You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
There was a time when we could leap into the car and drive an hour over the Grand Saint Bernard for another visit to Italy -- 3, 4, 5 times a year. These days it's a lot more complicated, and more expensive, of course.
A short flight from Charlottesville, thanks to Kim's generous ferrying us over, then a seven hour wait in Dulles airport and an eight hour flight to Fiumicino near Rome -- inconvenient timing, but it avoids our arriving in Rome at dawn and having to wait till afternoon to check into our accommodations.
A short ride (in one of Rome's official fixed-rate fleet of taxis, nearly always with pleasant drivers who are pleased to converse with Kristin), we're here in the heart of downtown Rome to our home for a week or so, at Le Scala di Roma, a tiny flat up stairs from Piazza della Rovere on the Lungotevere by the Ponte Principe bridge.
And that appears to be the Scala, a daunting flight of stairs up to the hospital region above.
Happily, our driver was happy to help us with the luggage for a small extra fee, and we're just the first two lower flights of stairs to our front gate.
Welcome to our home away from home. It's not . . .
. . . spacious, but it's clean and fully agencée with all the necessaries, and we didn't come all this way to make use of any kitchens anyway.
That'll be a little awkward, but we can easily make do.
An appropriate period decoration on our front 'porch'
Just a few steps up to our path back out of here
So we'll begin with a late-afternoon first walk in the neighborhood.
That's part of the neighborhood there, but obviously inaccessible, which is fine.
That is, too.
And that
But here's our way back down to the front gate onto the Via di Sant'Onofrio, the proper name for the alley with our 'Scala di Roma' on it.
Back out to the main street
This is the Piazza della Rovere on the Lungotevere Gianicolense, the stretch of the Tiber Waterfront Boulevard (so to speak) beneath the Janiculum hill.
There's a sometimes convenient bus stop here in the Piazza della Rovere, and just over there, that's the Tiber bridge with the awkward name 'Ponte Principe Amedeo Savoia Aosta' (but usually called the Ponte Principe), leading from the Trastevere side of the city into the heart of the downtown.
Leading from that bridge, that's the Largo Porta Cavallegeri tunnel under the northern end of the Janiculum hill, leading to neighborhoods on the far side, and the roads on either side lead up and down the Janiculum itself. The Vatican complex is nearby just off to the right.
Crossing the bridge over the Tiber in the latish afternoon
Our bus stop is just on the far side, and what became our favorite restaurant (the Sor' Eva) and a convenience 'mini-market' for necessaries are right in there somewhere.
On the far side, that's the Basilica di San Giovanni Battista dei Florentini (which we never much liked the look of).
Just up the river, there's Hadrian's Mausoleum, the ancient Castel Sant'Angelo, frequent papal refuge over the years . . .
. . . awkwardly zoomed.
[It's my favorite building in Rome, especially historically speaking, but we're not really requiring another tour of the place on this trip. (In fact, we had at least two walk-throughs just last year, and more in earlier visits.)]
The front of the San Giovanni Battista church. A few years ago, we were staying for two weeks or so just a few blocks down the Via Giulia off to the left of this photo, but . . .
. . . we never much fancied it and never really looked at it more closely.
It's closing time today, so we won't be looking round much this time either, and didn't during our stay this year.
But we should have: having left Italy again subsequently, we've learnt that this place houses the tomb of Borromini. Now we just feel stupid.
[That's the singular we.]
In any case, it appears that some of the best stuff is being crated up for shipment off to some exhibition or other.
Wouldn't want to let those two nutters get after each other in public.
We're just stepping over three blocks or so to this little piazza on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II main drag to see if our two favorite restaurants two years ago, Luigi's and . . .
. . . the Polese ('saffron risotto'!), are still open for business. They are (and we stopped here at Polese on the last night of our visit -- still good), but as it turned out we were just as happy with the Sor' Eva most nights, which is just a few doors down next to our bus stop.
The fun never ceases in Rome.
And now, back up the 'Scala di Roma', with a few extra after-dinner items from the mini-market to see us through the evening.
Next up: Basilica Papale di San Paolo Fuori le Mura
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