Halloween--Italian Style

Almost everything that is purchased in a pastry shop is wrapped up like this.

 

Here is all of what we bought today...


Italians have only recently begun celebrating Halloween. It is an American import and seems to be mostly an excuse to party the night before a national holiday (November 1—All Saints Day). Both children and adults dress up if they are going to a party but there is no trick or treating. There are pumpkins available for carving and over the weekend they will be on display outside people’s homes, many with a lit candle after dark.


We stopped at a local bakery today and I was charmed by the Halloween themed cookies. My favorites were the meringues made in the shapes of ghosts, pumpkins, bones and severed fingers. There were also sugar cookies in various shapes including the ghosts and bats shown here. I thought the meringues needed vanilla (not a common ingredient here) but the cookies have all disappeared so they could not have been all bad.

The Absolute Most Valuable Purchase (Really!)

I changed my mind!  The most valuable purchase we made for this trip was picked up in a tabaccheria soon after we arrived.  It is a transit map that includes a booklet describing the stops on each route.  It has been invaluable!  If you are coming to Rome for more than a few days, we highly recommend getting something of this sort.  Ours cost €8 and it has been well worth the price.  We have really gotten our money’s worth out of our €30 monthly transit passes, too.  Even if we did not quite use the full value (and we probably have at €1 per trip) the convenience has been terrific.  If you are in Rome for a shorter period of time, I believe there are also seven day passes.  Or, just buy a handful of tickets from a Tabaccheria each morning for the trips you think you will take.  Now there are even ticket machines on the busses and trams but you need exact change.

The Past Few Days...



Rainy Ponte Milvio

This will be a quick recap of the past few days. I find I cannot always remember what we have done and have referred to this blog to remember. So I had better make a brief note of everything. Some of these will get a longer post when we are back in Partigliano and have more time.

Baths of Caracalla

On Saturday we visited the Baths of Caracalla—well worth a visit! Afterwards we took a meandering trip back—bus to Ostiense, Metro to Termini, visit to a book store, Metro to Flamminia and Tram #2 back to Ponte Milvio.

Historic race cars waiting to go on track at Vallelunga

On Sunday, after watching the Formula 1 race, we went to Vallelunga to the local race track where they were racing historics. It was supposed to rain but turned into a beautiful day. On way back we decided to go see a movie—Wall Street-Money Never Sleeps. Both of us found it to be a good but unsettling/sad movie.



This would be perfect in a vacation home!

Yesterday (Monday) we had a lazy day and got started late. We drove to Fiumicino and had lunch. Then we went to the Nuova Fiera di Roma (convention center) to see a “home” show. It was lots of furniture, kitchens and house décor—all fine examples of Italian design.


Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna

Today (Tuesday) we are off to the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna. Given the fact it was founded in the 1880s the art is really not all that modern. The descriptions of the museum indicate it is lots of “early” modern art including impressionism and a school of Italian artists from the 1800s.

Most Valuable Purchase (And a Faux Statue)

This (about the size of a tennis ball) becomes...

...this (about 1 1/2 x 2 feet) which looks like this...



...when it has my raincoat inside. And there is still room for Dom's coat and more!


The above pictured item is turning out to be the most valuable purchase I made for this trip. This ripstop nylon bag folds up in itself to the size of a pair of socks and weighs practically nothing. It fits in the bottom of my purse and has come in handy for a number of things. I use it when I go to the grocery store. A number of times it has carried our coats once the day warmed up. When we took our books to the park we carried them in this bag. I love the fact that it is so compact but so sturdy once it is unfolded. And, unlike other versions of this sort of thing I have bought in the past, it folds up easily and into the same original size. When I bought it I really wondered how much I would really use it. When I don’t need it I don’t know I have it but when I do need it out it comes.


