Ocean princess venice to rome

[homeinboca]

Norris,

 

Great shots of the interior of St Peters and especially the Pieta. My point and shoot couldn't do it justice in the dark interiors, so that motived me to get an SLR and now my interior shots are much better. Thanks for sharing!

 

Ron

[Bimmer09]

Norris,

 

Great shots of the interior of St Peters and especially the Pieta. My point and shoot couldn't do it justice in the dark interiors, so that motived me to get an SLR and now my interior shots are much better. Thanks for sharing!

 

Ron

 

Thanks Ron!

 

Glad you made the move to an SLR. Which one did you choose?

 

I had similar lighting conditions in the Pantheon-coming much later.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

We had now left the Vatican behind and were outside at 4 p.m on a lovely Saturday afternoon. We had been up since 5 or so.

 

We thanked Massimo profusely and accepted our last bottle of cold water from Franco who was parked nearby. There was one more thing he wanted to show us- the Spanish Steps which we knew to be close to our hotel.

 

The streets around it were jammed with pedestrians so he got us as close as he could and let us out of the car to take a look.

 

I think I might have said "yikes-let's get outta here!" when I saw the swarm on the steps and at the foot. Not a must-see for us, just a lot of steps covered in people. We can walk them someday in the future-earlier in the day and mid-week.

 

 

Back into the car and we would be at the hotel in a few minutes.

 

Alas when we got out onto the main streets again we encountered many Carabinieri vehicles who had meantime been busy blocking off streets due to an impending protest (about what I have no idea). Carabinieri were carrying machine guns and wearing flak jackets. They are the Military Police beyond the regular civilian Polizia. They look cool in sunglasses and snappy uniforms.

 

Just our luck! However we had Franco at the helm and when one dead-end presented itself after another, he would find another way to get closer to the Pantheon. Better late than never and it was with a sigh of relief that we began to recognize the streets we had been in at 9 a.m that morning.

 

We said our goodbyes and thanked Franco at the front of our hotel. He had gifts for us-a bottle of fine Red Wine and a Rome Guide Book in English. Another man I would love to have a drink with.

 

THANK YOU ROME IN LIMO-GREAT PEOPLE, GREAT AT THEIR JOB

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Before we get to the hotel part of the day here's another couple of photos of the scene over my shoulder as I was taking the Spanish Steps photo....

 

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Ok, that helps keep the chronology straight. Franco had to drive down these streets by the way. Taxis and limos have access, private cars restricted so learn the street signs if you plan to drive in Ye Olde Roma.

 

Ok let's move on to the hotel....

[homeinboca]

Thanks Ron!

 

Glad you made the move to an SLR. Which one did you choose?

 

I had similar lighting conditions in the Pantheon-coming much later.

 

Norris

 

Always wanted a Nikon, so got the D3100 - great camera. Now my interior shots of those dark churches are much better!

 

Ron

[SpinnerCOyyy]

Always wanted a Nikon, so got the D3100 - great camera. Now my interior shots of those dark churches are much better!

 

Ron

 

Nikon with a CMOS sensor! Very nice.

[homeinboca]

Nikon with a CMOS sensor! Very nice.

 

Yes, thank you. As I mentioned, when I couldn't get a decent shot of the Pieta after waiting my whole life to see it, I was determined to get an SLR. With the flash, the glass protector cause a glare and without the flash, the image was dark and blurry. Norris' photo of The Pieta was great!

 

Norris, looking forward to your review of the Borghese, one of my favourite stops in Rome.

 

Ron

[Bimmer09]

This part of the story is dedicated to Annie (rdsqrl) lover of food porn and this hotel in the hope that her lust will be sated.

 

ALBERGO DEL SENATO

 

I used Tripadvisor to help me find our lodgings for our 2 night stay in Rome.

It was not the highest rated nor did it have to be. The location and the TA photos sold me and initial emails to them were responded to promptly.

 

I had to wait some months to book online as their IT department hadn't opened up distant bookings yet. I snapped up a top floor suite with terrace as soon as they got their act together.

 

We had already dropped off our luggage 8 hours before and now we were here finally to enjoy our room.

 

Our luggage had already been installed there. 2 keys(chiave) were produced and we headed up to #602. Front desk personnel were charm and courtesy personified. We already felt in good hands.

