Rome: A Trip Report

December 15, 2017

With less than 2 days to visit, we had a whirlwind visit to Rome. This part of our trip report focuses on Ancient Rome and the other popular sights in Rome.

To see OUR 28 HOUR ROME Itinerary, click our post Rome Wasn't Built in a Day here.

This itinerary was ONLY possible by having a great travel agent (in our case Matteo at Fuoritinerario) manage the logistics, providing private guides with skip the line access and drivers who dropped us door to door, eliminating travel time on foot or public transit. When not with our drivers or guides, we were maximizing our time on our own using Rick Steve's Pocket Rome guide book.

Campo di Fiore Market

We hit Campo di Fiore market right around the corner, for snacks and souvenirs, and enjoyed the fact that in early October, we were able to find a few locals among the tourists! Although, it really has become a "tourist" market, there are still a few butchers, veggie stands and and cheese mongers that look like they serve locals. The pre packed spice packs, cheap leather handbags and other geegaws look like they are targeted to the tourists. We particularly enjoyed the "entertainment"...this fellow held the attention of a huge crowd, and sold more than a few of these including one to yours truly!

After refueling we met our guide in our hotel lobby for a private tour of the Vatican, including the Vatican Museum (Sistine Chapel) and St Peter's Basilica. See our post about the Vatican here)

After the Vatican tour we returned to hotel for pizza lunch at the shop around the corner and rest at the hotel.

Borghese Gallery

We had arranged for tickets to the Borghese Gallery for a timed entrance from 5-7 PM. This scheduling allows for relaxed and statue safe touring of the galleries. Visitors are strictly limited, so get timed tickets well ahead of time during the busy seasons. Although cameras are allowed, absolutely all bags, strollers, and selfies sticks must be checked at the basement (level -1) bag check station before heading into the gallery (levels 0 and 1).

We followed Rick Steve's Pocket Rome excellent Borghese Gallery Tour to maximize our time there. As we shuffled along quietly with other guests, we found ourselves chuckling out loud at his humorous descriptions of the art.

Bernini statue of Cardinal Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V

The galleries are in the former villa of the Cardinal Borghese filled with art commissioned and collected during a time when the religious heads of the Church were known as the "princes" of the Church and were the political power brokers in the early 17th century. Today, the the complex is a huge public garden and the villa has been re-purposed as a museum to showcase some of the best baroque art of the period, much of it paintings by Michelangelo Caravaggio and sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

The sculpture is truly magnificent. It's hard to fathom someone creating such life like forms from a block of stone...but there it is, looking so real, that you can feel the emotion and see the movement of the people and their very skimpy "Greek revival" clothing. (Jeff chose to process these sculptures as black and white images in order to better communicate the sculptures without the distraction of color.

Click on any image below to expand, detail from Bernini- Rape of Proserpine, David. and Raphael Desposition

Heart of Rome Rick Steve's walk

We did the reverse of Rick Steve's 1 mile "Heart of Rome" Walk. We had just enough time to do this walk as an evening walk, which Rick recommends this and it was beautiful to see Rome beautifully lit at night. We walked from the Borghese Gallery through the beautiful park that surrounds the villa, to the Spanish Steps.

138 (give or take) Spanish Steps lead to Piazza di Spagna. From the top of the steps, a selfie ("When in Rome", as the saying goes, except we did not require a stick, thanks to Jeff's long limbs! and the Bernini (father and son) "sinking boat" fountain from the early 17th Century.

We were certainly not alone enjoying the "romantic" Spanish Steps. One couple was there for their wedding photos and selfie stick toting visitors were nearly knocking them in the head as they tried to find a clean background for photos on the steps with the iconic church towers. Here's is how you make everyone disappear:

TA DA!! A tiny bit of patience and get low, low, low, and you too can make your picture of the Spanish Steps look like no one else was there!

We continued along the streets of Rome to the Trevi Fountain.

