Rome dispatches - our apartment, an aqueduct and buildings

We are in Rome and I have so much to share here that I hardly know where to start.  Here are a few initial thoughts and places.  Above is a random building.  The apartment buildings are so beautiful with their giant doors, shutters, balconies, pot plants, washing lines and colourful walls.  Rome is full of wonderful ancient remains and heritage buildings that integrate with modern life.

Even on the plane into Rome we could see that there were buildings of interest to be seen.  When you pay peanuts for RyanAir, you get seats so cheap they they can't even include a pocket in the back of the seat in front of us.  And getting up at 2.30am for early bird flights meant we were in a daze boarding the plane.  The views of the Swiss Alps and Rome made us look forward with excitement. 

 We got a train to Termini from the Ciampino airport but then gave up navigating public transport and took a taxi to our AirBnB apartment.  I was so outraged when the taxi driver charged us 20 Euros, at least twice what we should have paid, that I ended up accepting 13 Euros despite it including 3 Euros for taking our suitcases in the boot.  I am sure I have never been levied with a suitcase charge before.

Our apartment by the San Giovanni gates is lovely.  After almost a week in a hotel room, it is luxury to have a kitchen and extra room.   Not that we are using the kitchen much but we did buy a few things at the supermarket that need a fridge or microwave.

Our host is very friendly and helpful.  She showed us around the apartment and left us a little welcome pack with various savoury snacks and a bottle of wine.  I was most excited about the packet of Fonzies.  These brought back memories of my first trip to Rome over 20 years ago when I was missing home and found comfort in Fonzies because of their similarities to our Twisties in Australia.

The bedroom was welcoming with lots of pillows, cushions and towels in lovely calming greens.  Sylvia's penguin is enjoying it.  The living area also has a sofa bed.

The balcony overlooks two apartment buildings, one of which is scaffiolded.  There is a lot of roadwork and scaffolding in Rome.  When we arrived the apartment was so warn we had to open the doors to let in the fresh air.  We have mostly had the heater off.  In Melbourne we don't have much heating in winter and the central heating is Europe can be stuffy.

I include a picture of our bathroom because it is different to what I would expect in Australia.  We don't have bidets and I have never understood them.  I often have to navigate different shower systems when I travel but I was really confused by this shower.  It has four different places from which water can gush in jets.  I started by unsetting the water outlet and took a while to work out how to get it coming from the top.

Our favourite local cafe/restaurant/bakery so far is Molino (Via Appia Nuova 82), as recommended by our host.  They do wonderful focaccia but I would also love to taste their pizzas, which is also sold by weight.  And the sweet food looks wonderful.  They say the kitchen closes at 3pm but they are open in the evening so maybe it reopens.  

Times for cafes and shops in Rome are confusing.  I have noticed that quite a few places close for an hour or two in mid afternoon.  Perhaps this allows them to stay open later. 

We are staying very near to the Porta San Giovanni (gate) of the Aurelian Walls which were built almost 2000 years ago.  I am not sure if any changes have been made since but it is amazing that our 21st Century cars fit through these archways that I assume were built for chariots and horse drawn carts. Having said that, the Italian cars are like toy town compared to the profusion of hulking four wheel drives in Australia.  Small makes cars minimally less scary when walking on a pedestrian crossing in Rome; it is only for the bold.  And they seem to park wherever they can including all the things I have been taught not to do: double parking, parking right on a corner and parallel parking almost bumper to bumper.

The line of Aurelian or city walls built along from the San Sebastian Gate is quite intact.  I walked along it in the Giardini Viale Carlo Felice.  These are narrow gardens but pleasant and I will write about my walk there to the Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.  I was amazed to find that there is a dog park by the walls.  Can you spot the dog peering through the fence?  I also love the Roman water taps, though not that the ones that continually spout water.

This gate is near the Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.  I was attracted to how colourful it was with the wire work which is studded with colourful stones.

We have been to heart of the old city to see the Trevi Fountain and eat pasta.  More on that later.  But the buildings everywhere we looked were amazing.

On our way back from the Trevi Fountain to the Metro station we passed  a department store called Rinascente and Sylvia dragged me in.  She has been checking out some off-the-beaten-track sights that were once found in Lonely Planet but now are more likely to be found on Tik Tok.  In the basement of this store is a an aqueduct called the Acqua Virgo, which was built between 25 to 19 BC and supplied water to the first public baths in Rome.  This was discovered in 2017 so I don't feel like I should have seen this on my first trip to Rome about 20 years ago.

It was exciting enough to see the aqueduct in a high end but on top of that it was great to see the light show that superimposed images of ancient architecture and maps over the ancient stones.  I loved it and tried to take photos but they lack the fluid changes between images.  One minute it was a simple 2D line drawing of the archways.

The next moment there is a more complex image of the aqueduct and buildings.

Or there is an drawing of a building.  (Unfortunately I did not take the details of the titles that gave more information.)

 The picture would then morph into the interior of the building with gorgeous mosaic floors.

If light shows on ancient aqueducts don't get you excited, maybe you would prefer to check out the details of this manger seen in the Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio a Trevi Baroque church.  Sylvia was keen to move on so I could not linger to find out if it was not yet packed up after Christmas or there for another reason.  I'll be back soon with more on Rome.