OK so this is going to be posted the same day as my last post, but I wanted to do this before the fam gets here, and as busy as I’ve been with other stuff lately, I thought I should do it now before I put it off any more. This is going to be a random collection of things that I think you should know, that may or may not be in Rick Steves.
There are two kinds of police here: Carabinieri, and Polizia Municipale. Basially, the Carabinieri were formed because the Polizia weren’t very effective. So, Carabinieri are kind of a cross between a soldier and a police officer. In a nutshell, they’re police officers that wear bulletproof vests and carry automatic weapons. I, personally, am terrified of the Carabinieri, even though you can jaywalk right in front of them and they don’t care. Basically, you can do anything you want in this country short of stealing, murdering, or picnicking on the lawn of Piazza Venezia. Both the Carabinieri and Polizia are there to look good and keep things from getting too out of hand.
I alluded to this with my jaywalking comment, but I want to clarify: In this city, the concept of crosswalks and traffic lanes doesn’t really exist. There are painted crosswalks… most drivers and pedestrians ignore them. Either cross when there’s a break in traffic, or walk right out into the middle of traffic and make a driver stop. If you’re uncomfortable doing that, cross right behind a Roman. They’ll stop the traffic for you, because they have NO fear of the insane drivers here. Also on this topic: cars are one thing. Motorini (Vespas, motorcycles, and things of that nature) are downright suicidal. They drive insanely fast, weaving through traffic, frequently on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic… anytime you’re in or near the street, keep a very very attentive eye out for these.
Buses are incredibly confusing, slow, usually full of people, and generally a pain. That said, they’re also how I get EVERYwhere around the center. With some 800 lines, there’s probably a bus going where you want to go. If you can plan a bit ahead of time, use http://atac.roma.it to find out the most efficient bus (or buses) to get from point A to point B. This also will tell you how frequently the buses come, which is nice because some are every 20 minutes, so you may have to wait a while to catch one, while others come as frequently as every 3 minutes.
Bathrooms in the city: A lot of public ones you have to pay for. Peeing at Stazione Termini costs €0.80. At most bars, an espresso costs €0.80. Therefore, if you have to pee, go to a bar, buy a caffè (which will be an espresso) and use their bathroom. I’ve actually found some really nice bars this way, to which I have later returned to sit and really enjoy the coffee and the atmosphere.
Related notes: Everything costs more at a table. If you’re eating breakfast out, I would recommend taking it at the bar, rather than sitting down. It costs significantly less (usually about half as much), and there’s something really Italian about standing at the bar for 5 minutes to eat a cornetto (Italian word for croissant) and drink a cappuccino or espresso. The only reason I’ll sit is if I’m going to be sitting there for at least an hour, either with someone to talk to, a book, or just to people watch and rest my legs. Otherwise, I’ll just drink at the bar and go.
Gelato: I know mom loves Giolitti, and I have to say that it was really good. (I haven’t been back in a while… gotta make another trip to refresh my memory.) However, we have found another place that (I think) makes better gelato, although I have yet to find it in any tourist guide or my book of the best Gelaterie d’Italia. Gelateria al Teatro is on the Via dei Coronari, which is a very cute little street that runs from behind Piazza Navona to the Tiber river, a bit touristy but not at all obnoxious about it. This gelateria is tucked into a corner, and has a ridiculous selection of flavors that’s constantly changing depending on what they can get for fresh ingredients. As the apples have gotten better, for instance, they introduced mela canella, which could BE a piece of apple pie. Their millefoglie actually has pieces of millefoglie cake in it. And they have (if I remember correctly) 6 different flavors of chocolate. The one thing they can’t match Giolitti on is their panna (whipped cream), but I’m willing to sacrifice that. I also have to try one other place that’s a bit farther away (past the Olympic stadium) in Ponte Milvio, and if that’s worth the trek I’ll add it to this list. ☺
Friday, November 13, 2009
Vacanze
OK, so this is much overdue. Apologies. Catching up with everything I missed on vacation took a while. Here’s an account of what I did on vacation, and everything else I can think of.