 

Some photos from the lobby area to introduce the hotel

 

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[Bimmer09]

We rode the World's Smallest elevator up to our floor

 

I would guess the elevator was about 6 sq.ft. There was a 2nd one on the ground floor of roughly the same size.

 

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The room had a door, which I stipulated in my reservation, to aid in our privacy.

 



 

The following photos were taken after we had been using/trashing the room much as The Who would have done during a 1970s tour when Moon was alive. We tried our best not to roast any goats in our room.

 

Living room

 

 

Flat screen TV and computer desk

 

 

Hot beverage station

 

[Bimmer09]

Bedroom

 

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There was another big flat screen TV in the bedroom which we never turned on but will next time as I am curious to see Italian TV.

 

Bathroom (Il Bagno)

 



 

The enclosed shower-plentiful easily controlled water- is out of shot.

 

 

Why every home in the USA doesn't have a bidet is beyond me. I had one in a rental in London but only because my landlord was a French lady. She changed my life. I came across some odiferous people in Europe but not one was from Italy, France or Germany. Here's the reason why. Yes- the bidet was of a certain sturdiness (for Zack Galifianakis fans only of which we are two)

 

But the best thing about the room for me-apart from the complimentary bottle of red wine waiting for us- was this....

 

[SpinnerCOyyy]

Dude! TMI about the bidet!

 

And if you're going to trash a room, we need to see photos of Carol standing on a table waving a red scarf around.

 

Why did they think you needed two lamps, and right next to each other? :D

[Bimmer09]

Our usual routine upon entering a hotel room is as follows

 

Step One -Carol unpacks everything and takes a shower and simultaneously...

 

Step Two- I find the hotel bar and keep out of her way.

 

A plan flawlessly executed as always. One thing that decided me upon the Albergo del Senato were photos of a "rooftop bar for guests only".

 

I'm there pal!!

 

And indeed it was a short flight of stairs 20 feet from our room-so how could I not go?

 

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In a quiet moment, earlier in the day, by the Temple of Janus I had offered up a prayer to the gods- let there be cold beer in my future oh Merciful gods!

 

Would the gods answer my prayer?

 

 

Yee-haw! (for my Texas friends)

 

Color me happy! Olives too! One of the bartenders was plucking olives from a rooftop tree for a future date (they have to be soaked in vinegar for a while)

 

I took stock of my situation...

 

I have beer. Cigarettes. Olives. Sunglasses. The sun is shining. I'm in Rome. I can hear church bells ringing. I can hear music from the Piazza 6 floors below. There are Brits talking nearby and I can understand them but stay out of it and pretend to be Italian. It's a bar and yet I can hear myself think-ergo I am not in Chicago.

 

 

HOORAY-LIFE AT THIS MOMENT IS PERFECT !!

[Bimmer09]

And I have become

Comfortably numb

 

The words wafted up from the Piazza. A band playing down below and very good they sounded. A Pink Floyd song. The sun was thinking about going down.

 

I stood up and looked over the wall of the bar.

 

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Piazza della Rotunda

 

 

To my left

 



 

And behind me

 

The Victor Emmanuel II Monument

 

[SpinnerCOyyy]

Our hotel was the IQ. New, not really typical Rome. But there was one feature that this hotel had that was truly awesome.

 

The wine vending machine! Including Moet & Chandon...in a pretty cab-i-net...

Let them eat cake she says, just like Marie Antonette.

 

 

They want you to drink Moet and Chandon from plastic glasses!

 

So the good news, it's not wine that has a screw top lid. The bad news....

 

They keep the corkscrew on a chain like a pen in a bank.

 

Italians!

[Bimmer09]

Our hotel was the IQ. New, not really typical Rome. But there was one feature that this hotel had that was truly awesome.

 

The wine vending machine! Including Moet & Chandon...in a pretty cab-i-net...

Let them eat cake she says, just like Marie Antonette.

 

 

They want you to drink Moet and Chandon from plastic glasses!

 

So the good news, it's not wine that has a screw top lid. The bad news....

 

They keep the corkscrew on a chain like a pen in a bank.

 

Italians!

 

That's a great wine and beer machine! I saw some beers there that would have done the job, nicely.

 

Will check the IQ hotel to see where it was in relation to us.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

A jumble of rooftops

 

 

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Looking west- a zoom shot

 

 

Wide angle gives a better idea of distance.

