Kait’s Adventures has moved from Blogger to WordPress

Kait's Adventures on Blogger

Google’s Blogger has been the home of my travel blog since the beginning in 2010. Blogger has been good to me. I even made $56 from people accidentally clicking the ads I had on the side bar, but I’ve moved the site to WordPress, now.

As a blogging platform, WordPress allows me to control the look of the site much more than Blogger does. Blogger only has a handful of themes, compared to the limitless WordPress themes out there, which are also more easily customized.

With self-hosted WordPress, I now keep all my content with my own web-hosting provider, which I’m not sure if is a good thing or not. I trust Google not to lose my data more than anyone. Still, nice to “own” it a little more. I appreciate how easy they make it to export all my past posts out, so can bring the past 5 years with me to my new blog.

Some people think that Blogger will go the way of other Google products that have been discontinued to make way for Google Plus. Google themselves uses Blogger for announcements, so I don’t know. But it does feel a bit like abandon-ware over at Blogger. Another good reason to leave.

Blogger gave a way for readers to subscribe and receive new posts via email. However I have no idea who was using this feature and have no way of getting their names out of there. My new site here has a sign up form to get emails from me. If you like that, please sign up using the form here to get emails from me when I put up new posts. Here, I’ll put the form right here for you.

Isn’t that neat?! I’ve no idea how to do something like that in Blogger. There is also RSS if that’s more your thing.

WordPress makes it so easy to add little widgets, like the search and translate bars on your right. OK, Google does search and translate and widgets, too. But I like these better.

WordPress also organizes posts in two ways: Categories and Tags. Categories have a hierarchical structure, which makes them perfect for location info here in my travel blog, in my opinion. And tags work just like tags normally do. So if I write a post about things to do in Rome, I can give that post the Italy, Lazio, and Rome categories and some tags like travel, restaurants, or whatever I’m talking about.

I think this organization combined with being able to place widgets prominently makes this site much easier to navigate than the old one. Before, if I wanted to find an old post, I would Google “Kait” with the name of the post in order to find it. Now, I have my own little search bar, or I can probably quickly find what I’m looking for from the Places widget.

Also my front page is so much prettier now, with pictures and little excerpts from my most recent posts. Before it was my most recent (or specific, if arriving via a deep link) post with previous posts concatenated after, forming a seemingly endless page. This also meant there was no way to read the “next” post if it existed.

The old site will live on at its blogspot URL, kaitsadventures.blogspot.com, frozen in time for as long as Google keeps hosting it.

So that’s all. I just wanted to announce my new shinny website for my blog. Happy travels!

Ian and Emily’s Visit

View from the stone wall of Tarquinia

My college friends from San Francisco, Ian and Emily have been trying to plan a trip to Italy for a while. Ian’s schedule is pretty busy with his startup, Artillery, who are doing console style games in HTML. But they finally made it this July, and Rome was their first stop!

They got in late on Saturday. We didn’t know if they would have eaten or not so we had a cold dinner of buffalo mozzarella, ricotta, prosciutto, bread, and those types of things ready for a dinner as light or heavy as one would want.

Sunday Daniele was off from work, so that was out excursion day. We went up north, just over the boarder into Tuscany. There we spent the morning at the Terme di Saturnia  (pictures). These are natural Hot Springs made of different pools. It was crowded since it was a Sunday in the summer, but we still had a little pool to ourselves some of the time.

 Terme di Saturnia

In the afternoon we stopped at the small historical center of Saturnia. Then the very cute medieval town of Montemarano. Both of which are still on the Tuscany side. Our last stop was Tarqunia, an important Etruscan city and a little bigger than the other two. Tarquinia was having a special culture day, so we were able to enter and walk along the top of the ancient city walls and climb to the top of one of their towers.

Tower that is part of the stone wall of Tarquinia
Tower that is part of the stone wall of Tarquinia

At the end of this long day we had some nice thin Rome-style pizza from Dal Bersagliere, along with some fried appetizers and beers.

On Monday Emily and Ian took to Rome’s historical on their own. They saw most of the big sites.

Tuesday was Daniele’s 31st birthday. Ian and Emily continued seeing Rome’s center during the day, then after we all went out together for the evening. We started with Aventino Hill, where we polished off a bottle of prosecco with some cheese, boar sausage, and crackers while watching the sunset. Then we went to the restaurant Betto e Mary, which is known for its Roman cuisine. Daniele ordered some authentic, but unique, appetizers. He, Ian, and Emily all had some horse meat, veal intestines, cartilage, and pasta in a sauce made from the meat of a cow’s tail. I had cacio e pepe, basically a peppery mac ‘n cheese. After dinner we walked through the Lungotevere Expo, all the temporary bars, restaurants, and vendors that set up along the river banks in the summer.

Wednesday was their last day with us. Ian’s feet were bothering him, so Emily set off on her own to see the last few sites in Rome’s center that she didn’t want to miss. While she was out, Daniele made Ian and I lunch with gnocchi in seafood for them and pesto for me. Then he had to go to work in the hospital that night, while Ian, Emily, and I had dinner at the local Trattoria dar Bruttone on Via Taranto. A restaurant in the same Roman style as Betto e Mary, but we ordered more mainstream dishes.

Then on Thursday the two of them were off on the train to Almalfi!

Pictures:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6038635653376643345

Stella the Cat

Last year on June 15, 2013, Daniele and I got back from our honeymoon and I was officially living in Rome with no return ticket out of Europe. This new stability meant we were ready to make a life decision that I’ve wanted to make countless times in the past, but had to resist because I didn’t know where I was headed. We adopted a cat.

We had talked about it for a while and had planned on looking into getting one after the wedding. Now that we were back, we started by visiting some shelters here in Rome to meet some contenders. Rome has a few really cool cat sanctuaries. A famous one is in Largo Torre Argentina. This is an Ancient Roman ruin, that is fenced off. The volunteers and inside cats are in an office carved from the side walls surrounding the ruins. The healthy cats can roam about the fenced-in ruins outside. They are a very organized and large shelter.

Around this time there was also a cute orange tabby kitten hanging around the parking area of our apartment building. We thought about adopting him, but we couldn’t be sure that he didn’t belong to one of the families in our building. Before we made up our minds, we stopped seeing him. He was very cute, so I hope he found (or already had) a good home.

The next animal shelter we visited was also located in a Roman ruin, similar to the one at Torre Argentina, this one is in Rome’s Egyptian-style Pyramid, “Piramide”. They are not quite as organized, and give the cats away for free, but still needing to visit a vet. Daniele liked that they were free, but we paid the same having her spayed ourselves.

When we arrived there were two groups of kittens. Two tabbies that were already adopted and three solid-colored (two black and one gray). We wanted a kitten to give a cat a forever-home right from the start. Also, Daniele didn’t grow up with pets and a kitten is easier for that situation. There was a man there who was taking the gray and one of the black kittens, leaving just one female back kitten left. I held her and she fell asleep in my arms, leading everyone to insist she was destined to be mine. Daniele saw her sleeping and thought she was going to be calm and well behaved. He didn’t know that the kittens sleeping turn out to be the craziest once they wake. You need to see a cat awake, playing, moving to know its personality. But he didn’t tell me this was why he liked her, just that he did and he wanted to adopt her right away.

