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Puppyclinico
Nov. 19th, 2014 01:15 pmI'm sat on a rather luxurious train, heading north from Rome to Florence. It's one of those ultra-high speed trains that I imagine will run on HS2 if that ever gets built. This train covers the distance from Rome to Turin in just over four hours, while our leather backed premium class seats - the middle of the three classes they have - are very comfortable. At €19 each, I certainly can't complain. My journey is a mere 90 minutes but if I do come back to Italy, I think touring by train will certainly be an option. They're even offering a range of complementary newspapers on the train, all in Italian of course, while the on board TV screens chart our progress and even offer the view from the cab as the train darts through the early morning mist. The complementary Coca Cola and peanuts just put the icing on the cake - they even came with a moist towelette. I'll repeat again - €19.
We are leaving Rome behind after a very full two days, during which we saw a vast array of sights and met up with some friends of one of my Italian editors at work, Riccardo and Elisa. Elisa met my Italian editor Ciro when they worked together in La Tasca in Leeds and she has fond memories of the city. She took Riccardo to Leeds last year and he too enjoyed it, so much so that the duo are hoping to return to live there early next year. Riccardo offered us a guided nighttime tour around Rome in his car, so on Tuesday evening we opted to meet up at Circo Massimo at 9:30pm for him to show us about. We were slightly early so we decided to have a look at the Circo Massimo, which has yet to be restored to former glory. In reality, all that remains of the place where Romans used to watch chariot races while sat on marble seats is a long section of grass with a handful of excavated brick buildings at one end. They do seem to be restoring some of it though as the whole area was blocked off with high metal fencing, with just a brick tower and a few foundations visible through the darkness. This area is close to the Colosseum and Roma Fora remains but through the darkness it was difficult to get bearings. There was a statue dedicated to horsey things overlooking the Circo Massimo which we saw as we headed towards the metro station - I'm not sure if it was honouring that or something else though - I need to find out who Mazzini is, I think a far later general of some kind.
We were about 20 minutes early for our meeting, having walked from the working class Trastevere district of the city and not being 100% sure of the directions. The Trastevere district styles itself as the home of the true Romans and is where a lot of Roman cuisine originated, as it was typically food eaten by the poor. There is certainly a breathtaking charm walking down cobbled streets lit by Victorian-style street lamps, with the lights from small bars, restaurants and boutiques adding to the ambience of the street. Indeed walking around this area was very relaxing as it felt more like the authentic Italy you see on TV, rustic and traditional. Candles were lit by the side of the street while around every corner you turned, there was yet another beautiful church to admire. There are many churches in Rome - no real surprise - many in a more classical style but we did see one Gothic one by the side of the Tiber, which looked a little out of place squeezed amongst the other architecture.
We were in Trastevere for two reasons - the guidebook recommended a craft beer bar called Bir & Fud (how the Italians would write beer and food if those were Italian words - apparently it's trendy) and Riccardo recommended a restaurant called Osteria Cacio e Pepe, a traditional Italian pizzeria. Trastevere is a little more difficult to get to than other parts of Rome, necessitating a walk as there are no metro stops and precious buses nearby. This perhaps gave it a more authentic feel although this didn't stop a few tourists from popping up, including an American from Houston who was visiting Rome with his partner. We got talking in Bir & Fud - initially overwhelmed by the 36 taps on offer, he suggested a high-strength pilsner which was most enjoyable. Wolfie and I had initially gone to the back of the bar to drink but upon speaking to this gentleman, we moved to the front and had an enjoyable chat about the Southern USA, where I used to live, and the things to do and see in Rome. He was looking for tips as he had only just arrived in the city after staying with a friend in Paris, with him bemoaning that he only had eight days holiday due to the restrictive American annual leave allowances. He was having a good vacation though and although disappointed that Bir & Fud were not serving pizza at this time, was having a good time so far. We could have gone on the €5 tour around their microbrewery but we declined, having been on so many of these before, but we were amazed by the sheer depth of choice when it came to Italian craft beer. We also noticed that there is a German Bockbier Festival starting in the bar from Friday so it's almost certain we will now be heading there again, particularly as we made friends behind the bar, who even gave us a discount on our second round of drinks such was our interest in their establishment, which apparently was opened in 2006 and later upgrading to contain 36 taps. You don't often associate the Italians with beer but they were into the craft scene early than us it would appear.