 

 

Losing the light but I don't mind as I am looking forward to Rome by night.

 

 

Sunset. The dome of St. Peter's Basilica appears in the right hand corner.

 

[Bimmer09]

After sundown there was time for a one hour nap, just to take the sting of our tiredness.

 

We awoke hungry as it had been 6 hours since we ate and we had done a lot of walking in the Vatican. There were cafes and restaurants right outside our door doing great business.

 

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Carol decided to ask the desk clerk for a recommendation for a good local restaurant and whipped out the phrase in Italian. Ferruccio smiled and whipped out a map and highlighted the route we should take on foot. He had a favorite and he picked up the phone and called the restaurant to book us a seat outside.

 

The Restaurant was called (and I am sure still is) Virginiae on Via di Parione, just near Piazza di Navona. Off we went into the night.

 

Carol joins me outside the hotel

 

 

 

In the USA we have a car and taxi culture, day and night. In a city like Chicago, in the downtown areas there are few people in the streets at night. If you are going out to dinner you'll probably have a reservation. If not in a taxi you'll likely drive there and someone will park your car. You go in, eat a nice dinner, the car gets brought round, you tip the valet and drive home. In the part of Rome we were in the streets are narrow and parking would be difficult to find. Add to that many of the people in the streets are tourists like us and eager to explore on foot to savor the sights, sounds and smells that you miss when driving.

 

It's also an Italian pastime to stroll, nice and easy, on a warm summer's night.

 

All of this means that the streets are lively and filled with people. Every cafe and bar along the way is doing great business.

 

Ferruccio's map led the way and we passed through Piazza di Navona along the way. A very lively scene indeed, like Piazza della Rotunda but on a huge scale.

Buskers can spread out here so you'll walk past an accordionist and further on the sound is overtaken by a guitarist singing Bob Marley songs or someone on a zither. Waiters hustle from the many kitchens with heaping plates of savory deliciousness. If you weren't hungry when you entered the square you would be by the time you got to the other side.

 

Maybe you would stop in for a gelato and eat it as you stroll ?

 

 

 

Down a very narrow little street we saw the sign for Virginiae and I told a waiter that we had a reservation through Albergo di Senato. Signori Adair? I guess he remembered my name because of Ferruccio or maybe we were the only ones who reserved (out of stateside habit). He had a table outside for us, as requested.

 

He was the waiter you'll see in the video that will follow soon. He was extremely good at his job and was multi-lingual (a dream of mine but it's a lot of work)

 

Once again ordering a bottle of Pinot Grigio was no hit-or-miss affair. Superb.

 

The food was simple as we had come to expect. A minimum of ingredients, perfectly cooked and not one scrap was going back to the kitchen.

 

The tables were very close together and a couple who sat next to us, just wandered up and took a seat. They ordered pizza and boy did it look good.

 

We had wine and very good crusty bread to dip into our olive oil while waiting.

The sound of a good accordion player wafted from further down the narrow lane.

Couples strolled by. Occasionally a small car would drive by slowly, just a few feet from the table.

 

The food isn't artfully plated. There's no explanation of what is on the plate as the menu already covered that. It tastes good and that's what matters...

 

As always spaghetti ala carbonara for me

 

 

An artichoke for Carol

 

 

My entree-veal saltimboca. Carol's appears on the video.

 

 

We lingered there after dinner as I was having an espresso and sambuca and just soaking in the vibe.

 

We dallied for a while when we went back through Piazza di Navona. People watching.

 

We had been up for 18 hours by the time we went to bed and had packed a lot in.

The musicians in the square had packed up and gone home. Just a few people were sitting by the fountain. The street cleaning trucks had passed through and got the Piazza della Rotunda ready for Sunday morning when it would all begin again.

[Bimmer09]

Here's the video I took on our first night in Rome.

 

 

I linger on the waiter who served us as I was enjoying hearing Italian being spoken and he served us well during our meal.

 

The restaurant has reviews that run the gamut from excellent to foul. The owners took a rest for two years and leased it to others. They came back and took it over again in March 2014 so reviews from then may be more accurate. Regardless of Tripadvisor reviews we had a fine experience, which is what matters to us.

 

Norris

[SpinnerCOyyy]

Five languages, very impressive. Whenever I meet someone who can speak several languages, I always ask them how they made the choice on which languages they would take up. Most often there seems to be two factors. One was geographic location. I doubt I would find someone who speaks Dutch in Mexico. The second was similarities in the different languages that make them easy to learn.