I was reminded of my brother Michael today. We were on the bus heading home after our daily excursion when we passed the Coliseum. There were scads of tourists around and we stopped right in front of the Metro (subway) station. On a wall across the street were a number of those faux statues one sees throughout Europe and even in major U.S. cities. They are the people dressed up as the Statue of Liberty or a Mummy or some famous person. They stand still as a statue and for some reason people give them money. On the wall not far from a shiny gold Mummy was a young man striking a bizarre pose (arms raised, one leg in the air). It was an obvious mock of the faux statues but he seemed totally delighted with himself. Both Dom and I saw him from the bus and burst out laughing. We agreed that if we had been on foot we would have dropped a few coins in front of him just to pay homage to his sense of humor.

This reminded me of my brother because the young man looked like someone who might be backpacking his way through Europe. Michael took a gap year between high school and college. After he finished ski racing for the season he spent the spring working for a house painter. Then he and a friend did the backpacking thing. They did Europe on about $10 a day (plus a Eurail Pass) when even the cheapos were spending $20 a day. The stories he had when he returned were just hysterical and I am sure I have never heard the best of their adventures. My memory of these events might be a little sketchy after about thirty years. However, I am sure that standing on a wall as a “faux” faux statue would have been just his sort of thing. I only wish I could have gotten a picture.

Shoes

Shoes are very important on a trip like ours. We have been walking about three hours a day on average. It is not all easy walking either. Rome has lots of sidewalks with cobbles, sidewalks made lumpy by tree roots and sometimes sidewalks simply in need of repair.


In the picture above you can see all the shoes I have with me on this trip. All of them have been worn at least once. However, the walking shoes (second pair from the right) are the ones I seem to wear most days. They provide the most support and I am less likely to have achy legs at the end of the day. Sometimes I wear the Skechers slides (on the right) but they have a tendency to slip off going uphill or on uneven terrain. One day I wore the Privos (second pair from the left) and got small blisters. I would wear them more but I really bought them to wear with my cropped trousers and they have sat in the drawer most of the trip. The slippers on the left are what I wear around the apartment. My favorite pair of shoes is the multi colored woven loafers in the middle. Sometimes I wear them when we walk to nearby restaurants for dinner. The walking shoes and slippers were already here in a bag of things we left with friends.

You might not guess it from this practical line up but I LOVE shoes. If I could stand to walk in them I would be in heels all the time. Unfortunately I have to wear custom orthotics (foot beds), and shoes that can accommodate them, all the time or suffer from Sciatica. It kills me that the shoes I am wearing most are the least attractive I have here.

Here is Rome you see a lot of women wearing heels. They can be tall spiky heels or flat wedge heels. Boots are always big in Italy and you can find them in every possible combination of heel, toe, height of boot, material and color. The open toe boots seem to have been a quick fad. Not many of them are in the store windows now. I have seen fabulous red patent leather boots and lots of boots that come up over the knee.

We have had a couple of lazy days. Yesterday was brilliant sunshine and quite warm. After doing some chores in the morning, it seemed like a good idea to take our books to the Borghese Gardens, sit on a bench and read. Our apartment has an outdoor patio but it also has lots of mosquitoes. The Gardens were beautiful and we sat there for about three hours.

Today we drove out to the beach at Lido di Ostia and had lunch. It felt good to be by the water even if it was brief. After lunch we drove south along the coast but for much of the drive you could barely see the water. Either there were wild dunes between us and the sea or endless “pay to play” establishments. It is very quiet out there this time of year.

When we got back tonight someone had parked in front of the gate to our parking spot. We honked the horn repeatedly but no one showed up. Finally Dom found a street spot and left the car. An hour and a half later we checked and the gate was clear. So we retrieved the car and put it in its locked space. Our landlord keeps telling us “That’s Rome” but we find the parking issues really irritating.

A Wedding, a Duck and a Mall

Today we went to Castel Gandalfo where the Pope goes to get out of town. There is not really much there but we did see a wedding party outside the church in the main piazza. The bride and groom and most of the guests were Japanese but when we peaked in the church they were being married by a priest who was giving his sermon in Italian. I could not help wondering if the happy couple and guests understood any of it.