We hadn’t been planning on adopting that afternoon, so we had nothing. The shelter lent us a carrier to bring her home and gave us samples of the food she had been eating. Then on the way we quickly stopped (in underground parking) at the mall to get food dishes, a litter box, kitty litter, cat shampoo, and one toy (a bird on a string on a stick).

It probably took an hour to get her home, we then proceeded to traumatize her further. We shampooed her (she was kinda dirty). We clipped her nails. We tossed her in her giant (compared to her then) litter box, and she impressed us by using it right away. Then Daniele, who was working a night shift, had to go and left the two of us alone. She slept in the crook of my arm, and it’s been love ever since.

We named her Stella. A name that sounds American to Americans and Italian to Italians. Perfect for our family and perfect for my little star.

A day or two latter we went back to the shelter to return the borrowed carrier, and the man who took Stella’s two siblings had returned them!?!? His wife had told him to bring them back. The volunteers asked if we were interested in them, but one cat was already a big step for us. They were still cute little kittens, so I’m sure they found homes. Still, what a tool!

We adopted Stella on July 2, 2013. She was still very little when we had Daniele’s 30th birthday dinner at our apartment on July 8th and was the star of the night. It was our guests that night who first called her “Stellina”. In Italian, you add the suffixes -ino / -ina or -etto / -etta to say something is small; the suffix -one to say it is large. She’s been Stellina ever since.

Those first couple days were an adjustment. Especially for Daniele who had only ever had a kitten for a short period and that one lived on their balcony. She was a constant ball of energy. She relentlessly attacked our feet under the sheets (but never if on top of the sheets). This would wind up Daniele, which in turn would wind her up further. She still hadn’t learned to jump high with her giant rabbit feet, but had super-kitten upper body strength that allowed her to climb up things, like the backs of chairs and onto the table. But just like she quickly grew bigger, she quickly became calmer.

We moved over the course of August and September, and Stella was one of the last things to come to the new place. She saw all our stuff and took to it like home right away.

For Thanksgiving and Christmas, I planned on spending the whole month back in the States. Daniele was going to join me a few days after Thanksgiving and come back with me before New Years; though his departure ended up being pushed back to mid-December. Since that was too long to leave her, I brought her with me on the plane. It was pretty easy, I just called United and added her to my reservation. To the airline, she was something between extra luggage (how I paid for her) and an extra passenger (she had her own reservation number). She flew by my feet in her new soft carrier and handled the flight pretty well. It was actually more of a concern getting her home to Italy at the end of our trip than into the US. Europe controls pets more. But I’ll go into this in greater detail another time.

Back in New Jersey, she made friends with Moo and Flake (my cats at my parent’s house). Though it is debatable if they made friends with her back. She seemed to really enjoy it, from socializing with other cats, to running full-speed up and down the stairs, to walking through snow for the first time.

We sometimes let her into the couriyard of our building, but there is an old lady who yells (in Italian) “No cats in the courtyard!” whenever we do. So more often we put on her harness and leash and bring her out for a walk around the neighborhood or in a park. She likes the parks much better than the streets.

She’s met lots of people who come to our house, especially our AirBnb guests (blog.kait.us/2014/05/trying-out-airbnb.html), and she likes them all and they always love her. But when we take her outside, she is afraid of everything and everyone.

Daniele was slower to warm up to her than I was, not having grown up in the more american pets-are-part-of-the-family culture that I did. They bonded a bit when I left the two of them alone to go to a wedding in San Francisco last August. Then more and more over time. He worries about her food and litter box. And now he even asks me to leave her to sleep with him when he gets home from a night shift. A big change from not wanting her in our room at night, like when we first brought her home.

By Easter she looked fully grown. She had gotten pretty long and very muscular. She felt surprisingly heavy when you lifted her up and had really defined haunches. Or at least she did. Right after Easter she visibly lost some weight, and I think has lost some more since then, to get a bit smaller. We had taken her to the park a few times, so I thought it was the exercise. But thinking about the time-line better, I think we changed her wet food to a higher quality brand around that time. She used to actually like her dry food better, but the new stuff is definitely her favorite.

As mentioned earlier, we regularly trim the tip of her front claws. But she is very gentle with them anyway. If she starts playing with you, she’ll gently bat you with her soft paws…until you feel confident and unsuspecting, that’s when she bites! We’re also lucky that she likes to stretch her claws on cardboard, wood, and metal, but not fabric (so far, fingers crossed). Though she will shred papers if I leave them out.

Her most characteristic traits are her big ears, her big glowing eyes, and her constant meowing. She’s the most talkative cat I’ve ever known. And although, in theory, she could hide very well being all black, the profile of those ears or the light catching her eyes always gives her away.

During the days, I work from home and she keeps me company. Even though it’s still pretty lonely working alone at home, she makes all the difference.

Her hobbies include hiding in boxes, being made into the bed covers, and eating my papers. She spends most her day handing out by my computer or sleeping in an almost comatose state.

She’s a bit of a bad cat. She is terrible about going on the table and in the sink. She doesn’t seem to have much aversion to water. We just keep pushing her off and cleaning with a bleach solution

So that’s the story of our first year together with Stella.

The full album of all the pictures I’ve taken of her this year is here:
plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6043706881572815249

Ravenna

On our way home we stopped in the town of Ravenna. This is one of the many little towns in Emilia-Romagna that we have been wanting to visit together. Others include Ferrara, Rimini, Cesena, Forli, and San Marino. San Marino is actually its own country inside or Italy, similar to the Vatican, rather than a part of Emilia-Romagna, but it is in the same area. This pretty area is characterized by small walled cities on the flat river valley of the Po’.

Being flat, bicycling is very popular in Ravenna. The small streets are shared by pedestrians and cyclists in a way more similar to Copenhagen or Amsterdam than the rest of Italy. Cars are only allowed on the bigger streets.

Ravenna holds a campus of the University of Bologna, the oldest university in Italy. And with all the students comes shops, lots of different types of food, and general culture. It also has a decent tourism industry thanks to its history and monuments. Many of these date to when it was the capital of the Western Roman Empire from 402 to 476 AD, at which point the Western Roman Empire collapsed. Later it would be absorbed by the Byzantines; who would also use it as a capital.

The biggest monument in Ravenna is the tomb of Dante, noted renaissance poet and father of Italian language. He was born in 1265 in Florence, where he lived most of his life. He died in 1321 returning to Ravenna from a diplomatic mission in Venice. He had lived his last three years in Ravenna where he finished Paradiso, the last book of his Divine Comedy.

On the drive home we made a short stop at the spring where the Tevere River starts. I was too tired to make the short hike to the spring from the road, but Daniele went up and drank from the spring. The Tevere is the river that flows through Rome before finishing in the Mediterranean, near Fiumicino Airport (FCO).

The rest of our photos from Ravenna and the spring are online here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/6040832020708410177

Hiking in the Dolomites

My in-laws have been showing me photos of the Dolomites (a particularly beautiful part of the Italian Alps) for years, insisting that I need to go. They all went every summer from 1994 until 1999, spending half of their summer vacation in the mountains, and the other half at their beach house in Marche.

The Dolomites (or le Dolomiti) are in Northern Italy, pushed up against the Austrian boarder. They run from the regions of Trentino/Alto Adige to Veneto. For our trip, we based ourselves on the Northern edge of the Dolimites, in a suburb of Dobbiaco called Valle Silversto (Valley of Sylvester). We stayed in Residence Rogger, where we had our own adorable mini apartment with everything made of pine.

