Friday and Saturday, 23-24 April 2010


I begin my adventure home, requiring four flights and an overnight stay in New York. My original plan for taking the QM2 home was designed to avoid the long flights and difficulties I had last year when I flew home from Copenhagen (via Dusseldorf and Los Angeles). But the Icelandic Fates would have it otherwise.


Friday: Arrivederci, Roma

The car to the airport picks me up promptly at 8:30 for what is supposed to be a 40-minute trip. But this is Rome and it is rush hour. With all the difficulties of traffic, accidents (one truly horrendous truck crash whose aftermath we pass), and a temperamental driver who speaks little English, we reach the airport in just over an hour—not bad. I avoid a direct case of déjà vu, since flights to the US depart from a different terminal than the one I visited on Monday when I first arrived in Rome and was still trying to find a way to London on British Airways.

US Airways to Philadelphia

Because I had no other choice but to purchase a very expensive one-way ticket from Rome to Newark, I am able to use USAir’s special “envoy” check-in line, I don’t have to pay the regular luggage fee, and I get an aisle seat (with one of the few empty seats right next to it). But it’s still a two- hour wait until we take off and I will still be squeezed into coach for the long nine-hour flight.

The flight takes off on time at 11:50 am and has a thankfully-uneventful crossing, with lunch and a snack served, landing in Philadelphia a few minutes early, shortly before 4 pm. Although most of the employees who have assisted me at airports over the past several years have been helpful and efficient and well worth the cost of tipping (usually $20 for each wheelchair ride), I have the misfortune of meeting the worst in Philadelphia. Martin is a young man who works for USAir (or so his badge says), dresses neatly in shirt and tie and carries a fashionable leather shoulder bag, but is more interested in reading his book than helping me maneuver through the airport.

I pick up my luggage, get through immigration and customs and, fortunately, do not have to go to another terminal building for my Continental Airlines connecting flight to Newark (it is too late in the day to get a flight to Tucson)—although I do have to go through security again and a long wheelchair ride (thankfully with a different attendant) to the gate.

Continental Airways to Newark

The time and distance of transferring really doesn’t matter, actually, since the Continental flight is delayed about 90 minutes. I know Newark is only a short flight away, but this is the first propeller flight I’ve been on in a long time, and a very small plane indeed. But there is still no charge for luggage (I emphasize this point because of what transpires tomorrow with Delta at LaGuardia). I have arranged to be picked up by Carmel Car Service for the ride from Newark Airport into Manhattan, where I will be spending the night at the condo of a friend (near Union Square). Thankfully, Will has made the arrangements by telephone with my cousin Helen and friend Josephine, who are both in Florida, and the keys to the apartment are waiting for me at the doorman’s desk when I arrive at 10 pm. In my younger, sturdier days I am sure I would have been out the apartment door in a flash to enjoy the temptations of New York, even for one brief night. But taking off my shoes and socks and getting a good night’s sleep is my only temptation right now.

Saturday: New York to Atlanta

Last night I unpacked only what was absolutely necessary, so I don’t have much else to do in the
morning. I do go out early to the Garden of Eden, a gourmet supermarket down the block on 14th Street, for breakfast coffee and croissants. Back upstairs I visit with Winnie, who is house- and cat-sitting for my cousin Helen. And, of course, I get to visit with Willy the cat as well.

I call my driver from last night, who gave me his private number (I guess I was a good tipper), and he picks me up at 11:15 am for the short ride to LaGuardia for my 2 pm departure.

The Trouble with Delta: I try to use curbside checking at Delta, but they tell me that my suitcase is seven pounds overweight and I have to check in at the ticket counter. The wheelchair attendant helps me to the counter, where the Delta agent tells me there is a $90 overweight charge (I have already paid the regular $15 baggage charge in advance). I try to explain that no one at USAir or Continental said anything yesterday about the suitcase being too heavy (and I know it was weighed in at both check-in counters). I added absolutely nothing in New York. If I had known the suitcase was too heavy I could have lightened the load this morning when I was putting things together. The agent suggested I could take things out of the suitcase, but I would have to discard whatever items I removed. I said that surely there must be an exception for a person in a wheelchair, travelling alone, for whom repacking now at the airport was physically impossible—and that $90 seemed really outrageous for seven pounds. Not to mention that I had been stranded in Rome for four days when I should have been on the Queen Mary 2 and that all European airlines were more than generous about cancelling fees and refunding money. [I didn’t mention that Delta had already charged me an additional $200 to change my flights from New York to Tucson because I was not coming home by ship and therefore needed to fly several days earlier than my original reservation, which itself was pretty mean-spirited given all the chaos with European travel].