Main piazza in Castel Gandalfo looking at Papal Palace



Wedding party at Castel Gandalfo



The bride and her attendant

It started to rain so we headed back to Rome. Dom wanted to stop by a used equipment lot that can be seen from the Rome ring road. It is a reseller of used equipment including quite a variety of military hardware—jet planes, tanks, guns, etc. The funniest thing (I think) was an amphibious vehicle that look like one of the Ride the Duck boats. However, it turns out it was made by FIAT.


Looks like a Duck to me



Enlarge the picture to see the FIAT sign on the front!

The used equipment dealer was right by an IKEA and a huge shopping mall so we headed over there for lunch. The most interesting thing there was the underground parking system. Each stall has a light above it that is red if the spot is full and green if it is empty. At the end of the rows there are signs with a green arrow and the number of empty stalls or a red X if all spots are filled. It is really an ingenious system.


See the red lights above each spot? It's hard to see but the one directly under the Uscita sign is green.

In the mall (a lot like Bellevue Square or Alderwood Mall) there was a huge sporting goods store. Dom and I actually bought ski socks because we both need them and the price was good. It is one of those things that is hard to remember to buy unless you just happen upon it.

It was a different sort of day from our usual but a nice break.

How We Spend Our Days

Early on during this trip another tourist told me she and her husband had slept until 11 am their first morning in Italy. So, they started setting the alarm clock so as not to miss half the day. Not feeling like there are sights we MUST see is one of the joys of being back here for the twenty-somethingth time.

Our days are rather more relaxed. Most mornings we wake up when we wake up. That is usually between 8 and 9 no matter what time we fell asleep. We shower and dress and leave the apartment by 10. Our first stop is always one of the coffee bars on or near Piazzale di Ponte Milvio. One, Bar Farnesina, has become our regular and the pretty young woman barista knows our order without us having to tell her. We like to sit at one of the little tables for perhaps 10 minutes and read the papers that are always there for customers.

After colazione (Italian breakfast) we head off to catch whatever bus takes us to wherever we are headed for the day. Usually this means the #2 Tram that runs from the far side of Ponte Milvio to Piazza del Popolo or the #32 that runs from Piazzale di Ponte Milvio to Piazza del Risorgimento near the Vatican. Using public transportation has been one of the best things about this trip. Only once have we been on the subway and we are really coming to understand how the different areas of Rome fit together.

We always have some activity in mind when we leave the apartment. For instance, yesterday we went to Piazza del Popolo and caught the #119 bus, got off at Piazza Colona and walked to Piazza Navona. After confirming the museum we want to visit there is not open on Mondays we set off into the nearby rabbit warren of streets to visit two churches and four Caravaggio paintings. This was another short walking tour from our box of 50 Walks in Rome. The churches and the painting were delightful but I actually enjoyed the first church’s Rafaello fresco better.

There was still time after that to do another walk which took us to the very interesting street Via dei Coronari. Its name comes from it being the street of the rosary makers (coronari in Italian) but now it is the street of the antique shops. We walked down it and ended up having lunch at a restaurant at the end.



Piazza Navona



Alter at S. Agostino near Piazza Navona

The restaurant was obviously a destination for German tourist groups. Two of them (about 40 people each) joined us for a lovely meal. Dom and I especially enjoyed the vegetable antipasto and his lamb chops.

After lunch we walked back to Piazza Navona and then on to Piazza della Rotonda where the Pantheon is located. One of the things we have noticed the past few days is the large number of German tourists including lots of children. Is there some sort of holiday there this week?

We eventually made our way to Via del Corso, caught the #119 bus back to Piazza del Popolo. At the latter they were still breaking down an exhibit that was there over the weekend celebrating the anniversary of the Corpo dei Forestale (Italian Forest Rangers). The large piazza was filled with a grandstand for seating, information booths, chainsaw sculptures, a large helicopter and a small one (both trucked in because we saw them without their rotors), and large areas of lawn. On Monday afternoon about all that was left was the helicopters and the lawn was once more rolls of sod.

