Roma D'Inverno: A Winter Holiday February 8 to 15, 2009 with Italian Journeys

When we told family and friends that we were taking a guided tour of Rome for a week, their response was WHY? YOU'VE BEEN THERE SO OFTEN YOU COULD GIVE A GUIDED TOUR.

As well as we know Rome, there is always something new to see. Going on a tour with Nancy DeConciliis and Libbly Lubin's Italian Journeys is like taking the best art history course ever.

Nancy is an American who has lived in Rome since the 1960s and she knows everything there is to know about the art and history of Italy. However, what is much more important, she is able to tell the story with wit and vitality, so the past really does "come to life". Libby who spend a year in Rome in 1990 does an excellent job as the trip coordinator. See. Italian Journeys — About Us

Nancy and Libby have been giving tours to Italy since 1992. The groups are small and each trip focuses on a selected region of the country. They both love food so one eats very well. The hotel accommodations are alway well chosen. This is NOT If It's Tuesday, This Must be Belgium.

This was our forth trip with them. We have previously joined them in Sicily, Pulia and the Po Valley.

Since we were staying in Rome for nine days we opted to rent a very pleasant apartment on the Via Giulia rather than stay in the hotel with the rest of the group. We arrived on the the 6th of February and had the better part of two days to our own devices.

We met the group on the evening of the 7th for a tour of the Ara Pacis Museum. The Ara Pacis is a stunning 2,000 year old piece of Roman art. Unfortunately, from our point of view, it has been surrounded by a building designed by the American architect Richard Meier. Meier's building does not work with it setting. Bizarrely one gets a great view of the traffic on the Lungotevere and no view of the Mausoleo di Augusto, the tomb of the emperor who was the moving force behind the altar. The whole Ara Pacis complex is an island completely disconnected from it surroundings. Furthermore it succeeds in isolating and destroying the view of some of the much more interesting historic buildings near it. One can only wonder what Meier was thinking.

Sunday morning we met the group and went to the newly restored Trajan's market. We had been there numerous times before. However, we were able to access areas that had previously been closed to the public so this visit was a very different experience.

We ate at least one meal a day with the group. Recording and remembering what he ate in Italy is one of Tom's favorite parts of traveling:

"We then went to lunch at a nearby restaurant, Taverna Fori Imperiali. I sat at the end of the table between Maggie and Nancy Morrione. The dinner started with extensive anti-pasti, followed by wonderful pappardella in a chopped veal and truffle sauce. The second was Italian meatloaf. Dinner as always was accompanied by wine and bottled water."

After lunch we went to the Musei Capitolini on the Piazza di Campidoglio to view the statue of Marcus Aurelius. The statue used to stand in the center of the Piazza. It has recently been restored and is now housed in a well designed museum space in the Palazzo dei Conservatori of the Musei Capitolini. A replica is now in the piazza.

Our guides, Libby Lubin and Nancy DeConciliis, with Romulus, Remus and the She Wolf.

Monday morning we went by private bus to the Basilica of St. Agnes Outside the Walls to visit the catacombs and the adjoining the mausoleo of Santa Constanza, a daughter of the Emperor Constantine. See Sacred Destinations, Basilica of St Agnes Outside the Walls for some lovely photos and history of the complex.

Italians are the best at funky cake decorations — its all completely eatable. I bought a yummy raspberry tart in this shop.

The Palazzo Farnese, one of the most famous and luxuriant Italian Renaissance buildings, is currently the home of the French Embassy in Italy. It can be visited by appointment. Italian Journeys arranged our visit. We were give a tour by a lovely young French guide.

Perhaps our favorite events on this trip were visits to two of the oldest public libraries in the world. On Tuesday we visited, by special permit, the Biblioteca Angelica, "the oldest public library in the world". The librarian treated us to all sorts of wonderful things including manuscripts and incunabula (books printed before 1501). Some of the rarer documents are viewable only on computers at the library. However, they did bring out several actual examples of manuscripts and early printed books for us to examine.

This image is actually from the second library we visited, the Biblioteca Casanatense, where we went on Wednesday morning. Nancy and Libby had again arranged a special tour with the liberians who told us the history or the library and showed us wonderful examples of early manuscripts, incunabula and other documents. Among other things we saw was this original score of Tema con Variazioni by Niccolo Paganini. This library also had a magnificent 1716 globe of the world.

Wednesday lunch at the Grotte Theatro di Pompeo.

After lunch we visited the Palazzo Doria Pamphili currently the home of the Brazilian Embassy to Italy. One of the impressive things about seeing these historic palazzi like Farnese and Doria Pamphili is that because they are embassy they are maintained with the kind of elegances that must have existed with the original owners. It is a different experience than visiting palazzi that are now museums.

On Thursday morning we visited, again by special permit, the church of the Knights of Malta on the Aventine Hill. According to Italian Journeys, "Their church, Santa Maria del Priorato is the only example of the extant of architecture by Piranesi."

Fabulously over the top.

The group in back of the church.

While on the Aventine Hill we also stopped at the churches of San Alessio and Santa Sabina.

Lunch in Al Pompiere. Followed by a walk in the ghetto.

Portico d'Ottavia

The plan for Friday had been to go to the Palatine Hill to visit the newly restored rooms of the house of Augustus. One thing everybody who has ever been to Italy knows "you have to be flexible".

It turns out the the Colosseum was on STRIKE! So all of the thousands of tourists who where planning on visiting the Colosseum turned to the nearest sight, which was of course the Forum and the Palatine Hill. We decided to avoid the mobs and instead we walked along the Circus Maximus, visited the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, crossed the Isola Tiberina, and wandered through Trastevere. Nancy, she didn't skip a beat. The tour was as wonderful as if it had been planned that way.

Isola Tiberina

We switched part of Saturdays planned activities and visited the Villa Farnesina with its fabulous frescos.

Some 1528 graffiti in the Villa Farnesina.

Written in German gothic and uncovered during recent restorations it says "1528 - why shouldn't I laugh: the Lansquenets have put the Pope to flight".

Some of us had enough energy left to walk to St Peters.

Libby Lubin showing Barbara Gillis where to stand so the columns of Bernini's colonnade all line up to look only one column deep.

The Colosseum was open on Saturday. We got there before the crowds and had a look around. Tom and I had not been inside the Colosseum in years. Of course, very little has changed but it was nice to have another look after a long time.

We did get to Augustus' House on the Palatine where I managed to snap this photo before I was told NO PHOTOS.