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Italy 2003 Day 13 Rome
James writes:

Another crowded day, impacted by the unseasonal heat......as usual, Jonathan catches the essence of the day. It is our last day for all 5 Zurers together in Italy; it has been a wonderful experience.

Jonathan writes:

It's a very slow starting morning.
We find a local bar that has a bakery attached and some of the best cornetti so far (on the Corso Vittorio Emmanuelle II, just up from Via Leuteri, by the bus stop, if anyone is in the neighborhood). If we were staying longer this place would become a regular stop. Then we catch the bus to the Vatican. It's not a long ride and the bus is only mostly crowded, so it's pretty painless. The piazza is still huge (I had been here once before, on Easter Sunday...but after the crowds had left). We check out the points where the columns all line up and disappear and then head into the basilica. I've never been inside before, and it is huge.
One guide book describes it as like Grand Central Station. There are lots of tourists and tour groups, but it doesn't feel at all crowded.
I'm less interested in the artwork then I am the architecture. There are so many buildings in Rome that you look at and are amazed by. Then you realize they were built hundreds or thousands of years ago and are still standing. Who needs 'modern' technology...My only unanswered question is why are there two huge clocks inside the church? It seems a little
weird. There are also lots of tour guides (some offering free tours in
English...there must be a catch...) and they all seem to be contradicting each other and the guide books...the bronze was stolen from the Pantheon, no that's a myth. It's 4 stories tall, no eight... etc, etc.

After an hour of craning my head straight up while trying not to crash into anyone, we head next door to climb the inside of the dome. This is what I've been looking forward to. Unfortunately the line is quite long and we have a lunch date with one of dad's colleagues in Trastevere. So that will have to wait until the next trip (I've also never seen the Sistine Chapel, so I think the Vatican will get a longer return visit).
Oh well, if I have to come back to Italy....

We hop on another bus and have the Roman experience. It's hot, it's crowded, and we're not sure where to get off. We only all get on by jumping in the exit door (each bus has three doors, the front and back are for entering and the center is for exiting). We push our way on and the doors barely close. Then more people get on. It's a mess. Luckily it's not a long trip. We hop off somewhere close to our destination and start walking. Trastevere (the Tiber river is Tevere in Italian) is the other side of the river and is less historic, but more neighborhood and arty. It's sort of like the Left Bank of Paris. Frances is an American ex-pat actress and tour guide. After her fourth husband died she stayed in his apartment in Trastevere. We are wandering towards it, when all of a sudden mom calls out 'Ciao Frances' and there she is stepping out of a cafe. She is the mayor of her street, she knows and greets everyone as we walk by stopping in her favorite perfume shop, chatting up the woman at the bar, etc. We head over to her apartment. it's small....and hard to describe. She has painted or covered every wall and surface. She has tchotchkes on top of tchotchkes. There are paintings, photos, cut out magazine ads, and posters everywhere. it's a museum to her obsessions, it kind of reminds me of the room of the most artsy person in your college dorm. She's a bit kooky.

We walk over to a little restaurant and have some lunch. My dad sends people to Frances to be guided. She bills herself as the Roman Tour Goddess. She's been in a few movies (small parts in A Month by the Lake and I Dreamed of Africa) and is now in a show in Rome. Lunch pales compared to the Frances show. I think I had some antipasto and a carpaccio, but this wasn't about food. We drink some wine and talk and have a pretty good time. We say our goodbyes and are off. I had read about a bakery in the ghetto with really good ricotta cheesecake (I get some in Little Italy in the Bronx that is my favorite in the world, so I'm interested in comparing), so we cross the river and head in. When they say ricotta cheesecake, I think I was misled. It's really ricotta cheese in cake, a white cake stuffed with cheese (and chocolate). It's good, but not at all what I thought. The Bronx still stands as cheesecake champion.

By now it must be near 90 degrees. I'm still wearing jeans (we were in San Pietro....) and so we catch a cab back to the apartment. The others go shopping for gifts while I take a nap and prepare to go do one last laundry. i wake up an hour and a half later...maybe too much wine. No laundromat for me. One last load in the machine here and hopefully it will dry by tomorrow.

For dinner, we head out late for a local Roman place called Da Sergio.
The outside tables are full so we go in and sit in a corner. the table next to us is talking strategy about how to actual get 'il conto' the check. Dad has described many times the disappearing Italian waiter trick. In Italy, the restaurants are not worried about turning over tables, so after the meal they aren't trying to get rid of you. And the Italians will stay for hours, chatting and smoking. Americans can't quire wrap their heads around this. So when we are done, we want our check and want to leave. The waiters don't get this and they do the polite thing, which is to make themselves scarce. even when you find one and ask for the check, it still may be 15 minutes before you get it.
it's a different culture. Anyway, these folks are debating strategy and have hit upon the one that we know always works. Get up and leave.
they'll find you right quick.

The meal is terrific, but the service is indifferent and the food is not well paced. We wait for a long time to even get water and wine and then my pasta comes out only after asking several times (and after everyone else has finished theirs), and the main coursed show up in multiple stages. They never even brought Michael's vegetable. But the food is incredible. I have pasta arabbiata...it's perfect, the spiciest I've ever had. then A steak...it's too well done but tasty. The potatoes are roasted to perfection and the insalara misto (they were out of caprese) is huge and fresh. Even though the tomatoes are the wrong color and not the best consistency, they taste perfect. The lettuce is soft and fresh....We have several pastas, all delicious, and the spicy sausage is amazing. The only miss is the green beans. Seth thinks they've been cooked four day too long. and they are cold. Strange.

I would recommend this place with a serious warning about the service, but if you have the time and the patience...hmmmmm Da Sergio.

We head over the Piazza Farnese to sit at a bar and have a digestivo.
The Villa Farnese is now the French Embassy, but it was a private home when it was built 500 years ago. Apparently the Building Museum in DC was inspired by the Villa. We sit and watch the parade while sipping the nastiest cough syrup ever. It's Rome.

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