She suggested that I could discard one pair of shoes and that would probably do it. However, besides the above-mentioned physical difficulty, one pair of shoes or sneakers costs about $150 for the shoes themselves and then an additional $85 to have orthopedic rocker panels put in the soles—and that’s $85 per shoe, not per pair! And since there were several empty seats on both flights today (reducing the potential total weight of the flight), blaming the fee on the cost of extra fuel seemed specious at best.

I understand the difficulties that airlines are facing, but the only words for Delta’s behavior are heartless and callous. And I will do my best to avoid flying Delta whenever possible.

The Trouble with Weather: There is more bad news, this time concerning the weather. Although it is a beautiful day in New York City, Atlanta and the Deep South are having terrible rains and even a series of tornadoes (in Mississippi). The Atlanta airport is actually shut down for an hour so my flight from NY cannot even leave the gate. Departure time for my 2:00 pm flight keeps getting pushed back and when a 3:50 departure is posted, it looks like I will miss my connection in Atlanta, which, of course, is the last flight of the day to Tucson. Luckily, I’m waiting right at the desk when this later time is announced and the attendant can put me on a 1:00 pm departure which has now been rescheduled to 3:00 pm and is, therefore, still at its gate.

After boarding this flight around 2:15, we are told that we won’t be taking off for awhile and that passengers with connections to South America (about half of the plane) need to get off to be rebooked on other airlines. The flight attendant assures me that this flight will eventually take off, so I decide just to sit tight. About 30 minutes later all the South America passengers who marched off are re-boarded and we finally taxi out to the runway shortly after 3:00 pm. Somehow, we are actually number one for take-off and on our way. Since everything going into Atlanta is being delayed, I’m not too concerned about the 90 minute delay and I’m hopeful I will make the connection to Tucson.

Saturday: Atlanta to Tucson

Things do get better. When I arrive in Atlanta, not only will the flight to Tucson be leaving from the same gate where I have just arrived (so no wheelchair maneuvering through the airport), but Delta is substituting planes and will be using an incoming plane from Jacksonville (not delayed by weather) rather than waiting for the plane from Boston, which as of now hasn’t even left for Atlanta. The end of the story is that I arrive home in Tucson only one hour later than originally planned, along with my now very expensive suitcase.

The Lesson I Learned

Now as I sit calmly at home with Will and the cats I’m thankful that I was able to get home after only four days. Compared to families stranded in Europe and sleeping in airports, I was lucky to have a comfortable hotel and the city of Rome to keep me occupied. Of course, the cost of the rearranged travel plans was more than the planned one-week cruise on the QM2. But my travel agent is working hard to see what kind of money insurance will reimburse. Which makes me really glad that contrary to my usual do-it-yourself planning, for this trip I used the services of Elaine, my experienced travel agent in Virginia. She was working on alternative plans for me as soon as the crisis started and kept me continually updated by email and phone. She was still trying to get me to London in time for the QM2 sailing at the last minute on Wednesday, but there was just nothing available. And I express my gratitude to her.

So if you have any travel plans, complicated or otherwise, you can contact Elaine at elaine_vanhonk@mindspring.com.

Thursday, 22 April 2010


Today’s major task will be packing and finalizing plans for the two-day journey home. I asked Will back in Tucson to do my USAir check-in on his computer, but I will still have to go on line around noon to make sure that everything is okay, and that the flight is going to leave as scheduled tomorrow. I will try to arrange ground transportation from and to the airports in New York as well. Flights are still grounded throughout northern Europe, so it’s a good thing I decided to stay in Rome. But for now I will head to breakfast and warm up with that wonderful morning coffee. Then I will cover some sights near the hotel, so that I can get back when I need to go on-line.

