Una Settimana a Roma - a week in Rome as told by Dick

Monday

We arrived after a boring flight (the very best kind) from Malaga, Spain to Leonardo da Vinci - Fiumicino FCO airport. A fairly long wait for luggage then quickly found the big, burly driver for our driver of our big, black Mercedes shuttle for the 30km ride to our apartment on via San Quintino. 


After about a 10 minute wait for our landlord Paolo, who was also our landlord in 2014, to show up we got a bit nervous but then he appeared loping up the sidewalk. A tall man for italiano. Our apartmento for the next month is a nice and spacious below street level with a full kitchen to include a dishwasher and oven, ensuite with a tub and washing machine (no dryer to be found in Italy just drying racks). As it is not yet mid-November the heat is not yet turned the heat on which should be fine as the daytime temps will be between 70 and 80 F. Then off we went to shop for breakfast essentials, wine, beer and olives. The apartmento provided basic items like olio (olive oil), tea and cafe.

Paolo also provided a guide with a listing of local restaurants and shopping. One listed for good pizza is Ristorante Galilei but it turned out it was closed on Monday. We walked back across Via Merulana and discovered a Sri Lankan cafe:7 Seven Lanka. We love Sri Lankan food after we enjoyed several large Sri Lankan meals at an illicit restaurant (ring the bell at a building on a back street) a Napoli. I said "Hell yes. Let's try the Sri Lankan." It was really quite good and quite picante. 

Tuesday

Early afternoon we lunched at our favorite restaurant: Hostaria I Buoni Amici which we had discovered it through a lovely B&B landlady in 2014 (before meeting Paolo). They were frightfully busy. Many groups of 4 or more came in and several other patrons were standing outside in the rain waiting for a table to be available. At least 4 priests from the local chiesa were dining. It is on a side street and quite drab from the outside. Found the same sort of phenomenon a Milano in 2011.  Our hotel recommended a restaurant and we went to the address. When had seen it earlier and were a little put off as there was some damage on the outside from an automobile crashing into one of the window shutters. Inside it was deluxe with lots of well heeled patrons and very tasty food.

After dining we stopped at a few fruit stands on the way back for some fresh fruit and vegetables as we did want to brave the rain to go to Mercato Esquilino.

Wednesday

For lunch we did get over to Ristorante Galilei. We were informed that they only serve pizza at night so we had pasta. Sharon had pasta puttanesca which was good and I had penne arrabiata. Told the maitre de/owner that we like it very picante. Italian food is not usually very spicy. He brought us a woven basket filled with dried, hot, red chilies and a small scissors. They were really picante. Afterwards we shopped at a grocery store to buy items we did not find at our local grocery store and to buy some bug spray as we were battling a large house fly swarm in the apartment.

Thursday

For lunch we prepared pasta at the apartment then ventured over to the Mercato Esquilino to buy some fish, nuts, fruit, and spices before heading to a small dry goods store run by Chinese to buy a nightlight and a few other small items. Again rain threatened our walk back to the apartment.

Friday

We decided we would eat pizza for dinner at Il Ristorante Pizzeria Galilei so we decided to walk further south than we had been along Via Emanuele Filiberto. We passed the very ornate Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano

then continued further, crossing under the ancient wall that still arches over the streets. We turned right onto Via Sannio and came upon a huge flea market. Many kinds of mostly used articles, particularly clothing. Lot of warm things as winter's coming on. Sharon purchased some items from a Nepalese merchant.

Further west along Sannio the construction for the new subway metro line C. Saw a huge rotary excavator that was perched on some equipment.

Across the street were several old buildings (evident by plumbing and electricity running along the outsides) in states of elegant decay.

Back along Via Sannio then left on Via Appia Nuova and under the wall at Porta San Giovanni and into Giardini di via Carlo Felice. It was quite warm (83F) and quite humid. We walked along through the garden, viewing the ancient Roman wall that parallels the garden. Another km round trip. Became more humid and windy as we came back along Via Carlo Felice. Started to feel occasional drops of rain so we scurried back up Via Emanuele Filiberto to San Quintino and home.


