On Day 4, we connected with Italian photographer Marco Bulgarelli, on his photo tour. I was overly excited to see and photograph the Piazza di Spagna. The first time I visited Italy during college, I visited this city. Afterwards, my friend's mom asked if I visited the Sistine Chapel, Tivoli Gardens and the Spanish Steps. I never even got within a birds-eye view of these places and then later read up on the sites. If I ever visited Rome again, they would certainly be on my list. During this trip, Rome had recently passed an ordinance which prohibits sitting on the steps. That activity had been on my To Do list for this trip, and had imagined sipping a hot, foamy latte on the steps. Little did we know that just photographing and walking up the Piazza di Spagna would become one of the trip's highlights, along with the people watching.
At the Piazza di Spagna, there was a lot of selfie activity as tourists caught the moments in pictures, or just gazed at how beautiful it was to finally see firsthand the Spanish Steps. These steps are said to be the widest in Europe, with a shape resembling a butterfly, though you would have to be in a very specific shooting position to capture the shape on camera.
The steps might appear almost empty of people at one point, then within a few minutes, be overwhelmed with foot traffic. Therefore, patience is key to get a snapshot in which you can actually see the steps.
When the steps were full of people, Marco suggested that we use the camera to add something of interest in the photo, like the horse that seemingly had to endure all the tourists, but overcame the crowd by wearing an eye mask for calmness.
Upon leaving the lower portion of the Piazza di Spagna, we strolled along the Via dei Condotti to arrive at the Antico Caffe' Greco. This caffe' opened in 1760 which makes it the oldest bar in Roma.
Marco suggested we go inside and photograph the unique interior which gives Caffe' Greco its charm.
Our task was to capture customers enjoying the café and also to admire the art work.
In addition, we captured a lovely, yet empty area toward the back of the caffe' with more artwork and alluring sculptures.
We continued on to the top of the Piazza di Spagna. The view from the top of the steps was even better. There were plenty of duomo tops and rooftop terraces to see, but being up top allowed us to see just how crowded it was below, and that the Via dei Condotti, the busy and fashionable street, was jam packed.
Via Condotti is a center of fashion shopping in Rome. Dior, Gucci, Valentino, Hermès, Armani, Jimmy Choo, La Perla, Prada, Salvatore Ferragamo, Furla, Burberry, Céline, Dolce & Gabbana, Max Mara, Alberta Ferretti, Trussardi, Buccellati, Bulgari, Damiani, Tod's, Zegna, Cartier, Bally, Montblanc, Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton have stores on Via Condotti.
While enjoying the sights, there were street vendors selling souvenirs, and harassing potential customers nearby. One street vendor, in particular, was quite annoying to a tourist, and caused her to stop enjoying the view and leave the area. Even though the same street vendor did not solicit to us, the concern was how close they were getting to tourists. This seemed to be a prime tactic for potential pickpockets. We then moved along.
Our next stop was the Villa Borghese Pinciana, in the northeast quadrant of ancient Rome. Not only was Pincian Hill a great place to have a photo opp, it was also a quiet place with only a few tourists and a solo musician performing soft, calming sounds on his keyboard.
The overlook of Pincian Hill is very beautiful, both a welcome retreat away from the tourist crowds below and from where we had just been.
We continued on to Castel Sant'Angelo, yes, a castle. Our focus was the castle, but more so the statues lined up along the Pont Sant'Angelo, the bridge which leads to the castle, and also crosses the Tiber River .
The Tiber River is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest river in Central Italy. In earlier centuries, the Tiber was critically important to Roman trade and commerce. It later became Rome's most important port, where wheat, olive oil and wine were imported from Rome's colonies around the Mediterranean. The heavy sedimentation of the river made it difficult to maintain. By the 20th century, silting resulted in the river only being navigable as far as within Rome.
We came to the area where the bridge crossed over the Tiber, and began our photo session of the statues. Marco kept telling us to make sure that if the angel on the statue looks to the left, to off-center the photo so that there is more room in the direction of the way the angel faces.
We spent time photographing several statues, multiple times, until we got it right. There was so much going on around us that it was difficult to stay focused on the statues.
On the bridge, we also observed many Bangladesh street vendors along the way, whose selling technique was to put items in each person's face as they walked by, and ask each tourist what country they were from. It was a totally different Rome from when I first visited the city in 1981. At that time, I do not recall seeing non-European immigrants who were working hard to make a living in this city.
Our last photo stop was Teatro Marcello, built
before the Colosseum, but notice the similarities. I believe the story Marco told us was the owner of Ferrari built apartments on top of this ancient building which had fallen into ruin. According to Marco, the city of Rome could not afford to stabilize Teatro Marcello from further ruins. Mr. Ferrari made an offer to the city to stabilize what remains of Teatro Marcello if they would allow him to build apartments on top of it.