Morning Sightseeing

The campanile of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major), on the crest of a small hill, is visible from the end of the street as I leave the hotel. Even though it is way across town from the Vatican, this is one of the four churches given extraterritoriality by the Lateran Treaty of 1929. The basilica itself is wedged in on both sides by matching façades that look more like banks than ecclesiastic quarters. The basilica is most renowned for the series of mosaics lining the walls above the arches of the nave and chancel, whose bright colors are awesomely striking still today. The colorful patterns of marble on the floors, the gilded coffered ceiling, and the interior domes are also impressive.

While the basilica dazzles with size and splendor, the much smaller Santa Prasede around the corner moves the visitor with the display of color and craftsmanship in smaller measure. The deep blue backgrounds, with painted sky and stars, are surely the inspiration for the gilded movie palaces of a century ago, especially the Loew’s Paradise in the Bronx where I grew up. And the marble floors are like a showroom for the most wealthy patrons re-designing their homes

Santa Maria degli Angeli, just north of Termini Station, was constructed on the foundations of the Baths of Diocletian. There is not much left of the original Classical construction, besides the stonework and archways leading into the porch of the church. The large open space of the church interior is the repository for many paintings and sculptures, particularly from the 18th century. Running diagonally across the floor is a meridian on which the changing movement of the sun recorded official Rome time for over 150 years.

 

 

 

 
 
 
 











The open space of the Piazza della Repubblica across the street provides a sun-lit way back to the hotel.

• Campidoglio-Capitolino

After printing my boarding passes I hop a bus for the Piazza Venezia, site of the enormous Victor Emmanuel II Monument. Since I don’t have a lot of time left in Rome, I skip Santa Maria d’Aracoeli—and the long flight of stone steps that must be ascended and then descended for a visit to that church (there is no direct access from the church to the Campidoglio, although geography and logic would provide one). The church contains one of the most unique sights in Rome: the chapel of the “Baby Jesus of the Letters”—I’ll include a photograph from 1990—but my guidebook tells me the revered statuette was stolen in 1994 and has not been recovered.

Instead, I walk up the long ramp designed by Michelangelo, La Cordonata, which leads to the majestic Piazza del Campidoglio, the site of three Renaissance buildings still housing arms of the Italian government, Palazzo Senatorio, Palazzo dei Conservatori, and Palazzo Nuovo. Directly behind the Palazzo Senatorio is a magnificent, free, and shoe-leather-saving view of the ruins of the Roman Forum. I return to the Campidoglio, take the stairs leading up to a vestibule that cuts through the Palazzo dei Conservatori, and emerge on the Via del Tempio di Giove, leading down through the pine groves of the Capitoline Hill.

At the bottom, close to the bank of the Tiber, is the church of San Nicola in Carcere and the ruins of the Teatro di Marcello and the Tempio die Apollo Sosiano. A few steps further is the site of the old Jewish ghetto, now occupied by the large domed synagogue completed in 1904. To the north of the synagogue, narrow streets and small squares are home to traditional kosher restaurants and modern, trendy bistros. From here it’s a short walk (although the mid-day sun is becoming quite warm) to the Area Sacra del Largo Argentino, a group of ruins from the days of the Roman Republic (beginning in the 5th century BC). The Chiesa del Gesú is my final planned stop for the day, but it is closed for lunch from noon to 4 pm, so I take the hint and head for a long lunch myself.


Lunch, the Jesuits, and Packing

Trattoria della Torre Argentina: an antipasto platter with a selection of meats, cheeses, and olives served over a bed of fresh arugula; gnocchi with meat sauce; house red wine; lemon cake.


































Then it’s a quick visit to the Chiesa del Gesú, with more frescoes and funerary chapels, before catching a bus back to the hotel for an evening of packing.