My vacation, for all practical purposes, started on Monday. Dana and I took a train to Venice, from Roma Termini, on a cold and rainy day. That day didn’t change as we went farther north. This made for seeing a very different side of Venice. It was still beautiful, but in a different way from what I expected. We were both on the same page with regards to our philosophy on Venice- we wanted to see it, experience it, and move on. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very charming- it’s also, unfortunately, the most touristy city in the world, and we were kind of looking to see some non-touristy Italy. Got a lot of good pictures, mental and digital, and I’m happy to say that I went to Venice before it sunk. However, 4 hours was enough to do this and continue on to Torino (Turin). We spent the night in Torino, and then on Tuesday walked around and saw the city. It was definitely charming, and we had a lovely day to do it. We walked a lot, and ate a lot- especially chocolate. Torino (and its region) are famous for Gianduio, which is a type of hazelnut chocolate substance. Sometimes it’s a spread, like pre-industrial nutella. Sometimes it’s formed into chocolates. Sometimes it’s put into a drink. We consumed it all three ways, and probably more. ☺ They also make marroni del piemonte: roasted, glazed chestnuts. They’re incredible. Also notable was the Olympic village from 2006: they use the Olympic stadium now for soccer games, so we couldn’t go inside, but it’s still pretty cool to see it from the outside. We did, however, get to go in the ice stadium. Whenever I get around to putting pics up on facebook, I’ve got to tag Chloe in one of those, seeing as she was there watching the games three years ago. (Almost four years now… whoa.) What was so cool about that to me is that you can actually skate in the Olympic stadium. However, we were a little short on time before our train to Milan, and it was overrun with little girls, so we elected to skip it.
As alluded, our next stop was Milan. For those of you who are on facebook, you may already know that I positively fell in love with it. It’s got all the beauty of the Italian language (in fact, a nicer dialect if you ask me), without the things that have been driving me nuts about Rome. It’s physically smaller, so for the same half-hour / 40 minute commute I have here in Rome, Davide (our TA from Italian 2, who was at Dartmouth for the year last year, but who lives in the town of Boviso, outside of Milan) has a house in a small town rather than a loud, busy city. The culture is, logically enough, a more civilized, northern European version of what you find in Rome. Drivers will actually stop for you in a crosswalk; if someone gets mad at you, they won’t confront you by yelling “damn your dead ancestors”; and, perhaps most importantly for me, it felt clean. The duomo of Milan is the 4th largest church in Europe, and is positively gorgeous. Very different from anything I’ve seen so far anywhere else, in that it has strikingly gothic architecture. Contrary to its name, it does not actually have a dome. Instead, hundreds of spires and hundreds of statues decorate the outside of the church. For the first time, I got the sense that the church was actually reaching up towards heaven. We also got to go see Leonardo’s The Last Supper, which I will never forget despite not being allowed to take pictures. (One girl actually did take a picture on her iPhone, and the docent walked up, and told her if she didn’t delete the pictures on the spot he’d call the police. Then he went through all her pictures to make sure they’d been deleted.) The Last Supper is very heavily controlled, so we got to enter, stare in wonder for 15 minutes, and then were ushered out. I definitely highly recommend it to anyone who happens to be in the area. Obviously, we did a bit of shopping in Milan, because it’s kind of a requirement. We walked down the Via di Monte Napoleone, which is the really high-fashion, super expensive street, but left empty handed out of not wanted to take out a mortgage to buy a shirt. Most of our actual “looking for things to buy” shopping was in the area of the duomo, on Via Vittorio Emanuele. (I think every city in Italy has a Via or Corso Vittorio Emanuele…) From Milan, we did a day trip to Como, to see the lake. It was beautiful, but in the same way that Venice was: kind of left me wanting to return in the summer when it’s hot, sunny, gorgeous, and I want to actually be in a boat on the water. Oh well.
That’s about it for the vacation… only a few days, and didn’t linger in any one place very long, but I was really glad to see another side of Italy, and to find a city that still feels like a pure Italian city, barely touched by tourism (Torino) and one that I would be happy to live in (Milan), not to mention one that may have been destroyed by tourism, but that I’ve wanted to see for years (Venice). It gave me a lot of perspective, with which I can now see Rome from a different point of view.
TaTa for now,
-Brian
Appunti:
Flavio (have I introduced him? The 14 month old grandson of my host parents) learned to walk by himself this week. Two weeks ago he was walking, as long as he was holding onto someone or something for support. Now he’s running around the house following me.
My family gets here in a week and a day. I’m very excited.
Chrissy and I met another American runner today! We were at the track this morning and saw a girl running in a Lafayette shirt… turns out she’s doing the same kind of thing we are, and has been struggling with training because she feels very out of place at the track, since she doesn’t speak much (if any) Italian. Chrissy may have just picked up a training partner… alas, I’m still doing all my intervals by myself.
Dartmouth bought us friends. Literally, Courtney is paying two Italian students to hang out with us from time to time. Weird. But they’re really nice, so we’ve decided we’re OK with the fact that we have mercenary Italian friends. Hopefully we’ll get to see a different side of hanging out than we’ve found so far… starting with an aperitivo on Saturday.
