Adventures of David and Paul: Ciao Bella Roma!

A few years back we took a week-long trip to Rome with family, as a way to explore David's Italian heritage. Rome is an incredibly fascinating city, and we knew we would return one day - we even threw coins into the Trevi Fountain to ensure our return. A few months ago we began throwing around the idea of visiting Italy for David's 40th birthday. It was a tough decision, as it would be our first international travel since the beginning of the pandemic, but we felt confident with the safeguards Italy and the US have in place. COVID tests and vaccinations were required for the flight (both ways), and Italy has one of the most strict vaccine policies of any country, requiring proof of vaccination for just about everything, from restaurants to trains to museums.

For this trip we ended up spending 3.5 days in Rome at the front followed by 4 days in Puglia region (Italy's bootheel) and wrapped up with another 1 day in Rome before flying back to Atlanta. One huge difference from our previous trips to Rome was noticeable immediately. We had only ever visited in summer (Paul's trip in high school) or early fall (our family trip). This was December, and the theme of our time in Rome was rain, rain, and more rain! It may have put a slight damper (ha) on things, but that was counterbalanced by much lighter crowds, surely influenced by both the weather and the pandemic.

We landed on a Thursday morning and took the train into town. We had a snack at Mercato Centrale in Termini Station to take up a little time before our AirBnB check-in time. Exiting the station, we were immediately caught in pouring rain, then took a bus to our AirBnB. We bought a 72 hour bus pass, which was only 17 euro and came in very handy. The buses are very frequent, there are a ton of routes, and Google maps has live bus data to accurately plan trips. It made it cheap and easy to get all around the city.

Our AirBnB was great. We opted for a place near Largo di Torre Argentina, which was super useful because it's a bus hub and has a taxi stand. We were just one block from the Pantheon, a 5 minute walk from Piazza Navona, and a 15 minute walk from the Roman Forum. There was also a nice minimarket directly across the street from us. We tried to dry off our shoes and clothes a bit before heading out into the city.

Raining cats and dogs in Rome at Termini Station.

Our AirBnB's alley was quiet and adorable.

Our fourth floor walkup AirBnB staircase. A little exercise to work off the pasta.

What a cute patio...that we never used because of all the rain.

A good AirBnB can really feel like a home away from home.

Our first stop was one of our favorite buildings - the Pantheon. It only took a minute to get in, just a quick check of our vaccine cards. Much easier than the long lines and crowds of summer. Since the Pantheon has an open hole in its dome, it was neat to see the rain coming through and splashing on the ancient marble floor. We took our time admiring the amazing architecture before heading back out into the rain to Palazzo Braschi - a museum just a few blocks away. It's a small museum and part of it was closed for renovation, but we enjoyed the large number of paintings that showed what Rome looked like over the centuries. Many of the ancient monuments were buried in centuries of rumble before being uncovered again, so it was interesting to see perspectives from the medieval and renaissance periods - when Rome was nothing more than a cow town.

After leaving the museum, we bought cheap umbrellas from a little shop so we could walk around some more and at least pretend not to get soaked. We dried off again at the AirBnB before heading back out. Luckily the rain let up! It was starting to get dark already, since winter sunset in Rome is before 5PM. We walked around the narrow tourist streets near us, passing the Trevi Fountain, before having dinner at Pietro al Pantheon (ironically, literally the only restaurant of the entire trip that did not check our vaccine card). A quick gelato (yes, gelato in winter) wrapped up the day.

Dome of the Pantheon, now with 100% more rain!

Piazza Navona is still pretty, even when empty and wet.

Palazzo Braschi - part of the Museo Roma with an exhibit on paintings of Rome over the centuries.

Piazza Navona, completely deserted in a thunderstorm.

The Trevi Fountain at night is lovely.

Trevi Fountain - sans 5,000,000 people this go around.

Despite the poor weather, some people were still out and about.

First cacio e pepe of the trip!

Paul's first pasta in like 2 years.

We were afraid there'd be no gelato in winter. Obviously not true!

