Roma, Italia-last week of exploring

OKAY. I have a huge list of things to write about to tackle, and even more things that never made it onto a list that I’m going to have to write about by just going through pictures and remembering. I really want to get through it all, because I want to be able to remember this years later! But ahhh, it’s daunting right now! Also, the order and days for most of these things are all really fuzzy, so I’m not even going to go there. But here’s the time frame we’re looking at: Thursday was our final review, Friday was our final dinner, and Brandon, Jeff, and Viv left on Saturday (Brandon for home, Jeff and Viv for Austria’s Alps). On Monday, Heath, Lyndon, Caitlin, and Rachel left, and Bruce and Sarah departed Tuesday. That left Liz and I with the apartment to ourselves until we left Friday morning (Thursday was our last day, though…we left so early on Friday I didn’t even have time for Forno or a cappuccino from Joe’s).
Caitlin, Rachel, and I ventured a bit north of the historic city (by tram) to visit Renzo Piano’s Parco della Musica, nicknamed “The Beetles” for their appearance. Once off the tram, it took us a while to find the park, because a man at the local forno sent us in the exact opposite direction of where we needed to go….aggravating and bizarre, but we eventually found it. They were beautiful! I loved the complex even more than I expected to and wanted desperately to go inside (the buildings housed auditoriums of 3 varying sizes). The material (lead panels) was beautiful, and they way they shaped edges and turned corners were beautiful. Climbing up fire escapes granted us a view of the underside, which was built of wood like the hull of a boat with an industrial metal trussing system attached. The three beetles formed a semi-circle around a tiered amphitheater-like space, the center of which had been transformed into an ice skating rink! We wanted to skate, but by the time we were done exploring and obsessively taking photographs it was starting to rain. We did grab cotton candy on our way out, though. By the time we got back into the historic city it was downright pouring. Caitlin decided to walk, but Rach and I opted to wait for a bus, huddled under her one tiny umbrella (I hadn’t replaced my broken one).
My last visit to Sant’ Ivo was hard for me. Knowing that that was the last time I’d be inside my favorite place in Rome for a long, long time really finalized the fact that the trip was almost over. I don’t think I even sketched or took many pictures; I just sat and enjoyed the space, paying my own sort of homage to Borromini.
After Sant’ Ivo I’d decided to go to Museo del Corso to see the show on Rembrandt and Vermeer. I took my time getting there, though (I did in 2 hours what I could normally walk in 10 minutes) and explored down cute little Roman streets. My goal was to not explore any area I’d ever been to before (more specifically street than area, I suppose) and I was entirely successful. Just as I’d start to feel a bit lost or disoriented, I’d pop out into some piazza or onto a street I recognized (Ciao, Pantheon!) then would veer off course again to explore. I love that the size of Rome, combined with my knowledge of it and my good sense of direction prevent me from ever being truly lost; I always at least know what direction I’m heading in or what landmark I’m near. Once I finally reached the museum, I enjoyed the exhibit, which was small but full of some wonderful pieces. I sketched Rembrandt’s “The Money Changer”, which was new for me (sketching figures, books, and lighting) and jotted down the names of many other works I enjoyed so I could share them later with Mom (who majored in Dutch art history).
Over the course of the semester, we’d accumulated many wine bottles. We drank 2 every night with dinner (between 11 of us) and each wound up buying one bottle a week. In total, it made for 70+ bottles, all of which we saved (except for 4 or so duplicates). We also saved one of every liqueur or beer bottle. Sunday night we took them down one by one and made a stop-motion video of it. We had fun looking at all the labels again, and Bruce spiced things up a bit by moving around a papal DVD. Some of the bottles switch places from frame to frame, too. We had a ton of fun putting it all together, and then trooped over to the recycling bins near Ponte Sisto to dump them all (kind of sad, but kind of exhilarating at the same time). The video can be seen at http://vimeo.com/2580028 and is a ton of fun. :)
At our final dinner, Jeffery told us about Da Crispino, a must-visit gelato joint with a few branches in town. Liz and I frequented it our final week. The first time, I had ginger cinnamon (tasty but mild) and honey (exquisite, it tasted just like honey). Second trip was pomegranate (sooo good), lime (awesomely tangy and realistic), and apple (again a bit mild, but still very, very good). Third visit (on my own) I got pear sorbet (to die for) and fresh walnut fig (one of the thickest, creamiest gelatos I’d had all semester and definitely one of my top 3 flavors of the semester).
On Monday (I’m doing better with dates than I expected to!) it was raining a TON. And this was no drizzle, we’re talking serious amounts of rain. For comparison’s sake, Cinzia said that one night in the previous week, we’d gotten as much rain in one night as Rome usually sees in the whole of December…crazy! Anyway, I spent the morning holed up (reading “Angels and Demons”, most likely) and eventually decided that that was ridiculous since I was running out of time in Rome, so I went to the Arabian bead shop (attached to a hookah bar) on Via Pellegrino, just off the Campo. I bought pretty pendants and leather straps for some of my sister’s friends and some other pretty beads that I have yet to turn into jewelry. They’re hollow, transparent, colored glass balls (marble size) with a band of silver or gold leaf around the middle…just really light and delicate.