Our American friend left before we did, but we were gone soon afterwards as we had to try and find the restaurant. As it turned out, it was conveniently just around the corner and soon we were ordering our food. Pasta dishes are a starter here and we opted to try one as we had had nothing but pizza up to this point. Wolfie got a carbonara and I got amitabiarra (I think), a tomato and bacon effort which was delicious and very full of flavour. The guidebook said any restaurant which displays its antipasti is generally a good one and this was no exception - Italian food is simply at another level compared to that back home. We have found that the more simple the restaurant, the better the quality of food, segueing nicely with the notion that good Roman food had its roots in working class and poor man'a cooking. We did have the obligatory pizza after our pasta starter, a starter which in all honesty was big enough to be a main course by itself (and Riccardo warned us to expect even bigger portions in Florence). My pizza was one named after the restaurant and comprised of mozzarella, sheep's cheese and black pepper. It was divine, with a slightly crispier base than previous efforts which saw Wolfie showering me with pizza shards. That definitely made me a pizza puppy! The balance of the saltiness of the cheese and the pepper worked very well, with the flavour most akin to those black pepper Kettle Chips you can buy. Towards the end of the meal, some singers came into the restaurant - one with an accordion and one with a guitar - and provided some nice traditional Italian background music as ambiance. Sadly I had no money to tip them and the restaurant, needing €3 in coin to get the metro home (we decided not to get the day, tourist or week tickets as most places in Rome are walkable and a lot of the centre isn't covered by the underground), and the restaurant came first. It was a great recommendation from Riccardo.
Meeting people is one of the huge advantages of travelling, either pre-arranged or just starting to chat to people randomly. Like with the American, the latter happened in a little bar near the Pantheon on Monday evening. We were searching for this awesome structure in the heart of the old city when the heavens opened and we were caught in a massive downpour on the Piazza de Montecitorio. There is another beautiful church on this square, in a similar style to many others in Rome, tall with ornate stone frontage. Differently though this was painted yellow, which gave off a pleasant warming hue with the street lighting shining on to it. As the rain picked up, the lady in the bar opposite glanced at us sympathetically and we knew we had no real choice but to nip inside. It was either that or get drenched. Plus she pointed to her super warm heater. The bar wasn't much more expensive than most in the city, with a standard beer costing around €6, which is far more than I expected it to be. Anyway, all beers here seem to come with complementary nibbles, assumedly a ruse to get you to drink more to quench the saltiness of the snacks. Still, free crisps and peanuts elicit no complaints from me. We got talking to the waitress, who was Romanian, about the weather and Britain in general. She was from the north of Romania, but had been to the town of Brasov where I had been too. Travel really does connect people as being from different places automatically makes you interesting, and we had a great chat, sharing our conversation with a guy from the far north of Sweden and his Russian partner, who was from St Petersburg. Having been there too, we had an enjoyable 20 minute conversation as we waited for the rain to die off, leaving the pub refreshed and delighted with the experience.
Anyway, I digress, so much has happened that I'm struggling to keep this journal fully updated (or should that be pupdated - everyone loves a pup date). On Tuesday we were 20 minutes early to meet him so we waited at Circo Massimo station, loitering in the main foyer where we listened to an eclectic range of music, specifically big band style from the 1930s. I'm not sure if this was a tactic from the station staff to make us disperse but it didn't work, I actually quite enjoyed it while watching graffitied trains pulling in and out of the station (five going south but only two north for some reason) and crazed men with beards picking their nose and flicking their snot in manic fashion. There was a toilet in the station but it was guarded by a large metallic automatic door in which you put money and I didn't trust it, not in a station which was practically deserted anyway. Five minutes until our meeting time, we decided to go back to surface level and wait on a wall overlooking the disappointing Circo Massimo and the main road that runs parallel to it, which we had walked down to get there.
