|
|
|
Vacation in ItalyThis is the travel diary from a two weeks holiday in Italy, June 2007. I hope it may serve as inspiration or just plain entertainment. We spent five days in Rome, five days in Pesaro on the Adriatic coast and four days in Venice. Being your own travel agent allows you to do as you please, and cheap flights and hotels were booked well in advance via the Internet.
RomeThe Leonardo express from the airport arrives to Termini at 12:10. We'll stay in Rome for five days, before the trip continues to Pesaro and Venice on the Adriatic coast. Hotel Domus Nova Bethlem is within walking distance on Via Cavour. We check in and go out for lunch. Pursued by President Bush
There are cops in battledress everywhere near the Santa Maria Maggiore church. The carabinieri in black with bullet-proof vests and submachine guns give me the creeps. What is going on? An electronic sign by a bus stop provides the answer: President Bush is in Rome. Why does he pursue us? Last summer he followed us to Budapest. We find a café with a view to the impressive church. Teams of carabinieri drop in and have coffee by the bar. They have nothing to do and probably kill time comparing batons. In a sense you feel very secure (show me the pickpocket who'd work here), but on the other hand breaking wind could make you a terrorist suspect. Retreat from the FrontMore buses spew their cargo of more battle-ready cops, and with no sudden movements we retreat towards Piazza d. Madonna dei Monti where Bush and his successors are unlikely to come in this interglacial period.
The old Monti district has true Roman atmosphere; painted houses with shutters, streets with cobblestones, workshops and small shops. It is hot now, and at about three we home for siesta. We were up early and are tired. The receptionist asks if I speak Italian. I answer: "Un pocino" (a bit), and then he says that the street doors will be closed for some hours, because a demonstration will pass by. He apologizes, but it can be a bit dangerous. I feel like saying something about the American president, but answer that it does not matter, because it is siesta time. "Ah, siesta!", he says enviously. The DemonstrationSleep comes quickly. At five I wake up to a distant noise. The hotel has windows facing Via Cavour, and the demonstration is passing. It looks like a mix of a giant party and a carnival. Of course there are banners and slogans, but also open trucks playing music with a tail of dancing people behind.
A Danish lady by the window asks, if I am the guy who spoke Italian with the receptionist. I confirm this and don't point to the fact that the receptionist did most of the talking. To the ladies he had explained in poor English that there would be "a strike". It takes the demonstration more than an hour to pass, and it makes Aalborg's carnival ("The biggest in Northern Europe") look like a kindergarten birthday party. Armoured vehicles and carabinieri in ordered ranks form the rear guard. Supper at Ristorante La CarbonaraRistorante La Carbonara is recommended in a Danish book about restaurants in Rome. It is in the neighbourhood, so we pop in and make a reservation for later. I know from experience that "Bentzen" is an utterly impossible word for Italians, so when the waiter asks what name to write, I say: "Petersen". He writes "Petersson", and that is close enough. We have a glass of wine at La Piazzetta at Piazza d. Madonna dei Monti. Here is a dense Roman atmosphere. The locals go for their passegiata (promenade), meet, talk and have a drink. Tourists are outnumbered. We say cheers and "Down with the cold!", because Helle has hardly recovered from the cold she caught a few days ago. At La Carbonara we are seated by a small table. Water and fresh bread is served at once. We order spaghetti carbonara as first course and thinly sliced beef in balsamico sauce as second. With this green asparagus, a tomato salad and the house red. The spaghetti is good and the beef piquant, although the sauce is a bit too vinegar-sharp for our taste. The green asparagus are (s)boiled softer than the spaghetti, which is food vandalism. The bill says 52 €. The evening is warm and velvety as we walk home.
Sunday June 10th 2007 Helle opens the window to the back yard where a choir of birds is greeting the new day. Breakfast is served from 7:30 in newly decorated rooms with creamy yellow colours and quality furniture. When we enter at 7:32, 35 Danes are already busy chewing. Two Danish priests with clerical collars are the tour leaders. They are probably going on a church crawl. A week-pass for the buses and metro makes sense even for four days. A ticket machine at Termini is tested; it is easy to buy a train ticket to Pesaro, and the machine knows practically everything except Danish. Pantheon and Piazza Navona
The new bus passes take us to Largo di Torre Argentina. There seem to be fewer cats among the ruins than in 2005, but maybe they hide in the shades? A street musician gathers strength for the day's work and a man sleeps on a marble bench. We visit the neighbourhood of Pantheon and Piazza Navona. It has become a ritual, when we come to Rome, to greet Bernini's elephant on Piazza Minerva and to stay a while in awe below the mighty dome of Pantheon, where the light shines through the oculus. Piazza Navona is teeming with tourists. Each flock has a guide who either bores his audience with learned facts about Bernini's fountains or walks with an umbrella high in the air. The cosy back alleys with workshops and laundry are not on the list of sights to see. In MontiBack in our own neighbourhood we go to Piazza d. Madonna dei Monti for lunch, an ok spaghetti carbonara.
On the way back to the hotel we stop to watch a catholic procession. A beggar turns towards us with a jerk, and from his outstretched plastic cup glittering coins shower the black cobblestones. My first impulse is to help him pick them up, but instead I walk on - my help could easily trigger paranoia. Further down Via Urbana a choir is singing in the Evangelic church. They sing much better than the procession, but regrettably stop - apparently the vicar wants to say something. Later I return to Via Urbana to visit the Internet point. They don't ask for ID or register me as required by law. Neither do I get a receipt, when I leave. They are probably good-natured and want to save the tax authorities the trouble. We want to visit another of the restaurants recommended in the Danish book. It is called Osteria Tempio di Macenate and is situated in Largo Leopardi, a small side street to Via Merulana. Osteria Tempio di MacenateThe restaurant opens at seven, and when we arrive at ten to eight there are just a few vacant tables outside. Before long every table is taken inside too and people queue on the pavement. This must be a popular place. We have a carafe of the house red plus some water and bread. Helle orders Parma ham for starters and I a vegetable soup. The soup is a meal in itself. It is good, but needs a pinch of salt and I have the guts to ask the waiter for some. Back home there is always salt and pepper on the table, but not in Italy.
Helle's main course is scaloppine (veal) in lemon sauce, and I have abbacchio al forno (lamb) with potatoes. We share a mixed salad and my potatoes. It is excellent. The lamb is very tender with a fine aroma of garlic and rosemary. We cannot leave without dessert: mixed ice cream for Helle and lemon sorbet for me. The sorbet is served in a hollow lemon - delicious. We are reluctant to leave and order coffee and Vecchia Romagna. We wait for a surprisingly long time, until the headwaiter with chopper-view notices and bark an order to the younger waiter, who had forgotten. An excellent place, and for three courses plus coffee and brandy we are billed 70 €.
|
