I heard all sorts of suspicious noises during the night. I wonder how Deborah will survive for the next few weeks alone. If I was here by myself, I would shut all the windows and blinds and set up booby traps so that I would be alerted if someone was creeping through the house. I guess at my age I need only worry about theft, and if someone wanted my belongings, I would be fine with giving everything away, but it would be creepy being here alone, and I would not sleep well.
I woke up often during the night, alert to unusual sounds. I left the balcony door open and felt the breeze throughout the curtains. I stayed up late, and once asleep checked my phone several times. at 1, and 2 and 3…I must have ignored the phone till 5, then awoke before the alarm went. I was all packed and ready to go, and awakened Maya. We crept through the house in the dark and packed everything tightly into the car. Our suitcases did not fit in the trunk, so Maya and I were squished in the back seat with bags up to the roof of the car. We drove out of the gates by 6, and already dawn arrived. I must have dozed on the way to Orte. Deborah and I found the long term parking after dropping Werner and Maya off with the bags. It turned out that we had a very short walk to the station. Orte is a bedroom community for people who work in Rome, so the coffee shop was full and the binary packed with people. The sun was shining brightly by the time the train headed to Rome.
We left the Appenines and presumably Umbria through one tunnel. Werner got off at Tiburtina to catch a faster train to Fiumicino. Deborah and Maya and I rolled into Rome Termini. My hotel was a short distance away on Via Cavour. It was too nice, much too fancy for us, and when we registered at 8 AM, the man at the desk took a long time to agree that we did in fact have a reservation. Whew. OUr room was large and cool and had internet. Yahoo. There was a roof garden restaurant that Maya and I wanted to visit, but we never did.
We left our bags and walked with Deborah down Via Cavour, as the shops and bars and restaurants were just waking up. The Colosseum was to our left as we turned right, admiring Trajan's forum and the Wedding Cake. Deborah's hotel was past Piazza Navona, so we took our time walking down Via del Corso through Piazza della Minerva to the Pantheon. After morning cappuccino at Tassa di Oro, we could not help but visit the Pantheon, an entirely different experience without throngs of tourists. The streets were still waking up when we found Piazza Navona and turned down Via Vittorio Emanuele. At number 251, there was no sign of the hotel Deborah had chosen. We walked around the building back to the front and asked the mailman where the 'Rome Inn Suites' were, and they were inside a heavy door into a courtyard. I wonder if the place was legal. The lady who met us at the door smoked one cigarette after another as she showed us Deborah's room and took Deborah's order for breakfast in bed.
We were out walking to the Chiesa Nova by 9 to look at baroque magnificence, and on to Camp di Fiori to check the market. Maya and I tasted pastries for a second breakfast (we were starving at Termini and had cornet already). We wandered through the narrow mideaval streets around between the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona and Camp di Fiori, and decided to walk to Trastevere. We landed at Santa Maria in Trastevere first, where I visited the crypt for the first time, where an ancient Roman apartment building was suggested, and silos for grain storage from Roman times remained. We had a harder time finding Santa Cecilia, which I forgot was hidden behind a Renaissance courtyard. It was even harder to find good restaurant. WE checked menu after menu of unremarkable food, finally chose one right across from the soup kitchen and had unremarkable food. The pizza was ok, Deborah and I loved having salad, but mine had no dressing on it….at least it was vegetables, and Maya helped me finish mine.
On our way to St. Peter's, we stopped at Palazzo Corsini to look at the collection, while imagining what it was like to live in the palace. St Peter's was huge and imposing and overpowering and wonderful. While we walked to Castel Sant'Angelo, we ran into a movie crew filming with all sorts of actors and extras. We were told to get out of the way of the filming, and walked across the bridge of angels.
It was late, our feet were hurting, but we had to throw our coins into the fountain before we left, so ached our way to Fontana di Trevi. After gelato and a little souvenir shopping, we were ready to push through the crowds at the fountain and say goodbye and leave part of ourselves behind. Maya dipped the murano glass necklaces she bought for her friends in the water to be sure they would come to Rome again.
Our walk back as the sun came down was leisurely and thoughtful. Maya had all sorts of ideas to share with me. We left Deborah on her street and found our way back using all sorts of short cuts, so it did not feel too tiring. How wonderful to be in our luxurious hotel, showered, feet up, internet working, MAya practicing her violin, talking to Eric to check on his progress, anticipating our return home. We weren't hungry at all for dinner, and never left our hotel room, not even to check the rooftop terrace. It felt so good to feel Rome all day, to feel it in our bones, on our feet, to remember the sights and the sounds and the weight of history. Deborah asked me why I liked Rome so much. I told her I love that it is so old, that so much history is visible, that Roman, early Christian, Mideaval, Renaissance, Baroque periods are all mixed up all over the city, that life is out on the streets, that it is provincial and sophisticated at the same time, that there is order and disorder everywhere, that the food is delicious (today was not a good example of that) and that gelato is everywhere….I went on and on and did not answer her in a very cohesive way. But it was clear that I love to visit Rome, and have all sorts of good reasons for that.
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