FIVE DAYS IN ROME, Part 2: Guest Post by Paige Arnold

Bike riding on the Appian Way, Rome, Italy

My granddaughter Paige (age 13) and her parents recently went on a trip to Rome, and while she was there Paige kept a diary of their activities. Paige is a competitive swimmer, so although she was on vacation, she tried to fit in practice when she could. I thank her for sharing her thoughts and photos of the trip with The Intrepid Tourist. 

On our third day in Rome we went to the Borghese Gallery, but since we had tickets to go at 3:00, we decided to go to another museum first. It was a museum of musical instruments, which had many pianos and harps and such from a long, long time ago.

Harpsichord at the National Museum of Musical Instruments, Rome.

I really liked how the pianos and organs had paintings and art on the covers--it just made them that much prettier.  After that we went home for about ten minutes and then walked to the Borghese museum.  

Ceiling paintings in one of the twenty rooms of the Borghese Gallery.

At the Borghese Gallery, there were many beautiful statues and paintings and lots of rooms to wander through and look at things.   

Stone sculpture of person carrying a lion pelt (Borghese Gallery)

There was an app you could download to experience an audio tour that guided you through the rooms, which gave you a detailed explanation of the important pieces.  Since lots of people were using the audio tour, it was very quiet for those who didn’t, which was nice. 

Villa Borghese Park

There was also a park behind the museum with statues and trees, and we found that walking through it was very enjoyable.  For lunch, we had gotten sandwiches before, so when we got home we just ate those.  The sandwich place we went to was a “make your own” place, but it was a bit difficult since we didn’t know Italian.  They cut the meat right in front of us with one of those sharp spinning metal wheels, which was fascinating to watch.  After eating lunch, we relaxed for a while then went out to dinner at the same place that we had gone to the first day.  

The fourth day, I was in charge.  Early in the morning (at least early for me), my dad and I went out to the park near our house for me to draw and for him to take pictures of the Colosseum.  We spent about thirty minutes there, and then headed back to get ready to go out for a swim.  This time, we knew exactly which place we were going to and exactly how to get there.  We arrived, I swam for a bit, and then we went home.  I wanted a bit of a relaxing day, so we spent the rest of our day in the apartment, and ate a measly dinner that we managed to put together from the ingredients already in the kitchen.   

Bike riding past ancient ruins on the Appian Way

The last day, we woke up late and went on a bike ride on the Appia Antica road, which is the ancient road that connected Rome to Brindisi (also known as the Appian Way.)  It was a very bumpy ride, since the road was paved with cobblestone. On the way back, we stopped at a little restaurant off the side of the road, where the waiter was very kind and talked to us in English about how he used to live in California around where we live. He showed us a book he was mentioned in, and told us lots of stories about the author. In all, the trip was very interesting and it taught me how different Rome is from the U.S.
(Additional photos by Matt Arnold.)

Paige at the Vatican

FIVE DAYS IN ROME, Part 1: Guest Post by Paige Arnold

Colosseum, Rome, Italy

My granddaughter Paige (age 13) and her parents recently went on a trip to Rome, and while she was there Paige kept a diary of their activities. Paige is a competitive swimmer, so although she was on vacation, she tried to fit in practice when she could. I thank her for sharing her thoughts and photos of the trip with The Intrepid Tourist.

During my spring break, my family decided that we would take a week-long vacation in Rome.  We stayed in an Airbnb right in the center of the old city, where tourists were abundant. 

Monument to Vittorio Emmanuel II, with statue of Goddess Victoria riding on a quadriga

On the first day, my dad and I wanted to find a place to swim.  I was going to be missing a full week of swim practice at home, so we had to find somewhere so that I could keep myself in shape.  We were originally going to swim at the Olympic pool, which was relatively far away, so we had to take the subway, then walk around 14 blocks from the station.  It ended up that the pool was only for people age18 and up, so we crossed the river in search of someplace else.  We tried another place, but it was for members only, so we retraced our steps in hope of finding yet another option.  We then happened across a little place with a pool under a big tent where we could pay to swim, and swam there for about an hour. 

The Colosseum was completed in 80 A.D. It is the largest amphitheater ever built.

After that we returned home and rested for a bit before going out to see the Colosseum from the outside.  

One of the many cats that live near the Colosseum.

Our Airbnb was about a two-minute walk from the Colosseum, so we walked through a nice little park and got there quickly.  We looked around a bit, then decided to go eat dinner at Ristorante Pizzeria da Michele, a place which was very nice and where the waiter was very patient and helpful. 

Entrance to the Vatican Museum.

The second day, we went to the Vatican.  We went on a 2 ½ hour walking tour which showed us the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica.  The whole thing was very crowded, but it’s what you’d expect from one of the most visited attractions in Rome.

Statue of Boy and Duck with grapes inside Vatican Museum.

The paintings on the Sistine Ceiling and walls were beautiful, which is amazing since the artist who painted them, Michelangelo, wasn’t even a painter.  He was a sculptor. (No photography is allowed in the Sistine Chapel.) 

Statue of a face in the hallway leading to the Sistine Chapel

After gazing at the art in the Sistine Chapel for fifteen minutes, we walked right next door to St. Peter’s Basilica.  

There were many, many statues and the tour guide (who spoke fluent English as well as Italian) told us stories about some of the individual pieces, such as “La Pieta”.  Afterward, we went outside to the balcony and looked at the courtyard below. There were lots of nice decorations around, because Easter was coming up and the Pope was to come. 

In St. Peter's Basilica

Then we went to have lunch at a little pizzeria not too far away, which I thought was great.  Something that surprised me was how thin the crust was. It was like pizza toppings on top of a tortilla!  The thinness of the crust made the pizza even better, because since it was so thin you could eat the whole thing and not feel sick. After that, we walked for a while and took a bus back to the apartment. The buses in Rome, or at least some of them are very crowded. The upside of that is that when everyone is packed into the bus like sardines into a can, then you don’t have to hold on to anything, since there’s nowhere to fall. 
(The last two photos are by Matt Arnold. Part 2 will post next week.) 

Street scene near our apartment