We didn't have long to wait as Riccardo and Elisa soon honed into view, crossing the road to greet us before we headed back towards their car for our whistle stop tour. It was a very great tour as we saw a range of sites and got a geographical perspective of the city that we wouldn't have been able to do on our own. We saw a pyramid built in the city around 20BC, influenced by the Romans starting to conquer Northern Egypt (which is the reason why there are so many Egyptian obelisks in the city - 18 I believe of which 12 are originals from Egypt). We also went up a hill on the western part of the city, where we could peer through a keyhole to see a perfectly framed image of the dome of St Peter's in the Vatican. The door was closing off an entrance to a garden but there was another garden open further down the road, even though the signs clearly stated that it was meant to close at 6pm at this time of year. We wandered amongst the immaculately cultivated trees, enjoying this beautifully tranquil garden, towards the far wall, where we got a fantastic view over the city, with all of the major sites on view. The same could be said for a hillside further up called Gianicolo, which gave you a full panorama across the city, from the Vatican in the west to Vittoriano in the east. This was a far more popular tourist site, demonstrated by the snack stalls and the handful of tourists still there at 11pm, but it was a breathtaking vista. Granted you had to move along the wall to see everything as trees occasionally blocked the view, but this was a minor inconvenience. It's also quite a romantic place, evidenced by the couples canoodling again, although this air of romance was punctuated by some loud music coming from a pimped up Lancia with bright blue lights. Another equine statue sits at the top of this hill, dedicated to the general Guiseppe Garibaldi who was instrumental in achieving national unity for Italy in the 1860s. I think he was also famous for biscuits. He and his horse are also enjoying the view of the city, which I thought was a very appropriate tribute to such an instrumental figure.
After our tour around the city, Elisa suggested that we go for a drink, again citing the Travestre part of the city as it's her favourite area too. We parked up in front of a fabulous municipal building of white stone arches, opposite a sign for a 'Sexy Shop'. Riccardo was a little concerned whether we could park there or not but in the end it was fine. The four of us then walked down the narrow cobbled streets of Trastevere, passing under arches of green vines attached to the Victorian style street lamps I have mentioned before. Elisa chose a bar from memory as she had had good times there before, but she was dismayed to find they had redecorated and had lost the vibe in the process. It also now had an older clientele, not great for us young 'uns who are all in our early thirties. It was up to me to choose a bar then and I opted for a weird orange clad establishment with a miscellany of artwork on the wall. There was a Union Jack chair folded in the corner where we sat, the darkest in the building under a brown drape which I assumed hid a TV. To our right there was a Japanese group having an argument, who then brought ice cream into the pub and let it dribble everywhere, with most of it lying prostrate on a plate half-eaten. There are many Japanese people in the city on tour and around most of the tourist sites it has been a case of trying to avoid taking pictures of Japanese people taking pictures of the same things I want to take pictures of. I imagine getting an unrestricted view/photograph in the summer time would be impossible. The four of us chatted some more over a bottle of Ceres in our case - a 7.5% Danish beer that is very popular here but unheard of back home for some reason. There were more crisps and nuts, plus those Thai rice crackers you can get in posh pubs. We were also approached by a range of flower salesmen, who pester the man in a table to buy a rose for this lady friend. Being gay, we thankfully don't succumb to that pressure that much, but it's a nightly occurrence for Riccardo and Elisa. The same is true of people who wash your car at traffic lights, or when we were there, wipe it down with a damp cloth. All of these people are immigrants, typically from North Africa, tempted to Italy by work prospects which are sadly not there when they arrive. In addition to this are the people who pester you at every monument you go to with sticks on which to place your iPhone to get a better camera shot or to enable you to take a selfie in front of tall or grand buildings. Never underestimate the desire to take a selfie, I've seen loads of examples in the last three days, particularly around the Vatican and some of its famous treasures.