After a good night's sleep, we woke up early and walked to the Roman Forum. We got there slightly before opening at 9:30AM. It was deserted - a stark contrast to our previous crowded summer visits. It was great to walk around in peace and quiet, exploring the centuries of monuments and ruins. We walked up to the Palatine hill section as well, including a stop at the Palatine Museum, which we had not previously visited.

We didn't go in the colosseum this time.

Paul is ready to visit the forum!

Arch panel showing the sacking of Jerusalem.

Not complaining about the lack of crowds!

There were signs showing views across centuries.

Fun reflections from the rain - and some blue sky making an appearance.

Forum overview.

Exquisite detail on a statue from Palatine Hill.

The museum was small but had a lot of amazing artifacts from villas and palaces in the area.

Broken statue wings.

A bit of marble floor broken and warped over two millennia.

View over the circus maximus.

Next we caught a bus (thank you bus pass!) to the area near Villa Borghese, since we had timed afternoon tickets to the Gallery Borghese. This is one of our favorite museums, and we hugely enjoyed our 2017 visit despite the crowds. We grabbed some quick slices of Roman pizza first, but still had some time before our 2PM museum entry time slots, so we walked to the nearby Capuchin Museum and Crypt. No pictures are allowed inside, but it's an absolutely bizarre crypt where 3,700 skeletons were arranged as both art and a tomb in a series of chapels. Even the lighting fixtures are made of human bone, and some skeletons are dressed in friar robes as they sit under arches of skulls and femurs. Most of the chapels were designed in the 1630s. We also learned that cappuccino and capuchin monkeys are both named after the distinct brown color of capuchin friar robes.

After briefly visiting the church above the crypt, we walked around the Villa Borghese park for a bit, enjoying a nice rain-free afternoon. At 2PM we entered the gallery, which was much less crowded than our 2017 visit, and highly enjoyable. We had plenty of time and space to wander around and stare in amazement at the incredible lifelike detail of Bernini's sculptures. We can't recommend this museum enough!

Pizza slices from Pizzeria Alice.

The church above the Capuchin crypt.

A briefly cloudless sky!

Fountain in the Villa Borghese.

The rape of Proserpina. The way the Pluto's finger appear to sink into flesh is astounding.

The villa itself is a work of art.

Detailed paintings on the ceiling appear to be three dimensional.

Canova's Venus Victrix also has astoundingly detailed marble. Check out the folds in the cushion!

Bernini's David - very different than Michelangelo's version in Florence.

Bernini's Apollo and Daphne, with a painting of the same event on the ceiling.

Marcello Provenzale's whimsical Orpheus mosaic from 1618.

After leaving the museum, we caught a bus to the Prati neighborhood, an upscale tree-lined shopping and residential district on the Vatican side of the Tiber. Our goal was to visit Castroni, a nice little market with a lot of Italian foods and sweets - a great place to get gifts! Our bus took a slight detour due to construction, and we saw a Christmas market in Piazza Mazzini, so we hopped off to check it out. It didn't have as much yummy Christmas food and drinks as we would like, but it was still atmospheric and fun to wander. We walked to Castroni, and then continued walking across Ponte Sant Angelo and through Piazza Navona back to our AirBnB. The evening weather was chilly but lovely.

The Christmas market surrounding the fountain in Piazza Mazzini.

Crossing the Tiber River at dusk.

Castel Sant'Angelo. We didn't go inside, but admired the view.

View of St. Peter's dome from the bridge.

Bernini's famous statues line the bridge.

Some Christmas lights were up already, but most wouldn't be up for another few days.

Checking out the four rivers fountain in Piazza Navona.

We took a quick peek into St Maria Sopra Minerva Basilica, just a block from our AirBnB.

For dinner we walked down to Trastevere, one of our favorite neighborhoods of Rome, where we stayed the last time we visited. Our plan was to eat at Boticella, a little hole in the wall restaurant we really enjoyed on our previous trip, but it was closed (unclear if temporarily or permanently). Instead we went to Ferrero, a nice restaurant and wine bar we had also previously visited. It was a bit quiet because we were eating early compared to Italian time, but we had some excellent Sardinian red wine, nice pasta and meat dishes, and simple but surprisingly yummy black fried gnocchi.