The tour ended close to where it started. Marco recommended a small Sicilian restaurant with excellent food and service, combined with a homey feel, Trattoria Melo.
Bruschetta con Pomodora (with tomatoes), Mazzancolle (Mediterranean Prawns), Patate Saute' (potatoes), Tiramisu, Cassata Siciliana (Cheesecake) and Limoncello, an Italian lemon liqueur.
We loved the food and our dining experience at Trattoria Melo so much that we went again, upon our return from Siena and Florence, the following week. The owners were excited to see us return. Una conclusione perfetta per una giornata perfetta!
We read about how important it was to get to certain sites early to get good photos, before invasion by the crowds. Therefore, on Day 5, we got out at 7am for a walk to the Trevi Fountain, which surprisingly turned out to be a very short walk from where we stayed. As we approached the Trevi Fountain, we got an even bigger surprise. The fountain was already crowded.
So crowded, in fact, that it was difficult to capture the beauty of the fountain unobstructed by selfie photographers and the like. However, we did not let the crowds take away our enjoyment.
We stayed for ~45 minutes admiring the fountain from different crowded angles, and got much amusement as the security guards blew their whistles at any tourist who decided to sit on the fountain wall for photo opps. We watched as people tossed coins over their shoulders into the fountain while making a wish. When an area opened up, we followed suit with a wish of someday returning to Italy and a coin toss over our shoulders.
There may have been some angle higher up and overlooking the fountain that would have allowed getting a crowd-free photo, but we did not see that opportunity. Next time, we might have to arrive at the fountain at 5am!
After the Trevi Fountain experience we decided to return to the Spanish Steps since we had enjoyed being there so much the day before. It was still early so there was a smaller crowd at the Piazza di Spagna once we got there.
We took more photos of Piazza di Spagna before noticing a small English tea room to the left of the stairs named Babington's. That is where we settled on having breakfast. Little did we know what a treat we were about to enjoy.
The woman who opened the door and changed the sign from "closed" to "open" was dressed in perfect tea room attire, while the tea room interior was very English countryside. The hostess welcomed us inside and proceeded to seat patrons one by one. We thought we were about to have high tea, but it was so much more. It was high tea with a full English breakfast, and after breakfast dessert. It was nothing like we had ever had or imagined, but it was special and divine and magically all wrapped together.
We were hungry, and planned to take the morning train to Tuscany after one final night in Roma. Actually, two trains. Therefore, we decided that this elaborate meal would keep us satisfied throughout the day and into the next morning.
Bacon, eggs, beans, salad and toast Darling Spuds
Croque Monsieur Heavenly dessert bar
"Almost all roads lead to Rome. But all, absolutely all the streets of Rome lead to Piazza di Spagna. At the Staircase. At the Bernini fountain. Of the two Berninis (father and son). And therefore from Babingtons. Pay attention to it." Babington's
To help our meal digest, we took a leisurely stroll along the Via Condotti, admiring the designer items in the windows, listening to the street artists playing music, some Italian classics and some popular Ed Sheeran tunes, or a woman singing opera, and we stopped along the way for a few souvenirs to take home, before retiring to our Amazing Suite Piazza Venezia.
Ahhhhhh...Day 6, we woke up early to get to the train station, just to make sure we had plenty of time, though we had purchased our tickets online two days before. What we found very interesting was that we were able to use our Amazon account to purchase our tickets, through the Amazon Pay service. This was very convenient and allowed us to pay online without inputting our credit card information over the internet. It was also our first time using Amazon pay.
Roma Termini is the name of the main railway station which leads to most major cities in Italy and some international cities throughout Europe, such as Geneva, Munich, and Vienna. There are 33 platforms, and for Trenitalia, both the Frecciarossa and Frecciargento high-speed trains journey to Florence several times throughout the day. Trenitalia offers automatic assignment, which will assign you guaranteed reserved seats together, except perhaps when a train is already nearly full, then the seats may be close in proximity, but not next to each other. We did not have this problem throughout our train travels.
Upstairs in the railway station, while waiting for our train to depart, we noticed something that is not usually seen inside of a train station. It was a baby grand piano. Derick, who had recently began studying piano, was both curious and amazed at the piano in the railway station. There was a sign next to the piano stating, "PLAY ME, I'M YOURS. This piano is at your disposal, take care."
We watched as various individuals and groups of people walked by and were mesmerized by the freedom to sit and play a tune or two on the public piano; some people were quite good and obviously musically trained. Derick thought it was calming and suggested places within our local area that could benefit from a public piano, such as our Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) System. I was more curious to find out how and why this piano was offered to railway patrons.
Through research, we learned that this was originally a project by British artist Luke Jerram. He spent 10 years presenting this project over 80 times in 60 international cities. More than 2000 street pianos have been showcased by Luke and his team.
