Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Anybody have advice for me about Rome?, 1 by Tammy

Tammy wrote:
Wrightie sent me over here to post. We went to Rome at the end of Sept.
It was a really fun vacation. Exhausting but fun. We bought a couple of
Fodor's books (they actually had complimentary not overlapping information)
I read a book on Roman architecture recommended by Fodors - it was somewhat
beneficial but not necessary.

We made reservations for a tour of the Vatican and avoided the long lines.
We also reserved a time to see the Galleria Borghese and purchased an
Architecture Tours ticket. The former is required - can't get in without prior
reservation and the latter saved time waiting in lines to buy the tickets. All
these and more were available at http://www.selectitaly.com

(Did I tell you all this over in the vacations forum?)

We stayed right in the midst of Ancient Rome, right by the Imperial Forums.
It was beautiful. I loved the forum, the colloseum, the pantheon and the baths
of caracalla. My favorite museum was Campidolgio (its where Marcus Aurelius
statue was displayed until recently, right at the top of the hill above the forum).
The statues there are amazing. (Well the vatican museums were just too amazing
for words too. But somehow all the opulence there bothered me. Especially
St Peters. To each his own. These did have the most concentrated display of
ancient through renaissance art you'll ever find.)

We ate twice in the Jewish Ghetto. My favorite restaurant (not for the food but
for the ambience) was a place along the Cavours, the road from Termini Station
to our hotel. The head waiter (a woman) was hysterical. I always just got the
house wine and enjoyed it. DH loved the carbinaro pasta (I know that's not spelled
right - its pasta with eggs, bacon and butter. And did I mention he's skinny &
can eat that stuff all day!)

We walked and walked. OH - the flower/farmers market is wonderful. Its called
Campi de fiori and is pretty close to the center of the city. You have to go in the
morning to see all the activity.

I hope this helps. If there's anything you want to ask, don't be shy.

Edited to add: there's a place where they have a cat colony run. its in an ancient
market but the name escapes me right now. Its pretty cool - all these cats running
around the ruins. Down stairs there is a shelter of sorts though we didn't go there.

I'm gonna keep remembering tidbits so my apologies if this is just too much. We
saw escaped parots at the Villa Borghese. We met an interesting man there too.
Its a big park adjacent to the Galleria. The man was from an old roman family of
obvious means. He told us about his family and his business. And answered our
questions. We walked around the park with him for maybe 30min. He had some
sort of conference call at his office next to the park.

This message was edited Nov 18, 2007 5:24 PM

This message was edited Nov 18, 2007 5:26 PM