Finally home.  Our flight from Heathrow to Chicago ended up sitting in line on the tarmac in London for a long time, so we missed our connection in Chicago.  We got to stay at the Wyndham for a night and catch a flight to Dallas this morning. 

We leave for the airport tomorrow morning, and then spend all day traveling.  We should be home very late tomorrow.  I still owe several posts on various topics (shopping, dining, crypts, the Vatican Museums), but those will probably arrive tomorrow night or later.

I’m sure I’ll also be writing a summary post (or two), but, for now, I have to say it was a great trip.  We managed to fit a lot of touring into about two weeks.

We started doing our souvenir shopping last night - and we definitely started in style.  First stop was our favorite Murano glass store.  Spent some time there and picked out a good piece or two and did our bargaining.  We definitely walked away happy.  After that, I picked up some magnets and an AS Roma scarf, just because I could.

This afternoon was dedicated to St. Peter’s. 

St. Peter’s Basilica (not the best picture, but it will do)

We walked around inside and took pictures of just about everything.  Of course, Michelangelo’s Pieta was the highlight.

Pieta

After walking through the Basilica, I decided I had to take the tour of the cupola this time.  So, I got in line and waited my turn.  When I got to the ticket counter, I had a choice: tour with the lift for 7 Euro or tour without the lift for 5 Euro.  If I opted for no lift, I had 550 steps to climb; adding the lift reduced the stair count to 320.  I chose the lift.  A cramped elevator ride and 320 agonizing stairs later (and not just any stairs - these were narrow, winding stairs shoe-horned into the walls and facades of the building), I was on the cupola with an incredible view of the Vatican and Rome.  Was it worth it?  I’m still trying to decide.  But the pictures are pretty cool.

View from the Cupola, Part 1

View from the Cupola, Part 2

And, yes, I had to walk back down the 320 stairs and ride the cramped elevator back to the ground.  If I ever do that again, I’ll have a water bottle with me.

The last couple of days have been spent dealing with some apartment issues (a story for another day); that’s finally been resolved.  So, we can get back to being tourists. 

Last night, we walked around at the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine - it was pretty cool being there as the sun set.

Colosseum at Night

 Arch of Constantine

Slept in today, then grabbed some mushroom pizza for lunch.  After that, we toured Roman churches all day.  First stop was the Pantheon; it’s a big circular structure, so I didn’t really get any good pictures.  From there, we walked a couple of blocks to Santa Mario sopra Minerva.  It’s a Gothic church from the 13th century that contains a serious amount of artwork along with the remains of St. Catherine of Siena, who died there in 1380.

St. Catherine

From there, we took a taxi to Esquiline Hill.  First stop there was Santa Maria Maggiore.  The story behind this church is pretty interesting.  The story goes that, in 356, Pope Liberius had a dream in which the Virgin told him to build a church where he found snow.  Some snow fell on Esquiline Hill in August, so he built the church there.  It’s another massive church with an overwhelming number of attractions.  To me, two stood out.  First, there was the gilded ceiling from the 15th century.  Rumor has it that the gold they used is the first brought from America by Columbus.

Gilded Ceiling at Santa Maria Maggiore

Second was the Coronation of the Virgin Mosaic from 1295; it’s very Byzantine.

We saw even more Byzantine mosaics at a smaller church, named Santa Prassede.

Byzantine Mosaic

Even more noteworthy at Santa Prassede is a piece of a column brought back from Jerusalem - supposedly the one to which Jesus was bound and flogged.  Relics always have interesting stories.

Piece of a Column

And we ended the tour at San Pietro in Vincoli, where, as the story goes, the chains used on Peter while he was in Mamertine Prison are kept.

Peter’s Shackles

So, without knowing it, we got serious about dinner tonight. On the corner of our block on Via Plauto, there’s a little restaurant called La Barca. The menu looked interesting, it was convenient, and it looked fairly cheap. Tonight was the night we decided to give it a shot. The real surprise came when we walked in and found that it was a real restaurant. Not a tourist restaurant with an English menu and limited choices. This was, from what I gather, an old-fashioned European restaurant. A quick glance around the room revealed that we were the only tourists in the place. The waiters were all in jackets, and there was real cloth on the tables - even the napkins were cloth. We were seated at our table and then things got serious.

