And now, the long-awaited final update on our trip to Italy! Our last day was to be a travel day: from Rome to Milan, a quick overnight, and then an early trip to the Milan airport the following morning. Nonetheless, we still managed to do a bit of sightseeing.

Leaving the AirBnB in Rome

Mostly we were revisiting the previous highlights, and wandering the city center, down different streets than before. Our number one goal was to see the Pantheon again. It was raining very lightly, and in a way that was good. I’d wondered what the inside of the Pantheon looks like in the rain. After all, the lighting comes from a big hole in the ceiling. Does the floor just get wet?

Inside the Pantheon, during a rain shower

Yes, it does. The center was roped off in the rain, and watching the water stream from the dome reinforced just how large the structure is (and remember, it was built in 126 AD). Of course, we also had to order another granita, the super-strong iced coffee, from the coffeeshop around the corner.

Wine on the front steps of the Pantheon

A few days earlier we’d picked up some cheap supermarket wine, and on leaving our AirBnB apartment, we’d emptied the wine bottle into a canteen, to fortify us for the train trip. Who could resist a few gulps on the front porch of one of the most famous buildings in human history?

Coffee vending machine!

Wandering further around the city, we passed some familiar sites, such as the reputed assassination sight of Julius Caesar, and some unfamiliar sights, such as the column of Marcus Aurelius (now adjacent to a shopping mall).

A street protest

Near the train station in Rome, we finally got a chance to see another long-awaited authentic Italian sight: a street protest. Sure, it wasn’t a strike, but it’s gotta count for something, right?

The return trip to Milan was sad… but also a little bit of a relief. I didn’t much look forward to returning to work and boring everyday life. But on the other hand, we’d packed an awful lot of action into two weeks, and I was ready for a break. A break in Lucca probably would have been better than NYC, but we only get so many vacation days every year.

I actually really enjoyed the little bit of Milan that we saw that night near the AirBnB. Somewhat outside the city center, it had a very NYC feel, with wide streets and lots of taxis. The apartment where we were staying was a huge old place; an older Italian woman lived there and rented out two bedrooms. It certainly felt like the most authentic place we stayed, though I suppose it was also the most rough around the edges.

Bedroom of the AirBnB in Milan

I also got to have a real Italian conversation. Though I’d studied Italian for a few months prior to making the trip, I hadn’t really spoken much, due in part to my natural shyness, and also to people’s tendency to switch to English pretty quickly. I’d enjoyed the study, but now I could talk to someone who spoke no English, and I could get by. It was really rewarding.

Lego pavilion

We left very early the next morning, winding through the streets and standing at a coffeeshop counter to grab an early-morning cup of espresso. On the way to the Milan train station, we passed by the Sforza Castle, the first tourist sight we’d seen in Italy. Now it was quiet, and cold, and shrouded in mist. Across the street, where there had been a book convention two weeks earlier, stood a blow-up Lego pavilion, ready for the next event.

And then, reluctantly, we went into the train station, to return to America.

After almost a week in Rome, we still had one sight left: the Vatican. Is it in Rome? Well, kinda. Technically, it’s not, but it’s more or less embedded in the city.

Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. It’s 100 acres, 1/8 the size of Central Park. There’s some gardens, but much of the country is covered by museums and St Peter’s Cathedral, the largest church building in the world.

We’d gotten some advice from fellow tourists on our Tuscan wine tour, and purchased a tour of the Vatican necropolis: this allowed us to skip the long entry line that snakes outside the Vatican walls. The whole Vatican neighborhood is fascinating – more diverse groups of people than just about any site, and lots of nuns and priests. It felt different from the rest of Rome.

Our tour was pretty bad. Certainly the worst tour we took in Italy. Our guide was an elderly German lady, with a lamentable sense of humor (the only smile or laugh we got out of her was when she saw a seagull sitting on the head of a statue in the Vatican gardens, which she considered hilarious). I was pretty disappointed in this, as I’d heard good things about the tour and the necropolis in particular.

Vatican necropolis

The necropolis was pretty cool, but I think we had a different perspective on it after our tour in Ostia Antica the day before. There are several necropolises in the Vatican, representing Roman Empire-era burials. The necropolis we saw was discovered when the Vatican tried to increase the depth of its parking garages. It functions as a sort of combination museum/excavation, with archaeologists actively digging out the graves and memorials. Visitors walk on airy corridors suspended above skeletons and mausoleums. There was some sense of “been there,” because we’d seen something similar outside of Ostia. But on the other hand, it was a chance to see a much better-preserved site, one with everything pretty much intact. Most interesting was that the necropolis was in several haphazard layers crisscrossing like an MC Escher painting: a mudslide would cover one layer and people would build a new layer above the previous one.

Vatican Life, brah

After the (frankly exhausting) tour, we took a break and went to a Vatican cafeteria. Imagine my shock at discovering that they served beer right in the cafeteria. Time to get hammered in Vatican City!

Next stop were the museums. There’s an awful lot of these in the Vatican, and we decided to rush through them. We’d been viewing museums for two weeks, after all. And there was a lot to see.

Laocoon and his Sons

Of the sculptures and paintings, I was most excited to see the Laocoon Group. I’d somehow imagined that this sculpture was enormous (I’d pictured it set atop the temple of Berlin’s Pergamonmusem. But the sculpture is roughly life-sized: tiny compared to my expectations.

Of course, the highlight of the museum section is the Sistine Chapel. It’s woven into the museums: you go down some stairs and then WHAM, Sistine Chapel. The most peculiar part of the Chapel is that there’s no photos allowed. Which sounds nice, but security guards are constantly running around yelling at people not to take pictures, which is almost more disruptive than if they took pictures to begin with. The walls of the room are ringed with benches, and we were lucky enough to grab a seat while we listened to a Rick Steves audioguide.

