Dear Friends, as promised here is a
final Blog before we set off for home tomorrow night (Monday morning Australian
time). We are resting in our room after a lovely morning, as tonight we have a
trip around Roma on Vespas and we need to have all our energy for that. Wes is
sleeping and I am catching up on emails, Words with Friends, online Scrabble
and, of course, writing to you.
On Thursday morning we met Daniela
here and walked up the Via Veneto to the Villa Borghese. This is a wonderful
palace full of art, statuary and antiquities, including works by Bernina,
Caravaggio, Botticelli & Raffaello. It is set in huge gardens and the whole
Villa was bought by the Italian Government in 1923 on condition that the
Collection was not broken up. Daniela had pre-ordered tickets as it is sold out
days in advance and many visitors were turning away disappointed. 100 visitors
at a time are allowed 2 hours maximum in the Gallery/Museum, so it is a rush to
do everything properly. However, you are not packed in like sardines and get
the chance to appreciate what you are seeing. We then strolled around the
gardens for a while, patted a pair of yellow Labradors out for a walk, and on
Daniela’s advice, caught a taxi to San
Sebastian catacombs outside the city on the Appian Way.
Wes bought the tickets while I went
to the loo – then we were taken down into the catacombs by a wonderful man with
a great grasp of English and an even better sense of humour, to catch up with
the English tour which had just left. We kept turning corners and bumping into
French, Japanese & German tours and eventually found the English speaking
guide and reluctantly said goodbye to our delightful ticket-seller. The
catacombs are quite magnificent and go for miles. There are no bones on display
as they have all been removed and buried elsewhere, which seems fitting. After
our tour, we walked along the Appian Way for about 30 minutes – scarcely believing
we were doing it!
3rd level above & current level below
Then off to the Villa D’Este, which
is a stunning garden with many fountains, all of them magical, including one
where the water forces an organ to play a madrigal three times a day. The
cardinal who built this Villa wanted to be Pope and thought he would impress
the other cardinals with his wealth and culture. He was unsuccessful but he has
left the world something very special and unique. 
Me outside St Peter's in the sunshine & Wes on top of Il Vittoriano
(Apollo & Daphne)
Daniela had suggested we then visit
the Basilica of St John Lateran, so we caught a taxi back and went into the
most magnificent church we have seen since the co-Cathedral of St John in
Malta. There was enough gold to keep Viva happy so we lit a candle for her in
the hope that she will soon be out of pain again.
You could spend hours in this
Basilica, which is lined with huge statues of the Apostles down the nave, as
well as beautiful paintings in the side chapels. We paid 1€ each to go into the
Museum and discovered Galileo is buried here, among other notables.
From there we walked to the unique
Basilica of San Clement. I quote from Wikipedia “The
structure is a three-tiered complex of buildings: (1) the present basilica
built just before the year 1100 during the height of the Middle Ages;
(2) beneath the present basilica is a 4th century basilica that had been
converted out of the home of a Roman nobleman, part of which had in the 1st
century briefly served as an early church, and the basement of which had in the
2nd century briefly served as a mithraeum; (3) the home of the Roman nobleman had been built on
the foundations of a republican era building that had been destroyed
in the Great Fire of 64”.
We walked back home saturated in
history, had a rest and then dressed for an early dinner at “Osteria Barberini”
the little restaurant that had taken our fancy earlier in the week. Maria was
there to welcome us and we enjoyed a stunning meal with a bottle of Umbrian
wine. I had fish, while Wes ate meat and we shared the best lemon sorbet we
have ever tasted afterwards.
Yesterday, we went to Tivoli driven
by Gabriele, our first driver, with Daniela as our guide. It took about 45
minutes to get there and we started at Hadrian’s Villa, much of which has been
excavated. We were blown away by the size of everything here and by the very
thoughtful way in which the Villa has been preserved to give us a sense of what
it was like.
We arrived back in Rome at 2pm, and
had invited Daniela to have lunch with us as our farewell to her. We took her
to our favourite spot and she was very impressed with the food and with Maria,
the waitress. Sadly the owner’s son decided he wanted us to pay cash instead of
credit card, which was very embarrassing for Maria and she warned us to check
the bill as the price of the wine would be inflated. We had a lovely meal
together with Daniela, and enjoyed learning a little more about her once she no
longer was the guide. Maria was right, the bill was inflated, so Warren made
sure that we paid the correct amount and gave Maria our tip.
We spent a quiet afternoon as we
were tired after all our travelling and apart from wandering out to find tonic
water in a little store under the street, we stayed put. The AFL had sent me
quarter by quarter scores of Collingwood’s game, and I was pleased that we
stayed in touch with Hawthorn, and even got ahead at one point in the last
quarter before succumbing to the better team. Wes had been delighted when Jane
& David Knox kept him informed of Carlton’s progress and good win the previous
afternoon while we were doing Basilicas. I have been intrigued by the use of
the term Basilica to describe some churches which I would have thought had not earned
that title. Apparently a Basilica can refer to a large, important church which
has been granted permission by the Pope (this I knew) or an ancient Roman
Basilica or a building that is shaped like an ancient Roman Basilica.
Thanks again to everyone who has
emailed or commented on Skype or Facebook or Viber and encouraged me to
continue sending these blogs. I have enjoyed writing them and it is lovely to
know they are being read and enjoyed by you. We are looking forward to getting
home again, to seeing our boys and our friends, to catching up on our mail and
changes in the garden, to say nothing of the delights of Autumn in Daylesford.
With a bit of luck I’ll be sending
you a Dispatch on Easter Sunday. If not, it won’t be long afterwards. We are
hoping to get to the footy on Easter Saturday, having only missed Round 1 of
this season.
Arrivederci until then!
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