With Riccardo needing to be at work at 9.30am this morning, we decided to head off around midnight, with Riccardo kindly driving us back to our hotel even though it was 20 minutes away. This gave us the opportunity to follow the course of the River and see the large number of bridges over it. Some were old stone structures and other more modern metallic varieties but all beautiful in their own way. We were also driven past Isola Tiberina, an island in the centre of the River where the hospital of San Bartolomeo stands. Wolfie commented how it's mashing continental hospitals tend to be older affairs whereas the ones in the UK are more modern. I pointed out we did have the Victorian LGI in Leeds. There is a nice little church on the southern-most tip of the island, which was closed as we walked this way earlier from Trastevere to the Circo Massimo. However something was going on inside so I caught a glimpse of the simple alter and the delicate yet understated frescos adorning the roof. Cleansing of the spirit was thought to aid cleansing of the body so it comes as no surprise that this beautiful church, again in white stone and bearing Latin inscriptions, was an important part of the hospital complex. We also drove past a children's hospital adorned with rainbow flags and another on the top of a hill which was a far more modern affair.
The way back to the hotel saw us pass through a wide range of tunnels and gave us a good perspective of the geography of the city. The streets were quite empty but apparently this is not the case at weekends, even at such a late hour. It's odd as I commented on the way back to the hotel - Rome doesn't feel like a capital city - it doesn't have that air of impatience and aggression you have in cities like London. Granted the traffic is similar, with crossings a mess of pedestrians and cars, where crossing the road is taking your life in your hands but generally it's quite a relaxed place. We concluded our chat as we arrived at our hotel, with the duo dropping us off. They refused any payment for petrol, insisting we were their guests, while they even sneakily paid for the drinks in the bar too. Thanking and hugging them goodbye I forgot they were perhaps not as tactile as furs and back rubbing may not be a good idea but it was late, I was tired and had had four beers. No faux pas was committed. We waved them off after a great evening and hope to see them again in Leeds in the new year.
We are leaving Rome behind after a very full two days, during which we saw a vast array of sights and met up with some friends of one of my Italian editors at work, Riccardo and Elisa. Elisa met my Italian editor Ciro when they worked together in La Tasca in Leeds and she has fond memories of the city. She took Riccardo to Leeds last year and he too enjoyed it, so much so that the duo are hoping to return to live there early next year. Riccardo offered us a guided nighttime tour around Rome in his car, so on Tuesday evening we opted to meet up at Circo Massimo at 9:30pm for him to show us about. We were slightly early so we decided to have a look at the Circo Massimo, which has yet to be restored to former glory. In reality, all that remains of the place where Romans used to watch chariot races while sat on marble seats is a long section of grass with a handful of excavated brick buildings at one end. They do seem to be restoring some of it though as the whole area was blocked off with high metal fencing, with just a brick tower and a few foundations visible through the darkness. This area is close to the Colosseum and Roma Fora remains but through the darkness it was difficult to get bearings. There was a statue dedicated to horsey things overlooking the Circo Massimo which we saw as we headed towards the metro station - I'm not sure if it was honouring that or something else though - I need to find out who Mazzini is, I think a far later general of some kind.
