At Home in Rome

Thursday, April 21

We arrived at Rome's Fiumicino Airport at 9:30 this morning, on schedule, but tired after relatively sleepless flights.  We took the train to Trastevere Station and then a cab to our apartment on a quiet street a block from the Tiber River, in Trastevere, a lively neighborhood we've stayed in on our last two trips to Rome.  Our landlord, Alfredo, arrived on his motorino (motor scooter) about five minutes after we did to show us the ins and outs of the apartment, which is on the ground floor and has its own interior courtyard.






Once settled, 
we headed out to walk as long as our stamina allowed.  Our first stop was Santa Maria in Trastevere, its sanctuary aglow with golden mosaics above and Cosmatesque floors below.

We continued through the quarter and crossed over Isola Tiburina (Tiber Island) to the Centro Storico, A historic center of the city.  After strolling along the river on an embankment shaded by huge English plane trees, we took in the market in Campo dei Fiori before heading to the nearby Piazza Navona.

The long oval space gets its shape from the imperial stadium it once was.  Now, it's ringed by churches and former palazzi converted into museums, hotels, cafes, shops, embassies, and government offices.  The centerpiece of the piazza is Bernini's massive Fountain of the Four Rivers, which is flanked by two other fountains at either end of the square.



By mid-afternoon, our energy was flagging, so we stopped for some groceries and headed home back across the river.  We've noticed several buildings guarded by soldiers with submachine guns.  On via Gulia, they would not allow Tom to take a photo of them guarding the offices of the national anti-mafia director.  One of them did respond in Italian to my request in Italian for directions; usually, as soon as I ask for something in Italian, the answer comes in English.  I was inordinately pleased about this, though to tell the truth, if I really need to understand a response, English is a much better bet!

Back at our digs, we were just happy to have an early happy hour and dinner, and a chance to recharge a bit.

After dinner, we walked over to the Piazza Santa Maria di Trastevere, which is a busy scene in the evening. The facade of the church was floodlit, and the mosaics glowed above  the square's central fountain and everyone gathered around it.  All through the quarter, restaurants and their sidewalk terraces were full, people were out walking, and vendors hawked their wares, with buskers providing the musical accompaniment.











There's rain in the forecast for the next several days, so we wanted to get multi-day transit passes, which turned out to be harder than we'd anticipated; you'd have thought we were trying to score tickets to Hamilton!  Eventually, we had limited success, so now we'll just have to tackle the tangle of bus routes -- a task for another day!