By evening the humidity was gone but still quite warm. I had made electronic reservations at Ristorante Galilei but it wasn't necessary as we showed up at seven a punto. Sharon had a pizza napolitana (tomato sauce, anchovies, mozzarella di bufala) and I had a pizza marinara (tomato sauce, olive oil, origano). Very thin crust from a very hot pizza oven (bubbles in the croste) The kitchen was still being run by Mama who did our lunch a few days earlier but now there were several big burly men working the kitchen. Both delicious.

Saturday

In all the time we have been a Roma we have never visited Castel Sant'Angelo and decided we should go even though it is deprecated as being brutto (ugly). It had started as a mausoleum for Emperor Hadrian (wall in Britain).

Nearby is a public market that is not often visited by tourists a it tends not to be shown on the free maps given out by the hotels and TIs. In our first visit in 2005 we had stayed over by the Vatican and had shopped an open air market along one of the streets. That market called Mercato Trionfale has since been moved to a new covered building along Via Andrea Doria. So off onto the metro we went.

We exited the metro at Ottaviano (Octavian - Caesar Augustus) and walked east along Viale Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar - italiano has no J except for foreign words. They call 'J' 'I longo' - long I. 'gi' has the sound of our J) until we arrived at the market. Bigger than Mercato Centrale (Nuovo Mercato Esquilino) which is only a mile away from us and also huge.

At Trionfale we bought another head of garlic (favorite vegetable) and a lemon. Light stuff since it promised to be a long walk back to the apartment.

From the market we walked along a wall of the Vatican then west on Via dei Corridori to Castel Sant'Angelo. 

Passetto di Borgo,

It was quite warm (88F) and humid. We sought out a bench in the shade within the park that surrounds the castle. After cooling down in the shade we walked down a ramp to the lower level which might have been a moat at some previous time. 

We walked round most of the lower level then back up to street level and out to the Tiberi side for pictures of the archangel Michael sheathing his sword to signal the end of the plague of 590.

Looking towards the Vatican from Ponte Sant'Angelo

Nearby appeared a very imposing and ornate marble building. We had discovered the Palace of Justice where their supreme court sits. The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation is the highest court of Italy. 




















We walked back to cross the Fiume Tiberi on the Ponte Sant'Angelo.

Then we walked east along Lungotevere Tor di Nona for quite some way,
veering off onto Via di Monte Brianzo which became Via della Fontanella di Borghese and we knew then we were on the right track since Borghese would lead us to Spagna (The Spanish Steps) which has a metro station built into the hill below the Borghese park. 

Passing along the way where many high end shops like Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Tiffany, Beltramo and Ferragamo. All we had to do was buy two metro tickets for €1.50 each. I stood in line at the window so could use up the partly torn €5 note I had.

Sunday

Way tired feet from last two days of walking so all we did was to duck through our shortcut Via Vittorio Amedeo II then Via Carlo Emanuele I and onto Viale Manzoni which took us to back to the grocery store to buy the important items like wine, pane, te nero, birra (beer), Sandeman port and a sweet sherry-like wine. 

Just a note

We have spent several cumulative months a Roma since our first visit
in 2005. So we have seen the vast majority of turistica things. Sharon
wants to visit Musei Capitolini and Casina delle Civette. I enjoy just being Roman. Blending in with the locals though a few times we have been greeted with an "Hola" must be our Spanish tans. Seeing a few new things but avoiding the tourist traps.

Anyway we can only walk so far and see or eat a limited number of things in a day, even in the Eternal City so we are likely to be surfing the net. We are not out at night very often. Don't like walking the often ill-paved Roman sidewalks at night with tripping hazards galore. 

Sharon mused that in all of the cities we have travelled to in Europe there is something about Rome that sets it aside from all of the other cities and is evident as soon as you arrive. It is not just the ruins and the numerous churches but something more. There are very few skyscrapers and most of the buildings look similar to ones you would see in Brooklyn. The streets are both broad and narrow, straight and very twisty, tree Lined and full of parked cars. But it is just uniquely Rome and always full of chaos and beauty. It is the Eternal city.

Malaga misadventures as told by Dick

Wonderful 3 week stay in Pescara, Italy but our lease had ended and storms were headed in so swimming season was at an end. Shops were closing up. End of tourist season -- mostly Italiani.

