roma

On an incredibly early Saturday morning in mid November, we headed to Genova Principe to catch a train to Roma. It was a reasonably long rain ride though, so we had plenty of time to catch up on sleep - five hours to be exact. Once we arrived in Roma and checked in to our hotel, we headed straight for the Colosseum and Forum. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Colosseum and then the Forum.

Colosseum

Colosseum interior

Colosseum interior

climbing on columns

Colosseum interior

Colosseum interior

Forum

Forum

view of the Colosseum from Paletine Hill

Forum

Forum

Colosseum at dusk

sunset behind the Forum

Colosseum at dusk

When Holden tired of the Forum, Giudi and Dave and the students still had another hour there, so he and I went across the street to Villa Celiamontana. It is a large villa and park at the summit of the Celian Hill with extensive beautiful gardens that had everything we could want in a park, a nice playground with swings and full of children. There were even ponies there that I think the children could ride around the park.  

climbing trees in Villa Celimontana

climbing trees in Villa Celimontana

We spent an hour or so climbing and swinging and eating gelato. Then we met back up with Dave and Giudi and the students headed to the Pantheon. Afterward, we walked around Via della Scrofa for awhile, went in some shops, and then went to Obica mozzarella bar (for the freshest mozzarella I've had) and for dinner in Piazza di Sant' Eustachio.  

The next day we began with Dave and Giudi and the students in Piazza Navona. 

Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona

Then Holden and I left them to explore Via del Governo Vecchio. I had read an article that compared this area to NYC's SoHo and described it as "home to independent boutiques and a couple of superlative vintage emporiums enhanced by some newly arrived jewelry stores" and wanted to check it out. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday morning and mostly everything was closed. We did get to do a little window shopping and then headed to the Via del Corso and the Via del Babuino for some more window shopping because still not much was open. We did, however, find a cooking store that was open and Holden spent forever in here trying to decide what we needed for our kitchen and finally settled on some new cookie cutters. We were very near the Piazza de Spagna (Spanish steps) so we walked over and sat on the steps and waited on Dave who had come to meet up with us while the students were on a sketching exercise.

Hadrian's column

Via dei Greci

Piazza de Spagna

We went from here to Villa Borghese. It is a huge park (I think the third largest in Roma), north of the Spanish steps and east of the Vatican and it houses a zoo, a children's cinema, a botanical garden, a playground, and acres of green space for running around. We actually didn't visit any of these but the playground (though we had plans to see them all) because we were just so happy running around the park and playing in the leaves and climbing the trees. Then we rented a bike/trolley that all three of us could ride in. It was electric (or part electric) which startled us at first, and it took some getting used to. Dave had to ride the brake most of the way because it was just too fast on its own, but Holden thought it was hilarious and we all held on and rode around the park and he loved it!

view of Roma from Villa Borghese

playing in the park

giggling while riding in the electric bike/trolley

Villa Borghese

climbing on the playground

After Villa Borghese, we walked east to get some lunch and explore the neighborhood of Parioli. It is a quiet, upper class, elegant residential neighborhood that borders the park and is very similar to NYC's Upper West Side (what we consider our neighborhood). There were small cafes, ice cream shops, and expensive children's boutiques. We had fun here, but still many of the stores were closed. So we had some snacks and coffee and gelato and went to explore some other Roman neighborhoods.  

Via Parioli

Oxilia gelateria in Parioli

I knew that I wanted to go to Pigneto, even though it was pretty far, because in that same article I mentioned earlier I had read that Pigneto was Rome's Brooklyn. This might deter some people, but we used to live in Brooklyn, in Park Slope, and have a certain affection for all things Brooklyn. So we took the tram there and found some really cool places. There is currently a lot of construction in the neighborhood to complete the line C metro. When it is finished the line C will go directly to Via Pigneto and I think this will totally change the entire neighborhood. To be fair, I only read that it was the Brooklyn of Rome, not the Park Slope or Carroll Gardens, so the article could have just as easily meant Bed-Stuy. But I would describe Pigneto as a pretty cool neighborhood (a little dodgy) with a lot of thirty to forty something year olds, many with young children, that still has a few years to go to become that place you just have to be in. Maybe it could be equated to somewhere like South Slope. (But enough of these NYC comparisons.) In Pigneto we went to this wonderful restaurant, Rosti, with a huge (over 7000 sq ft!) garden strung with lights that actually housed a playground and probably fifty children or so and their parents, just hanging out eating and drinking and playing.  

Rosti in Pigneto

garden at Rosti

So we played and ate and enjoyed the unusually warm weather that enabled us to be eating outside at 7:00 on a Sunday evening in November. I think it is a little strange how Dave and I are drawn to certain types of neighborhoods; without even realizing it we went to the Roman equivalent of our two favorite neighborhoods to hang out in on a lazy Sunday afternoon in NYC.

The next day, the plan for everyone was to spend the entire morning at the Vatican. I thought we could start there and just see how long it could hold Holden's interest. He actually really liked seeing the artwork, especially the Michaelangelo paintings on the ceiling and trying to figure out just how they could have done that (some ideas about really huge ladders with seats or beds on the top to lie down on or hanging upside down from the ceiling).  

