What the board above doesn’t say is, really, we don’t like cappuccino after noon, at all…
We are happily back in Rome, almost exactly one year since the last time. We will be joining a Colorado College group tour again, but came in early to enjoy some time before the group. Roma on our own feels comfortable and familiar.
We took Amtrak to Newark and then flew directly to Rome. It was easy, but we left our house at 6:00am, boarded the plane at 5:00pm, and then landed at 8:00am Rome time. Naturally our room was not ready, so we left our luggage and set out, on very little sleep, but with good cheer.
We are staying in the Trastevere neighborhood this time, a trendy area, across the Tiber from the major Roman sites. The streets are full of tourists of all sorts– we hear lots of American English, but there are many young adult Italians too. We find Rome to be a very walkable city, and that’s part of the fun.
It’s nice to come to a major world capital and not feel pressure to see the iconic sites. For this first, rather tired day, we visited Galleria Doria Pamphiji. It is a private palace that has some of its art collection open to the public. The long family history marks its origin of prominence to pope Innocent X who established the residence, intending to gift it to his nephew, Camillo. Camillo, eloped with a woman named Olimpia Aldobrandini, who had excellent taste in art, and wealth in her own right. The pope was not initially happy about this marriage, although he eventually came around, and the couple was able to live in the palace and Olimpia’s art collection could grow in appropriate surroundings.
Two descendants married English women, and both of these women seemed to be strong, intelligent, and interested in being helpful to their communities. One descendant narrates the family story on the audio tour, while a curator takes over to discuss the art. It makes for a very interesting visit.
I can barely do it justice though, because near the end, if I sat in a chair, my brain took a micronap. We eventually finished the rooms, and sat in a cafe for some food and espresso before walking back to Trastevere hotel.
Our room was ready, and a shower and a thirty minute nap refueled our energy enough to meet a guide for a tour of some of Trastevere’s churches.
The major story was that of St. Cecilia, a martyr of early Christian Rome. She was married off to a pagan, Valerian, and had the unimaginable encounter, on her wedding night, to tell her groom that she was a Christian, would remain a virgin, and he would understand if he just paid a visit to the pope (Urban I) who would explain everything. Her husband did so, and not only understood, but also converted to Christianity. To make things even better, his brother, Tibertius, also converted. So Cecelia was doing very well at a young age. She also spent a lot of time listening to the angels sing, and for this reason, she is the patron saint of music.
The pagan Romans were not crazy about this influence, though, and decided to kill her by heating her to death in her own baths. A miracle happened and the fires went out, and when the Romans opened the door, she was still alive. Their next attempt to kill her was by beheading. It took three tries, and she lived three days after the executioner gave up. Another miracle, apparently, but I actually think that’s a lot of suffering to be called a miracle. Her body was entombed in the catacombs outside the city, as would have been the custom. Years later, when her remains were exhumed, her body was found to have not changed all at: yet another miracle. Her figure, in the photo above from the church, shows her head lying at an unnatural angle, due to the nature of her killing.
Her church was built on the site of the building she lived in, and we did walk underground to see evidence of the ancient Roman home.
We walked through the Basilica di Santa Maria di Trastevere, and then plunked down in a restaurant for a typical pasta dinner: cacio e pepe for Mark and a version of carbonara for me that added artichokes. The food was perhaps only average good for Roma, but the setting was excellent.
With our last amount of energy, we found our first gelato of this trip and headed off to sleep.
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