So it was breakfast at 04:00, wash the breakfast dishes, dump the trash, leave the keys in the apartment, and trundle our luggage down via Firenze to Corso Umberto and up to stazione di tren where we boarded our 06:11 elettrico tren a Roma Tiburtina. Not a fast train but we hit 80 mph on flat land which was seldom. Don't expect there ever will be a fast train through the Apennines. Quite a few tunnels. Many a bucolic scene went by along the rivers we followed up and down. Ducks, sheep, goats, horses, pigs, hay baling. Seemed like a dozen stops but we flashed past more than two dozen abandoned rural train stations. Did notice the support columns of the raised roadways had exposed rebar and not certain if it was from general decay of the cement or from the latest earthquake as we were passing near the epicenter in Amatrice. After 4 hours on the train we pulled into Tiburtina and scurried over to another platform for the next train to Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport for a 3 hour wait for our Vueling flight (it was very late) to Malaga.

Maybe Vueling changed the pitch between seat rows from our previous tortures in 2014. I could put my knees straight out and only barely brush the seat back in front. To our good luck the plane was only half full and, like many others, I jumped back to an empty row and stretched out. Did not sleep much. Watched our descent toward Malaga. Huge amount of smog over the area. Fires up north near Alicante where we stayed in '11. Flew over the mountains we would drive next day.

Taxied to our Malaga hotel and arranged for a rental car for noon next day. Started the day with the usual good breakfast at the hotel. Checked our suitcases since we would only be two nights away. Negotiated our car rental, including a TomTom GPS which served us well and we were off in our Skoda car. I think it may have needed a tune-up as it was not always responsive to the accelerator pedal. When we got the car there was a bit of misunderstanding as to the amount of gasoline in the tank and had to find a petrol station before heading too far up the hill.

Up and up we drove on narrow, winding roads with some very sharp turns that required a bit of horn honking to ensure we did not slam head first into the oncoming traffic. Doubt the roads were always two asses wide in places. Pulled over a few times to allow larger trucks to go by. The hills of Axarquia were very, very dry. Several years of drought. Many almond groves on the sides of steep hills dried and died. Hate to see Spain's olives diminished by "The Global Warming" trend. In 2011 Spain was the largest olive producer and likely still is but seemingly less so now than 2011 when we viewed the area west of here from trains and buses.. Dying cactus plants. Many century plants that mostly seemed OK. Hot but had to tamp the a/c down to keep climbing.

Finally arrived in the village of Comares at about 2:30PM. TomTom put us within a meter of the lat/long Sharon had keyed in from the El Molino de Los Abuelos hotel's website. El Molino de Los Abuelos means the mill of the grandparents and had been an olive oil mill in the past. The building still had the lingering scent of olive oil. The dining room contain the old mill which had three large and quite heavy-looking cone-shaped stone rollers attached to a shaft driven by steam and once-upon-a-time by a single donkey with elaborate power shafts and gears.

It was hot outside but cooler in the old olive mill building. We checked in and had lunch - we were the only diners at what is a Michelin rated restaurant

We walked out onto the patio (balcon) which overlooked the Axarquia valley below and the Mediterranean but the sea was completely obscured by haze from the fires up north. And it was warming up. 

After lunch I felt exhausted from the drive up and early train ride so went up to our room which was not so cool as the dining room. There was no a/c since they never needed it at 2,300'+ and our room overlooked the central plaza and faced west. 

I slept a bit but it kept getting hotter in the room. Opened windows and tried to induce a cross draft but there was not a bit of breeze. Hotter and hotter. Wunderground said it was 99F and I think the haze was trapping the heat even up this high. Hot all night. I used to stand watches in navy engine rooms that ran 135F in the tropics but after 4 hours I could return to my air conditioned space for sleep or paperwork. Had endured nights this hot a few times but was then a 23yo stud.


Still deficient on sleep, I returned to the room which was somewhat cooler -- maybe low 90s and slept some, through lunch. Sharon walked the village, took photos and bought a beer. It was a bit cooler that night and we were feasted upon by mosquitos. We slept some but I was still exhausted the next morning.
I actually recommend the hotel -- it was just the unseasonable weather that ruined it for us. High yesterday was 78.7F.

