It's not exactly that this was a bad day; but I wouldn't have minded sleeping through it. Maybe I was feeling the onset of separation anxiety from Cath and Andy and being on my own in the wilds of the solo part of my adventure. Maybe I was just plain exhausted. Maybe it was beastly hot. Maybe it was some latent jet lag thrown in for good measure. For any one of these reasons, the best parts of the day involved sitting down in the shade doing nothing. Any old shade. Didn't even have to be at a table under an umbrella with a fan and a cold beverage, though that would have been best. But I digress...
First thing in the morning, Andy walked his mom to the Termini for her continuing trip to Istanbul. Our discussion of possible agendas narrowed to a plan to take a tour bus to Via Appia Antica (the famous Appian Way, the Roman road built in 312 BC, where Christian tradition has it that Peter saw a vision of Christ and turned back to Rome, where he was killed).
Thanks to architectural history classes in the dim recesses of my memory, I wanted to see the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, so named because it's the largest of the 26 churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Since it happened to be a couple of blocks away from the hotel, we headed there first. Amazing. Especially seeing it during a mass.
Unbeknownst to us, the aforementioned tour bus couldn't run on the Way on Sundays (closed for pedestrians). The good news was this saved us 30 Euros. The bad news was this put us at the mercy of our limited information about how to get there on the city bus.
While waiting for said bus, we popped into a nearby cathedral (what the heck?) and discovered a gem. We didn't even know what it was or anything about it, so I Googled it now and learned we had seen the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano (St John of Lateran). It was built by Constantine in the 4th century and was the first cathedral in Rome. It's also the cathedral of the bishop of Rome, otherwise known as the Pope. (Why hadn't I heard of this place??? I must have been sleeping during that class.) Cath had seen a photo of it and called it "the place with the dancing people." I've tried ten times to upload the photo, but the blog rotates it 90 deg every time. Let's try an interior shot:
I guess that'll have to do. A statue of St John is in a glassed-in alcove between and below the two stairs.
So anyway, we caught the bus after a 20-minute wait that seemed like an hour, sitting on some steps in the shade. Unfortunately, we got off at a stop that fell short of our actual destination. What wasn't short was the walk from there to the Catacombs of St Callixtus, which had to have been 18 miles long. (OK, maybe it was just half a mile). Still - it was hot and...whine whine whine. When we got to the site, I was thrilled (really!) to see a sign that read, "Snacks." I eagerly rounded the corner of a lovely porch and found...a bank of vending machines. Aaaaaaarrrrgh! I settled for the next best thing - the only thing - water from the fountain.
The tours were organized by language, but they must have goofed on ours, because the guide spoke Italian using what passed for English. I had to go to Google to get some details I couldn't understand: the catacombs date from the 3rd century, spread under about 45 acres, and are 4 levels deep. The tombs, perhaps as many as half a million, are shallow (or large and deep for families or the wealthy) and line both sides of 12 miles of 20-foot high corridors. In some places they're stacked four high. The best part about the catacombs, other than the engineering and labor-intensive feat of constructing them in the first place, was their cool temperature - maybe 60 deg. Felt great! We walked through about an eighth of a mile on the 2nd level. Almost as labyrinthine as the Rome Metro.
Today was just not a good day for bus rides. We spent more time waiting for buses than riding buses. I think we waited for half an hour for the bus back to the city, standing in a 3-foot deep swath of shadow cast by a 20-foot high stone retaining wall along the Appian Way with about twenty of our fellow tomb tourers.
We rode as far as the Circus Maximus, where we opted to go in search of those tables covered by umbrellas with fans and cold beverages. Success! "Altro bottiglia acqua naturale, per favore!" ("Another bottle of spring water, please." This is the only Italian sentence I learned and it came in very handy.)
These were our umbrellas. Well, we shared them with the people in the photo. I like how Italian they look. Well, they are Italian. Go figure!
We had wonderful paninis, then went next door for wonderful gelato (#3).
Back at the hotel, we all fell into bed and napped for a couple of hours. I needed to rest up for what I had to do that evening: pack. And not just pack. I was determined to consolidate everything into one bag (to check), one backpack, and one "personal item." Again, success. And this was one of the best decisions I made this whole trip (well, so far). When you read Day 4, you'll understand why.
While I packed, Cath and Andy went to check train schedules for their departure to Pompeii and Sorrento the next day, and they found some options for dinner, too. We selected a small, modern restaurant called "Cotto" and sat outside. (Through the entire weekend, we ate inside only twice: at the Hilton on Day 1 and when we had the scissor-cut pizza on Day 2.) I had the best pasta with basil pesto ever.
A note on the food through the weekend: though everything I ate was tasty and fresh (and much less salty than American cooking), this final dinner was the only meal that was worth writing home about. The best thing about the other places was the atmosphere, which is nothing to sneeze at. I'd go so far as to say I'll always opt for great ambiance and mediocre food rather than the opposite.
A couple of side notes:
1) If you're in Rome, have the stracciatella (chocolate chip) gelato. It has HUGE chunks of dark chocolate, not little chips.
2) A word about restrooms. I've developed a rating system based on my experiences this weekend:
* There IS a toilet
** There's a toilet and it has a seat.
*** There's a toilet, it has a seat, and there's toilet paper.
**** There's a toilet, it has a seat, there's toilet paper, and you can throw the paper in the toilet when you're ready to leave the restroom (let's just say some of the plumbing is incorrectly sized or installed).
So this is almost the end of my brief foray into Rome. My flight was at 7 AM, which meant I had to be at the airport by 5 AM, which meant I had to wake up at 4 AM to get to the Termini to get a taxi to the airport. And did I mention I didn't get to sleep till about midnight??
Stay tuned for the exciting, harrowing adventures of Day 4!
Arrivederci Roma!
This is my favorite photo (other than those of the Swiss Guards, that is :)
It's the Coliseum, with a view to a much more recent time.
Ciao!
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