 

Get your ass to Rome! Love it!

[Bimmer09]

 

We do love our land vacations. We have a house in Mexico that we go to often. It is in Puerto Penasco, and is just a four hour drive from Phoenix. But Steve is not yet retired, so we work within his schedule. Do you have any relatives in Colorado? We have a dear friend who is an Adair, who also has a house in Penasco.

 

Lori, as it happened we watched a TV show called House Hunters International last night- couple from Phoenix (Ed and Gracie Conner) buying a condo on the beach in Puerto Penasco. Neither of us had heard of that location until just now.

Seemed like serendipity. It looks like a fine place and I can understand why you would buy there.

 

Norris

[searoses]

Norris you may be in trouble.....carol looks like she needs, to the very core, to live in italy...her face says it all...

[laughing husky]

It is pretty sad that Americans are not taught languages at a young age, however, it is easier in Europe as the countries are smaller. My mother was Italian, from Rome, I was the oldest....I learned English.(she was educated as a translator during WW11..) My brother and sister came along....they learned 3 languages at home...I had already moved away....Now my brother speaks 5 fluently...my sister, 3....My best friend is Spanish...learned English through me...married a Dutch guy, lives in France, works in Switzerland as a physician...The Dutch speak almost everything. Their tongue has the ability to speak many sounds because of their language. Kees speaks 9 European languages, 10 African dialects, and and Vietnamese....They speak in English at home...Their kids go to an international school and speak 6 languages and speak "American" without an accent....Now that is language ability....BTW, I speak English....and a bit of Spanglish....:) and I am very, very jealous of listening to conversations at the same table in 4-5 languages....

[Bimmer09]

It is pretty sad that Americans are not taught languages at a young age, however, it is easier in Europe as the countries are smaller. My mother was Italian, from Rome, I was the oldest....I learned English.(she was educated as a translator during WW11..) My brother and sister came along....they learned 3 languages at home...I had already moved away....Now my brother speaks 5 fluently...my sister, 3....My best friend is Spanish...learned English through me...married a Dutch guy, lives in France, works in Switzerland as a physician...The Dutch speak almost everything. Their tongue has the ability to speak many sounds because of their language. Kees speaks 9 European languages, 10 African dialects, and and Vietnamese....They speak in English at home...Their kids go to an international school and speak 6 languages and speak "American" without an accent....Now that is language ability....BTW, I speak English....and a bit of Spanglish....:) and I am very, very jealous of listening to conversations at the same table in 4-5 languages....

 

Yes the younger you get people learning other languages the better as when you get older you are already trying to remember everything -where did I put my keys? Where did I park the car? Do I have a car? Where am I? etc.

 

While I have done a decent job of learning how to order food in 3 other languages (and I think that is the first thing to learn as I like my grub) once they start trying to have a conversation I find that I am at the level of First Missionary in Africa.

 

Still I make an effort and it seems to be appreciated. I can work on it.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Norris you may be in trouble.....carol looks like she needs, to the very core, to live in italy...her face says it all...

 

I think she needs to at least visit it once (or twice) again. This was a revelation to her as she hadn't been there in so long. She's ok with not returning to Venice again but Rome she has to. Two days was just scratching the surface. A week would really help.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Sunday Sept 28 would be our only FULL day in Rome. A day we would wake up in a Roman hotel room and not a ship.Many hours later we'd sleep in the same room, never having left Rome all day. That aspect was very good-a whole day to spend in Rome and only one commitment-Carol had bought tickets on line to the Borghese Gallery at 2.30 p.m.

 

I was up and in the streets around 7.30 a.m but there was no coffee houses open at that time-trust me I looked.Besides the taxi drivers who line up at a rank by the Pantheon, ready to take people to the airport or train station, I was the only person in Pantheon square for a while then I was joined by some small delivery trucks. A laundry truck came to the hotel to deliver clean sheets and towels and load up the used ones. One by one tourists began to appear to get some early morning photos before the crowds would form. Cafe staff filtered into the square to get ready for opening.

 

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While the streets were this calm I took a walk around the neighborhood

 

A few blocks away were some Roman ruins unearthed

 

 

 

 

 

The bright green cross on the right denotes a Pharmacy