It’s damn exhausting looking at the ceiling for 20 or 30 minutes and a literal pain in the neck. Michelangelo was supposed to have painted the whole thing standing on scaffolding – not laying down. But then, he was a weird guy: he never showered or bathed, and wore his boots to bed, never taking them off, until they fell apart. And he was a real dick.

Anyway, the Sistine Chapel is great, and it’s both different from and similar to how you might imagine it, and well worth a stop if you just happen to find yourself in the Vatican…

Our final tourist sight for the day was St Peter’s Basilica. This is the largest church building in the world. Entry is free, but the line is huge. Luckily, the weather was stunning, and there’s a big courtyard in front used for Papal addresses with lots to see (a photo of this is at the top of the post).

Big babies in St Peter’s

I can say that St Peter’s was undoubtedly the most awe-inspiring building I’ve ever been in. Like the Mines of Moria, or any of those fantasy paintings with people inside unbelievably large structures. It was so large that clever Renaissance steps were taken to combat perspective and make it feel smaller than it actually is. For instance, sculptures are made larger the higher they are, to make them appear closer. The first few European cathedrals I visited felt large… but this was just on a different scale. I couldn’t get used to it.

The letters in the thin band above the columns are six feet high!

And to top it all off, Michelangelo’s Pietà is inside. It’s really as beautiful in person as you’d expect. It brought me back to my 7th grade world culture class. The backdrop behind the sculpture was exactly the same, like a school textbook left over from the 1970s.

Nutella-ricotta calzone

Leaving the Vatican, we returned to our home base of Trastevere. We’d had some of the best food of our trip here, and why not have something we knew we liked on our last night in Rome?

Conquered

First stop was the pizza place we’d been to on our first night. We made an RSVP, grabbed a beer around the corner, and returned to sit at a table outside the restaurant. A little chilly, but the food was good (potato pesto pizza, and a 5 cheese pizza). For dessert, we split a Nutella calzone.

“Bucket of everything”

Then, around the corner to Baylon Cafe, the place where the bartender invented drinks for us (or, at least, tested drinks on us). It wasn’t quite up to the previous experience, but these still the best drinks I’d had. I’d have to say my favorite was an apricot drink with cashews on the rim. Thus fortified, we returned to our apartment to prepare for our last day in Rome, and our return to Milan.

Reading about ancient civilizations leaves you with a lot of questions, but perhaps the biggest is: what was life in these civilizations like? Was it comparable to modern life? What was it like to live in the average Roman city? What did 90% of the citizens of the empire see on a daily basis? What was it like to walk from your insulae, or apartment block, to the local theatre? You can see Rome itself, or any of the many colonies, but they’ve been inhabited for two thousand years, or longer (Rome itself has been inhabited for more than 2700 years). During that time, the city transmutes: the old city is slowly wiped away and a new one takes its place. It’s difficult to get a feel for what the city felt like before everything changed.

I really wanted to see a city that hadn’t changed so much over time – one where you could walk the original streets and see everyday buildings. There’s many cities like this: Pompei’i comes to mind, and was the city we’d most considered before arriving in Italy. But it’s a very long trip from Rome – a very full day trip. And, it’s reputed to be incredibly crowded. Searching for alternatives, I read about Ostia Antica, which is a half hour train ride away in a suburb of Rome near the Mediterranean coast. I’m so glad I stumbled on that recommendation, because it was the highlight of the trip for me, and a really magical experience.

Map of the excavated city

Ostia was the port of Rome for much of the city’s imperial history. Eventually it fell into disuse as the harbor silted up, and was finally abandoned and covered with successive layers of debris until the original city was completely hidden. It was re-discovered and used for marble during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, and there were extensive excavations under Mussolini. Since the 60s, there have been modern, scientific excavations that are still ongoing.

View down one street

I’ve seen a fair number of “lost cities,” but mostly in the American southwest: pueblos, kivas, and so on. All these sites take about 10 minutes to circumnavigate. They’re fascinating for what they are, but amount to a tiny village supporting 300-500 people, with 30-40 buildings. Thus, I was totally unprepared for the extent of the ruined city. At its height, Ostia had 100,000 inhabitants. It was the port that connected Rome to the outside world. These aren’t some limited ruins. There’s miles of them.

Trees and former shops near the entrance

We arrived in Ostia in the late morning on Thanksgiving day. The site is a 5-minute walk from the local train station, down a quiet street. The place was deserted: pay the sleepy guard an entry fee and you’re inside and on your own. We started slow: I wanted to savor the experience of seeing an authentic Roman town. Inside the gates, the first thing you see is the necropolis.

Roman cities didn’t have integrated cemetaries, or even cemetaries that functioned as parks: rather, bodies were buried outside of city limits, usually in mausoleums, which grew understandably crowded until they almost became cities themselves. These necropolises were the first thing to greet ancient travelers, and I guess they still are.

Past this, there were the ruins of the old gates and a small square. Not knowing the scope of the site, I figured this was basically everything. Maybe a theatre a little bit down the original Roman road. How wrong I was.

Archaeologists preserving the mosaics

One of the highlights of Ostia was seeing the baths: a part of every Roman city, there were multiple baths spread among the ruins, each covered with wonderful mosaics. It was remarkable seeing the artwork up close and in situ. Up one staircase, with a good view, we could look down at archaeologists preserving the largest extant mosaic in the city. It was madness to imagine Romans walking across the very floor of the room two thousand years ago.

There was also a huge theater: a few small pieces of fresco and plaster still hung inside one of the entries. The theater opened up on a huge temple square, also covered with diverse mosaics and grottoes around the edges that were used by merchants.

