Rome Diary 2: Riflessioni su un viaggio fantastico!

Diario di Roma II (Rome Diary 2)
Wednesday September 23, 2015
Cloudy 75°F/24°C  in Roma
Sunny 84°F/29°C in Rancho Santa Margarita
Buongiorno,
 

Thanks, Lord Byron!

Translated, the title reads Reflections on a Fantastic Journey! It’s true. This six week sojourn in Europe has been one of the most incredible trips I’ve ever taken. It was much more than a vacation for me. Much, much more. And, it’s a challenge for me to reduce what amounts to a spiritual journey to mere words. So, I’d like you to consider this blog my summation. I will be sharing other articles in the coming weeks. It was quite a trip – Rome, of course, my new second home; a return to Pompeii; Sabina, where ancient Roman swains went hunting for girls; a 280 kilometer per hour (168 mph) high speed train trip to one of the most incredible cities in the world – Venice; and then a side trip to Amsterdam for a romantic tour of the city’s canals with a one time teenage sweetheart.  Also on the travel plan were short trips to some historic and colorful places like the medieval villages of Tolfa, Bagnoregio and Civita, Rocchetine, and the oldest part of Selci, in Sabina.
    After a few weeks “in-country,” (as my kid brother used to say back in the days when he was flying for the Air Force to help make Vietnam safe for democracy), the pace picked up considerably and I found that I wasn’t able to find the time to write as many blogs as I had wanted to. I also had to deal with some technical challenges as far as staying connected to the internet. So, I resorted to pictures and short blurbs created on my I-phone uploaded to my Facebook time line. (God bless Jobs and Wozniak for that). That worked just fine, and I want to thank everybody who took the time to comment or click the “Like” button. It wasn’t just a vacation for me. It was much, much more…
   My primary guides on the venture were my son, Michael and his lovely wife Laura. The more time

Laura and Michael In Venice

I spend with them on my visits, the more I understand why my boy went to Europe on a vacation  about 14 years ago and never returned to California. Laura is a treasure, and so are her folks, Sergio and Anna Maria, and her sister Chiara.
  Speaking of guides, I can’t advise any traveler with Italy in their sights too strongly about having the foresight to book some guided tours to enhance the experience. Since Michael works for City Wonders Tours (www.CityWonders.com), I must admit to being a bit prejudiced. During my stay, Michael invited me to go along every day he worked. First up was Crypts and Catacombs. It’s a tour of Roma’s underground. The catacombs just over the Aurelian wall is an ancient burial place dating back to Pagan times. The crypts are near the center  of the city, where the bones of the Capuchin monks who worked there are displayed in five crypts well under the ground floor of the church. If you take the tour of the crypts, please give my regards to Alba, the museum gift shop’s manager. The monks themselves do not handle money. It’s part of their vows. So, the lovely Alba supervises the business end of the museum gift shop. Next was a half hour train trip to the ancient port city of Ostia Antica, which boasts some of the best preserved ruins dating back to Etruscan times in pre-Romulus and Remus Roma. I recommend the Ostia Antica visit as an alternative to Pompeii for visitors who may be pressed for time. Pompeii is a highlight of any visit to Italy, but it involves a day-long bus trip to and from Rome. That may be too much for tourists on a tight schedule, but Ostia Antica is right down the street.
 