Vatican

Vatican

After about a hour and a half, he'd had enough and we decided to go explore on our own. I knew where the students' next stop was to be, so we decided to just walk along the Tiber River and enjoy the view. Holden and I walked along the west side of the river to the neighborhood of Trastavere. After the walk, we were a little tired and hungry and decided to sit at a cafe and have some gelato and cappucio (our typical Italian snack). Trastavere was a beautiful neighborhood, quieter and more relaxed than the touristic center of Rome and has an orto botanico (botanical garden) that we were planning to visit but we decided against it and just went for a walk exploring the neighborhood. It was very lovely, full of some younger, seemingly forward-thinking people. I guess you could say the ambience and the people were similar to the people in the neighborhood of Pigneto that we had visited the night before but with a more cleaned up and more Roman appearance.  

Fiume Tevere

gelato e capppucio in Trastavere

Trastavere

Trastavere

Trastavere

Trastavere

Trastavere

Trastavere

Trastavere

Then we walked across the river and south to the Testaccio neighborhood. This was where we were supposed to be meeting the students and we had also heard of a market I wanted to explore and a panini shop. I had heard that Testaccio was a bit of a food Mecca and was excited by the prospect of lunch here. But by the time we made it to Testaccio, the market had already closed for riposo, so we found a playground instead. We met Dave here, he had left Giudi and the students waiting in line at the Vatican museum knowing we would be looking for them all soon, and we went to Volpetti - the wonderful sandwich shop where a man spent literally ten minutes making our sandwich, hand cutting all the meats and cheeses. It was amazing, Holden even raved over it for awhile.  

ruins in Testaccio

Testaccio

Volpetti in Testaccio

Volpetti in Testaccio

We were also planning to visit the MACRO museum here and see the Big Bambu, reinstalled, and let Holden climb on it a little but we couldn't because it was Monday and most of the museums in Roma were closed on Monday. So then we went to the EUR. The EUR is a complex of buildings way outside the center of Roma that was once planned for the world's fair, with some important Brutalist architecture. In the EUR we were planning to visit many museums but they were all closed on Monday too, so we played in the piazza in front of the Palazzo dei Congressi while we waited for the students to get there and document their buildings.  

Piazza della Civilta Italiana

Palazzo dei Congressi

When we left the EUR, we took the metro to the Monti neighborhood for the evening, another progressive younger neighborhood with an "indie vibrancy" and housing some pretty cool clothing stores and galleries and design stores (and a weekend market that we missed with handmade and vintage goods) and we ate a wonderful dinner at Urbana 47.

dinner at Urbana 47

The next day we went with the students to the Parco della Musica because we knew there was a great playground there and a museum of musical instruments. Unfortunately, we couldn't visit either because of something to do with an accounting convention that was being held there (we were given a confusing Italian explanation). But Holden enjoyed sketching and pretending to cook there with the students and then we walked with them to the Palazzetto dello Sport, an indoor arena currently used for basketball.  

sketching with the students at the Palazzetto dello Sport

Holden playing basketball in Palazzetto dello Sport

As luck would have it, right in front of the Palazzetto della Sport we found a playground. And it turned out to be quite possibly the best playground we have found so far in Italy. There were three types of swings, great climbing equipment, tons of children, picnic areas - basically everything you want in a playground.  

one of the playground swings

another playground swing

Then we went to the MAXXI Museum, designed by Zaha Hadid, and there was a particular music installation that Holden loved and it inhabited an entire floor of the museum. So in a way we didn't really miss out on anything that morning by not getting into the Parco della Musica.  

MAXXI Museum

MAXXI Museum

MAXXI Museum

playing with the music installation in the MAXXI Museum

installation outside the MAXXI Museum

beautiful golden leaves at the MAXXI Museum

hiding in a tree at the MAXXI Museum

Then, instead of taking the tram to the MACRO Museum with everyone else, Holden and I decided to go visit the Explora children's museum. We had to wait for the museum to reopen after riposo, (yes even children's museums close for riposo!) but we were able to play in the garden while we waited. The garden was almost as good as the museum itself and had a zip line and a water pump with canals and locks that Holden had a great time with. Inside the museum was pretty great too and had a huge water play area, recycling crafts, a kitchen, and lots of science experiments and climbing areas.  

Explora kitchen

Explora treehouse

Explora garden

Explora zip line

Explora zip line

Dave came and met us here and then we walked down Via Babuino and found some cioccolata calda for a snack and did a little shopping and then had a decent but very forgettable dinner in Piazza Navona. After Piazza Navona, we went inside the Pantheon one last time.  

Pantheon by night

Pantheon by day

Roma was simply amazing.  Though I had been before, I had never really had the time to explore much of the city - both new and old.  Holden and I (and sometimes Dave) had so much fun discovering new neighborhoods and new places and though sometimes our ideas didn't work out and places were closed or unreachable, our adventures were able to adapt and modify to these situations and many times even evolved for the better.  Despite my reservations about spending so much time there, Roma is a truly exceptional city and I feel honored to have spent my time there with my traveling buddy, continually searching for new adventures.  

Then on Wednesday we left Roma, luckily just as the rain arrived, and we headed for Toscana.