For the entire time we were visiting the city, I think we saw 15-20 groups of people. I attribute this to it being November, the site not being very well known (at least, compared to everything else in or near Rome), and the mixed weather: although the day started beautiful, it grew more cloudy until rain started in mid-afternoon. We stopped at midday to eat lunch at the mediocre Ostia cafe (some lasagna, chili potato chips, and espresso). Near the cafe, they had partially cut stones: columns that were still emerging from the marble blocks they were transported to Ostia inside. This method of transport was common, because it prevented the marble from breaking or shattering in transit.

Amphorae

The cafe was near the river and, like in other ports, there were also huge warehouses. Here, though, they were full of enormous amphorae, the large jugs used to store oil and other supplies.

About two thirds of the through the site, after walking for maybe a mile through the ruins, the road forked into a huge Y. Here it really emptied out: we didn’t see anyone. Further out, the ruins were even more cool than in the main part of town: there were several buildings that still had frescoes inside, with the original paint intact. The Roman aesthetic on these frescoes was totally different from any sort of modern artwork. Sparse, with gaudy colors, and frankly ugly from the modern perspective. I think this was to compensate for the lack of adequate interior lighting.

We wandered around for quite a while, checking out all these buildings, before the weather turned.

Hail!

After the rain grew more severe and began to pour, it even hailed for a little while. We took shelter under some of the ruins (you can walk inside) and waited out the weather, which passed after just half an hour. Stepping out, we saw a full-on double rainbow. It was almost a triple rainbow!

FULL ON DOUBLE RAINBOW

After the magic of seeing a double rainbow, the sky began to clear, and the setting sun made the remaining clouds glow. We found a great overlook to see some amazing views.

Great views

There was little wildlife around, but one cool local resident was a pheasant, which we chased around the ruins for a little while before it took flight.

Pheasant

I’d have loved to stay longer, but unfortunately it was getting dark, and the rangers started herding us out of Ostia. In all I think we spent about 6 hours there, but I’d have been happy spending twice as long. I think we honestly only saw half of what the ancient city had to offer.

Soccer field

Walking back to the train station, sky deepening to indigo, we passed a dirt field with kids playing soccer. What could be more Italian than soccer next to an ancient Roman city?

Thanksgiving dinner

Returning to Rome itself, we still had to celebrate Thanksgiving day, and decided to celebrate in proper Pilgrim fashion by eating Indian food.

After our very busy day surveying the ruins of Rome, we took a slower day to meander around the city – a day that it rained, so we mostly wandered between museums and cafes.

Trastevere garage

The day started by moving to our new AirBnB location, a wonderful back room rented from a German artist. We’d wanted to split our time in Rome between two places, because we weren’t sure whether one of them would be noisy or otherwise problematic, and didn’t want our whole stay to be ruined. This street was really cute, and there were a ton of nice restaurants and coffeeshops nearby. The front was a combined studio and gallery, but the back room was private and quiet.

The holes in the theatre were created during the middle ages, as locals drilled for iron that bound the stones together.

Settled in, we left Trastevere. We hadn’t spent much time on the west bank of the main city, and during some wandering around, we found a peculiar ruin: the Teatro di Marcello. The cool thing about this building was that the bottom, Roman, layer, had a brick layer of apartments right on top. A neat place to rent.

Friendly visitor on top of the Emanuele Vittorio monument

Back in the main forum area, we got caught in some heavy rain and took shelter inside the huge Vittorio Emanuele II monument, which is also a WWI museum, and which has a cafe with great views on top.

Inside the Trajan’s Market complex

When the rain let up, we went across the street to Trajan’s Market, a museum in a large multi-story complex of ruins reputed to be the world’s first shopping mall. To be honest, the museum was pretty lacking – the rooms incoherent, no clear plan. But the building was ancient, with dramatic views from the top.

Trajan’s Column

Everything here is so close – churches, ruins, monuments. We saw Trajan’s Column (we’d walked past it a few times). I vividly remember learning about it in 7th grade history, but it’s a shame you can’t get close enough to get a good look at the reliefs.

Baths of Caracalla

Our final stop was way far out, past the Circus Maximus: the Baths of Caracalla. It was actually really late by the time we got there, and the baths were closed. But we could go around the walls, the most imposing Roman structure that we saw. The complex, built by the cruel emperor Caracalla around 200, was the second largest set of baths in Rome. They were so large that they took 6 years to build – requiring the transport of 2,000 tons of material for every single day of those 6 years. That’s impressive.

View from behind the Baths of Caracalla gates

We got a bit lost at this point, in the pouring rain, but we made it back to our apartment. The next day, we’d visit what was, for me, the highlight of our trip: Ostia Antica.

Before leaving for Italy, Alex and I had talked about taking a few tours. We’d signed up for the one in Tuscany, but I’d also signed up for a surprise tour – one of the Colosseum and Palatine. I suspected that these sights wouldn’t be a great experience on their own, because without any context, it’s just a lot of ruins.

The downside was the we had to wake up early, but we got a good view of the triangle marked off by the Colosseum, forum and Palatine hill while it was quiet, without too many non-commuter crowds.

We met at the subway/bus stop outside the Colosseum; our tour group was about 10 people, all American except for a Malaysian couple. Our guide was a very energetic Rome native (one who had strong opinions about Italian government).

The Colosseum is now a Christian holy sight, because there’s a legend that Christians were persecuted there.

The first stop was the Colosseum. You see a lot of pictures of the Colosseum, and digital representations in movies like Gladiator, but I guess I’d never really tried to visualize what it would be like. It managed to be both bigger and smaller than I expected. Bigger, because the outside really dominates the area around it. Smaller, because the inside was cozier than i expected (even though it was large). It felt smaller than the Colosseum represented in Gladiator.