We were about 20 minutes early for our meeting, having walked from the working class Trastevere district of the city and not being 100% sure of the directions. The Trastevere district styles itself as the home of the true Romans and is where a lot of Roman cuisine originated, as it was typically food eaten by the poor. There is certainly a breathtaking charm walking down cobbled streets lit by Victorian-style street lamps, with the lights from small bars, restaurants and boutiques adding to the ambience of the street. Indeed walking around this area was very relaxing as it felt more like the authentic Italy you see on TV, rustic and traditional. Candles were lit by the side of the street while around every corner you turned, there was yet another beautiful church to admire. There are many churches in Rome - no real surprise - many in a more classical style but we did see one Gothic one by the side of the Tiber, which looked a little out of place squeezed amongst the other architecture.
We were in Trastevere for two reasons - the guidebook recommended a craft beer bar called Bir & Fud (how the Italians would write beer and food if those were Italian words - apparently it's trendy) and Riccardo recommended a restaurant called Osteria Cacio e Pepe, a traditional Italian pizzeria. Trastevere is a little more difficult to get to than other parts of Rome, necessitating a walk as there are no metro stops and precious buses nearby. This perhaps gave it a more authentic feel although this didn't stop a few tourists from popping up, including an American from Houston who was visiting Rome with his partner. We got talking in Bir & Fud - initially overwhelmed by the 36 taps on offer, he suggested a high-strength pilsner which was most enjoyable. Wolfie and I had initially gone to the back of the bar to drink but upon speaking to this gentleman, we moved to the front and had an enjoyable chat about the Southern USA, where I used to live, and the things to do and see in Rome. He was looking for tips as he had only just arrived in the city after staying with a friend in Paris, with him bemoaning that he only had eight days holiday due to the restrictive American annual leave allowances. He was having a good vacation though and although disappointed that Bir & Fud were not serving pizza at this time, was having a good time so far. We could have gone on the €5 tour around their microbrewery but we declined, having been on so many of these before, but we were amazed by the sheer depth of choice when it came to Italian craft beer. We also noticed that there is a German Bockbier Festival starting in the bar from Friday so it's almost certain we will now be heading there again, particularly as we made friends behind the bar, who even gave us a discount on our second round of drinks such was our interest in their establishment, which apparently was opened in 2006 and later upgrading to contain 36 taps. You don't often associate the Italians with beer but they were into the craft scene early than us it would appear.
Our American friend left before we did, but we were gone soon afterwards as we had to try and find the restaurant. As it turned out, it was conveniently just around the corner and soon we were ordering our food. Pasta dishes are a starter here and we opted to try one as we had had nothing but pizza up to this point. Wolfie got a carbonara and I got amitabiarra (I think), a tomato and bacon effort which was delicious and very full of flavour. The guidebook said any restaurant which displays its antipasti is generally a good one and this was no exception - Italian food is simply at another level compared to that back home. We have found that the more simple the restaurant, the better the quality of food, segueing nicely with the notion that good Roman food had its roots in working class and poor man'a cooking. We did have the obligatory pizza after our pasta starter, a starter which in all honesty was big enough to be a main course by itself (and Riccardo warned us to expect even bigger portions in Florence). My pizza was one named after the restaurant and comprised of mozzarella, sheep's cheese and black pepper. It was divine, with a slightly crispier base than previous efforts which saw Wolfie showering me with pizza shards. That definitely made me a pizza puppy! The balance of the saltiness of the cheese and the pepper worked very well, with the flavour most akin to those black pepper Kettle Chips you can buy. Towards the end of the meal, some singers came into the restaurant - one with an accordion and one with a guitar - and provided some nice traditional Italian background music as ambiance. Sadly I had no money to tip them and the restaurant, needing €3 in coin to get the metro home (we decided not to get the day, tourist or week tickets as most places in Rome are walkable and a lot of the centre isn't covered by the underground), and the restaurant came first. It was a great recommendation from Riccardo.