Trevi Fountain, another Baroque Bernini masterpiece...was more crowded than the Spanish Steps, but now you know how we got this photo!

We tossed in our penny, thus assuring our return to Rome and headed towards the Piazza Colonna, seeking the Giolitti's, the gelato shop detour mentioned in Steve's book.

Back on Rick Steve's tour after our "gelato dinner" we entered the Piazzo Rotunda to get a view of the Pantheon, which was closed, but beautifully lit.

A building across from the Pantheon features a spotlight, that perfectly illuminates someone standing in front of the Pantheon, that's kathy in the spotlight!

After exploring the piazza and the Pantheon, we made our way towards the Piazza Navona. Where we found another Bernini fountain, the 4 Rivers Fountain.

Rick's walk begins (or in our case, ENDS) in Campo di Fiore, which has a lively nightclub scene in the evening, by this hour, the market was cleared out and people were enjoying the outdoor cafes and area nightclubs.

Ancient Rome Walking Tour

We started our day, meeting our guide and driver at our hotel for a ride to the Colesseum. Our guide arranged for skip the line entry to the Colesseum, and she took us through the ancient structure, providing context for this huge entertainment complex that was the center of ancient Rome.

After touring the Colosseum, we walked through the rest of the preserved ancient Roman ruins.

Arch of Constantine

Palatine Hill

Roman Forum

View of Rome from Capotoline Hill

With a very short time to visit Rome, we maximized our time in Ancient Rome by depending on a great travel agent to plan our itinerary, and who engage good guides who could skip the lines and put what we were seeing in context. But we also went with the budget plan using Rick Steve's tour. We were able to have an enjoyable, humorously narrated visit to the Borghese gallery and enjoy the art and architecture in the "Heart of Rome" . What we learned is that there are options for every budget, but the most important part is careful planning for a short visit!

For more on Rome, see our Vatican Trip Report

There's no time to lounge when you are only in Rome for a Day!

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day, But We Only Had a Day to See It!

December 12, 2017

It's taken me 2 months to organize the information and photos and probably will take 3 posts to cover a 24 hour trip to Rome! It's one of the "monsters" of tourism, a huge European capital loaded with history and art, food and architecture. And tourists, lots and lots of fellow visitors! It's hard to know where to start, but we knew we had to be strategic with an 10 AM Saturday arrival in Rome from the cruise port of Civitavecchia, and a flight out of Rome at 7:30 PM on Sunday. That left us with 28 hours to experience Rome. We made choices about what we hoped to do and see, and we left the job of organizing our itinerary to Matteo at Fuoritinerario,who had planned our Italian shore excursions during our Azamara Quest Cruise of the Adriatic, Sicily and Amalfi Coast. He did a masterful job, because, incredibly, we were able to hit all the highlights. Drivers and guides were there to whisk us past the lines and drop us at the door. While we weren't all alone and had to navigate the crowds, we felt like VIPs during our 24 hours in Rome. (We paid for our own trip and all the components of our tours)

What We Hoped To See

Vatican City

While we are Catholic, we didn't have enough time to plan a pilgrimage to Vatican City...we would need to treat Vatican City as tourists. See our post about the Vatican coming here soon.

Ancient Rome

We also wanted to leave time to see the interesting sites that make Rome famous, the world of "ancient Rome" (See our post about Rome click here)

Art and Architecture

And we also wanted to see some of the amazing art and architecture that makes Rome one of the top tourist destinations in the world! (See our post about Rome, coming soon)

What we gave up...

There was no time to eat...no really, we didn't eat! We did not sit down to eat during our 28 hours in Rome. Some of the best restaurants in the world are in Italy, and Matteo left us an itinerary listing dozens of the best. We had included breakfast at our hotel each morning and enjoyed Roman pizza at a small take out shop just around the corner from our hotel for lunch. We had gelato for dinner, albeit at one of the most famous gelato shops in Rome! I know it's probably a special crime to not sit and eat in Italy, but we decided with such a short visit we wanted to maximize our time covering the city on foot and not sitting in a restaurant.

