May 22
The day started with a suburban train ride from our hotel two stops to the Roma station in Trastevere (bottom of map). The hotel desk guy told us that the walk from the station to the Basilica of Our Lady in Trastevere was 10 minutes so we figured the way we walk it would be 20 minutes. Well, look at the map. It took us just over an hour as we missed the turn and walked a little further north before turning left. Luckily there was a very nice Piazza with a fountain, and we sat there for at least 20 minutes to rest.
The Basilica was worth the walk though. The nicest part was, that since it’s off the beaten path, there weren’t too many tourists. Every place we visited yesterday was wall-to-wall people, but we spent a good portion of the day on the southwest side of the Tiber which is not as popular. Most people only spend 2-3 days in Rome (especially those doing the “Tourist Triangle: Rome, Florence and Venice) and they’re so busy doing the must-see attractions they don’t make it to anything else.
After the Basilica we headed to the Basilica of Sainte Cecilia, which according to Rick Steves, is one of the most beloved churches in Rome. St. Cecilia lived in the 1st or 2nd century AD and is the patroness of musicians. Compared to many other churches we’ve seen in Europe this one was rather understated but beautiful all the same.
On our way back to the river we popped into the Church of Saint Rita. It just happened to be her festival day, so the tiny church was packed. We only stayed for a moment but were glad we did as it was very pretty.
Then we headed back to the busy side of the Tiber to visit the Piazza del Campidoglio which was designed by Michaelangelo. We had to climb quite a few stairs but the view from the top of Capitoline Hill was worth the climb.
The Piazza is outside the Capitoline Museums, and that was our last stop for the day. It’s the first attraction we went to where we actually had to pay an entrance fee. It had some great stuff in it including pieces of the Temple of Jupiter which was rebuilt in 83BC after the original was destroyed by fire. It was very cool to see.
I needed to rest quite a bit today, sitting down for a few minutes every chance I got. Peter was also pretty tired, so we called it a day fairly early, having a nice dinner shortly after 4:30 pm. Since you can sit in a restaurant forever without anyone bothering you to leave, we stayed for almost an hour before heading home.
The bus and metro were PACKED so it was a long ride home. We’re tired and my foot aches but we very much enjoyed our relatively low-key day. Tomorrow we’re off on a day trip to Ostia Antica, a large archeological site about 30 minutes outside Rome. It’s right on the sea so we’re hoping for a clear, sunny day just like today…it was beautiful. We’ll let you know how it goes.