Meeting people is one of the huge advantages of travelling, either pre-arranged or just starting to chat to people randomly. Like with the American, the latter happened in a little bar near the Pantheon on Monday evening. We were searching for this awesome structure in the heart of the old city when the heavens opened and we were caught in a massive downpour on the Piazza de Montecitorio. There is another beautiful church on this square, in a similar style to many others in Rome, tall with ornate stone frontage. Differently though this was painted yellow, which gave off a pleasant warming hue with the street lighting shining on to it. As the rain picked up, the lady in the bar opposite glanced at us sympathetically and we knew we had no real choice but to nip inside. It was either that or get drenched. Plus she pointed to her super warm heater. The bar wasn't much more expensive than most in the city, with a standard beer costing around €6, which is far more than I expected it to be. Anyway, all beers here seem to come with complementary nibbles, assumedly a ruse to get you to drink more to quench the saltiness of the snacks. Still, free crisps and peanuts elicit no complaints from me. We got talking to the waitress, who was Romanian, about the weather and Britain in general. She was from the north of Romania, but had been to the town of Brasov where I had been too. Travel really does connect people as being from different places automatically makes you interesting, and we had a great chat, sharing our conversation with a guy from the far north of Sweden and his Russian partner, who was from St Petersburg. Having been there too, we had an enjoyable 20 minute conversation as we waited for the rain to die off, leaving the pub refreshed and delighted with the experience.
Anyway, I digress, so much has happened that I'm struggling to keep this journal fully updated (or should that be pupdated - everyone loves a pup date). On Tuesday we were 20 minutes early to meet him so we waited at Circo Massimo station, loitering in the main foyer where we listened to an eclectic range of music, specifically big band style from the 1930s. I'm not sure if this was a tactic from the station staff to make us disperse but it didn't work, I actually quite enjoyed it while watching graffitied trains pulling in and out of the station (five going south but only two north for some reason) and crazed men with beards picking their nose and flicking their snot in manic fashion. There was a toilet in the station but it was guarded by a large metallic automatic door in which you put money and I didn't trust it, not in a station which was practically deserted anyway. Five minutes until our meeting time, we decided to go back to surface level and wait on a wall overlooking the disappointing Circo Massimo and the main road that runs parallel to it, which we had walked down to get there.
We didn't have long to wait as Riccardo and Elisa soon honed into view, crossing the road to greet us before we headed back towards their car for our whistle stop tour. It was a very great tour as we saw a range of sites and got a geographical perspective of the city that we wouldn't have been able to do on our own. We saw a pyramid built in the city around 20BC, influenced by the Romans starting to conquer Northern Egypt (which is the reason why there are so many Egyptian obelisks in the city - 18 I believe of which 12 are originals from Egypt). We also went up a hill on the western part of the city, where we could peer through a keyhole to see a perfectly framed image of the dome of St Peter's in the Vatican. The door was closing off an entrance to a garden but there was another garden open further down the road, even though the signs clearly stated that it was meant to close at 6pm at this time of year. We wandered amongst the immaculately cultivated trees, enjoying this beautifully tranquil garden, towards the far wall, where we got a fantastic view over the city, with all of the major sites on view. The same could be said for a hillside further up called Gianicolo, which gave you a full panorama across the city, from the Vatican in the west to Vittoriano in the east. This was a far more popular tourist site, demonstrated by the snack stalls and the handful of tourists still there at 11pm, but it was a breathtaking vista. Granted you had to move along the wall to see everything as trees occasionally blocked the view, but this was a minor inconvenience. It's also quite a romantic place, evidenced by the couples canoodling again, although this air of romance was punctuated by some loud music coming from a pimped up Lancia with bright blue lights. Another equine statue sits at the top of this hill, dedicated to the general Guiseppe Garibaldi who was instrumental in achieving national unity for Italy in the 1860s. I think he was also famous for biscuits. He and his horse are also enjoying the view of the city, which I thought was a very appropriate tribute to such an instrumental figure.