Farfa Abbey, Sabina

  Out of the month-and-a-half that I spent there, Michael and Laura took me out to the folks “country home” in Selci, where we spent a full week on one trip….and five days on another. That gave us the base camp for visits to nearby Medieval Villages like ancient Selci, Bagnoregio and Civita, and the town and castles at Rochettine. Some of these walled towns have had people living in them for a thousand years or more. One of my very favorite places to visit is the 6^th century Farfa Abbey, which was upgraded in the 12^th century and is even now undergoing a restoration. On my first visit to Farfa, I had just taken a seat in one of the pews to rest and take in the beauty when I heard the tinkle of bells announcing the beginning of mass. As the procession led  by a line of altar boys escorting the priest into the sanctuary, I couldn’t help but ponder that the Benedictine monks of this abbey have been doing this for the last thousand years. What a sense of order and continuity! I felt very much at peace as I took this all in. A brief stop at the abbey’s herb and gift shop later gave me the opportunity to purchase four jars of what the abbey’s gardens are famous for – the honey gathered  by the monks who tend the abbey’s fields.
  Now, I think I’ve mentioned that I will be writing longer blog pieces over the next few months about my trip, focusing more on specific places and events. But, even this summary would fall short if I didn’t offer a little more detail about the trip that really turned out to be a highlight of my whole adventure. That would be our three days in Venice. Talk about a city where you need to book a tour. There’s no way around it, unless you want to spend  your time in Venice feeding the pigeons in Piazza San Marcos. And, here, I want to tip my hat to three outstanding lady guides Agy, Cristina

Agy Talking About Casanova-Venice

and Luanna.
  Our first tour took us to St. Mark’s Square and a behind the scenes look at the Doge’s palace, and a chilling glimpse of the justice system in the world’s oldest and longest surviving republic, 1200 years. Agy regaled us with the truth behind Casanova’s jailbreak (tall tale), Lord Byron “skinny-dipping” in the Grand Canal and his naming of The Bridge of Sighs. It seems his Lordship paid to spend a night in the cell that once held the legendary libertine, Casanova so he could write about him. From his cell, Lord Byron could hear the moaning and wailing of the convicts as they were taken across the bridge to their cells in the new prison. Hence, The Bridge of Sighs. The next night, Luanna led us on an evening walk through the city streets. The tour ended with a thirty minute ride in a gondola. Hot dawg! I got to ride in a gondola. (Accent on the first syllable. It’s not a Gon-DO-La! The driver is a Gondolieri­, which rhymes with Carabinieri.) On our

Cristina with MikeBo in Burano

third day we met Cristina, our guide for the Venice island tour of Murano and Burano. Murano is world famous for its hand-blown glass. Burano is famous for the complex lacework done by the ladies on the island. Burano is also well known for the colorful look of its buildings. Cristina explained that the local fishermen were in the habit of stopping by their favorite dockside pubs on their way from their daily fishing forays, and quite often got so inebriated they wandered into the wrong house on their way home, resulting in the sailors hooking up with the wrong spouse. (Catch my drift?). So to maintain domestic tranquility, the people of Burano each came up with a unique, bright color for their homes, so the sailor coming home from the sea at the end of a busy day of fishing would go to the right house. I don’t think I would ever heard that story, if Cristina, who is a native of Venice and knows the city’s history well, hadn’t been the guide on our tour.
  Well, there’s more but I’ll save details for future posts, so I’ll just wrap up this reflection with a word or two about our train trip from Roma to Venezia and back. Our high speed train got us there in about four hours. At the front of our coach was a lighted screen that kept us apprised of our stops, whether  or not we were on schedule, and a constant read-out of our speed. On our way back, we had been advised that our train was running a bit behind schedule. After we left Firenze (Florence to you gringos), I sensed that the engineer was beginning to seriously put his pedal to the metal. Our speed climbed from 200 km/hr (120 mph) up to 260 km/hr (156 mph) then coasting

Look Ashamed Amtrak!

up through 270 km/hr…280….290… and finally settling down at an even 300 km/hr. That’s 180 miles an hour on any pocket calculator. Through the window, I could see us zipping past the cars on the adjacent autostrade like they were standing still. I couldn’t help but think about rush hour back in California on the San Diego Freeway, or the four hour and 20 minute Amtrak ride from LA to San Diego, less than a hundred miles. When we finally pulled in to Rome’s Termini station, we were actually ahead of schedule. This in a country where Mussolini no longer has a say in the trains running on time.
Ciao,
MikeBo
PS: Check me out as well on www.mikebotula.com or  MikeBotula.blogspot.com

© By Mike Botula 2015