The waiter had to be in his 60s; he’s clearly had a lot of time to practice his craft - humor in the right places, impeccable service. He asked what we wanted to drink; we asked for water, no gas (I don’t like the carbonated water). Then he brought a bottle of wine, which we declined. We waited for the menu, but one never arrived. Instead, the waiter came to our table and asked if we liked fish. It’s a tasting menu. They ask what you like and they bring just about everything to your table for you to sample. Turns out their specialty is seafood…surprise. [La Barca, I'm told, translates to "The Ship"]

The next half-hour or so is a blur. They first brought out their appetizers and spread them out on the adjoining table. I remember a tuna carpaccio and a salmon carpaccio. I enjoyed the tuna version immensely, but didn’t find much use in the salmon version. If you’re asking what a carpaccio is, you don’t really want to know. If you really want to know, here’s the answer.  There was a bruschetta that was surprisingly good (diced tomatoes, olive oil on crusty bread).  There was a grilled vegetable plate - the potatoes were nice.  I do remember the eggplant and tomato drizzled with black truffle oil.  Now I know how truffle oil tastes.  Better still, I didn’t taste the eggplant, which I don’t particularly enjoy.  There was a salad with some fish, some squid, some carrots, and some celery.  And yes, it was really enjoyable.  I also remember eating the most tender mussels I’ve ever had.  I passed on the fried sardines, I’m sorry.

Once we’d tried all of the appetizers, the waited asked if we’d like to continue with fish for our first and second courses.  It’s where they specialize, so we went with the fish.  First course was spaghetti with clams in a white wine sauce.  As far as I’m concerned, it was one of the highlights of the meal.  The clams were tender and the white wine sauce was remarkable.  It even had a little spice in it.  The Italian to English translation broke down a little, but we think the waiter told us it was prepared with pepperoncinis.

Between the first and second courses, we were allowed to cleanse our palettes with a glass full of lemon sorbet - it was like frozen lemonade.  Absolutely incredible.

The fish we’d chosen for our second course was the sea bass.  It was cooked to perfection and flavor matched texture.  Quite nice.  The sea bass was accompanied by a mixed seafood grill: calamari, prawns, langostino (I think).  The calamari was incredible, the rest was passable.

If that wasn’t enough, we were treated to a licorice-flavored cake for dessert.  I ate so much food, and I didn’t even realize it.  One lesson was that we were eating too fast.  We looked around and realized that we’d overtaken the diners who’d been sitting when we entered.  Lesson learned.

Finally, we asked for the check.  I have no idea how they figured out how much we owed them, but it was a lot less than I expected.  When we walked out, we took one more look at the menu to see what we’d missed.  Our waiter came out and told us he’d show us the full menu if we drop by tomorrow.  Apparently, the menu they’ve posted is to satisfy the authorities.  They just do their own thing on the inside.

So far, this has to be the surprise of the trip.  Some little, unassuming restaurant at the end of our block, while there’s some serious eating going on inside.  Oddly, I don’t remember this place being reviewed in any of my books.  I have to look again when I get back to the apartment.

We started the day with a walk across the Tiber; in fact, we walked across the oldest bridge over the Tiber that’s still in use, Ponte Fabricio.

Ponte Fabricio

After that, we walked through the Campo De’ Fiori neighborhood, stopped for a leisurely lunch at Trattoria da Giggetto.  We were in the Jewish part of town, so the dishes there were mainly based on Jewish specialties in the area.  And so we wouldn’t forget what part of town we were in, the synagogue was busy dominating the skyline.

Synagogue

Once we finished eating, we stood up from our table, turned left, walked down a ramp, and we were in some ancient ruins.  The highlight was the remaining columns from what was apparently a temple of Apollo.

Temple of Apollo

Then, it was on to a tour of several old churches in both Campo De’ Fiori and Piazza Navona.  I did get to see Piazza Navona for the first time, which was really interesting.  It’s a huge plaza built on top of what used to be an ancient race track.  From what I’ve read, they even used to flood the plaza on certain days so they could show off and race boats.

Piazza Navona; it’s a busy place.

We took a casual stroll through the plaza, stopped for a mid-day gelato (strawberry, of course), stopped at one more church, and then caught a taxi back to the apartment so we could get ready for dinner.

Dinner was at Linsalata Ricca. I had fettucine with meat sauce and a Coke; dessert was a piece of chocolate cake. Food was solid, not necessarily spectacular. It was really affordable, though, which made it all better.

After lunch today, we caught a taxi to the Campo De’ Fiori area.  The first stop was a 16th century church, San Giovanni dei Fiorentini - Saint John of the Florentines.  Apparently, the Florentines felt they needed more of a presence in Rome, so they built a big church.  This church is so big, I couldn’t find a good way to wrap my camera lens around the whole thing.

Here’s the facade, from way down the street.

And here’s a shot of the basilica.

After the church, we were going to explore the square further, but someone got lost when left on her own for a few minutes.  So, we’re probably going to try again tomorrow.