By having a gelato dinner at the famous Giolitti and eating Roman Pizza for lunch, we were able to see quite a bit of Rome!

We also did not get to do a deep dive into ANYTHING. The Vatican Museum alone could take years to catalog, It would be interesting to take specialty tours in ancient Rome, or enjoy some of the fabulous restaurants and we did not get inside the Pantheon, only seeing it beautifully lit from the outside. Our visit was about surveying the major sites and getting a feel for a city where we will return one day!

We did have to sleep, and for this visit, Matteo booked the historic Hotel Lunetta near the Campo De Fiori. Ruins of the Pompey Theater (Teatro di Pompeo 61-55 BC) have been restored into a spa in the basement of the hotel. A roof deck bar overlooks the neighborhood and provided a quiet place for a nightcap. Hotel Lunetta was centrally located, within walking distance of many of Romes popular sites, in a neighborhood with plenty of restaurants and shops. The service was excellent, and our room in the 4 star hotel was comfortable and well appointed. (below; our room at Hotel Lunetta, detail of the original stone walls of Teatro di Pompeo, spa in the restored ruins of the Teatro di Pompeo at Hotel Lunetta.)

So what did we do?

We took our own advice about how to maximize a short visit to a busy place (see post here)

OUR 28 HOUR ROME Itinerary

This itinerary was ONLY possible by having a great travel agent manage the logistics, providing private guides with skip the line access and drivers who dropped us door to door, eliminating travel time on foot or public transit. When not with our drivers or guides, we were maximizing our time on our own using Rick Steve's Pocket Rome guide book.

10 AM: Arrive in Rome, check into the hotel and visit the Campo di Fiore market right around the corner, for snacks and souvenirs.
11 AM: Meet our guide in our hotel lobby for a private tour of the Vatican, including the Vatican Museum (Sistine Chapel) and St Peter's Basilica.
2:30 PM: Return to hotel for pizza lunch at the shop around the corner and rest at the hotel.
5:00 PM: Travel by taxi to Borghese Gallery for a pre booked timed tour from 5-7 PM (we followed Rick Steve's excellent Borghese Gallery Tour to maximize our time there)
7-10 PM: We did the reverse of Rick Steve's 1 mile "Heart of Rome" Walk, from the Borghese Gallery to the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Colonna, Pantheon (just to see, not to tour, it's not open at that time) and Piazza Navona. Rick's walk begins (or for us ENDS) in Campo di Fiore, which has a lively nightclub scene in the evening, but the market was cleared out by the time we got back to the hotel, and enjoyed a nightcap at the roof top bar at Hotel Lunetta.
9:00 AM- 11:00 AM: We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and packed for our flight and checked out of the hotel, storing our luggage.
11:00 AM: We met our driver and guide for our private Ancient Rome Walking Tour; including the Colesseum, the Roman Forum (including the Arches of Titus and Constantine) a view of the Forum from Pallatine Hill, and Capitoline Hill.
2:30 PM: We were returned to our hotel where we enjoyed another pizza lunch at the local pizza take out, and met the driver to take us to the airport.
Where we waited for 6 hours before our London flight left because of major delays due to a hurricane in ireland. But that's a whole 'nother story!

This is not the end of our ROME story! Please see our posts with more photos Rome click here and Vatican Trip Reports

The Notre Dame Basilica reflected in a decorated window

Joyeux Noel Montreal

December 7, 2017

There are few places warmer than Montreal at Christmas! Fireplaces in nearly every restaurant and fire pits all around Montreal Vieux (Old Montreal) blaze, inviting guests to warm their hands. The stores are decorated with colorful displays for the holidays and the local chamber of commerce map even includes a "Light Tour" you can walk during the evening and see the city's historical buildings lit all year long. During the Advent and Christmas season, expect even more lights! Montreal put on a warm welcome for our recent visit!