First off, the Colosseum is in the middle of a traffic circle. There really aren’t any stores or restaurants or apartments nearby, just a busy street and a lot of ruins. The inside is raw: there’s a small section with reproduction flooring and sand, but most is in an un-reconstructed state. It works great as a museum, and to visualize what sort of hell it must have been in the corridors underneath the floor. But, on the other hand, it’s difficult to imagine what the Colosseum would have looked like in its heyday. This was in contrast to the arena in Verona, which is still in use.

The forum

From the Colosseum, it’s a short walk to the Palatine. This was one of my favorite spots in Rome. It functions as a sort of giant park, but also a huge archaeological site. The Palatine hill is one of the famous seven hills of Rome, and the one that was used as a residence for the Roman emperors (due in part to its proximity to the forums). From the word ‘Palatine,’ we get the English word ‘palace’ (Italian: ‘palazzo’).

Our guide

It’s a peaceful place, quiet, with a lot of interesting views (after all, it’s on a hill). You can see the Circus Maximus, the Colosseum, and even the Vatican, from various locations.

Two sights in particular stuck out for me. First, there’s a small section of the throne room. It’s not something that you often hear about, if you read about Rome. It just somehow escapes notice. But of course, there must have been at least one throne room, and in fact, it’s possible to stand in the location where the throne was located. That was very cool to me, picturing Marcus Aurelius or Trajan in the same spot where I stood.

Romulus’ hut. You can see holes from where the poles were dug.

Second, there’s a claustrophobic group of stone ruins on the far side of the Palatine, covered with an aluminium roof. This was the mythical hut of Romulus, the founder of Rome. The hut was diligently maintained by the ancient Romans. Although the founding of Rome is shrouded in myth, archaeologists believe this was inhabited around the time that Rome was founded, or maybe by the Etruscans before. I loved seeing a spot that the Romans considered so important.

After the sack of Rome, Visigoths unsuccessfully attempted to pull down these columns (you can see where the chains dug into the stone). Those coming after the Roman empire couldn’t even destroy what the Romans had built.

Heading down from the hill, we got an inside view of one section of the forum (half of the forum requires an entry fee; the other half is free. The forum is bisected by a huge road constructed by Mussolini). It’s simply impossible to visualize what this area looked like at any point in time. There’s structures at various heights and from various periods, in all sorts of disarray. During the middle ages, this area was deserted, and silted over when the Tiber flooded; herds of animals grazed here while the population of the depleted city lived across the river, near the Vatican.

Julius Caesar’s cremation site

Two more sites of interest in this area were the mound where Julius Caesar’s body was burned (the mound is still visible – people throw coins on it for good luck). Also, there’s a prominent nearby location where Mark Antony gave a speech to the people of Rome.

After leaving the Palatine hill, we grabbed a quick lunch (more pizza for me), before taking a walk to the Pantheon. We’d seen the outside, at night, but now it was time to check out the inside.

The Pantheon is widely known as one of the architectural marvels of the world. The inside is basically a huge poured-concrete dome with an open center to provide light. The dome was great – but of course they’re relatively common these days. More exciting to me, was a chance to get a look inside one of the best-preserved Roman buildings in the world. The Romans employed a huge variety of marbles in their construction (something we’d seen around the other ruins), and the Pantheon was preserved mostly intact as a Christian church.

Granita!

Just around the corner is a great coffee shop: Tazza d’Oro (Gold Cup). I’d read they had great granita, and this was one of the food highlights of our trip. Granitas are like a layer cake, where the layers are crystallized espresso and whipped cream. The coffee flavor was just incredibly intense, but balanced out by the sweetness of it all. Really strong!

Parrot acros the Tiber (they’re common in the Vatican)

Next, we crossed the Tiber and walked around the parks there – seeing, among other things, miniature horses, parrots, the Vatican, memorials to Italian independence, the Spanish consulate, and a merry-go-round.

Mason jar tiramisu

After dinner (generic Italian food; tiramisu), we stopped at a fancy bar. They served all sorts of mixed drinks and cocktails. We had several rounds.

Round 1

We started on the menu, but one of the bartenders came over to take our order for the next round. “Do you have any suggestions from the menu?” we asked. “I wrote the menu.” So, we let him choose for us.

Round 2

For several rounds. I think he was trying out some new drinks that were off-menu. There were at least three amazing drinks: a mint julep with Saint Germain, a cinnamon rum drink, and a lemon daquiri. There were some other tasty drinks, but these were absolutely amazing. We agreed that our bartender was a genius.

Final Round

And had quite a bit to drink. When we left the bar, there was a crowd of maybe 10 people outside, drinks raised, clustered around the bartender, who was giving some sort of speech. Cheers!

To travel from Lucca to Rome by train takes about 4 hours. The train goes through Pisa and then along the Mediterranean coast for some distance, before veering inland. Your mental image of Italy might be a flat plain, but much of the country is hilly or mountainous (not ‘mountains’ in the sense of the Rockies or Andes, but at least rocky enough not to be arable.

In some sense, Rome was the reason we chose to visit Italy. After all, it was the history of the Roman Empire and Republic that drove much of their history (and the part of Italy’s history that was most innately interesting to me was that of the Roman Republic and Empire, not the Renaissance). And Rome is one of the greatest cities in the world, standing right alongside New York, London and Tokyo. We’d scheduled almost half of our trip (6 days) in Rome and the surrounding areas. Now, leaving Lucca, we sped towards the eternal city.