This area has strong ties to Austria, to the point where everything is written first in German and second in Italian and the locals speak German more than Italian. Dobbiaco is always accompanied by “Toblach”, Alto Adige by “Sudtirol”, and every street sign is written both ways.

Our first day we arrived around 11 AM from Emanuele and Silvia’s in Veneto. Everyone told us to take it easy at first, as your body adjusts. However Daniele’s idea of taking it easy is not the same as most people’s, so we took the hardest hike of our whole trip. We started with a nice walk around Lake Dobbiaco (Lago Dobbiaco) then went up Trail 14, which is a steep path made of loose gravel that slides underneath you at every step. Going up was exhausting and going down I fell multiple times. This hike took just over 5 hours. We then checked into our little apartment and Daniele made dinner early, as we had skipped lunch. After dinner we went into Dobbiaco center, to look around and get some bread and yogurt, but everything closes at 6:30 or 7 in this little town.


Our second day we had another hard hike. We stayed in Valley Sylvester, driving about two minutes before parking near the restaurant we would go to the next day. At first we passed houses that are small farms or small-scale working lumber yards. Then we were in the forest, which was nice and shady. For the last part, we arrived above the tree line and were in the sun. They were working on the drainage for this part of the trail, so it was mounds of freshly turned over dirt for a decent part of it. I forgot to change my shoes before leaving the house, so I got to enjoy all that dirt right between my toes. At the top, we arrived at a Lodge (Rifugio in Italian, Hutte in German). We each had a beer overlooking the view of the valley below before heading back down. We were only another “hour” away from the Austrian boarder, and I wanted to go. We didn’t because the hiking times are as the Alpini (the Italian equivalent of the US Marines) take them, more on the Alpini shortly. It started to lightly rain before we made it back to the car, but we were home in time to shower and get to the store before everything closed again.

The Alpini were originally the Italian Army Corp from the Alps. They were founded in 1872 to defend the French and Austrian boarders and are the oldest mountain infantry in the world. They are recognizable by their feathered caps. And fun fact, their motto is “Di Qui Non Si Passa!” which basically translates as “You Shall Not Pass!”



Our third day I took over planning and picked a less steep itinerary, meaning we were actually able to go farther. We started by circling Lake Braies (Lago di Braies), then heading down an easy path to a “Malga” or mountain cow farm. Most of the trails lead to either a Malga/Farm or a Rifugio/Lodge. However, many farms serve food and many lodges have a couple cows, so the distinction is just what they choose to call themselves. This Malga has lots of cute cows that came up to you looking to be pet. Later, one even started to follow us home! From here we walked along the river until we arrived at a lovely valley full of wild flowers that was not on the map. At this point, we continued to the next Malga. This next part of the trail was pretty intense and steep, but it was lovely at the top. We could have continued another piece to arrive at a mountain-top lake, but it was getting late in the day and we had a long way back, so we skipped it. At the last Malga, we made friends with another Italian family, who were waiting for the father, who had continued to the Lake alone. We chatted over lunch then walked back together.






This was our first night going out for dinner. Daniele found a delicious restaurant that was more or less someone’s house. We each had a soup, and then he had polenta with goulash probably made from a cow walking around their property that morning and I had handmade pasta with local wild mushrooms. It was really delicious, and we wanted to go back, but when we called again their were booked up for the rest of our trip.

Our fourth day we split up. I took it easy and Daniele took one of the harder trails that I would never be able to do. In Val di Landro, he went from Lake Dobbiaco to Lake Mitteralplsee to Forcella del Lago (lake mountain pass). Up steep climbs and over lots of snow. In the afternoon we went to the town of San Candido, the last city in Italy before Austria.

Our fifth day we went to the most iconic part of the Dolomites, the Three Peaks AKA “Tre Cime” AKA “Drei Zinnen”. There is a trail you can take from the bottom of the mountain, but we paid to park part way up at the first lodge, Rifugio Auronzo. From this lodge we took Trail 101 or what Daniele calls “the highway of the Dolimiti” because it is an easy trail around a famous site so it is full of people. But whether it was for foggy weather or just early in the season, we barely saw anyone until later in the day. We walked about halfway around the Three Peaks without being able to see much of them or anything in the heavy fog. We passed a small church then the next lodge, Rifugio Lavaredo. From here we planned on taking Trail 104 around an attached mountain, but got lost in the fog and ended up on the World War I Historical Trail. I liked this accidental trail because we were walking on interesting rocky terrain, rather than the normal gravel or dirt paths. We also went over the walls of the front line, saw some dug-into-the-mountain shelters, passed a few micro-lakes, and walked over lots of snow. However, this openness meant no real trail to follow and we had no idea where we were nor where the trail was for a good time. The fog didn’t help, either. We accidentally climbed a whole different mountain, but it was a nice trail, so no loss. On our way back to the main 101 Trail, we could see where the trail we originally wanted split off, and how difficult it would have been to see even in better conditions. All of the other trails here have been very well marked. Back on the Trail 101, we circled around to the other side of the Three Peaks, which as it got later, would peak out of the fog for breaf moments. The trail became crowded now, also the trail was cut from snow taller than either of us. We had lunch at the Lodge at the end of this trail, Rifugio Locatelli, then took Trail 105 to complete a full circle around the Three Peaks. This trail went all the way down into the valley, and then back up the other side. On our way down it started to rain, but we didn’t get washed away. Even after we climbed all the way back up out of the valley, there was still a while to go to get back to our starting point. Along the way, we stopped at the malga/farm there and had some hot chocolate.




For our sixth day I wanted to go to the Austrian-Italian boarder and see both countries at the same time. I was starting to feel warn out, so I didn’t want a very, very long hike and the closest trail starting point from the boarder (where we could get the car) is in Austria. So, we drove over the nonexistent border and two towns into Austria. It worked out well, since gas is taxed less and therefore much cheaper there, that paid for the trouble. We couldn’t use phone data there and we don’t speak German, but we eventually found the little farm up the windy road where we could park. The path had a nice incline, but this day we finally took the poles from the car. Everyday previously we had told ourselves that it was just a short easy hike and we didn’t need them, only to find ourselves slipping on snow or down gravel later. We walked along the cows including little family groups complete with baby calves until we got to the crossroads near the top of the mountain. From here we could go left to a lodge, or right and walk along the boarder. I picked right saying if we have time we’ll stop at the lodge on the way back. We could soon see Italy on our left, with its larger mountains beyond the town of Sesto in the valley below. The boarder had small rectangular white marble stones every so often with an “I” on the Italian side, an “O” on the Austrian side, and that the boarder was established in 1920 along the other sides of the stones. We took the path up to the top of Mt. Elmo, where there was the best view of both valleys and mountains on both our left (Italian) and right (Austrian) sides. It started to rain then, also it was very cold and windy at the top of the mountain. It was time for lunch, or at least a snack, but there was nowhere sheltered to stop nearby. We had passed a small outpost building just on the other side of the crossroads. We’ve seen several of them this week, always the same wood-cabin structure, with a locked single-room (presumably) interior, and a covered porch featuring a bench and often a table perfect for a place to eat. So we hurried there and had lunch, while the sky rained itself out. The way down was a breeze using the poles. I was even able to go faster than Daniele and I really regret not using them everyday. I could walk with that much more speed and confidence knowing I had a grip on the ground if I slipped. We each used one. I had two when we hiked the Grand Canon, and I felt pretty neutral on how helpful they were then, maybe if you had more practice and good rhythm using them. In the Grand Canyon the terrain was mostly uneven so it was difficult to keep any rhythm in your step and coordinated with your arms. We walked around the Austrian town at the base of the access road for a few minutes before heading back to Italy. There was not really anything to see there.





