Roman Holiday - Part I

The flight to Rome was an uneventful one. There was a bit of turbulence, but otherwise the 90 minute trip from Geneva went smoothly. The same unfortunately cannot be said for the process of retrieving Emilie’s checked bag, which must have taken a good hour. Needless to say, the baggage handlers in Rome don’t seem to operate as efficiently as those in Geneva.

The weather was beautiful upon our arrival – plenty of sun with a few scattered clouds. It definitely had a warm Mediterranean feel as opposed to the cooler weather that we had left behind in Switzerland. From the airport we headed straight to the hotel – the Westin Excelsior on via Veneto. I had amassed sufficient Starwood hotel points to cover a room for the entire trip, which was nice.

Here’s a picture of the hotel as well as the U.S. Embassy, which is right next door. The picture of the embassy doesn’t quite capture how nice it is – the entire property is basically a palatial estate. I’m sure it’s not hard to find people from the U.S. who want to spend a little time working there….

After leaving the hotel we decided to walk across town to see the Coliseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. We grabbed a quick lunch along the way (pizza, of course) and also took some nice pictures of the sights that we passed.

When we neared the Colloseum, we could see that it was a complete zoo. The combination of beautiful weather and the Easter holiday weekend apparently made for a very large crowd. But as we got closer, we saw that the large crowd was driven primarily by the fact that no one was actually being allowed inside. We soon learned that it had been closed to the public for the afternoon due to a VIP who would be arriving shortly. And guess who that VIP was…the Pope.

I guess if you’re going be denied entry somewhere because of a VIP, it might as well be the Pope.

As the Forum was closed for the same reason, we adjusted our plans for a return to the ancient Roman sites later in the trip and decided to walk around to see some of the other sights. We were nonetheless able to get some nice shots of the Forum from the outside. It was pretty amazing to see the remnants of buildings and monuments dating back roughly two millennia.

Next we headed to the Capital area in the heart of the city. Our first stop was the Piazza del Compidoglio, which is a plaza where Michelangelo created the geometric design in the pavement as well as the facades of the buildings. We then hiked up the 124 steps to the Santa Maria in Aracoeli (a 15th century church). According to local legend, if you ascend all 124 steps on your knees, you’ll win the lottery…

We then made the short walk to the Piazza Venezia, which provides a great view of Il Vittoriano – a very impressive building constructed in the late 19th century in honor of the first king of Italy. We also stopped by the Trevi fountain and tossed in a couple of coins in order to ensure a return trip to Rome.

By this point it was starting to get late, so we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and the opera. Here is a picture that I took on the walk home. I’m not sure why, but it’s actually one of my favorites from the trip. I guess I just like the interaction of the orange, blue and white colors. And in full disclosure, Emilie took a similar picture first and I piggybacked on her idea so she deserves any related artistic credit…

For dinner we at a restaurant near the opera house and I decided to go with spaghetti alla bolognese for my “primi” course and a grilled steak for my “secondi”. It turned out that both dishes were nearly big enough for standalone meals, but after walking around all day finishing them both wasn’t a problem at all. I’m not sure if my opinion was biased by the fact that I was eating spaghetti in Italy, but it was by far the best that I remember having.

After dinner we headed to the opera house to see Puccini’s Tosca. We didn’t know where we’d specifically be seated, but after being ushered in we learned that we had the two seats in the very center of the front row. This was a complete surprise as we hadn’t picked out the specific seats (just the general area) or paid an amount that I would have assumed the seats justified.

The conductor was a crack-up – very animated and seemed to love every moment of the performance. Our seats were literally right behind him and we were close enough to tap him on the shoulder if we dared to get up. While he didn’t obscure our view, it reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer and Jerry observe a surgery and Kramer “psssts” the doctor performing the surgery to shift over so he (Kramer) can have a better view from the observation area…

The opera was very entertaining and I enjoyed the singing performances very much. The subtitles were only in Italian, so I was only able to understand the very basics. That said, the program had a summary of the plot in English, which helped out a lot.