Rue St Paul decorated for the Christmas holiday!

We checked into our Montreal Old Town hotel, the Marriott Springhill Suites on a Friday night. It was ideally located on Rue Jean-Baptiste, almost dead center of the historic Old City. The rooms were comfortable and clean and an expansive breakfast buffet was included.

I was waiting for Jeff to fly into town and it was my job to find a restaurant for dinner. I selected a restaurant using the "walk around and see where the locals are" method. This is easy to do when "off season" touring. (For more on off season touring tips see our post here) During busier seasons, it's best to ask the concierge at the hotel, because restaruants could be filled with tourists who might not know better, and the concierge may be able to use their relationship to score a reservation on a busy night.

I found Modavie just a block away, and filling fast. It seemed even more promising when I was followed by the saxophone player into the bar. It seemed like a neighborhood kind of place, with the staff dispensing lots of hugs to regular patrons, and the parents of the hostess, sitting next to me in the bar, promised I would enjoy the jazz band that started at 7PM. Jeff met me just before I finished my drink and we asked the owner if we could get a table for dinner. We were placed in the convivial dining room, near one of those blazing fireplaces, surrounded by locals celebrating a 24th birthday and a young Emirates flight crew enjoying a night out on the town.

Click any image to expand Photos by K Klofft)

We were close enough to enjoy the 4 piece Jazz band, without being so close we couldn't converse. The specialty of the house was lamb, which neither of us eat, but everything else we ate was delicious, and the service was attentive without being pretentious. The waitstaff was so friendly, one even felt comfortable enough to photo bomb our selfie! It's not often you visit a place as a tourist and are treated like a friend! Modiavie's, Maitre d'hotel, Lorenzo, passed me his card and invited us back anytime...our very first dinner out in town showed the warm welcome we get from Montreal all weekend!

Montreal Vieux

The following morning we were up early explore Old Montreal.

A beautifully decorated shop window in Old Montreal

Place d'Armes and Notre Dame

One of our first stops was Basilica du Notre Dame. The Basilica was located in the Place d'Armes, which has several historic buildings, including the bank and several interesting statues.

The Maisonneuve Monument by L. Hebert in Place d'Armes. I particularly enjoyed the statues at the base commemorating other important residents of Montreal.

Be sure to take a peek at the base of the modern looking bank for two interesting statues that seeks to interpret the intersection of the relationship between the English and the French in Quebec!

There are a few ways to tour the Basilica of Notre Dame; there is a group tour run on the half hour as part of your admission. Or you could arrange a private guide. Or you could do what we did, which was to wander around and read the placards at each chapel to fill in the details.

Having recently spent several weeks in Italy and touring many, many churches, decked out with statues of male Saints, knights and popes I was delighted that Notre Dame, wasn't just about one Blessed Lady! Throughout the Basilica are statues, paintings, and chapels all devoted to the a wide variety of strong French women, including nuns and beatified Holy women and Saints! As a woman who is 1/8th French Canadian herself, it was nice to see the woks and holiness of my ancestors! I know very well about strong French Canadian women who get things done and give selflessly to their communities and God!

A fish eye lens view of the ceiling of the Basilica from altar (left) to organ (right)

River Front/Old Port

After touring Place D'Armes and the Basilica and surrounding areas, we walked along the river front, along Rue De la Commune. This area was very quiet this time of year (and I imagine could be much colder than the 30's F we enjoyed) in the off season. We enjoyed the views to the mainland across the river, and the huge Ferris wheel, Le Grande roue de Montreal on Il Bon Secours.

A view up Place de Jacques Cartier to the Hotel De Ville (City Hall), with the closed down summer fun parks siting idle in the foreground.

Place Jacques Cartier

Downtown Montreal

We decided to make our way to Downtown Montreal, roughly considered things west of Rue St Antoine. With short daylight hours, we decided to go to Chinatown for a quick lunch of noodles.

