Rome: Nov 28: Misc Rome

This day we hit a large number of sites in Rome with no coherent pattern. During the day, I took quite a few pictures (though fewer than on other days of our trip). Likewise, Di Yin took many pictures. The latter link goes to her first picture from this day (picture #183). When you see a picture of me putting money into a train ticket machine in order to avoid walking home in the rain (picture #307), you're done with her pictures for the day. I'll link to the next day's pictures in the following post.

First thing after breakfast, we trotted down to visit the notable church Santa Maria Maggiore, a church we walked past the previous day but didn't go in. As I read and heard more about it, I realized how prominent it is among Rome's churches (parts of it date to the 5th century, and multiple popes are buried there), and decided I should visit. I'm glad I did; it's an impressive, ornate church, with a nice blend of styles (Renaissance, Baroque, etc.). It's got history, such as mosaics that range in date of creation from the 5th to the 18th centuries. It was an atmospheric place to explore at mass, listening to chanting in Italian or Latin (I'm not sure which).

After the church, we walked to the metro station near our hotel and took it a couple of stops to the Spanish Steps. The area around the Spanish Steps is a nice area for strolling, with more pedestrianized streets than I'd yet seen in Rome. The streets were crowded with shops selling luxury fashion goods.

In the vicinity of the Spanish Steps, we visited another impressive church, Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, though this one didn't look like much from the outside. We also climbed to the top of the Steps to take in our first view of Rome's skyline, then entered the church at the top, Trinita die Monti. Though this church, lacking ceiling murals, was less impressive, it had nice murals/mosaics along the side.

After visiting three churches on this Sunday, I can say I like visiting churches in Rome during mass (if they let you in). They're very atmospheric. The first and third church had lovely choral singing, making the experience more magical. This compensates for the fact that during mass you're not allowed to walk around and look at things up close.

As we left the area, we noticed a model posing on the Spanish Steps. Both professional and amateur photographers took pictures of her. I admit it is quite a backdrop.

We then began walking to our scheduled noontime meeting with a friend of one of Di Yin's friends. On the way we passed the Piazza del Popolo, a large, remarkable plaza. The friend, S, was doing research in Rome for the year as part of an academic exchange program. Once we met him, my picture frequency slowed dramatically.

S brought us on a tour through the backside of Borghese gardens, passing the National Gallery of Modern Art, to show us his residence in the British School. The little of the gardens that I saw were attractive, and the National Gallery appropriately stately, but what shocked me the most was that he was living in an equally-stately porticoed building that could just as well have housed the National Gallery! It even has art on display. (Okay, the building is smaller than the National Gallery of Modern Art, but it's no less impressive architecturally.) He gave us a full tour. It felt like a large mansion/villa. Its central garden felt like a cross between a Mediterranean courtyard and one of the quads in Oxford/Cambridge.

S then led us back through the piazza to a lunch place, then from the lunch place into the old center of the city. Rome's city center reminded me of Barcelona's old town, with lots of cobblestone streets, small, hidden plazas, and no cars. It's cute.

One reason S brought us to the city center was to show us his favorite gelato shop, Giolitti. It was good, exactly on par with the excellent San Crispino from the previous day.

After gelato, S left us, and Di Yin and I continued exploring the city center, beginning with Piazza Navona (said to be the social centre of the city). The piazza has three appealingly extravagant Baroque fountains and a street market.

Incidentally, it had been drizzling on and off for most of the afternoon. We saw lots of umbrella vendors emerge.

After exploring Piazza Navona and some surrounding streets, we trotted over to the Pantheon. Though dating from the first century, it's amazingly well preserved and remains majestic, with something magical and right about its interior dimensions. We sat for a while to rest and enjoy the space. That said, it's not perfectly preserved--for instance, the center of the floor was roped off because the roof leaks. To me, by the way, the Pantheon was even more striking because I didn't think they could build domes that large in the first century CE.

In the rain, we hunted for a dinner restaurant. We followed a zig-zag path (partially because I had trouble with directions). Somehow we walked along Via del Corso, a big shopping street, and also down another big shopping street (Via Fontina?), and also hit both the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. At some point we found Sant Andrea restaurant near the Spanish steps and decided it looked good. Indeed, it was good. By the time we left, the clouds had truly opened and it was pouring. We decided to take the metro to our hotel (even though it wouldn't have been that long a walk), a good decision as even with the metro's assistance my shoes got wet enough that they were still a bit damp the next day.