Today we headed over to St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time since we arrived in Rome. I wanted to go up to the top of the dome but the line was so long that we just strolled around the church before heading off for other activities. We ended up going to Castel Sant’Angelo, the Papal fortress located on the Tevere not far from the Vatican. Neither of us had ever visited it and it was quite interesting. The views from the top are wonderful although one is not as high as up at the top of the dome.

We ate lunch at a nearby restaurant where we sat at a table outside and watched the people go by. There were a lot of tourists but also lots of students, priests and nuns. Even though our table was in the street and it was supposed to be pedestrian only there were occasionally cars and delivery trucks going by. The man seated on the outside of the table closest to traffic looked awfully worried every time a vehicle came by.



Inside St. Peter's



Castel Sant'Angelo



View from top of Castel Sant'Angelo



Via dei Borgi and a view into Vatican City

Upon arriving back at Ponte Milvio we made what has become a daily stop—Il Pelicano Gelateria. My current favorite flavors are straciatella (chocolate flake) and caramel and meringue. They also will dip your cup or cone into chocolate and nuts and add whipped cream. I have started going for all of it except the whipped cream (not my thing). Dom is still a purist.



Gelato - YUM!

Back at our apartment we have been spending time on the internet, working on the blog, watching TV and reading. About 7:30 pm I make a light dinner. Last night we watched the latest Indiana Jones movie on television. Action films seem to be the most enjoyable to watch given the inadequacies of our Italian. Usually we are in bed reading by 11 pm and it is lights out before midnight.

As you can no doubt tell, for us this is a pretty relaxed vacation. It feels like the first one in a long time. Previously, we have had loads of chores to accomplish while in Italy and eight weeks has not seemed like nearly enough time. Right now we are really enjoying the lack of any pressure to see or do anything that we do not want to see or do.

Il Risorgimento - Italian Unification

Yesterday I spent the morning doing errands like grocery shopping and cleaning the bathroom. There is a nearby morning market with stall similar to what one might find at Pike Place Market in Seattle. However, the building is modern and it is indoors so is much less picturesque. Nonetheless, there are lots of vegetables to choose from and a macelleria (meat market) that I really like because it has a variety of prepared things such as stuffed peppers, Mexican chicken, breaded cutlets, etc. A regular, small grocery store is across the street so it is easy to get all the shopping done in one general location. On my way back I picked up sushi for lunch and also stopped for fresh bread at a bakery down the street.


After lunch (sushi for me and a mortadella panino for Dom), we headed off to the Scuderie del Quirinale. The Quirinale was once a papal palace, then the King of Italy’s Rome residence and now it is the Italian President’s home. The Scuderie is across the piazza from the palace and was once the stables and carriage house. It has been refurbished as a special exhibit hall although it still is a garage on the lower levels.

The current exhibit is I pittori del Risorgimento (Pictures of the Resurgance). Il Risorgimento is the name given to the Italian unification movement. The pictures shown were wonderful and Dom and I both agree that the accompanying descriptions of the various phases of unification were excellent. For the first time I feel I really understand the overall process.

Italian unification was a messy and drawn out. The first concrete attempt at unifying the peninsula occurred in 1849. Republics were established in Milan, Venice and Rome. However, they were short lived and the (mostly) foreign rulers soon quashed them.

In 1859 the daring of Guiseppe Garibaldi and the political acumen of Camillo di Cavour (Prime Minister of Piedmont) brought about nearly complete unification within 18 months. Garibaldi and his 1,000 soldiers sailed from Genoa to Sicily in 1860 and within months had brought Sicily and Southern Italy (the Kingdom of Naples) under the rule of King Victor Emmanuel II.

There was a third phase to the unification and that was the battle to free Venice from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1866 and the incorporation of the Papal States and Rome into the country. Most of the Papal States became part of Italy in 1860 but the Pope held out in Rome for another 10 years. At that time Rome became the capital of Italy.

If you want to learn more about Il Risorgimento check out this article, Uniting Italy, in Wanted in Rome, a local English language publication.