Typical Roman city street

What of the physical geography of Rome? We couldn’t even begin to see all of Rome in a single visit, but stayed in a few major sections. Overall, Rome is divided into rough Eastern and Western halves by the Tiber river. The bulk of the city lies on the Eastern half, including the old city, which contains many of the most prominent ruins (as well as being the tourist district). This part of the city inludes the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps, along with lots of fancy shops and museums.

We stayed at two AirBnBs in the southwestern part of the city, in the district of Trastevere. This was described to us as the “Roman Brooklyn,” a somewhat less visited artistic district with more community, winding streets, vines on the buildings. The northwest of Rome is separated from Trastevere by a longish park and hill; the whole area is dominated by the Vatican, and there are a great many priests and nuns on the streets.

Roman Layers – Caesar was supposedly assassinated here

In terms of feel, Rome was totally distinct from other cities. It is, after all, a city that has been continuously occupied for over 2500 years, and which was the dominant city in the western world for much of that time. Because of this, there are a ton of layers. Many buildings are half Roman Empire, half modern office building. Apparently Freud had some deep fear of the layers in Roman cities – of all the things that had happened under his feet. If you suffer from OCD and want a clean, orderly city, avert your eyes.

To make matters worse, in stark contrast to every other Roman city, the streets are very disorderly throughout the city. This is because the city was sacked by barbarians very early in the history of the Roman Republic, and the Romans – only one of many powerful Italian groups – rebuilt very quickly. In contrast, most other Roman cities were based on army garrisons, which were laid out in incredibly strict grids.

The Circus Maximus – now basically an empty field.

Arriving in Rome, we passed through the Circus Maximus and crossed over the Tiber, making a beeline for our first AirBnB location. This was on a very busy street, bookended by playgrounds and with lots of people. It felt like one of the outer burroughs of NYC… so a bit like Brooklyn. We had a real moment of horror trying to find the building, before realizing that streets in Rome are numbered so that one side increases and the other decreases – like Boustrophedon (at least, this one was).

Crossing the Tiber

After dropping off our bags, we went out to take a look around. At this point I had some waking nightmare that the Pantheon, which had stood for two thousand years, would somehow collapse before we arrived. Thankfully, it was still standing. Our first mission was to eat, and we found a spectacular pizza place nearby on a little side street. We got a pesto pizza and Alex’s first calzone. This was undoubtedly my favorite pizza place of the 6-7 we tried in Italy – and it had some stiff competition. The crust was great, and there was a ton of cheese and tasty toppings including cherry tomatoes and potato. We’d return towards the end of our stay for an even better meal.

Awesome pizza and calzone

Next, totally bloated and overwhelmed, we crossed the Tiber to check out the old city. It’s relatively compact, and there’s a few major sights in this area: the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish steps. Although the sights were pretty, the only one that I really loved was the Pantheon (and it’s the inside that’s impressive – it was closed at night). To me, this area felt impersonal and really seemed to cater to wealthy Americans looking to live it up in fancy hotels. But it was nice to see at night while it was quiet out.

The Pantheon

We ended up visiting the Pantheon three times: at night, during the day, and during rain. It was accessible and near where we were staying. That first night, it wasn’t very impressive.

Vittorio Emanuele II monument

Next, we headed to the Trevi Fountain. Thankfully, we knew in advance that it was closed, and basically the entire face was covered in scaffolding. It hadn’t been on my ‘to-see’ list anyway, but it was between the Pantheon and Spanish Steps.

The Spanish Steps were pretty overwhelming… as far as steps go. We sat around in this area for a while. Even late at night, it was overwhelmed with hawkers trying to shove roses at us face, or little rubber band helicopters. While we were sitting on the third flight of stairs, two guys showed up one flight below us. With bongos.

Standoff at the Spanish Steps

I’m not a huge fan of bongos. I don’t think many people are. And this guy wasn’t particularly good, just a hippy-type looking to make noise. His friend say next to him and watched him play. Thus, it was perhaps the highlight of the night when a police car showed up and a cop got out and told the guy to shut up. The bongo-ing stopped, and cop went back to the car. It was clear the bongo guy was just waiting for the cop to leave, and the cop was staying.

This Mexican standoff continued for the duration of time we were at the steps, which was quite a while.

After that, exhausted from wandering around, we wandered back to the apartment to get enough sleep for another busy day in Rome.

You probably haven’t heard of Lucca. That’s because it has no major tourist sites, little historical significance, and the only internationally renowned Lucchesi was an opera composer, Puccini. In spite of this – or because of it – it was my favorite city in Italy.

Dog on a bike, Lucca walls

That’s because of the people, the sense of community, the streets, and the cookies.

When we stepped on the train in Florence, we’d already spent about a week in Italy, seeing dozens of churches, museums and other culturally enriching sights. How exhausting. We were ready for a break – to sit back, relax, and people-watch for a few days. Before arriving in Italy, we hadn’t made any reservations, and variously considered Siena, Pistoia or another night in Florence before settling on Lucca. We spent two days there, on the way from Florence to Rome.

Lucca is a city of 100,000, just north of Pisa, on the western coast of Italy about an hour from Florence. It’s not a seaside town – it lies nestled between mountains that shield it from the coast – but it’s close enough to attract seagulls.

AirBnB loft

We stayed in an AirBnB in a quiet pocket near the center of town, and this was a real BnB experience. The apartment was not in somebody’s home – an employee rode a bicycle to the door and let us in. And there was a woman each morning who prepared food for us (fruit salad, cappuccino, coffee, toast, yogurt), as part of the deal staying there. We even got seconds on the cappuccinos.