As the piano music continued with several passerby artists, I visited a nearby café to get a cup of hot chocolate. When the barista presented it to me, I was perplexed at how thick it was and thought perhaps this was someone else's order, or the woman did not know how to make hot chocolate. It looked nothing like my order from Caffe Trieste in Berkeley, California. This hot chocolate was more like warmed Smucker's hot fudge topping, or a cup of chocolate pudding.
An American man standing nearby and enjoying his espresso heard me ask the barista if I could have some hot milk. I wanted to thin out my hot chocolate so that I could drink it and not have to eat it with a spoon. The American explained that this is how Italian hot chocolate is made. The idea is to enable one to dip a biscotti in it. He then proceeded to translate my need for hot milk to be added to my beverage. The barista smiled apologetically and added the hot milk. I wondered what she thought about my unfamiliarity regarding Italian hot chocolate, or if she just concluded "American."
We hopped aboard the first train of the morning which was a high speed train to Florence, it was the Frecciarossa. The high speed train reaches a speed of 190 mph (300km/h). It was clean and comfortable on the inside, and not overly crowded for a weekday. Then in Florence, we transferred to a much slower train which took us into Siena. If this 2nd train had moved as fast as the first, we never would have enjoyed seeing the Tuscan countryside in all of its beauty.
Our plan was to spend 3 days/2 nights in Siena, and take a wine tasting tour with Grape Tours. In Siena, we took a taxi to our accommodations. La Terrazza Sul Campo, which overlooks the Piazza del Campo, is a historic bed and breakfast in restored quarters on the first floor of the medieval Palazzo Mattasala Lambertini, once a palace in Siena. Piazza del Campo is the main public square of historic Siena, and also known as the greatest medieval square in Europe. Twice-a-year the piazza hosts the Palio di Siena horse race. During the event, ten horses and riders race bareback and dressed in the appropriate colors that represent ten of the seventeen city wards, called contrade in Italy.
From our accommodation in Siena, it is a 3-minute walk to the Siena Cathedral, a 10-minute walk to the bus station, and just steps to the Piazza del Campo. After relaxing in the room, and enjoying the sights and sounds of the piazza from our window, we walked over to choose our dinner in this bustling square. The restaurants are all lined up in a circular row around the square so we just started walking on one end, reading menus until we got to the opposite end of the piazza. There were only a couple of hawkers trying to encourage us to join their restaurant for dinner, and we ended up choosing one of those two.
We settled on Bar Manganelli. The menu looked simple and appealed to us. The man who stopped us out front proceeded to seat us. As with all the piazza restaurants, the majority of the seating is outside. We gratefully accepted our host's choice in tables and was provided a menu.
As the time of day was later than when we usually have dinner, we decided to share
a lasagne, and it turned out to be the best lasagne we ever tasted. With each bite, we kept looking at the number of lasagne layers to get a better idea of how to clone it once we were home. It was the kind of taste that you have once and never forget how delicious it was. You still taste and smell it years after.
Throughout dinner, we discussed how the trip had been thus far and our thoughts about the upcoming wine tasting planned for the next day. We also noticed a few small groups of people who began to sit on the ground in the middle of the piazza, as if to wait for a concert to start. Yet, there were no musicians or entertainers anywhere to be found. We opted to forgo dessert and instead, we would stop by a small gelateria not far from our hotel.
After dinner, we took another stroll around the piazza and took photos as well. As we took photos and selfies, we met a couple from the US who were traveling throughout Italy by train, and we all compared the pricey accommodations in Siena. The couple offered to take our photo when they saw me photographing Derick. Afterwards, we learned that once the sun goes down in Siena, local families come out by the hundreds to Piazza del Campo to simply sit, chat and watch the world go by. That might be part of the reason for the longer, healthier lives people in Italy experience.
As we walked back to our room, we stopped at the gelateria.
At Brivido Gelateria, the gelato presentation was deliciously beautiful, and the choices were abundant. Out of all the flavors, I decided on vanilla as our first foray into real italian gelato. We got the smallest size cup, but that was still too much. Our overall opinion was, it was okay. We later read that you need to try many different gelaterias in Italy to find a really good one.
Outside the gelateria was the most beautiful streetlamp, which complemented the surrounding area. And, along the way back, we took photos of other interesting sites, including something we had never seen before, a marijuana vending machine, and information on franchise locations throughout the country.
Upon returning to our bed and breakfast, we thought about this interesting vending machine literally steps from our room. Why wouldn't this concept would work in the US? Not that we would indulge, but there are
vending machines for just about everything...candy, chips, nuts, coffee, beverages, sandwiches, salads, fruit, lottery tickets, Calvin Klein underwear, disposable cameras, travel items, laundry detergent, movies, books, bikes, and even in other countries like South Korea, bowls of hot ramen soup. We concluded that cannabis vending machines in the US would be subject to frequent break-ins for the money and especially the contents. Furthermore, we do not have a passion for the product to invest in it from a business perspective. However, for those who might want to, we suggest you put the snack machines in close proximity to the cannabis machines.
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