That night we had dinner at a restaurant in the house where composer Gustav Mahler once lived and composed some of his largest works from 1908 and 1910. It was good, but the other place was better.

Our last full day we decided to just do some local sight seeing. We dressed in regular clothes and drove to San Candido where we wanted to start with the Bagni di San Candido. These baths were the place to be for Central European nobility of the 19th century to spend their “summer thermal spa holidays” (that’s actually how the official map describes it). The baths feature several different springs each with its own list of maladies it can sure. This was supposed to be about 20-minutes off the road, but ended up being closer to 1.5-hours of mixed paths in light to heavy rain without our hiking paraphernalia. We finally arrived at the baths. There were several fountains where we sampled the healing waters. Each fountain sourced from a different spring, with its own minerals and powers indicated on the fountain. The building there looks like it was once quite impressive, but now has more bits of caved in roof than bits still holding and whole sections of the walls have fallen down. You could still see interesting balconies, and widow adornments, and the general structure. It is an interesting mix of Venice/Byzantine styles and those of Austrian/Bavarian origin, something I could say of the whole area actually, but especially prevalent in an ornate structure like this one. From the Baths, there were signs pointing to San Candido in 50-minutes the way we came or 30-minutes a different way (times being always as the Alpini walk). I insisted we try the 30-minute way, as surly there had to be a better access to such an attraction than the road we had taken. We did it in 45-minutes, including a 10-minute break under a bridge hoping the pouring rain would lighten up, it didn’t. We are always faster going down than up, but not double, so this way was shorter. We wanted to get lunch in central San Candido, but almost every place stopped serving lunch at 2 PM. A clear indication of their Austrian influence, as in Rome you can’t eat lunch before 1 PM and in no part of Italy are you expected to finish a meal in less than an hour. We found a place with a limited after-2 menu where I had some spatzle (translated into Italian as gnocchi; it was spatzle) and Daniele had some fresh fettuccine with deer meat. The town was mostly shut down for Sunday, but I found a store open that sold local things and got some souvenirs to remember our trip. We were a bit wet and tied by then, so we headed home to pack up and get ready for the early start on the road home tomorrow.


So a full week hiking the mountains, and not just any mountains, the Italian Dolomiti. It was a beautiful, fun, and very physically active vacation. I now have calves so muscular that if I pull up a pant leg, it just stays there. I hadn’t realized how nice and cool it was up in the mountains until we got back to Rome. My in-laws actually headed up there right after we got back. They took good care of our little kitty Stella while we were gone. She and I were both very happy to see each other.

Pictures of these beautiful places are here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6038295577701410033

Visiting Emanuele and Silvia in Veneto

Back at the end of October, Daniele’s brother Emanuele moved to Veneto to be with his girlfriend Silvia. She is originally from there and the two of them had been alternating weekend visits for quite some time. They found their own apartment in June and we’ve been meaning to visit them. We came up with the idea a while ago to combine a summer vacation to the Dolomites (post coming soon) with a stop on the way to see them in Veneto for a weekend.

Veneto is another region of Italy, like Tuscany or Lazio, which is most famous for Venice and Prosecco. I’d been to Venice several times but never to any other part of Veneto. I knew Silvia lived a bit out of the way because I knew her parents had an independent house; in the cities and suburbs nearly everyone lives in apartments. Both their new apartment and Silvia’s parent’s house are in the province (“provincia”) of Treviso.

Daniele and I left Rome very early Saturday morning; most would still consider it Friday night. I slept on the way and we arrived at Emanuele and Silvia’s in time for breakfast. They did a great job planning our visit. We started with a quick stop in the small town of Conegliano Veneto. The town is very historical looking, with frescos and arches on the outsides of the buildings. There is a castle here, too. We visited the courtyard, but inside was closed. A wedding was just about to start there.


After Conegliano Veneto, we went to Grotte del Cajeron in Breda di Fregona. This was my first grotto. We took a hiking path in a loop that went into caves, over rope bridges, and over a river.

Our next stop was Lago di Santa Croce in the city of Farra d’Alpago. This is the only place we went to that was outside the province of Treviso. Silvia had made us a caprese rice salad with lactose-free mozzarella (shockingly good) that we ate picnic style by the lake. We were wearing bathing suits, but it was too chilly to sunbath, so we faked it wrapped up in sweaters.

At this point we headed back “home”, stopping on the way to have an “aperitivo” with Silvia’s aunt, uncle, and cousins. We had some cake, chips, and home-made prosecco. Then we regrouped at Emanuele and Silvia’s before dinner. Dinner was “Pasqualina” a special pizza invented by the restaurant owner that he even patented. It is basically a very thin and crispy pizza crust, with toppings, then another thin crispy crust layer on top. Making it almost a sandwich. I had the eggplant parmigiano, and it was delicious!

After dinner we went to Abbazia di Follina, an old and pretty church, then to Castello di Castelbrando. This castle is open to the public and occupied by an hotel, bar, restaurant, spa, gelateria, and a few stores. It had been abandoned before a group of business owners in the area restored it. It is one of my favorite castles I’ve been to thanks to the open access, the views, and how well maintained and accurate to the original structure it all is.



On our second day we had lunch at the “Osteria senza Oste” or the restaurant with no host. This famous places is hidden on a hill mostly occupied by grapes. It is a small shack with meats, cheeses, some pizza, breads, and drinks inside; all made locally. You take what you want and pay what you want, though there are suggested prices on the goods. There are tables outside and some knives and cutting boards to use and wash yourself afterwords. Many supplement with some of their own food. It was full there, with us getting last free table. The person who runs it just brings by the food in the morning. They must be making money because they’ve been doing it for about 10 years.

After lunch we went into the city center of Treviso. The city features a river going through it and lots of covered walkways and cute shops.

For our last night we had dinner with Silvia’s parents. They set up a large spread with lots of vegetables all from their own garden. It was delicious and Silvia’s mom sent us off with a big bag of tomatoes, peaches, cookies, and horse meat to bring to the mountains.

All the photos from this weekend:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6031461047786159921

Melissa’s Visit to Rome


Melissa and I at the Colosseum

A few days ago my college friend Melissa said she was thinking about visiting Rome for the weekend. She was in the middle of a business stay in Stockholm and wanted to use a weekend to visit another city. The timing was perfect because Daniele and I had had a trip to his cousin’s in Umbria planned for this weekend, which we had to cancel last minute when Daniele’s work shifts changed. So, with our plans canceled we were exceptionally free. Also, Rome was holding an event Saturday, the “Night of the Museums” (actually it was held all through out Europe this night). Many of the city and national museums would be open until 2AM and only cost 1 Euro. Also, other places, like government buildings and embassies that are normally closed to the public were open this night, though many by appointment only, and we were too late to make any appointments.