After our tour around the city, Elisa suggested that we go for a drink, again citing the Travestre part of the city as it's her favourite area too. We parked up in front of a fabulous municipal building of white stone arches, opposite a sign for a 'Sexy Shop'. Riccardo was a little concerned whether we could park there or not but in the end it was fine. The four of us then walked down the narrow cobbled streets of Trastevere, passing under arches of green vines attached to the Victorian style street lamps I have mentioned before. Elisa chose a bar from memory as she had had good times there before, but she was dismayed to find they had redecorated and had lost the vibe in the process. It also now had an older clientele, not great for us young 'uns who are all in our early thirties. It was up to me to choose a bar then and I opted for a weird orange clad establishment with a miscellany of artwork on the wall. There was a Union Jack chair folded in the corner where we sat, the darkest in the building under a brown drape which I assumed hid a TV. To our right there was a Japanese group having an argument, who then brought ice cream into the pub and let it dribble everywhere, with most of it lying prostrate on a plate half-eaten. There are many Japanese people in the city on tour and around most of the tourist sites it has been a case of trying to avoid taking pictures of Japanese people taking pictures of the same things I want to take pictures of. I imagine getting an unrestricted view/photograph in the summer time would be impossible. The four of us chatted some more over a bottle of Ceres in our case - a 7.5% Danish beer that is very popular here but unheard of back home for some reason. There were more crisps and nuts, plus those Thai rice crackers you can get in posh pubs. We were also approached by a range of flower salesmen, who pester the man in a table to buy a rose for this lady friend. Being gay, we thankfully don't succumb to that pressure that much, but it's a nightly occurrence for Riccardo and Elisa. The same is true of people who wash your car at traffic lights, or when we were there, wipe it down with a damp cloth. All of these people are immigrants, typically from North Africa, tempted to Italy by work prospects which are sadly not there when they arrive. In addition to this are the people who pester you at every monument you go to with sticks on which to place your iPhone to get a better camera shot or to enable you to take a selfie in front of tall or grand buildings. Never underestimate the desire to take a selfie, I've seen loads of examples in the last three days, particularly around the Vatican and some of its famous treasures.
With Riccardo needing to be at work at 9.30am this morning, we decided to head off around midnight, with Riccardo kindly driving us back to our hotel even though it was 20 minutes away. This gave us the opportunity to follow the course of the River and see the large number of bridges over it. Some were old stone structures and other more modern metallic varieties but all beautiful in their own way. We were also driven past Isola Tiberina, an island in the centre of the River where the hospital of San Bartolomeo stands. Wolfie commented how it's mashing continental hospitals tend to be older affairs whereas the ones in the UK are more modern. I pointed out we did have the Victorian LGI in Leeds. There is a nice little church on the southern-most tip of the island, which was closed as we walked this way earlier from Trastevere to the Circo Massimo. However something was going on inside so I caught a glimpse of the simple alter and the delicate yet understated frescos adorning the roof. Cleansing of the spirit was thought to aid cleansing of the body so it comes as no surprise that this beautiful church, again in white stone and bearing Latin inscriptions, was an important part of the hospital complex. We also drove past a children's hospital adorned with rainbow flags and another on the top of a hill which was a far more modern affair.
The way back to the hotel saw us pass through a wide range of tunnels and gave us a good perspective of the geography of the city. The streets were quite empty but apparently this is not the case at weekends, even at such a late hour. It's odd as I commented on the way back to the hotel - Rome doesn't feel like a capital city - it doesn't have that air of impatience and aggression you have in cities like London. Granted the traffic is similar, with crossings a mess of pedestrians and cars, where crossing the road is taking your life in your hands but generally it's quite a relaxed place. We concluded our chat as we arrived at our hotel, with the duo dropping us off. They refused any payment for petrol, insisting we were their guests, while they even sneakily paid for the drinks in the bar too. Thanking and hugging them goodbye I forgot they were perhaps not as tactile as furs and back rubbing may not be a good idea but it was late, I was tired and had had four beers. No faux pas was committed. We waved them off after a great evening and hope to see them again in Leeds in the new year.
