To Rome

Tuesday, April 14, 2009. Stone and Jake are up fairly early for a day they know will be travel intensive. We drop off the apartment keys with Paolo, the newsstand guy who bids us "Buon viaggio," and then drive to Pescara. The rental car drop off is a breeze, and the clerk is even nice enough to chase us down after we had left to return Jake’s big and expensive Italian sunglasses, left accidentally in the car. Luggage in hand we get the city bus to Pescara Centrale, where Stone once again uses her Italian skills to get us two tickets to Rome (11 Euro each), on the 11 am bus. We have time for breakfast, so we revisit the Café Mediterrean for the usual espresso and pastries.

The bus to Rome is new and big, one of those with a spiral staircase connected the upstairs and downstairs parts of the bus. On this bus everyone has assigned seats, but as we pull away, at least half of the upstairs, where our seats are, is empty. The tickets say “no stop,” so we upgrade our seats and settle in for a wonderful trip with room to spare. Once out of Pescara and on the main highway the bus takes some unusual turns and seems to go off course. We’ve heard that some routes across central Italy are subject to change due to the earthquake or subsequent tremor landslides, but soon we find out that “no stop” is not taken literally on this trip. We pull into the city of Chieti to find a crowd waiting to get on our bus. We (and many others) scurry back to our original seats, and before we leave the Chieti station all 70 some bus seats are filled.

Though crowded, the bus ride proves to be fine, with some nice views as we cross the mountains, and we arrive in Rome right around 2 pm. Our bus comes into the Tiburtini station, so we have to find the Metro that will get us to the Termini station, which we accomplish without too much trouble, despite our heavy luggage. We know our hotel, Hotel Stromboli, is near Termini on Marsala Street, and we find that without too much wasted effort as well. The weather in Rome is sunny and warm, and we are a bit disappointed to find that our hotel room is even warmer, but we open up the window and get a pretty nice breeze.

Map of Rome in hand we head off for a bit of Roman sightseeing by foot. The Trevi Fountain is crowded (as is all of Rome on this Easter week) but wonderful, even to Stone who has seen it before. We stand in line at the nearby San Crispo gelato place where the service is almost New York City quick and efficient, so despite the long line we soon have our delicious treat. We then head up to Palazzo Barberini, where we had hoped to see some art, but found it closed; however, the grounds are open and we are able to walk for a while in some shade. Then it is over to a spot called Four Fountains where we discover the Church of Saint Charles at the Four Fountains.

This baroque masterpiece seems squeezed into its small site, now right on the busy Via XX Septembre where scooters and cars are manifest and manic. But inside the church is another world of splendid quiet, history and art. To see the dome is worth a visit itself. The church's crypt is entered by an unusual spiral staircase that seemed carved out of one piece of stone. This church was the first independent project of the famous architect, Francesco Borromini, who was a contemporary and often adversary of Bernini. It is said to have remained his favorite work, and his wish to be buried in its crypt would certainly have been granted had he not had the bad manners to commit suicide.

Back at the Hotel Stromboli we freshen up and get ready for a planned expensive dinner of high Roman cuisine at Casa Bleve. The restaurant is by the Pantheon, which we visit first. Of course, it is a wonderful must-see. Even the fact that every pubescent kid in Italy was that evening on tour of the site as well could not damage the Pantheon’s enduring allure.

Dinner at Casa Bleve is everything we hoped it would be. The room is glorious, the service friendly (English speaking) and attentive, the food high class, and the wine by glass deserving of its high price. We passed a wonderful two hours topped off by a free glass of dessert wine. At 147 Euro it was worth that and more. Casa Bevele has a wine shop at its entrance, but they also sell olive oil, and we bought several bottles for gifts for those poor unfortunates back home.

Having walked all day in the Italian sunshine we found the Roman night to be even more inviting, and seemed almost sad to arrive at our hotel. But the room had cooled down nicely, the bed was big and comfortable, and sleep stole upon us as if the Roman god Somnus was in the room himself.