Melissa flew in Saturday evening and we met her at Termini. We had a quick dinner of Arancine (fried rice and cheese deliciousness) and then Gelato before heading out to see the sights. We ate near Lepanto, just off Cola di Rienzo, the street that connects Piazza del Popolo to the Vatican. We walked Cola di Rienzo to Piazza Popolo, then Via del Corso (Rome’s “main” street) end-to-end from Piazza Popolo to Piazza Venezia. Piazza Venezia is where the Altare della Patria stands. From here we bore right to Capitoline Hill (in Italian Campidoglio), home of the Capitoline Museum and Rome’s City Hall.

Our goal was to enter the City Hall. The volunteers on top of the hill told us there was one line for everything: City Hall, Capitoline Museum, the ruins underneath, and a concert going as well. In the end it turned out that the City Hall was not actually open, like the website said, but we enjoyed the museum, both its collections and the two late-Renaissance palaces that they reside in: Palazzo dei Conservatori, and Palazzo Nuovo. We also, for the first time, got to see the tunnels underneath, which connect the two palaces and show off the Ancient Roman structures under ground level.


The original bronze statue of Romulus and Remus suckling their wolf mother.

After we finished Capitoline, we reversed our path heading back up Via del Corso. It was getting late at this point, but we still had some time before the last places closed. We swung by the Trevi Fountain, since it is so pretty at night, before turning off past the Pantheon (closed by this hour, but we saw it from outside, at least) to Piazza Navona. Piazza Navona is possibly the most beautiful piazza in Rome. Its ovular shape is dominated by three Bernini fountains and closed in by beautiful Renaissance facades. Back in the day, before the fountains were built, the Romans would flood this piazza and stage naval battles here.

Piazza Navona is also the home of the Brazilian Embassy and near the Italian Senate building, two other places that we were thinking about trying to enter tonight. They are both normally closed to the public. However, we were getting tired at this point and both had long lines out front that threatened to not finish before the last entrance. So we walked past the illuminated windows, peeking inside, before heading back to the car at Lepanto, this time taking a route along the river.

Melissa was flying out at the crack of dawn on Monday– to enjoy a long layover / day-trip in Zurich, which I will admit I’m jealous of. I’ve never seen Zurich outside of the airport. That only gave us Sunday to see all the must-see spots in Rome.

We started our day with the classic “cappuccino e cornetto” breakfast just outside our apartment while making our attack plan for the day. We walked to the Colosseum from our house, which is maybe a 25 minute walk, or the same time by Metro, since you have to change lines. By walking we got to pass under the Aurelian Walls before stopping at San Giovanni basilica (the “duomo” of Rome, as the Vatican is a sovereign nation in its own right). San Giovanni is very pretty and features lots of marble statues both inside and out. From here it is about another 10 minute walk to the Colosseum.


Inside San Giovanni Cathedral

At the Colosseum we were greeted by the normal large crowds mixed in with a “Race for the Cure” crowd, which at least meant the streets were closed so we could all fit. We walked past and went first to the Roman Forum, which uses the same ticket as the Colosseum but almost always has shorter lines to buy them. Here we were presently surprised to get in for free! My last AirBnb guests had left us their Roma Pass, which I figured was used up or expired, but it got us into both the Forum and Colosseum free of charge. We walked around the Forum, which was the center of life and commerce in Ancient Roman times. We also crossed over to the “Palatine Hill”, where I’d never visited before. Like the Capitoline from the night before, this was one of the original Seven Hills of Rome. This one was actually were Romulus and Remus made their home. The Palatine area felt like just an extension of the Roman Forum, only a bit more open and park-like. We took the “Colosseum” exit from the Forum, then grabbed some ice cream (it was really hot) before heading into the Colosseum itself.


The Roman Forum



Palatine Hill



The Colosseum

Once we finished with the Colosseum, we took the Metro from there to Ottaviano, the stop nearest the Vatican. We knew we couldn’t fit in the Vatican Museum on such a short trip, but St. Peter’s is a must see. We purposely came here in the afternoon, when most of the pilgrims who came for the Sunday Blessing in the morning would have moved on to other sites. And, in fact, the line was reasonable and moved fast. We decided to spring the 5 Euros to go to the top (5 to climb all 500+ stairs, 7 to take the elevator part way then take the last 300+ stairs). I had only done this once before, with my mom and Aunt Linda, back when I first visited Rome in 2006, but I remembered that the stairs get pretty narrow. In the beginning, the stairs are wide and we could even walk side-by-side. They become single-file before you arrive at an open area that is above the basilica, but not the dome yet. You then enter the dome, and walk around the inside edge of it, looking down at the HUGE church underneath. When you start climbing from this point you are actually climbing between the inside and outside walls of the dome. So the walls of the stairway are slanted, but only slightly at first, though I could see it giving anyone with vertigo or claustrophobia a bit of trouble. Then it gets a bit more narrow, and you need your hands on the walls, because there is not enough space to walk standing straight. It keeps getting more and more narrow and more and more slanted until you get to the spiral stairway that is the last section. This last part is so narrow I could not have stretched my elbows out (and I’m not particularly long-limbed). There is not even space for a central column for the spiral staircase, there is just a rope than hangs down. But finally, you come out at the very top of the dome, and have the most beautiful view of Rome, out even to the mountains beyond it.


Looking up into the main dome of St. Peter’s Basilica



The view from the very top of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica

At this point it was 6PM, and the Basilica closes at 7PM. So we made our rounds inside, before walking though the piazza, and straight out the opening, in the direction of the river and Castle St. Angelo. We enjoyed the view here, of the river, the fortress, the bridge of angels, and the basilica in the distance for a few minutes before Daniele met us here. He drove us up to Gianicolo Hill where we got another nice view of Rome, now colored by the sunset.


St. Angelo Bridge

We then went to one of my favorite restaurants, MoMo, which seems fancy but has great prices and all of their food is so good. For dessert we decided on a change of venue, and picked up some canonni to-go, which we ate on the Spanish Steps. We took a quick walk up Via Condotti before heading home, tired, but having successfully captured Rome as best as I think possible in just over one day!


Sunset from Gianicolo Hill

All of the pictures from our tourist weekend are here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6015594620817086977

Trying out AirBnb

This past September (2013), Daniele and I moved from the condo he owns to one his father owns. Daniele’s is located in Monterotondo, which is still in the Providence of Rome, but just outside the City of Rome. We could have walked to the boarder from the condo, but we were definitely in the ‘burbs. The boundaries of Rome have spread out over the years as the city has grown to reach out and touch any already established city, such as Monterotondo.

Our new home is inside Rome, though just outside the walls of the ancient city. We are 7-minutes as-the-google-walks from two Metro stops on the A/Red Line, which I like better than the B/Blue Line. One of those stops is Re di Roma, a busy traffic-circle / piazza featuring many notable establishments. From here you can see, and easily walk to the ancient wall holding in Rome’s historical center, and enter at Basilica San Giovanni, which is the “duomo” of Rome (St. Peters is in the Vatican, which technically is not Rome). We are also sandwiched between the busy shopping streets of Appia Nuova, Taranto, and Tuscolana (Tuscolana Station is not a Metro stop, but it’s a great way to get straight to the airport). We have all this nearby, but magically live in a little microcosm of a quiet neighborhood composed of old people and a hand full of families where the only noise disturbance is church bells.

