First Full Day in Rome
Rome has never been my favorite city, but I have a comfortable four-star hotel, the weather is spectacular, and I’m going to make the best of it. After a wonderful lunch at a nearby restaurant (details and pictures below), recommended by the hotel staff, my first tasks are to change my British ₤s (which I guess I won’t be using) for Euros and to find a good English-language guidebook, since I didn’t do any advance preparation for touring Rome; my last visit was in 1990 and it doesn’t take long to figure out that things have changed (and improved for tourists) since then.
Getting into Rome
This morning I enjoy a bit of a sleep-in in Fiminucino since the shuttle bus to Rome doesn’t leave until 11:30. It takes about an hour to get to the center of the city, from where I will take a taxi to my hotel, which is close to Santa Maria Maggiore, Piazza della Repubblica, and the familiar Termini train station (the traffic in Rome has only become worse over the years). It’s a busy location, but there are lots of restaurants and shops and easy access to public transportation.
Hotel and Lunch
The Starhotels Metropole is part of a small Italian-owned chain, which includes the very luxurious Michelangelo in New York City. The hotel here is a purpose-built postwar building that has been recently remodeled and updated with the latest electronic conveniences—including a small television in every bathroom (just the like Mayflower in DC). The important thing is that the large bed is comfortable and sturdy; the eighth-floor window, facing a roof garden on the hotel across the street, opens to let in the cool evening breezes (it’s not quite warm enough to turn on the air conditioning); the breakfast buffet serves wonderful café latte (café au lait to Francophiles). An interesting side note: the Metropole is right next-door to the Hotel Universo, where Will and I stayed in 1990. I hope that it too has been upgraded because it wasn’t all it should have been even back then.
Starhotels Metropole
Hotel Universo 2010
Hotel Universo 1990
It’s close to 2 pm by the time I check in and unpack. Now that I have reconciled myself to missing the QM2 I’m ready for a relaxing lunch and the pleasures of Rome. The concierge recommends a small restaurant, Matriciana, two blocks away and calls to reserve an outside table for me. It’s a noisy street and the restaurant faces the Rome Opera House (built in the 1950s) and offers ever-changing views of the busy street life. Even before opening the half-bottle of house wine, I am pleasantly reminded, as I will be over and over again during the next several days, of the beauty and style-consciousness of contemporary Romans (male and female).
Afternoon and Early Evening Sightseeing
• Piazza di Spagna
Fortified with a wonderful caprese salad (we just don’t get tomatoes like that in Arizona), fresh pasta alla Matriciana, and a half-bottle of house red wine, I head off for the Piazza di Spagna where I’m sure to find a choice of banks and bookstores. Then with the Michelin Green Guide to Rome (newest edition) in hand and a pocketful of Euros, I set off to explore and, hopefully, to clear my head of some of that wine.
The Piazza di Spagna area is most renowned for the elegance of the Spanish Steps themselves as well as the high-end shopping available in abundance on the Via Sestina at the top and the Via Condotti below. You may also recall that the Via Sestina is where both Dorothea Casaubon (Middlemarch) and Isabel Archer (Portrait of a Lady) begin to feel deeply both the romantic pull of Rome itself and the dissatisfactions of the lives they have chosen to live.
There are three small churches in the area worth visiting:
• Sant’Andrea della Fratte, with a campanile and dome completed by Borromini, and statues of angels inside the chancel sculpted by Bernini in 1669.
• San Lorenzo in Lucina, dating from the 12th century, with a bust of Dr. Gabriele Fonseca by Bernini (1668).
• San Carlo al Corso, whose majestic dome is the work of Pietro da Cortona (1668), contains an altar painting, “The Apotheosis of St Ambrose and St Charles,” one of the finest works by Carlo Maratta (1685-90).
Trinità dei Monti, at the top of the Spanish Steps, can be admired only from the outside, as can also the appropriately-named, Vatican-owned Palazzo di Propaganda Fide, with a typically Baroque façade by Borromini.
• Piazza del Popolo
A very short walk away is the Piazza del Popolo, still one of the grandest entrances to central Rome. The square is dominated by the twin churches of Santa Maria di Montesanto and Santa Maria dei Miracoli. Despite appearances, they are fraternal twins only, with major architectural differences easily seen from the insides. Santa Maria del Popolo, the more plainly-constructed church across the square from the twins, is actually much more interesting, and worth both the short wait for it to open after lunch (at 4 pm) and a much longer visit to view the artworks inside. The highlights include two masterworks by Caravaggio, “The Conversion of St Paul” and “The Crucifixion of St Peter,” both painted in 1601, and the Cappella Chigi, designed by Raphael in 1513.
Dinner and Good Night
Evening is approaching as I make my way back to the hotel and stop for dinner at what looks like a very popular spot for pizza and light meals, Restaurant Strega, on Piazza Viminale. The crust on the pizza is deliciously thin and covered with fresh tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella. So of course I have to sweeten it with chocolate and strawberry gelato for dessert.
I get the chance to answer, “pronto,” when the telephone in my room rings and Will is on the other end. His voice is as good a pick-me-up as tiramisu, especially since he’s arranged for me to have a place to stay my one night in New York City on my way home to Tucson.
More to come tomorrow as I venture on the Metro and buses.
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