Chinatown is bordered by two decorative gates on Blvd St Laurent

We were headed for the seasonal Christmas Market on Rue St Catherine E. located at Place de Festivals. Along the way we were encountered volunteers encouraging people to visit the Maison du development durable, where the entire building was filled with a pop up fair of local artist showing their wares, each using recycled or reclaimed materials to create their art. Most of the local artists only spoke a little English, but we had no trouble expressing our appreciation of their work in our limited French, and we did a little Christmas shopping! Then made our way to the outdoor Le Grande Marche Du Noel.

Above, "lightbulb" ornament, and recycled arts and crafts in the Sustainable Building Center.

Grand Marche Du Noel

Click the arrow below to see video of carolers at the Grand Marche Du Noel

Mdm. Claus awaits children young and old during Santa's coffee break

We enjoyed watching the local children sit on Mrs Clauses lap and ride around on a tiny train. We enjoyed "Snow on Sugar" a traditional maple sugar treat.

If you are visiting Montreal at other times of the year, this area of Rue St Catherine, is where you will find all of Montreal's excellent art museums!

Rue St Paul Shopping and Dining in Old Montreal

After enjoying the Rue St Catherine Christmas market scene, we headed back to Old Montreal for dinner and to take in the shopping scene along Rue St Paul.

There are high end galleries and accessible tourist shops along Rue St Paul, as well as many restaurants and bars.

A surprising addition to the window display... hockey rival's Boston Bruins hat shares space with traditional Montreal souvenirs.

If you look up at the historic buildings all around you, you might notice projections on the walls. We wondered what these interesting, artsy looking projections were, and we learned that it is a project called Cite Memoire, an outdoor projection walking tour app. Even without the app, we stopped to enjoy several of the projections which shared on the spot history of the building or area it was projected!

Part of the Cite Memoire projection tour in Old Montreal

For dinner we made a reservation at Auberge Saint-Gabriel, which had been recommended in a travel article by Christopher Murther in our local travel section. As I often do, I hung onto the article for months, and then referred to it choose a good restaurant within walking distance.

New art work, in this case, the "other" parts of the moose made into a lamp, meets old stone building (photo K Klofft)

We enjoyed the funky decor mixed with the historic building, according to their menu, one of the oldest taverns in the Northeast. In addition to a cozy atmosphere with a blazing fire, and cauliflower on an a open brazier, the service was friendly and professional and the food was very well prepared and tasty! They say it's difficult to have a bad meal in Montreal, and we found that to be true! It was enjoyable to have fine dining in a relaxed atmosphere with friendly, unpretentious service!

Cauliflower on the brazier, cauliflower and mozzarella appetizers, flank steak with rapini and fries, salted caramel and chocolate pie.

Our intention was to visit the speakeasy attached to Auberge St Gabriel, but staying awake for it to open at 11, seemed insurmountable when we finished dinner at 9:30 PM!

Mount Royal

After a good night's rest, we decided to visit Mount Royal Park, (200+ meters elevation) in the center of the city. The park is free to enter but there is a charge to park. We enjoyed the ride up to the park, driving through some lovely residential neighborhoods and McGill University. We were amazed at the amount of local people enjoying the park. Thirty to forty degrees in December is warm, and the local folks seemed to taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather!

There is also a skating rink and lake as well as miles of walking trails. Facilities including information staff, washrooms and cafes, can be found in Smith House and the Chalet.

The Croix atop Mount Royal, Quebec and Canadian flags

A little black squirrel, on an unseasonably warm Sunday in Montreal, getting ready for cooler days ahead!

We travel the globe with mantra that "there is no bad weather, only bad clothes". We were prepared with all our warmest clothing when we visited Montreal before Christmas. In the end, we didn't need much of it; the warm welcome of the Quebecois and the city of Montreal kept us feeling warm and cozy all weekend!