Similar to our old place, our apartment is made up of an open kitchen/living room, a bathroom, a master bedroom, and a small bedroom (though the last place had more outside space including a garden, two large balconies, and parking). Where as our last place was newer and designed with this layout, our home now was built in 1942 with a different design. Our place was the doorman’s apartment and we believe it is (by quite a bit) the smallest apartment in the building. Originally, you walked into the spacious living room with a door separating visitors from the rest of the home. The door leds to a little space with doors to each: the large bedroom, the bathroom, and the kitchen. The kitchen in turn leads to the balcony. When my father-in-law bought the place 10 years ago, he moved the kitchen to the living room and converted that space to a second (small) bedroom. This is a pretty common renovation now that society has accepted the kitchen as a gathering place, not something that should be hidden away. Fun fact, Italian Real Estate listings count “number of rooms”, but there is no uniform method of counting rooms. Some will only count rooms intended to be bedrooms, most will also count a living room, a few count every space including the kitchen and even bathroom.

Given our new, more central location and spare room we thought we would try out renting the extra space on AirBnb– just as an experiment to see how it does. If it went well, maybe we could do it for an entire apartment. The spare room was the last to get the renovation treatment, acting as our safe/clean room while the rest of house underwent the spackleing/sanding/more sanding/and even more sanding that the place needed to recover from the 10 years of being rented to students and the *72* years of general chipping and decay. I fought to maintain and restore all of the original wood and brass rather than replace everything with plastic and aluminum like my husband and in-laws would have done.

Daniele found several other airbnb-like sites. I didn’t want so much of our personal information spread out so wide, so I limited him to HouseTrip, which is very popular in Europe and particularly the UK, I believe. We did well with them, however, they just recently took down our listing and everyone else’s who was renting just a single room in order to concentrate on just listing full apartments/homes. We still have guests coming (and even right now are hosting two) who booked from HouseTrip. So, we still haven’t felt whatever effect losing their referrals will have.

We started last November and I had a few rules. First off, AirBnb is not like a hotel, where anyone can book a night, unless you want to set it up that way. Potential guests send a request for a stay that we have to pre-approve or deny. Only with a pre-approval can they then book. We do not sublet while away, many people use AirBnb this way, we do the exact opposite and will not take guests if we are not home. Similarly, Daniele works nights sometimes and I will not accept a booking where their first night here I will be home alone with them. It doesn’t take too long to get a feel for someone, and if we got someone sketchy, this would give me time to realize something was up and make Daniele call in sick. I also turn people down who seem sketchy online. A horror story I read a long time ago about a women who Airbnb’ed out her NYC apartment while away, and whose home was destroyed by the renters/robbers later noticed how the guest’s name was misspelled (something like Johgnson) and a few other indicators. I look for more complete profiles, with more methods of verification, and not accounts just opened today. Recently I’ve started asking people who request to stay and have new, blank accounts, if they could add some verifications and then ask again. After all, while we have a few reviews now, we were new once, too, and people gave us a chance.

It’s easy for me to deny requests because we are not trying to keep the room full 100% of the time. Who would want house guests all of the time? I’ve priced the room out according to this idea. We’re not the cheapest room you can book in the area. First off, do I want the people who look for the cheapest rooms staying with me and having my key? Not really. Second, there is enough demand that my pricing keeps the room full enough. It has to be worth what we’re getting (the money) to clean out the room, wash and change the bedding and towels, wait around to greet them when they arrive, and share my bathroom and kitchen with them while they are here (and in some cases, deal with their strange requests). That’s not nothing, if it was just a little bit of money I would be annoyed to do all that and never think it worth it when getting a request. But for the bit more that we charge, it feels like free money. It feels like getting $400 for just doing a load of laundry!

Everyone who has stayed with us has been really interesting and fun to meet. We had a brother and sister from San Paulo, a couple from Russia, a mother and son from Iowa, two gentlemen friends from India, three BU students studying abroad in Spain, two Italian girls here for a concert, two kids from Austria we housed in coordination with their Italian school, a father and son from Holland, an American couple living in Asia, and a bunch more. Each of these was the type of well-rounded, friendly, likes-to-travel person that you might meet in a hostel while traveling yourself. We got to live through their experiences and learn a bit about their worlds without even leaving the house. Not to say we become besties with everyone who stays. There is a wide spectrum of those who like to chat and those who prefer to keep to themselves. I have just been very presently surprised by how fun most guests can be.

There is also the consideration that Rome has lots to see and most of our guests spend morning to night out trying to seeing it all. Some have cooked meals at home, in general the older guests and the ones who stay longer have been more prone to do so. Many others we barely see, often just a quick exchange of greetings while they are coming or going.

We’ve been pretty successful, despite not exactly living across from the Coliseum or above the Spanish Steps. It seems there are plenty of people who would just as happily take the Metro a few stops or walk a bit further. We started off pretty slow in the end of fall and dead of winter. But then we got into spring-break season, and Easter, some big Rome/Vatican events like the Canonization, and now just the high tourist season of spring and summer. Right now we could easily book back to back if we wanted. Which, if you think about it is very impressive, that there are enough potential guests to match up with any weird opening, since we only have one room available. It happens enough now that we bought a second full set of sheets and towels, so we can turn over the room in the same day, while the linens hang dry.

I attribute a few things to our success. Besides entering tourist season, we have reviews now, which is going to make us more attractive to guests and send more requests our way. I also wrote a really, really clear description about our place (in my own mother-tongue English, which not all Italian listings can boast). I know I tend to avoid situations where I don’t know what to expect, particularly when traveling. Personally, I would even pay more for a place where I felt confident in what I was going to find, than a place that is perhaps nicer but I’m unsure about a few things– but maybe that is just nerdy me trying to avoid awkward situations. For example, if there are towels in the picture but it doesn’t say if they are included, or I’m not sure if the address given is where I’m staying or their office where I pick up my key, how many others will be staying here, which areas are common areas, things like that. Our aforementioned mother and son guests complemented our place on exceeding their expectations and said that at their last room, there had been a couch in the picture (mother and son did not want to share a bed) but on arrival were told the couch is now in a different and more expensive room. My description highlights how close we are to the metro, that it’s the metro line with most attractions, the grocery stores/restaurants/cafes nearby, that I work from home and will be able to let guests in just about any time (a known issue for Airbnb guests), and that Daniele has lived here 30 years and can help you figure out what to do during your stay. I also clearly state that it is a small room and what the shared bathroom and kitchen are all about, to manage expectations.

We have squeezed both a single bed and a full bed into that little room. This makes it a good layout for either couples or friends traveling together And while it would be cramped (and I always warn groups of three), three could fit in there and it’s a bit harder finding rooms for three in Europe. We recently added a small extra fee for the third person, after we started turning down most of the groups of three, once again restoring the “worth it” balance. Though really, the few we have hosted have not been much different that the groups of two. It’s just that 5 people sharing a bathroom has the potential to be too much.

We make an effort to keep the place immaculately clean. Which is the natural state of the apartment anyway, since Daniele and I have different pet-peeve things we like spotless (he likes clean floors, I could care less about floors but hate surfaces to have any dust or grime). Obviously this is good to do for reviews, but I have my own secret reason for it, too. People tend to clean up after themselves more when they are surrounded by cleanliness. All our guests have been pretty clean, one even commenting on not wanting to mess up our pristine apartment. So by doing the cleaning more often, we actually have to clean less by not having to clean up so much after them.