After lunch and a crazy chocolate ganache chocolate cake marmalade filled thing from Forno, I took the bus (still raining) down to San Giovanni in Laterno (St. John Lateran) to do some sketching. I spent some time wandering and getting optimal pictures I hadn’t captured in history class, then sat down to sketch. I focused on the side aisles, which change from arched to trebiated as you move away from the nave. Of course Borromini used lots of angel babies (à la San Carlino) to transition between shapes, too. After spending some time ogling the monstrosity of the colossal pilasters, I left, got back on the bus, and headed over to the pantheon area for more wanderings. I took panos of the piazza, found another neat print shop, and even witnessed a fire in the famous Tazzo d’Oro Café. I explored the area around the Pantheon and went into random little churches I had often passed but never entered, which was nice to do finally. That night Liz and I used up some food that had been left behind and made a delicious mushroom-tomato-mozzarella pasta sauce and had a nice dinner just the two of us.
On Tuesday, Liz and I ventured up to the Spanish Steps, because I had only passed by them during a history class once. We climbed the stairs, which were mostly empty since it was a gray, drizzly day. All in all I wasn’t too enthralled with the piazza-it was basically what I’d seen in pictures and didn’t really grab me. Oh well. We went up the whole way, fending off men trying to sell us roses and beggars with fake baby bundles, and entered the church at the top. There was some sort of service going on; nuns in robes were singing the most beautiful hymns with gorgeous harmonies. We stayed in the back and sat, looking around for a while. The church itself was beautiful-not too plain, not too ornate, and of an intimate size.
We next worked our way up to Piazza del Popolo, at the head of the trident. I had passed through here the other day when I went to the Beetles, but we were so close we figured we’d visit again. I also hoped to get into Santa Maria del Popolo, the small church on the northern side of the piazza. It was one of the locations in Angels and Demons that I’d hoped to visit, but for the second time it was closed. More on this story later.
We walked south along the western-most street of the trident, which I had never been on. We stopped to look at Richard Meier’s Ara Pacis and walked by the Mausoleum of Augustus (much of which was covered by construction fencing). Unfortunately, the fountain at Ara Pacis wasn’t working, which is apparently one of the coolest parts. We stopped home for lunch, then crossed Ponte Sisto and caught a bus.
The bus took us past the Pyramid (south western part of town) and out to the Monte Martini, the coolest museum I’ve ever been to. Built in the early 1900’s, it was originally an electrical power plant. For one reason or another, it didn’t last long and sat empty for a while. At one point, they decided to take excess statues from the Capitoline Museums out of storage there and find a better home for them. The power plant was used and was originally only supposed to be temporary, but they ended up turning it into a permanent museum. Walking around inside was unreal. Ancient Greek and Roman statues were placed around huge, turn of the century machinery. The museum wasn’t huge, but was well worth the visit. I kept joking around that all of our pictures would look photoshopped (“Hey, let’s take some machinery and put it with…umm….ancient statues! Yeah!”).
That night for dinner we made a delicious peanut sauce and tossed in tofu and veggies from the market. Over pasta and with some vino, it was a delicious dinner (we cooked far too much, too…we weren’t used to cooking dinner for only 2 people!). We then began our night tour of Rome, which would span our last few nights in town. We began at the Campidoglio, which I had done our first week in town, but it was nice to go back. We went around the back side and got nice shots of the Forum at night, too. Our next stop was St. Peter’s, which was in the same direction we had come from and past the Campo, so we stopped by Ciuri Ciuri for our favorite cannoli. We both got the optimal combo: plain ricotta with chocolate chip filling and chocolate chips pressed into the ends. Our whole apartment had come to love this place because they fill them while you wait, so the shell is never soggy.
After getting covered in powdered sugar, we walked out to the Vatican. We began by taking photos of the basilica from far down the street leading up to it. This was tricky because there was still traffic, although only one way. We would wait for a red light, run into the middle of the street, I’d set up my mini tripod on the cobblestones, and take the picture (I also use a 2 second timer to avoid shaking the camera with my finger pressing the button). There were a few times where we overestimated how quickly cars would come back and we’d scurry out of the road as cars zoomed up behind us. I finally got a few good ones, though! We then moved into the piazza itself and took pictures of the basilica and colonnades. I took a few from the focal point of one of the circles, which makes all 4 rows of columns line up and appear as one column each. At this point, I was lying down to get the optimal shot, and I think Liz got pictures of me.
That was it for Tuesday. I’m going to put Wednesday and Thursday into their own entry because otherwise this will get obscenely long!

PICTURES: Renzo Piano’s Beetles (exterior and trussed underside), Monte Martini (one of the halls and a close up), Liz’s cannolo from Ciuri Ciuri, and St. Peter’s by night with the marker of one of the circle’s focal points in the foreground.