Because 2010 is the 150th anniversary of unification (1860 is considered the official year is “happened”) there are many exhibits related to Il Risorgimento at museums throughout Rome. We have enjoyed all those we have seen and there is one more we plan to view before we leave Rome.

It rained on our way to the Scuderie but when upon exiting the exhibit we found ourselves in a modern glass stairwell with a fabulous view across Rome. The rain had cleared the air out and it was shaping up to be a lovely sunset. 

View from Scuderie del Quirinale - double click to enlarge



Piazza del Quirinale

 

Looks like they packed for "sunny Italy"



Viterbo and Villa Lante

Viterbo garden

Viterbo street

Yesterday we took a road trip to Viterbo, a town about an hour north of Rome. Everyone talks about the Tuscan hill towns but few people know that there are a number of just as interesting hill towns in Lazio. Viterbo’s claim to fame is that it was the Vatican before there was a Vatican. In other words, it was home to a number of Popes and, at one time, it was a more important center of commerce and culture than Rome.

We found it to be similar to Lucca—a medieval walled city with lots of churches, museums, piazzas and fountains. We spent about half the day there strolling around, looking in churches, visiting the Ceramics museum (a dud) and just meandering.

At one church we arrived just as a funeral was finishing. It was close to noon and apparently the church closed at that time. We were about to leave the church when an elderly friar (there were about half a dozen around) took me by the hand and showed us the cloister where there was a beautiful fresco cycle depicting the life of St. Augustine. The friar (not as tall as me!) explained the scenes to us and told us that the missing panels were due to American bombing during WWII. The bombs actually fell in the nearby vegetable garden but the concussion knocked the plaster off the walls and one of the pillars around the cloister fell over. He had been a teenager then and experienced the bombing first hand! He was so nice and just loved showing us around even though another friar (his superior!) basically told him to hurry us along and come to lunch. It was one of those serendipitous encounters that are priceless.

We walked back to our car looking for a bar where we could stop for lunch. Unfortunately we didn’t find anything to our liking so we headed for our next stop, the town of Bagnaia and Villa Lante. It was quite the challenge getting out of the Viterbo area. There were cars everywhere. School children of all ages, with and without parents, were milling about, often in the street. Scooters zipped between the cars like lightening bugs in a field. Dom commented that Viterbo must be where Roman drivers came to study. I allowed as how it was probably where they came for graduate school.

In Bagnaia we had panini at a bar before exploring Villa Lante. It has a FABULOUS garden complete with a number of water features. I just loved it. It is very much in the Italian style—water features combined with neatly trimmed hedges and lawns, not a lot of flowers and accented with statuary and architectural elements. I took a lot of pictures of which those shown here are only a few.


Villa Lante - lower gardens



Villa Lante - lower gardens from above



Villa Lante - water feature in middle part of gardens



Villa Lante - Pegasus fountain



Villa Lante - it's easy to see that the gardens are several hundred years old



Villa Lante - been lounging around for quite some time...



Villa Lante - fountains at top of gardens

As I write this I can hear the cheering, chanting and horn blowing from the A.S. Roma game at the nearby Stadio Olimpico. This evening when we were on the tram coming back from the Centro Storico there were a lot of young men dressed in the gold and maroon team colors. It was a lot like being on a bus headed for Safeco Field or Husky Stadium. In the last few minutes it has become very quiet so it could be that the team has fallen behind. Both of the major Rome teams (Roma and Lazio) play at the stadium so we have heard a lot of this in the last two weeks.

Via Margutta, Trastevere and A REALLY Big Bird



Came across this on our way to have coffee yesterday!

Okay, I am way behind again. We are just doing too much to fully recap everything. Plus, I don’t know about you, but I am getting a little bored with the travelogue thing. So, here is a quick rundown of 10/13/10 and 10/14/10 and a funny story.