What I’ve Missed

This has been my fourth visit to Rome and I have seen much more of the city on earlier visits, especially during the week I spent here in 1986 and the week I spent with Will in 1990. Although it’s amazing to re-read these blog entries and remember how much of the city I have covered in three days—it is even more amazing to realize how much more there is to see and see again. It would require at least a week to cover the list (just going by Michelin’s area guides): Campo dei Fiori, EUR, Giancolo, Isola Tiberina, Montecitorio, San Giovanni in Laterno, Terme di Caracalla, Trastavere, Via Veneto, Villa Borghese and Villa Giulia. Add to that all of Classical Rome (primarily the Forums and the Colisseo) and all of Vatican City and St Peter’s. And I haven’t even mentioned the museums. . . .

Next:  The Journey Home.

Wednesday, 21 April 2010

I cover a lot of territory today, so this entry will be a little longer than usual, especially since it’s so much easier to include photographs when I do this at home. On board the Eurodam, uploading pictures ate up a good deal of web time, which in turn ate up a good deal of money. And this is a good way to test my short-term memory and keep a long-term record of the highlights of the trip.

Transportation in Rome

Public transit in Rome has become much more efficient for tourists since my last visit 20 years ago. The Metro is equipped with new, faster trains and much clearer signage. Most importantly, the long escalators at stations are actually working (it’s a very long way down and even longer back up). Bus and tram lines (the few trams lines in Rome run mostly from Termini to southern, less-touristy parts of the city) use new equipment and seem to be free of the ubiquitous pick-pockets of years gone by. Bus routes are clearly marked and one-, two-, and three-day passes—good on trains, buses, and trams—can be purchased quite cheaply at newsstands. The pass is really useful, allowing me to sit and ride even for relatively short distances.











Morning Sightseeing

• Fontana di Trevi and Quirinale

It’s a very short walk from the hotel to Termini Metro station and then two stops to Bernini, the closest station for exploring the Fontana di Trevi and Quirinale areas. The Incrocio della Quattro Fontane (Four Fountains Crossroad) was created in the late 16th century to facilitate traffic flowing to all parts of the city and to allow for pleasant vistas in four directions. Each corner of the intersection is canted at a diagonal to allow room for four complementary 16th-century fountains. This morning the intersection hums with vehicular and pedestrian traffic—but at least there is a traffic light to help keep things moving. Back in 1990 Will and I witnessed a very minor rear-end traffic bump between an expensive luxury sedan and a beat up jalopy that because of the stubbornness of the drivers escalated into a major multi-car catastrophe. Today things are much quieter and I am able to maneuver across the street into the cool interior of the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane.

The exterior is considered Borromini’s finest work. He designed the building in 1638, but the façade, a complex organization of contrasting convex and concave surfaces, wasn’t completed until 1668, one year after his suicide. The interior is small and perfectly suited to the design, with a brilliantly coffered dome. Most Baroque structures have unadorned exteriors, with the blending and contrast of architectural lines providing the only decoration. The surprise for the visitor occurs when he steps inside to a riot of color and texture. San Carlo is an exception, with the monochrome of the exterior matched by most of the interior, except for the striking contrast of the dome.

 A little further down the street is Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, designed by both Bernini and Borromini, whose styles are usually in stark opposition. In this case, the opposites create a harmonious whole.

Still further down, beyond a small park on the south side of the street and the long arm of the Palazzo del Quirinale (now a government building) on the north side, sits the large open space of the Piazza del Quirinale. And a short walk downhill from here leads to the Fontana di Trevi—after the Colosseum, probably the best-known icon of Rome. And after the Piazza di Spagna, definitely the busiest gathering place in Rome. It’s far too familiar to require any words of description.

• Classical Rome: The Pantheon

It’s literally a hop, skip, and jump from the Trevi Fountain to the busy Via del Corso, which bisects the city from Piazza di Popolo on the north to the Vittoriano Monument and the ruins of the Forum on the south; and another hop from the ruckus of the Corso to the quiet of Piazza Sant’Ignazio, one of my favorite spots in Rome, and the inspiration for many stage sets of period and Classical plays. Sitting on the steps of the Jesuit church of Sant’Ignazio, on the south side of the piazza, is like being in an open-air theatre.