In summery, huge success. April was our best month to date, bringing in about $1500. All for a tiny room that we wouldn’t even be using otherwise. The space could have been an office for me, but we have space in our large bedroom for an office-area and that kind of money is like a salary in itself. Most likely winters will always be more bleak (though I think having reviews will help next year), but that’s fine because it is nice to not have guests, too. Someday we will have to shut down when it is time to expand our family and convert the room into a nursery. In the meantime, it is awesome money for just doing some extra laundry and a fun experience in itself.

Open House Roma


The courtyard and Italian style gardens inside the Academie Nationale de France, housed in Villa Medici

This weekend Rome had an event, “Open House Roma”, where lots of palaces, churches, and state buildings were open to the public, for free, and with guided tours. Depending on the place, there was one tour, tours every hour, reservations only, or walk-ins allowed. We found out about the even via a poster on our local piazza, then proceeded to forget about it for a few weeks. When we finally remembered and found the website to reserve spots, everything cool was booked solid. Luckily, Italians are pretty flaky as a general rule and enough people did not show up for their free reservations that we had no problem getting in anyway.

We spent the whole day Saturday on foot, walking from our house near Re di Roma, to the Colosseum, to Piazza Venezia, to Villa Borgese, and reverse. So I spent Sunday siting on my butt at my computer to compensate. I had tentatively thought about heading out again and trying to get into the Senate, but it will be open again.


Basilica San Giovanni in Laterano


Roman Forum

The city was really packed. I imagine it is a combination of Spring being a beautiful time of year for a European vacation and that it was the weekend, when more Italian and European visitors make a short trip to Rome. The Pope was also greeting a large group of school children today. And, finally, there was a protest in the afternoon. We did not see the protest (or maybe a parade?) itself and I have been unable to fine any news saying what it was. There are a lot of protests in Rome, so that’s not too surprising. We did pass the after effects: waves of openly smoking young people and drug dealers in a frequency that would have made me double-take even in Golden Gate Park, followed by streets blocked off and littered with trash and broken beer bottles, then finally hordes of police vehicles and geared-up officers who were taping off sections of streets as we got closer to home, were presumably the demonstration was headed but had not yet arrived.


Crowds outside the Colosseum

Our first Open House Roma stop was the French Academy in Rome, or “Académie de France à Rome” as the French call it, or “Accademia di Francia a Roma” as the Italians call it located in Villa Medici (Medici like the family who ruled Florence during the Renaissance). They say this villa is located “inside” Villa Borgese, but it would be more accurate to think of the Borgese and Medici as being neighbors. The Villa is on Pincio Hill, not one of the seven-hills of Rome, because it was outside the sacred wall of Ancient Rome (this was their “country estate”) but it is inside the Aurelian walls (built between 270 and 273 A.D and considered today the boundary of the historical center). While there was a Villa here in Ancient Roman times, what stands today was really built up in the Renaissance. From the Villa Medici website:

Ferdinando de’ Medici (1549-1609), cardinal at the age of 13, collector and sponsor, purchased it in 1576 and asked the Florentine architect Ammannati to build a palace worth the prestige of the Medici family. Devoted to Antiquity, like many of his contemporaries, Ferdinando conceived his Villa representing a museum. He added a gallery where he presented his collection of antique masterpieces. He inserted in the facade a series of antique bas-reliefs. Even the garden was designed in the same spirit of staging, like the botanic gardens of Pisa and Florence designed by his father several years before. Numerous rare species were gathered there, amongst antique statues. Further south, ruins of the Temple of Fortune were overlaid by a belvedere from where one’s sight could embrace the major part of the city and surrounding countryside.

[…]In 1587 Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici was called to Florence to replace Francois the First on the throne of Tuscany. He left the decoration of the Villa partly unfinished. The most precious statues and the comprehensive set of the collections were moved to Florence. The Lorraines, heirs of the Great Duchy of Tuscany sold the Villa in 1803.


The internal facade of the Academie Nationale de France, housed in Villa Medici. Note the Etruscan tombs incorperated into the design

The buyer in 1803 was Napoleon, who turned the Villa into the art academy which it still functions as today under the governance of the office of culture of France. Artists can apply to stay in this peaceful villa in the center of Rome, but silently surrounded by it’s vast 17+ acre gardens, to study their craft and Italian techniques. Originally only students of Art and Architecture could apply, today everything from Music to Culinary Arts are welcome.


A view of the Italian style gardens from the Cardinal’s chambers of the Academie Nationale de France, housed in Villa Medici

Our tour of the Villa started inside, with Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici’s personal apartments– still featuring their ornate furnishings and murals. We then came to the garden where we took in the internal facade. Etruscan tombs are attached to the facade for added decoration; they are actually well incorporated and I would not have realized they were tombs without our guide. This overlooks the classic “Italian Garden” featuring short green shrubs in geometric designs. To the side of this are 16 (four squares of four) perfectly square and equal gardens walled off by tall green shrubs, giving a maze effect. These are being restored to their original Renaissance purposes and some are growing vegetables and grapes. Along the sides of these 16 squares, between them and the Villa wall, are a few outbuildings. One was Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici’s personal studio. It is decorated with a study of all kinds of animals painted on its vaulted ceiling in the main room and a mural featuring different reincarnations of the Villa itself in a smaller room. The windows here were, at the time, a view into the unsettled forest surrounding Rome, now it overlooks the busy street Via del Muro Torto. There is also a staircase leading outside the walls of the Villa, which the Cardinal would have used to meet his secret girlfriends. Another small building is full of Medici busts. As we circle around the 4×4 garden squares, back to the building itself, there is a balcony view over the city, where you can see every major sight in Rome, which would have been very similar (if perhaps a bit less filled in between) in Ferdinando’s time.


View of Rome’s city center from the gardens of the Academie Nationale de France, housed in Villa Medici. Most prominent in the skyline are the Altare della Patria on the left and the dome of the Vatican center-right

More info:
wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Academy_in_Rome
www.villamedici.it
wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Medici

Our second stop on our Open House Roma tour was the Palazzo Venezia. Most tourists stop by Piazza Venezia to see the Altare della Patria (the Alter to Patriotism, some call it “the wedding cake”) which dominates the square. Facing said alter, you could zip off to the left and walk pass the Roman Forum before arriving at the Colosseum, or to the right and arrive at Campidoglio Hill (housing Rome’s City Hall and the Museum Capitolini). Or do an about-face and be looking down Via del Corso, an important landmark in itself having been the location for Rome’s famous Carnival (Mardi Gras) house races and today is a partially-pedestrian street (only buses, taxis, and politicians allowed) housing every brand in Europe. Continue down Via del Corso and you pass some other noble palaces (like Palazzo Doria Pamphilj) and the small streets leading to the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps before finishing in Piazza del Popolo. Piazza (and Palazzo) Venezia are about as central as you can get. Even Berlusconi thinks so, he owns a palace just a few yards down from Palazzo Venezia.

You almost wouldn’t notice that there is a little nook to the right of Piazza Venezia which has a different name, Piazza San Marco. Piazza San Marco is, of course, also the name of the main square in Venezia aka Venice. Piazza Venezia and the Altare della Patria are relativity (compared to the age of most landmarks in Rome) new, having been built up from 1911 to 1925.


