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If you can split it into two days (Saint Peter’s one day, the Vatican Museums another), even better. You could spend a year here, everyday discovering something amazing. One guide told me that as far as the Vatican Museums, if you spent one minute looking at every piece that was there, you’d be in there for TWELVE years! So you are there for a day–to see the masterpieces that have filled your art history books: Saint Peter’s Square, The Pieta, The Sistine Chapel. Take a deep breath, relax, enjoy. The key: AFTERNOON!!! The tour groups flood V.C. in the mornings. If you get to the Vatican MuseumsRead More →

Thanks to my Roman friend Gioia, I got to spend a Sunday in Calcata a few weeks ago.  She’s an adventurous gal, helped me out with advice for my book, and thought it would be a great idea to go there on a Sunday for lunch–it’s a 45-minute drive from Rome. I’d been hankering to go to Calcata since 2007–ever since I read travel writer David Farley’s story from the Sunday New York Times’ Travel Section about it. He began with: WHETHER you arrive in Calcata by car or by one of the buses from Rome, it is impossible to remain unfazed when the village first comesRead More →

It’s not only that I happen to like her taste in books. Heather Hanson is the most fun person to be with  if you want to know what’s happening on the Italian wine scene. I met her years ago when I went along on a Context Travel Wine Walk of Rome that she lead-which by the way is a great thing to do in the Eternal City–go wine bar hopping with Heather, I mean, because she gives you the backstage view. For such a young woman, she brings in loads of expertise–she’s a certified sommelier from one of Italy’s most prestigious institutions and she’s lived in RomeRead More →

Many years ago I was at a cocktail party on the terrace of the Belgain Embassy in Rome–an invitation you should never refuse, because the view from up there of the forum is amazing. That’s where I met food writer Carol Coviello-Malzone, who lives part time in the Eternal City, in an apartment that overlooks the Campo dei Fiori. Carol’s passion is Roman cooking–she knows the absolute best eating places in town, and has written a guide to Rome’s restaurants, “Flavors of Rome. ” When I’m lucky enough to be in Rome when she’s there, I just hand over the eating decisions to Carol, andRead More →

If you need a break from the tourist crowds of Rome, escape into a museum…Not the Vatican museum or the Borghese, but smaller ones, like my favorite, the Palazzo Barberini, where Audrey Hepburn lived in Roman Holiday. Climb these stairs designed by Borromini… Imagine what life was like back in those seventeenth century days when the Barberini family lived and partied here.  Now the rooms are the Galleria Nazionale dell’Arte, hung with paintings by Raphael, Caravaggio, Lippi. A lovely morning stop, followed by lunch at Colline Emiliane (Via degli Avignonesi 22, 06/481 7538), for specialties of the Emilia Romagna region.Read More →

You leave the sounds of church bells and car honks behind and head to The Queen of the Roads, from 312 BC. Okay, it’s not always peaceful. You may have heard there’s no cars allowed here on Sunday, but listen up: not true. There are all kind of specially licensed vehicles that can get through here, so Sunday is not the Appian Way bike ride day. Come on a weekday, after 3, when the afternoon light is hazy and golden and it’s all quiet and dreamy… Just you and the few others who took a cab from the historic center (12 euro), straight to the Tomb of CeciliaRead More →

A beautiful thing to do to start the day, or at sunset.  Leave the historic center and cross the Ponte Sisto… Wander through the streets of Trastevere, up Via Garibaldi to the FONTANONE!! Such a fountain, with such a view of the domes of Rome. On Sundays there are usually brides there posing… You continue winding up until at the tippy top you come to the park, with a statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi and maybe a puppet show… And nearby, the Statue of Anita Garibaldi, The Mother of Modern Italy… With a pistol in one hand, an infant in the other. Reason one zillion and three ofRead More →

I love them all. I love how you’ll be walking along and hear water flowing, and then turn to discover something like this… Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers in the Piazza Navona. Come early in the morning or very late at night to get the best experience of it, without the crowds. If you stop by at sunset, take a look and then head over to the nearby roof of the Hotel Raphael for a cocktail, www.rapahelhotel.com And there’s this one in the Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere.  Stop by the Caffe di Marzio to admire the scene–always colorful, whether morning or night. Eat nearbyRead More →

When I put away the guidebook, Rome unfolds… Church doors open to masterpieces. Open the door of Sant’Ivo della Sapienza (Corso di Rinascimento 40, around the corner from Piazza Navona) and there’s this snowflake of a dome, designed by the Renaissance superstar Borromini. This is open ONLY on Sunday mornings, when there’s a folk mass–guitars and kids singing. Mass is usually at 9:30, but check in case they’ve changed the schedules. It’s  a small church that fills up with the locals, which means you get to be amidst another Italian masterpiece: beautiful faces. It could set you off on a Golden Sunday morning of Church Door Opening. FreeRead More →

As soon as I arrive in Rome, I head to The Pantheon. I stand inside under its Dome–the Dome of All Domes–and look up to that opening that frames the ever-changing Roman sky: the Eye of Heaven! This is the perfect place to begin an Italian adventure. This is where you feel the pull of Italy’s soul.  Where you get the thrill of being in an architectural wonder, built over 2000 years ago to honor all the goddesses and gods. In the seventh century it was consecrated as a church, dedicated to Santa Maria and the Martyrs. In the 16th century Renaissance it was so revered the superstar artistRead More →