Via Margutta

Wednesday Dom still was not feeling 100% so we decided to keep things light (ha!). We took a couple of cards from our 50 Walks in Rome deck and explored some more of the Centro Storico. The only noteworthy spot we discovered was a street near the Spanish Steps—Via Margutta. In a little courtyard off of it can be found the location of Gregory Peck’s apartment in the film Roman Holiday. However, the entire street (it is only five or six blocks long) is charming. There is lots of ivy climbing up the palazzo and across the power lines so that it looks very sylvan. Many of the buildings are a faded terracotta color. There are interesting shops and at least one hotel that looks quite expensive. The street is definitely a hidden gem.

We also went to the Vittoriano complex and saw the Van Gogh exhibit that just opened there. It was a good overview of his career and the pictures displayed did an excellent job of showing how his style evolved. The audio guide was also good but too long.



View from Piazzale Garibaldi on Janiculum Hill

On Thursday we explored the Janiculum hill and Trastevere. We took two buses to Piazzale Garibaldi on top of the hill and discovered the wonderful view of Rome from up there. We just missed the noon cannon that is fired off every day but really enjoyed picking out all the famous sites from afar. In Trastevere we discovered the Museum of Rome in Trastevere where there was a wonderful exhibit of photographs from 1850-1900 showing scenes from incidents key to the battle for Italian Unification. There were paintings showing Rome street life as it was in the late 1800s and a number of life size dioramas showing different aspects of Roman life such as a tavern scene, a pharmacy scene, wine being delivered, etc. I always forget how picturesque Trastevere is until we get there. The narrow medieval streets are very photogenic so I took lots of them. An exhibit at the museum of very modern pictures inspired me to try to see things a little differently.

Trastevere

 

Trastevere



Trastevere Garage



Trastevere Medieval House

While we were riding the bus to the Vatican area on Monday Dom got very excited about a “REALLY big bird” he saw across the river. I looked out expecting to see an eagle or hawk or buzzard but did not see anything. A little while later he points out a billboard and says, “There’s the bird I was talking about.” I am completely puzzled because I don’t see any sort of bird perched on the billboard. He keeps saying “It’s on the billboard.” I am beginning to think he is seeing things because there is not so much as a pigeon perched on that billboard much less a BIG bird such as an eagle or hawk. Finally, Dom makes me understand that he is talking about the PICTURE of the bird on the billboard.

Now I am really confused because the picture is a cartoon rendering of a penguin. “That’s the bird I saw across the river,” Dom says. Now I think he must be losing it because there is no way he saw a live penguin in the middle of Rome. I just say “Okay” and we drop the subject.

On Tuesday, on our way back from Frosinone, we drove across the river to pick up our laundry. As we are passing by a large sports complex Dom exclaims, “There’s the bird I saw the other day!” I burst out laughing because what he was pointing to was a giant blow up version of the cartoon penguin on the billboard. All this time I thought he was talking about a real bird. Everything he said suddenly made sense. I thought it was all hysterically funny as did Dom once I explained what I had been thinking.

Yesterday we got off the bus near the giant penguin so I was able to take pictures. It advertises a seasonal ice rink that is set up there. We are still laughing about the “really big bird.”


"Release the penguin inside of you"

 

Dom and the REALLY big bird



Frosinone and Anzio

Frosinone

Yesterday (Monday), I was feeling better but Dom now seems to be suffering from my cold. So, we spent a rather quiet day catching up on business, doing a little grocery shopping and going for a short excursion to the area north of the Vatican. The latter was really a matter of catching a bus, taking a walk, having a drink, people watching and heading back to our apartment.

Today we set off fairly early to drive to Frosinone, a town about an hour south of Rome. Dom’s mother’s family came from the area so we wanted to check it out.

After stepping out for a cappuccino and pastry we came back to get the car and found someone parked in front of the gate to our parking place. We have noticed that this is rather common in Rome (double parking is rampant) and the accepted behavior seems to be to honk one’s car horn until the offender comes and moves his vehicle. The little white car was unlocked so Dom opened the door and laid on the horn. Although the owner did not show up, a number of other people stuck their heads out apartment windows to see what was happening. This included our landlord and his wife. She soon ran down and peered in the car.