On top of the walls at night

The sole distinguishing tourist feature of the city are the walls which surround it – it’s the only city with intact Renaissance walls in Italy. These separate the main city from the adjacent suburban areas; they’re roughly 30 feet tall, about 40 feet wide, formed mostly of earth embankments with all the features prescribed by state-of-the-art 16th century military science – enfilades, glacis, batteries. They’re remarkably intact, and nowadays function as a gigantic park around the city.

The area enclosed by the walls, which we never left except to get to the train station, is about 1.5 miles long and 1 mile wide. We explored this entire area during our stay: it’s really not that big and highly walkable. Cars are few and far between.

Shopping district, Lucca

We stayed Friday and Saturday night, and both nights the town grew crowded as people from the surrounding area drove to the walls, parked, and walked in for a stroll (the ‘passegiatta’). The northwestern quarter of the city is a shopping district, crammed with clothing stores, restaurants and bars, and the crowds were shoulder-to-shoulder. It might have been annoying, but was instead charming. There were lots of kids playing, most of the people were Italian, and it felt like the whole city was out and about, spending the night together. These streets were mostly clear of cars, and we walked on the streets, though occasionally everyone had to move aside so an errant driver could get past.

Piazza Napoleone

Eventually this network of streets opened up to a large courtyard, the Piazza Napoleone (Napoleon conquered the city, and liked it so much he installed his sister as the leader – the “Queen of Etruria”). The Piazza was filled with teenagers and children running around, having a good time. It was charming.

Chickpea cookies – tasted like licorice

In the center of the Piazza was a merry-go-round – these were quite popular across Italy. There were also some huge street vendor stands selling cookies and candies, including popular chickpea cookies – we grabbed a huge bag of these and ate them all in one sitting (having some fun in the process).

Duckface

While in Lucca, we visited two minor tourist attractions: the anfiteatro and the Guinigi Tower.

Anfiteatro

The anfiteatro dates back from Roman days, though the original structure is long gone. Instead, it stands as a reminder of the city’s history. Anfiteatro is Italian for amphitheater, but the area is now an open square, surrounded by small shops and restaurants, with no amphietheatre left behind. It has a unique oval shape: this is all that remains of the original Roman structure. When the building was eventually torn down, this square was left behind. Even the buildings are curved – unusual now that we’re used to seeing rectangular structures. This was right around the corner from our AirBnB, and practically deserted.

Meanwhile, the Guinigi tower is different from other Italian towers, such as those in San Gimignano. Although many of those towers are still standing, they look different than they used to: they originally had trees or gardens on top. The Guinigi tower still does, and is as close a thing as the city has to an iconic landmark. It also offers great views and solitude – not that the city proper was noisy or crowded. We spent a while on top, met a friendly Italian family who wanted to practice their English, and watched the seagulls and cats below.

Down the stairs in the Guinigi tower.

We also toured the walls. We rented bikes (pretty cheap – the guy who rented them out was easy-going). We did a bit of riding, but the top of the walls were so crowded in the weekend afternoon that it was nerve-wracking to ride anywhere. We mostly ended up walking, and should have gone for a ride earlier in the day. Next time!

Fancy wine magazine

Overall, Lucca was charming, super-quiet (except for shopping), and a great intermission between two overwhelming cities. Thus, for our vacation it was my favorite city in Italy, and the one where I’d most like to live.

When we booked our rooms for Florence, way back in October, we made the classic beginner’s mistake of misreading the dates and booking one night too few. Thankfully, we realized this early on, so it didn’t catch us by surprise. We’d put an unscheduled day between Florence and Rome, at some undecided location (so as not to plan out every single day of the trip – we could go somewhere that caught our fancy). Now we had two nights to play with.

Personally I was pretty happy about this – I didn’t get much sleep in Florence next to the highway in our noisy room. And I think we’d both agree that it worked out well, because Lucca turned out to be our favorite city in Italy.

Our noisy room

Before we headed there, though, we had a half day left in Florence. What to do? How about two churches and a museum? And getting a nice view of the city?

Leaving our apartment, we headed east, towards the tourist district, but we stayed on the south side of the Arno, away from the crowds. It was cool, with mist so thick it felt like rain, and it took until midday for the mist to rise, so we hiked up the hill to Piazzale Michelangelo in the fog. The steps were steep and took us through a small, charming park. This was favorite area of the city – the far southeast corner. It almost felt suburban, or maybe like the hills of San Francisco.

Piazzale Michelangelo

The Piazza is renowned for its view, but the weather shrouded much of the city’s charm. If we stayed another day, this would have been a great place to take in the sunset. The Piazza commemorates Michelangelo, and is dominated by another replica of the David, this time in bronze. This was the second full-size replica of the David we’d seen – and that’s not to mention the vendors with hundreds of tiny David tchotchkes.

Santa Croce cloisters

Heading back down to city-level, we crossed over the river and visited Santa Croce. This large, but relatively nondescript church is known as the burial place of Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and Galileo (at least, most of him). It also abuts the Pazzi Chapel. This chapel is reputed to be the most pure work of Renaissance architecture, as it was unaltered by later architects.

Machiavelli’s tomb

To be frank, we were a bit ‘churched-out’ at this point. The Pazzi Chapel, for instance, is nice enough, but it feels like one of those milestone works of art that inspired hundreds of imitators – so it’s difficult for the layman to understand it’s beauty and originality. At least, that was my impression. It felt a bit like the monuments in DC, or maybe the interior of Grant’s tomb. The chapel, church and adjacent walls enclosed a peaceful cloister area that was my favorite part of the church complex.

This was impressive, but I really don’t what it is!

Deciding to take a break from all the artwork we’d seen, we instead decided our next museum would be devoted to scientific instruments: the Galileo museum. If you like brass and chrome, this is the museum for you, because just about everything was shiny brass or silver. I think it would be paradise for the dedicated historian of science. As it was, it was pretty difficult to understand the functionality of 18th-century scientific instruments. But the museum is still notable for a few things.

