time to research lunch places and the quality here made clear we would have to do better.
Family dinner – the quality is definitely improving!
Speaking of new, this decidedly and appropriately understated tomb of Pope Francis certainly didn’t exist the last time we were in Rome.
Celebrating my 71st birthday
Anita got fancy for my birthday
Michaelangelo’s Moses. I’ve seen in before but I always love it.
More church grandeur
I’m a sucker for these ancient Greek pots. This was in the National Etruscan Museum, again emphasizing the Greek nature of much of ancient Italy. The museum was housed – wait, you won’t guess – in an old papal palace.
We always stop by to pay homage to Bruno, burned at the stake by the Catholic Church as a heretic, honored by the people of Rome as a hero.
Brothers!
Lunch
Farewell to Al & Anita
We got home and had literally five minutes to freshen up and head to an early dinner with friends before seeing one of them – Emily, in the black dress with the big smile – perform off Broadway in Midnight. Home at last!