Italy (Page 17)

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 →