Galileo’s telescopes!

To start with, I really enjoyed taking a close-up look at the Fra Mauro map – we’d seen the original in Venice. There were also some incredible globes, of both the earth and the sky. But my favorite was seeing Galileo’s actual telescopes: the very telescopes used to observe sunspots and Jupiter. This was an amazing treat. After all, the observation of sunspots was a huge change in how the universe was pictured – the sun was hardly some pure object anymore. Not to mention that Galileo’s work on sunspots influence even how we think about effectively conveying information. And then, of course, there’s seeing Jupiter for the first time!

There were also two copies of Galileo’s books: Recens Habitae and Le Operazioni del Compasso Geometrico et Militare. But that’s not all.

Makes me feel queasy, but I can’t put my finger on why…

You see, after Galileo died, they didn’t know what to do with his body. He was a heretic, after all. It was buried initially in a small Medici chapel in Santa Croce (the same church we’d just visited). One hundred years later, his body was reburied in the main basilica of Santa Croce… but during the move, three fingers and a tooth were removed, put in jars, and preserved. And now you can see them in the Museo Galileo.

Donatello’s St George (replica) outside Orsanmichele

Our final visit of the day, before heading to Lucca, was the Orsanmichele church, right near the main squares (we also took a final look at some of the big sights in good daylight). This church is surrounded by statues of the great saints, done by famous Renaissance artists such as Donatello or Ghiberti. And nearby are the Duomo and other Renaissance architectural marvels. But step inside, and you’re transported back into the middle ages: a small, dark room, with a huge altarpiece. This church, which is two stories, started out as a grain storage facility and market. Embedded in the columns, you can still see chutes that delivered grain from above.

I really liked this church, small though it was. It felt more authentic, and more sacred somehow, than many of the larger cathedrals and basilicas that we’d visited.

Now, finally exhausted and just about fed up with churches, we turned to the unknown: Lucca.

Our stay in Florence was interrupted by a full-day tour in Tuscany. This was one of three tours we took (the other two were 2-3 hour tours of the Colosseum and Vatican Catacombs). The day would be packed – in the end, a bit too packed – and the agenda included Siena, San Gimignano, a wine tasting & lunch, and a visit to Pisa. While none of these places were far from each other, about half the day was spent on the bus.

Tuscan countryside near San Gimignano

The tour started with some bad luck: this was a relatively rainy day, drizzling off and on for the duration. Luckily, we weren’t hit with too much rain while outside (the worst of it was in Pisa at night, and even then it didn’t pour).

Downtown Siena

Our first stop was Siena. Most famous as a color (Burnt Sienna), Siena is a small medieval town known for its hilly streets and the Piazza del Campo. Recently, it’s become more of a tourist location, but it still retains some of its charm. We got a tour from a local guide, saw the world’s oldest bank, and stopped by the Piazza. This square, smaller than pictures would make it seem, is filled with crowds twice a year. The borders are covered with sand, stands are built, and each district of the city is represented by a horse and rider. The horses are chosen by lottery, so the results tend to be relatively random. The districts are represented by rabbits, lions, geese, and other animals, and the race can be total chaos.

We didn’t get to see a race, which was a shame. But, if we return to Italy in the future, Siena is somewhere I’d love to spend more time.

Siena Cathedral (outside)

For me the highlight of the visit was the Siena Cathedral. There was a religious service going on that day, but we were allowed in on the condition that we didn’t talk or take photos. I would say this was my favorite cathedral in all of Italy – it was so distinctive. Most notably for the amazing mosaics that cover its floors.

The interior of the cathedral is also done in the Pisan style, with striking black-and-white patterned columns and walls. I wish we could have spent more time inside – and also taken photos! After this, our tour ended and we took a brief walk around the city on our own. Although touristy, this was the off-season, and even a block from the main attractions, stores were filled with locals.

Wine

Overall we really enjoyed the city (it was my third-favorite in Italy), but we had to move on to the next destination, a winery. This winery served organic, locally-grown food alongside the wine, and was located in the countryside near San Gimignano. The wine – 4 bottles – was given to groups of 4 people. We shared ours with two tourists from Vancouver, Canada. It was all-you-could drink, and we drank a lot… I think the food was pretty good, too. But I don’t remember too much!

San Gimignano, from the winery

San Gimignano was the next stop, and I was definitely still enjoying the wine… San Gimignano is one of the few hill-towns in Tuscany that retains its towers. These hill-towns were numerous during the middle ages and renaissance, and each town was filled with towers used by feuding nobles. Although the towers remain, the rest of the town has been utterly commercialized. It really is a small town (7k people), and just about all the shops sell tourist trinkets and memorabilia. I don’t think there’s any culture left.

Gelateria Dandoli… “world’s best?”

About the most interesting thing we saw here, from a nice vantage point over Tuscany (we were on a hill, after all), was a guy playing didgeroo in the rain, in the nearby park.

The Michelle Obama-inspired gelato

San Gimignano is also home to what is reputed to be the “world’s best gelato.” It has some legitimacy, because the owner of the shop won a World Cup of Gelato with the Italian national team. But then, I’d assume Italians would win such a cup – wouldn’t you? And I think the other Italians who participated would also own shops, so who can say which is best? Nonetheless, it was good stuff. The Obamas had visited the town earlier in the year, and they’d created a flavor specially for Michelle Obama, which Alex ordered and enjoyed (I think it was hazelnut orange). It was her favorite gelato on the trip.