The Altare della Patria in Piazza Venezia, Rome

It turns out there is history to all of these Venice references in this area, and once again, it comes back to a cardinal. In 1455 Venetian Cardinal Pietro Barbo was put in charge of the church located here, Basilica San Marco. Like most churches, the area in front of it was called piazza same-name, and this is where we get Rome’s Piazza San Marco. Nine years later, he would be named Pope Paul II. He would assign his cardinal-nephew, Marco Barbo, to his old post and enlarge the palace, at this point still called Palazzo San Marco. Several large additions were made. The grandeur was added to by artwork, even murals, which were scavenged from river-side palaces that were being demolished at this time in order to build up the (still in use) embankments. The final palace greatly outshined the basilica it was “supporting”.


Fresco ceiling in Palazzo Venezia that was taken and relocated here from another palazzo, which had to be destroyed to build Rome’s river embankments

In the following years, the palace was used as a summer home for the pope. Then in 1564 the pope (at this point Pius IV Medici) gifted the palace to the Republic of Venice, who in turn, used it as their embassy to Rome. From this point on, the palace became known as the Palace “of” Venice, or Palazzo Venezia.

The palace remained the property of Venice up until Italy unified in 1861. Then in the Treaty of Campo Formio it became the seat of the Austrian Diplomat. In 1910, one of the palace’s gardens was relocated to the other side of the palace to make room for Piazza Venezia (where we started our story). Then in 1916, shortly after completion, the Italian Royalty recovered ownership of the palace and established a museum, which opened in 1921.


View into the courtyard of Palazzo Venezia

The palace took a major turn from 1929 to 1943, when it served as the headquarters for the Italian Fascist government. They say they never turned the lights out, so the people would know their government was always working for them. We got to see Mussolini’s room, which was styled in a somewhat tacky zodiac design painted in a far inferior manor to the Renaissance works housed in the adjacent rooms. His final mistress (there were many, along with two different wives), Clara Petacci, apparently liked astronomy.


Zodiac themed ceiling in the room used by Mussolini and his Astrology-loving mistress, in Palazzo Venezia

After World War II, the palace reopened as a museum once again. Notably, there is an impressive collection of ceramics, ranging from early Asian-inspired designs to later works with a stronger European identity, no longer trying to imitate the original Asian styles. Not to mention the walls filled with paintings and the palace itself.


The marble stairway in Palazzo Venezia

More info:
www.museopalazzovenezia.beniculturali.it

If I had to compare the two, it would be difficult. Villa Medici has impressive gardens and still a beautiful interior. It is difficult to reconcile of such a large private open space sitting in the middle of a busy capital city. Palazzo Venezia is in the very heart of the city and even more grand inside– there is a large marble staircase, and room upon room of Renaissance art. Villa Medici, as the house of the French Academy, has no lack of art either, but it is mostly modern works hung on plain white walls, with a few exceptions. Both have made an effort to restore or maintain the Renaissance styles of their peak. Really, I would be happy to live in either one.

Pictures: https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6012308555556852785

Castello Santa Severa

Yesterday (actually yesterday, not uploading months old posts for once), Daniele and I visited the Castle of Santa Severa. The castle has changed hands many times, and now the town of Santa Severa* owns it and opened it for the week, by appointment, to see about making it into an open tourist attraction.

*Note, Santa Severa is not a town or “commune” in its own right. It is a “frazione” or borough of Santa Marinella, composed of a few grouped together houses. A clear distinction in Italy where every “commune” has certain amenities (the town hall, police station, train and/or bus station, post office, church, and almost certainly a bar, pizzeria, and tabacchi) and always a town center where you find most of these.

In true Italian style, the castle is a mix of structures all build on top of each other. The oldest date from 5th to 4th millennium B.C. — that’s millennium, not a typo. The location leads to people wanting to live there. The castle sits on its own micro-peninsula sticking out into the sea, with sandy beaches to the right, and rocks that were probably placed there to slow erosion to the left. Our guide said that they estimate the land used to stick out another mile, because they have found remnants that far out. It is easy to understand erosion being a concern for any sea-front castle owner.

The history of the castle is not very clear since it dates to prehistoric times. The consensus is that the area was frequented dating back to 5th to 4th millennium B.C. There are excavations dating from the Neolithic Period (7th to 6th millennium B.C.), the Bronze Age (2 millennium B.C.), and the Iron Age (9th to 8th century B.C.).

We know a little more about the Etruscan Period. The Etruscans were a civilization based in Tuscany from 7th to 6th century B.C. that evolved along with and were later conquered by the Ancient Romans. I first learned about them during my Volterra visit in 2010. In Etruscan times, the place was called Pyrgi and served as a commercial port connecting to all of the Mediterranean, especially Greece and Phoenicia. This Etruscan port mostly supported (and vice-versa) the nearby city of Caere, modern day Cerveteri. A very ancient sanctuary with temples to Apollo and a few other deities was also found outside of the residential area, which spread about 25 acres. Some important relics were found here, one of which is three tablets written in both Etruscan and Punic, proving the strong relationship between the Etruscans of Ceveteri and Cartharage.

Romans dominated the area beginning in 3rd century B.C. Pyrgi became a maritime colony and a huge rectangular fortress was built, surrounded by polygonal wall. These were built on top of the Etruscan and prehistoric structures. This fortress continued to be used until 5th to 6th century A.D. (the Late-Ancient Period). It is believed that the structure was transformed to an important villa by this time. Also in the Late-Ancient Period, an early Christian church was build next to the port dedicated to Santa Severa. Santa Severa was a Pygrese martyr in the third century A.D. This early Christian church was only just discovered in excavations in 2007.

Santa Severa continued to develop on top of the older structures. During the Medieval and Renaissance periods, the village occupied only a quarter of the Roman fortress and had become a huge farming estate as well as a stopover port between Rome and Civitivechia (today where most cruse ships come in to visit Rome).

All of this history and building on top of things lead to a piecemeal fortress-style castle, not a palace like Versailles by any means. I kept low expectations of a pretty simple stone structure going in, and I was pleasantly surprised by what we found. There is a very castle-like Keep in the center, with towers and battlements. There are also impressive frescoes in the two “newer” churches and dug out excavations of the oldest church– an early christian structure build on the remains of an Ancient Roman villa, a grain refinery turned graveyard with evidence of grave robbing, and a secret stairway with direct access to the beach. The whole structure reminded me very much of all of the medieval hill towns here in Lazio that we frequently visit. Which makes sense, since ancient castles were basically walled-in towns. The main difference here being that this entire structure, which could be a small town, has been in the ownership of a single body since at least Ancient Roman times.

Now that the castle is in the hands of the town, the idea is to open it to the public. This week was a bit of an experiment along those lines. I’m not sure about the time-line on those goals or if the idea is to just open it up or keep the guided tour structure. There are already some shops in one of the three courtyards before passing the door where our tour began. We were told no one is allowed past that door unaccompanied. And I’m not sure if I would have enjoyed all of the sites within without our guide, who lucky for me spoke very clear Italian. He was one of the archeologists involved in the actual excavation of Castle Santa Severa and was able to point out all of the cool little things that I would have missed without him. You can follow along our tour with my heavily captioned photos.

We rounded off the day with lunch on the beach in front of the castle. We stayed on the rocky side since the sandy part looked a bit damp. The beach here has been open to the public and a popular spot all along. In fact it had been on our list of beaches to try out for quite some time before Daniele heard about the castle opening. After, we finished with a visit to the neighboring town of Santa Marinella before it started to rain and we headed home.

Photos from the day: https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6008215300922876865