My vacation, for all practical purposes, started on Monday. Dana and I took a train to Venice, from Roma Termini, on a cold and rainy day. That day didn’t change as we went farther north. This made for seeing a very different side of Venice. It was still beautiful, but in a different way from what I expected. We were both on the same page with regards to our philosophy on Venice- we wanted to see it, experience it, and move on. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very charming- it’s also, unfortunately, the most touristy city in the world, and we were kind of looking to see some non-touristy Italy. Got a lot of good pictures, mental and digital, and I’m happy to say that I went to Venice before it sunk. However, 4 hours was enough to do this and continue on to Torino (Turin). We spent the night in Torino, and then on Tuesday walked around and saw the city. It was definitely charming, and we had a lovely day to do it. We walked a lot, and ate a lot- especially chocolate. Torino (and its region) are famous for Gianduio, which is a type of hazelnut chocolate substance. Sometimes it’s a spread, like pre-industrial nutella. Sometimes it’s formed into chocolates. Sometimes it’s put into a drink. We consumed it all three ways, and probably more. ☺ They also make marroni del piemonte: roasted, glazed chestnuts. They’re incredible. Also notable was the Olympic village from 2006: they use the Olympic stadium now for soccer games, so we couldn’t go inside, but it’s still pretty cool to see it from the outside. We did, however, get to go in the ice stadium. Whenever I get around to putting pics up on facebook, I’ve got to tag Chloe in one of those, seeing as she was there watching the games three years ago. (Almost four years now… whoa.) What was so cool about that to me is that you can actually skate in the Olympic stadium. However, we were a little short on time before our train to Milan, and it was overrun with little girls, so we elected to skip it.
As alluded, our next stop was Milan. For those of you who are on facebook, you may already know that I positively fell in love with it. It’s got all the beauty of the Italian language (in fact, a nicer dialect if you ask me), without the things that have been driving me nuts about Rome. It’s physically smaller, so for the same half-hour / 40 minute commute I have here in Rome, Davide (our TA from Italian 2, who was at Dartmouth for the year last year, but who lives in the town of Boviso, outside of Milan) has a house in a small town rather than a loud, busy city. The culture is, logically enough, a more civilized, northern European version of what you find in Rome. Drivers will actually stop for you in a crosswalk; if someone gets mad at you, they won’t confront you by yelling “damn your dead ancestors”; and, perhaps most importantly for me, it felt clean. The duomo of Milan is the 4th largest church in Europe, and is positively gorgeous. Very different from anything I’ve seen so far anywhere else, in that it has strikingly gothic architecture. Contrary to its name, it does not actually have a dome. Instead, hundreds of spires and hundreds of statues decorate the outside of the church. For the first time, I got the sense that the church was actually reaching up towards heaven. We also got to go see Leonardo’s The Last Supper, which I will never forget despite not being allowed to take pictures. (One girl actually did take a picture on her iPhone, and the docent walked up, and told her if she didn’t delete the pictures on the spot he’d call the police. Then he went through all her pictures to make sure they’d been deleted.) The Last Supper is very heavily controlled, so we got to enter, stare in wonder for 15 minutes, and then were ushered out. I definitely highly recommend it to anyone who happens to be in the area. Obviously, we did a bit of shopping in Milan, because it’s kind of a requirement. We walked down the Via di Monte Napoleone, which is the really high-fashion, super expensive street, but left empty handed out of not wanted to take out a mortgage to buy a shirt. Most of our actual “looking for things to buy” shopping was in the area of the duomo, on Via Vittorio Emanuele. (I think every city in Italy has a Via or Corso Vittorio Emanuele…) From Milan, we did a day trip to Como, to see the lake. It was beautiful, but in the same way that Venice was: kind of left me wanting to return in the summer when it’s hot, sunny, gorgeous, and I want to actually be in a boat on the water. Oh well.
That’s about it for the vacation… only a few days, and didn’t linger in any one place very long, but I was really glad to see another side of Italy, and to find a city that still feels like a pure Italian city, barely touched by tourism (Torino) and one that I would be happy to live in (Milan), not to mention one that may have been destroyed by tourism, but that I’ve wanted to see for years (Venice). It gave me a lot of perspective, with which I can now see Rome from a different point of view.
TaTa for now,
-Brian
Appunti:
Flavio (have I introduced him? The 14 month old grandson of my host parents) learned to walk by himself this week. Two weeks ago he was walking, as long as he was holding onto someone or something for support. Now he’s running around the house following me.
My family gets here in a week and a day. I’m very excited.
Chrissy and I met another American runner today! We were at the track this morning and saw a girl running in a Lafayette shirt… turns out she’s doing the same kind of thing we are, and has been struggling with training because she feels very out of place at the track, since she doesn’t speak much (if any) Italian. Chrissy may have just picked up a training partner… alas, I’m still doing all my intervals by myself.
Dartmouth bought us friends. Literally, Courtney is paying two Italian students to hang out with us from time to time. Weird. But they’re really nice, so we’ve decided we’re OK with the fact that we have mercenary Italian friends. Hopefully we’ll get to see a different side of hanging out than we’ve found so far… starting with an aperitivo on Saturday.
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