Obligatory leaning tower photo

The final stop of the day was in Pisa. It was really raining now, and we wandered around the leaning tower, which sits in a big field of other monuments, and took a small ‘train’ tour of the city. We didn’t get a good view, but it’s mostly a university town and wasn’t super-exciting for us. Nice to say we’ve been, but I think the 2 hours were enough.

Our train engine for the ride around Pisa

Overall I enjoyed the tour, and the highlights were Siena and the wine – but I probably would have enjoyed spending 2 days in Siena and skipping the rest. Given our tight schedule, however, it was a good options, we met some nice people, and had some good tour guides.

Florentine market

Finally, we returned to the Florence train station. There was a farmers/craft market going on, and we sampled some snacks, but mostly we were full and tired (the lack of sleep in our noisy apartment was catching up to us – or me at least), so we returned to our apartment for the last night in Florence. On the following day we’d head to Lucca, my favorite city of the trip.

Chalk art in central Florence

We’d seen Florence at night, but there was so much to see in the city during the daytime. Among them, the Uffizi Gallery, the Bargello, the Palazzo Vecchio, Pitti Palace, Duomo, and dozens of smaller churches and museums. We had to balance this against our ever-present adversary: museum fatigue. In a given day, there’s only so many museums and cathedrals you can tolerate. And in a given week or month, you can only tolerate a bit more. So, we wanted to choose museums that represented the diversity of Italy, and which had little overlap with one another.

Model of Florence in the Uffizi

Thus, we chose to visit the Uffizi Gallery – one of the great collections of paintings in the world – and the Duomo, one of the brilliant architectural achievements of the Renaissance and a building that set the pattern for all domes that would follow – it’s still the largest masonry dome in the world.

Ponte Vecchio, as seen from the Uffizi windows. Note Vasari’s corridor in the foreground.

We started our day walking along the Arno towards the old city, passing along the Ponte Vecchio in the meantime. The Uffizi Gallery is sandwiched between all the other major buildings, and overshadowed by the Palazzo Vecchio. We arrived early, worried that there might be a crowd. But, there wasn’t even a line to get in. In fact, you can purchase tickets in advance, for a small surcharge, to avoid lines. But, on this day, the line for online tickets was longer than that for buying in person. Crisis averted!

Corridors in the Uffizi. Look at those ceilings!

The Uffizi is really overwhelming, and it specializes in paintings, containing Botticellis, da Vincis, Michelangelos, Rembrandts, and much more besides. I won’t enumerate everything, but point out some highlights (from my perspective).

Botticelli room

First, the Botticelli room, which contains mostly Botticellis – most notably the Birth of Venus and the Primavera. They occupy two adjacent walls, and are each 10 feet long. And yet, the room they’re in is quite overwhelming.

Actually, my favorite Botticelli was the Annunciation. Nearby is another painting with the same subject, this time by da Vinci (I liked the da Vinci, with its cool colors and detached emotion, better. Also for the remote fairytale city in the background).

It was also nice to get an up-close look at Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo, a painting in the same style as the Sistine Chapel. There were also some horrifying mannerist paintings by Rosso Fiorentino, a possibly insane Florentine artist who kept a baboon and lived in a tower (his assistants sent baskets of food up to him). There’s also one panel of the Battle of San Romano tryptich by Paulo Uccello, and a Rembrandt self-portrait.

Palazzo Vecchio, from the outdoor cafe in the Uffizi

The Uffizi has a relatively cheap cafe (at least, if you’re only ordering espressos), and a great view of the neighboring Palazzo Vecchio. We relaxed outside, enjoying the nice weather, and fed the docile finches crumbs of cookie from our hands. After continuing to wander through the museum, we walked 10 minutes through the old town to the Duomo. Our goal was to climb both the belltower and the Duomo itself before they closed for the evening. A nice sunset would be a plus…

The Duomo, as seen from the Campanile

The Duomo is the most famous feature of Florence (besides David, perhaps). Begun in 1296, it stood incomplete for 125 years, because it was so large that nobody knew how to construct the dome. That was a task left for the architect Brunelleschi, who won the appointment through a clever ruse. Around 1420, the local church was looking to complete the cathedral dome, and had a competition among the many (brilliant) Florentine architects. When they couldn’t reach a decision, Brunelleschi proposed the following: that whoever could stand an egg on end would be awarded the prize. All the other architects attempted this challenge, but none succeeded. Then Brunelleschi took the egg, smashed the end, and stood it upright, thus claiming the prize.

Looking at the frescoes inside the Duomo

The dome itself has a clever design, two layers thick, and you can take stairs to the very top. There’s also an adjacent campanile (belltower), designed by the architect Giotto. This campanile is so narrow, and so high (277 feet) that I felt waves of acrophobia near the top. So, we didn’t spend much time enjoying the view, and went back downstairs to the Duomo itself.

Sunset from the Duomo

What can I say? The view is spectacular, and we had a wonderful sunset, and you pass right under a vast (40,000 square foot) fresco by Georgio Vasari on the way up (this fresco took 11 years to complete). It was wonderful to see the sky turn from pale blue to pink to orange, to red, each color more unbelievable than the last.

Pizza and beer!

Leaving the Duomo, we retraced our steps and crossed the river, out of the main tourist zone, to find a non-touristy restaurant. We hadn’t had a lot of pizza so far (Venice is not known as a good pizza town) and one suggested itself: “Pizza & Beer,” which served local craft beer, wine, and artisan pizza. I had a delicious chocolate stout, and we split two amazing pizzas: ricotta with pumpkin, and buffalo mozzarella. This was my second-favorite pizza place in Italy (my favorite was in Rome).

Then we went back to our apartment, because we’d have to get up very early the next day for an extensive tour of Tuscany featuring: wine, towers, horse races, more wine, and (maybe) the best gelato in the world.