Some rock and roll thunder (Rome)

And so to dinner. Wow! This tiny little street front cafe where we had breakfast goes way back into the building past the room where all their cured meets are hanging and also joins up with the wine bar next door. When we walked (literally) around the corner, we were confronted with people everywhere. The seats and stools were all taken, there were people on the footpath and on the road in between cars, eating , drinking, talking and of course, smoking. They looked pained when we asked for a table and a quick conversation in Italian ensued ... could we be out by 9pm because the table was booked then? Yes? This way please. Into the back of the restaurant where there were very few vacant tables. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the food and the company. This was really Italy as opposed to what we had for dinner on the first evening.

Night view from the terrace

The starters and entrees were all based around the variety of cured hams and their selection of cheeses. The mains were unsurprising as well, pastas, steak and salmon. As for the wine, how would I know? The selection is all Italian, as you would expect, and it is vast, so I let the waiter choose and he made an excellent choice. If I have had better pasta I don't remember when. It was light and tasty with a sauce made from lime and butter. Jayne's pesto fettuccine with zucchini flowers was equally good. What a find.

Back to the present. Today's blog title is from AC/DC a 2014 song. No dear reader I don't like AC/DC; I never have. Boring, repetitive music, but hey, it's recent and I'm trying to put my daughter in her place with her sneering comments about my outdated music references.

It was an early start today because we had to be at the Borghese Gallery at 8:45 (yes that's right - 8:45A.M. clearly that was an edit from Jayne) and it was a 45 minute walk. On the way out we covered much of what we did yesterday and arrived in time to meet our guide, Marco. The gallery has an interesting attendance regime: visitors are allowed in at 2 hour intervals, which means the gallery is completely emptied every 2 hours. We could have spent the entire day there and it will be back on the agenda when we return to Rome - there was so much more to see.

The gallery is a testament to the graft and corruption that plagued the Catholic Church in periods of its history and our focus, well Marco's focus, was to look at the works of Caravaggio and Bernini in detail that you would not normally be able to access. The two hours went very quickly and Marco was very knowledgeable, as you would expect, and provided a new level of insight and understanding into some works that were already familiar to us.

Bernini's sculptures were just breath-taking. The detail was astounding. They looked so real that it was easy to walk by, acknowledging what you were seeing, but when you paused and looked at the detail, how he managed to make a piece of marble resemble a real hand pressed into the flesh of a thigh. Absolute genius.

In the second hour of the tour, the PA crackled into life. No announcement followed but the sound of what we thought was someone breathing. We paused. Patrons looked around, looked at each other, looked at their guides. Shrugged shoulders. We continued. The sound did not go away. More speculation. Had someone fallen asleep with the microphone on? That sounded realistic. The breathing became quicker and shallower, almost climactic. Then an apnoeatic (apnoea needs an adjective) snore and silence. A smattering of applause from around the gallery. Everyone returned their attention to the art works and it began again. The breathing went through the same build up and climax, silence and repeat. Three times. During the third episode it was beginning to distract Marco as well as us. However, our two hours was about up and we needed to vacate the gallery so we headed to the exit. The breathing continued, louder than before. Standing outside waiting for Marco to commence our tour of the gardens, we continued to listen to breathing until it finished with a roar.

What was that about, I hear you musing, my dedicated reader. It was art! Respira or "breathe" as we say in English. I'm still getting my head around it, so if you want to understand it from the artist's view point there is an interview with him here: http://ad.vfnetwork.it/artcorner/2017/06/24/il-ventennale-della-galleria-borghese.  I have read it and I still don't understand.

Following the gallery, we had a walk back through the Borghese Gardens, accompanied by Marco. Gardens is not a word we would use to describe them; it is more a park. Open spaces, lots of trees, paths meandering here and there. It's a great space for a peaceful walk or for joggers and people walking their dogs. One street creatively named Vialle Magnolie was so named because it is flanked by magnolia trees. It would be stunning when they are in full bloom.

As we walked into the park, the sky was dark and crackling with lightning. Of course it rained on us. Marco suggested we shelter under a tree. You wouldn't do that in Australia in a thunderstorm. I believe that is one of the first things I learned. Thunderstorm = get out into the open. Not so much over here, but the lightning was horizontal, not vertical. Hello to any scientists, please explain.

By the time we had traversed the park the rain had stopped and we were back above the Piazza del Popolo where we had a few Kodak moments yesterday. The difference today was that we understood the significance of the obelisk and the piazza itself. Cheers Marco. Our final question? Which is the quickest way to the Pantheon? Excellent directions.

Like this was ever going to happen

And so to the Pantheon. Yesterday, we skirted around the crowded and eroded exterior of this most important Basilica but today we determined that we had to see the interior with the magnificent self-supporting concrete dome - the largest in the world, with its centre opening, the oculus, which today had showers of rain coming through it to drain away into 22 almost invisible holes in the marble floor.  The interior opulence of this 2000 year old building is wonderful with sanctuaries all around its circumference.  Hordes of people pass quickly through its imposing bronze doors because entry is free unless you want to pay for an audioguide. In fact it was slower to get out than to get in due to the mindless gathering of the many tour groups right at the exit. The other point to note was the repeated background announcements imploring respectful silence which we could barely hear above the din created by the aforementioned hordes.  Despite all of this, the dome is an impressive piece of architecture which commands eyes upwards until your neck hurts.  We can see why Rome wasn't built in a day - architectural perfection.

Holes in the floor to drain the water

The oculus

From here, once we managed to wade through the quagmire of tour groups, we headed back to the bar we stopped at yesterday for a couple of beers and some delightful bruschetta while we waited for the rain to pass.

St Angelo's Castle

The journey back to the apartment was to be via St Angelo's Castle, another building that demonstrates Rome's 'lasagne' style. The castle has had many iterations and there are signs showing how the building has grown and changed over many hundreds of years. We had intended to go inside but the queue was quite long so we thought it best to add the St Angelo's Castle to the growing 'next time' list.






Still wending our back home we walked up towards St Peter's Basilica if for no other reason than to marvel at the length of the queue to get inside. It went forever, or in recognition of where we are, it went for eternity. No seriously, it wound its way through the arches, back into the barricades around the outside of the wall and down the street. It was like the opening week of "Born Free" in Sydney (Google it). Fortunately when we do the tour of St Peter's on Friday, we get to skip the line. Across a couple of streets from the Vatican and I was in search of the religious shop that I visited in 2011 when I was with a World Youth Day group. Happily, my memory is not as bad as I thought and we found the shop - still in business. By that point we were very close to home and adjourned to refresh and have an early happy hour before trying the pizzeria around the corner for dinner.

Rome wasn't built in a day

Tomorrow we are visiting the Colosseum, the Forum, the crypts, San Clemente and a few other points of interest. There will also be a restaurant review.

fino a domani