Dom had already noticed that the owner’s wallet was lying on the floor of the front seat. When he mentioned that my first thought was someone came home late the night before completely plastered and just left the car in the first available spot. Our landlady hopped in the driver side, grabbed the wallet and started going through it. It did not seem to surprise her that it belonged to the doctor who has an office in the building we are in. She rolled her eyes and commented that he is not a very good doctor, as if this accounted for why he was double parked. She ran over to his ground floor office window and gave him the wallet and asked him to move the car. However, he was on the telephone so he gave his keys to a patient who was waiting outside. The patient moved the car.

As all this was happening I was hard pressed not to laugh out loud, especially when our landlord kept saying “This happens all the time in Rome.” With the way clear we got our car out. In the rear view mirror Dom could see the patient moving the doctor’s car back where it had been as we drove away. Luckily nothing was blocking the gate when we returned this evening.

The drive to Frosinone took us out of Rome past Tivoli to the east and then south through rolling hills and farmland. The look is very different than in Tuscany, more arid terrain and more modern architecture. There is also quite a bit of industry along the A1 autostrada in this area. However we arrived at Frosinone to find the core of it a classic Italian hill town.

The hill dominates the surrounding plain and because of this the town has existed since prehistoric times. We learned this after driving most of the way to the top of the hill, parking and walking up into the old medieval streets. One of the first things we saw as we began walking was a sign with the name Cestra on it. This was Dom’s mother’s maiden name!

At the top of the hill the main church in town, Santa Maria, was open so we went in and looked around. It and the surrounding streets are a bit schizophrenic being a combination of old architecture and modern. The exterior of the church looked old but most of the interior decoration is post WWII. A nice gentleman answered our questions about the age of the church and told us that the town was bombed during WWII. He also pointed us to the local archeological museum and another church in town. When we mentioned Dom had relatives from the area and the name Cestra, he told us it is a common name and there are lots of Cestras in the local phone book.

We visited the museum, a second church and then looked for a restaurant for lunch. The only one we found, when we had just about decided to look for one in the car, was excellent. It had a set menu of pasta, meat, vegetable, water and coffee for €10 each that was excellent, probably the best meal we have had since we arrived in Rome.

Old town gate

Santa Maria interior

Modern mosaic in apse

Black Madonna--one of the few older pieces

Santa Maria exterior

 

Santa Maria bell tower



Old street in Frosinone

This storefront reminded me of the remains of shops in Pompeii

Interior of second church in Frosinone--this one did not get bombed

 

Second church in Frosinone with Santa Maria bell tower behind

After lunch we decided to head to Anzio where there is a museum about the Allies landing during WWII. It was a nice drive through the hills towards the sea. Once through the hills the land was flat as a pancake the final 15 kilometers to the beach. It was easy to see why it was picked for the invasion.

The first thing we happened upon, in the town of Nettuno, was the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial. It is a beautiful facility, excellently maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission and very moving. We walked through up to the chapel and museum where there are large maps and clear explanations of the Allied campaigns in Sicily and mainland Italy.

Entrance to American Cemetery



Map explaining invasion at Anzio and related events



View of chapel/museum building from entrance



Graves



Chapel/museum building

One of two memorial gardens

Afterwards we went to Anzio and found the Beachhead Museum. It is interesting with lots of uniforms, equipment, news clippings and photographs. However, it is does not explain clearly what actually happened. I was glad we had been to the cemetery first so that we had a bit of an idea of the events in Anzio.

I drove back to Rome and the GPS took us an interesting route. It was rush hour in Rome so the driving was exciting. Romans seem to view the lane markings as suggestions and it is not uncommon to find two small cars side by side in a single lane. Then there are the motorcycles and scooters that dart around like hummingbirds. One never knows from which side they will approach and it can be particularly interesting if a scooter is coming up from behind on the right as one starts to make a right turn. I actually find Roman traffic challenging and a lot of fun.