We checked out and drove back down the windy, twisty, narrow road along the ridges.

Next two days I slept quite a bit. Breakfast at our hotel and lunch somewhere in Malaga. First at our favorite vegetarian restaurant in Malaga: Vegetariano El Calafate, where I had a wonderfully tasty black bean soup, Sharon had a wonderful white gazpacho that was wonderfully overloaded with garlic (aglio, ajo, one of our favorite spices). Restaurant highly recommended.

We had a bit of a wait until the restaurant opened so we sat in a nearby cafe that was part of a courtyard in the Arab quarter of Malaga. Its name is La Invisible. Interesting mix of graffiti art and political posts. It was a humid day and it was nice to relax in the shade and listen to the gurgling of the water fountain.

Yesterday I felt much better. Walked over to the bus station to pre-purchase tickets and see that we could roll our luggage there. Sharon had found a thin crust pizza place online so we walked over, the other direction to it and I talked them into holding the mozzarella (saturated fat) on a margherita pizza and adding extra tomato sauce and olive oil. It was delicious. 

Our last lunch was at a place we happened to stumble upon during our search for pizza-Tandoori Mexican, yep that is its name. I had a good aloo gobi (cauliflower and potato in a spicy sauce. Sharon had a nice spicy vegetable karachi.

Finally when I felt better we walked the 3.7mi round trip to a swimmable beach and I got a good swim in the salty water. The beach was not sandy but rather lots of small pebbles mixed with seashells and it was difficult to get out of the surf and back onto the beach due to the steep incline.

Tomorrow we are off to Marbella. Want to stop on the way over to the bus station to photo the wonderful, clean market

Malaga misadventures as told by Dick

Wonderful 3 week stay in Pescara, Italy but our lease had ended and storms were headed in so swimming season was at an end. Shops were closing up. End of tourist season -- mostly Italiani.

So it was breakfast at 04:00, wash the breakfast dishes, dump the trash, leave the keys in the apartment, and trundle our luggage down via Firenze to Corso Umberto and up to stazione di tren where we boarded our 06:11 elettrico tren a Roma Tiburtina. Not a fast train but we hit 80 mph on flat land which was seldom. Don't expect there ever will be a fast train through the Apennines. Quite a few tunnels. Many a bucolic scene went by along the rivers we followed up and down. Ducks, sheep, goats, horses, pigs, hay baling. Seemed like a dozen stops but we flashed past more than two dozen abandoned rural train stations. Did notice the support columns of the raised roadways had exposed rebar and not certain if it was from general decay of the cement or from the latest earthquake as we were passing near the epicenter in Amatrice. After 4 hours on the train we pulled into Tiburtina and scurried over to another platform for the next train to Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport for a 3 hour wait for our Vueling flight (it was very late) to Malaga.

Maybe Vueling changed the pitch between seat rows from our previous tortures in 2014. I could put my knees straight out and only barely brush the seat back in front. To our good luck the plane was only half full and, like many others, I jumped back to an empty row and stretched out. Did not sleep much. Watched our descent toward Malaga. Huge amount of smog over the area. Fires up north near Alicante where we stayed in '11. Flew over the mountains we would drive next day.

Taxied to our Malaga hotel and arranged for a rental car for noon next day. Started the day with the usual good breakfast at the hotel. Checked our suitcases since we would only be two nights away. Negotiated our car rental, including a TomTom GPS which served us well and we were off in our Skoda car. I think it may have needed a tune-up as it was not always responsive to the accelerator pedal. When we got the car there was a bit of misunderstanding as to the amount of gasoline in the tank and had to find a petrol station before heading too far up the hill.

Up and up we drove on narrow, winding roads with some very sharp turns that required a bit of horn honking to ensure we did not slam head first into the oncoming traffic. Doubt the roads were always two asses wide in places. Pulled over a few times to allow larger trucks to go by. The hills of Axarquia were very, very dry. Several years of drought. Many almond groves on the sides of steep hills dried and died. Hate to see Spain's olives diminished by "The Global Warming" trend. In 2011 Spain was the largest olive producer and likely still is but seemingly less so now than 2011 when we viewed the area west of here from trains and buses.. Dying cactus plants. Many century plants that mostly seemed OK. Hot but had to tamp the a/c down to keep climbing.