 

But the best part of the performance is behind me in the church interior, with stunning trompe-l’œil ceiling frescoes by Andrea Pozzo (1684). A large mirror, placed at an angle on the floor of the nave, allows for close-up examination of the ceiling without excessive neck strain.









 









A pedestrians-only lane leads past the “Porter’s Fountain” to Piazza della Minerva and its statue of an elephant topped by an Egyptian obelisk from the 6th century BC.

 
The piazza is home also to Santa Maria sopra Minerva, a church with many important works of art—the most notorious being a marble statue of the “Risen Christ” by Michelangelo, with its private parts covered by a bronze loincloth added by Baroque prudes of a later generation. The frescoes here are by Filipino Lippi (1489-93), and there is an exuberant monument to Venerable Sister Maria Raggi by Bernini (1643).

The culmination of this short walk is the Piazza della Rotonda and the Pantheon itself. The most fascinating aspect of the building is the changing light and shadow that enters through the enormous oculus at the top of the dome. The present building was constructed in AD 117-38 on the foundations of an earlier temple destroyed by fire. The magnificent dome survived through the Middle Ages, but its architecture and technique were completely lost. It was only when Renaissance artists—including Bramante and Michelangelo—studied the dome themselves that the lost art was re-discovered. This stimulated the building of the great domes of the later Roman churches, including St Peter’s.

Afternoon Sightseeing

• Piazza Navona

After a long lunch (described further below), nearby Piazza Navona and its environs is next on my agenda. The huge plaza, with its three monumental fountains, was originally the site of Domitian’s stadium (AD 86), and its shape and form clearly reveal those origins, as does the small piece of remaining stonework hidden away around a corner. Today it is another popular gathering place, especially in the evenings when the fountains are lighted and the cafés are busy. The central “Fountain of the Rivers,” by Bernini (1651) is undergoing reconstruction and repairs, but most of it is still visible behind the fences and barriers. The smaller “Fountain of the Moor” on the south end and “Fountain of Neptune” on the north provide the necessary Baroque symmetry of design.

There are two important churches on the western side: Sant’Agnese in Agone, directly centered on the west side of the piazza, and Santa Maria della Pace, behind the northwest quadrant. On the eastern side the highlights are the Palazzo Massimo, with its painted façade, and Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza, which provides a convenient passageway through it cloisters. This passage leads back to the Piazza della Rotonda (see above), where I stop for gelato at a café with a view of the Pantheon—and some shrubbery hiding the McDonald’s next door.

















• Castel Sant’Angelo

The late afternoon and early evening is taken up entirely by the Castel Sant’Angelo and the streets leading to it. The walk begins at the adjoining buildings of the Oratorio dei Filippini, with its lovely clock tower, and the Chiesa Nuova, with another wonderful ceiling fresco and three early Rubens paintings.

On Via Giulia, the Palazzo Sacchetti houses the headquarters of the anti-Mafia police, and other Renaissance buildings now serve as antique shops and restaurants. Then the statue-lined Ponte Sant’Angelo leads across the Tiber to the Castel itself.

Because today (21 April) is a public holiday celebrating the founding of Rome, free admission is offered to all sites administered by the government. It also explains why the city seems to be overrun with pushy student tour groups grinding the pavement in all the churches and galleries. Castel Sant’Angelo’s interior starts with a long ramp, wide enough for several carriages, winding to the top, from where there are excellent views in all directions (as well as a small café). After taking lots of pictures I catch Express Bus #40, which, despite early evening traffic, whizzes me back to Termini and my hotel.

Food

• Fixed-price lunch (€10,00): Di Rienzo, with a view of the circular wall of the Pantheon, provides excellent cannelloni, a fresh mixed green salad, sparkling water, and cappuccino (extra charge).
• Dinner: Alessio, another recommendation near my hotel. Located down a flight of stairs, the rustic restaurant offers no views, but the food is good and reasonably-priced: an excellent palliard of veal (grilled veal steak), superb fried potatoes and a lovely mixed salad, along with a half-bottle of Poggio Stella Montepulciano (2007). And a complementary iced limoncello to top it all off.




























More to come: my final day in Rome and the long journey home.