Finally arrived in the village of Comares at about 2:30PM. TomTom put us within a meter of the lat/long Sharon had keyed in from the El Molino de Los Abuelos hotel's website. El Molino de Los Abuelos means the mill of the grandparents and had been an olive oil mill in the past. The building still had the lingering scent of olive oil. The dining room contain the old mill which had three large and quite heavy-looking cone-shaped stone rollers attached to a shaft driven by steam and once-upon-a-time by a single donkey with elaborate power shafts and gears.

It was hot outside but cooler in the old olive mill building. We checked in and had lunch - we were the only diners at what is a Michelin rated restaurant

We walked out onto the patio (balcon) which overlooked the Axarquia valley below and the Mediterranean but the sea was completely obscured by haze from the fires up north. And it was warming up. 

After lunch I felt exhausted from the drive up and early train ride so went up to our room which was not so cool as the dining room. There was no a/c since they never needed it at 2,300'+ and our room overlooked the central plaza and faced west. 

I slept a bit but it kept getting hotter in the room. Opened windows and tried to induce a cross draft but there was not a bit of breeze. Hotter and hotter. Wunderground said it was 99F and I think the haze was trapping the heat even up this high. Hot all night. I used to stand watches in navy engine rooms that ran 135F in the tropics but after 4 hours I could return to my air conditioned space for sleep or paperwork. Had endured nights this hot a few times but was then a 23yo stud.


Still deficient on sleep, I returned to the room which was somewhat cooler -- maybe low 90s and slept some, through lunch. Sharon walked the village, took photos and bought a beer. It was a bit cooler that night and we were feasted upon by mosquitos. We slept some but I was still exhausted the next morning.
I actually recommend the hotel -- it was just the unseasonable weather that ruined it for us. High yesterday was 78.7F.

We checked out and drove back down the windy, twisty, narrow road along the ridges.

Next two days I slept quite a bit. Breakfast at our hotel and lunch somewhere in Malaga. First at our favorite vegetarian restaurant in Malaga: Vegetariano El Calafate, where I had a wonderfully tasty black bean soup, Sharon had a wonderful white gazpacho that was wonderfully overloaded with garlic (aglio, ajo, one of our favorite spices). Restaurant highly recommended.

We had a bit of a wait until the restaurant opened so we sat in a nearby cafe that was part of a courtyard in the Arab quarter of Malaga. Its name is La Invisible. Interesting mix of graffiti art and political posts. It was a humid day and it was nice to relax in the shade and listen to the gurgling of the water fountain.

Yesterday I felt much better. Walked over to the bus station to pre-purchase tickets and see that we could roll our luggage there. Sharon had found a thin crust pizza place online so we walked over, the other direction to it and I talked them into holding the mozzarella (saturated fat) on a margherita pizza and adding extra tomato sauce and olive oil. It was delicious. 

Our last lunch was at a place we happened to stumble upon during our search for pizza-Tandoori Mexican, yep that is its name. I had a good aloo gobi (cauliflower and potato in a spicy sauce. Sharon had a nice spicy vegetable karachi.

Finally when I felt better we walked the 3.7mi round trip to a swimmable beach and I got a good swim in the salty water. The beach was not sandy but rather lots of small pebbles mixed with seashells and it was difficult to get out of the surf and back onto the beach due to the steep incline.

Tomorrow we are off to Marbella. Want to stop on the way over to the bus station to photo the wonderful, clean market

And we are off....again

Some may be thinking that we are about to reprise our 2014 adventure again based on the post title, well that isn't true. Okay it is partially true. We are returning to Italy and Spain but primarily to places we have already been to and to again investigate immigration to either Italy or Spain.

First stop will be Bologna the land of Bolognese sauce, Balsamic vinegar, cheese, and of course fast cars and motorcycles. 

Then off to relax at the beach in Pescara, jaunt over to Spain to spend more time at the beaches of Malaga and Marbella. 

The last leg has us in Roma, the Eternal City.

So stay tuned for photos and stories.

Ciao Presto!!