Italy Due: Perso Nel Tempo (Lost in Time)

Due is 2 in Italian, nothing is due, except for this experience having been long overdue. This past week has been a Roman Sandwich, jam packed with one of the most historically dense regions I’ve ever visited. I’ve always found it interesting that we define sandwiches based on whats between the bread. But when calling something inedible a sandwich, we usually describe it by the exterior. All of this is to say that this post is bookended by Rome. With Roman bread, there’s Amalfi Coast protein, Naples toppings, and Pompei sauce. Despite being geographically small, there’s a lot of content…

Rome is definitely the most urban place I’ve been yet. Cologne still reigns as the most American feeling, but Rome felt biggest. People from all walks of life, tons of tourists, and far and away the most diverse place I’ve been, both in tourists and locals. I liked it from the get-go, but was more cognizant that my wallet remained in my pocket at all times.

This is truly a city steeped in incredible history, and is in a class of it’s own. Of all the places I’ve been I can only compare it to Jerusalem – while they’re quite different, I’ve never experienced anywhere else that is such a time warp. I checked into my AirBnB near Vatican City and met my gracious and loquacious host Margaret, a native Brazilian in Rome for the last 20 years. She gave me great advice on how to get around, and only yelled at me once as I pulled out my phone while she was talking. When I explained that it was to annotate her advice she was gracious enough to repeat herself. After she left I began my immersion in Rome with the 10 minute walk into Vatican City.

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St. Peter’s Basilica reminded me a lot of the US Capitol. I wondered if it was part of the inspiration, which would’ve surprised me as such a Catholic icon. Some research told me that this was indeed the case. The Piazza San Pietro was pretty lively around 8pm, and home to the strongest police (and military) presence I had seen to date. The tourists were from every corner of the globe (why is this a phrase when the Earth is round?). In addition to men in uniform and tourists, there were lots of seagulls. And lots of statues with a big brother vibe, many atop of the romanesque colonnades. Hall and Oates’ Private Eyes came to mind here, as I sung: “papal eyes; they’re watching you (clap clap)” to myself.

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As I walked east across the Tiber I continued to be struck by how every single building seemed old and worthy of preservation, likely each with it’s own story. In a more modern US city these would be landmarks, and in Rome these buildings which predate European settlers in America, the structures are not even a dime a dozen.

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I headed from the Vatican to the Pantheon, and then onto the Trevi Fountain. I took a lot in and loved every second of my 3 hour stroll through history. When I got back to my airbnb I did some research on where to stay and what to see on the Amalfi Coast, a couple of days later.

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While I was to spend a good but of time in Rome (at least compared to other stops, as I continued to move at a fast clip), my one full day in Rome was focused around the Colosseum and forum. I had a tour booked for 10am. And I missed it. By about 5 minutes. They were fortunately able to rebook me for 2pm. I then found myself at the colosseum with 4 hours to spare, which I of course spent walking around, and redoubling many efforts of the night before. First stop; Pantheon.

There’s a reason this building’s name has become synonymous with premier categories. Firstoff, it has withstood the test of time ridiculously well. It was built in 81. It’a bimillenial is coming up 62 years from now. I’d like to go, if able. The building is a perfect sphere inside a perfect cube. Corinthian columns provide limited detail to the simple yet elegant and pleasing exterior, while the aesthetic inside remains timeless and high end. It’s beauty is in its ratios. And has a 142-foot wide circular hole (oculus) in the center of the roof. We couldn’t build another one of these if we wanted to. I could go on, but there’a a lot more ground to cover.

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I went back to the Trevi Fountain where I tossed in a Canadian Dollar. I don’t know where this coin came from but it looked like the .5 Euro but wasn’t accepted anywhere and had therefore been haunting me every time I reached for change, so I was happy to be rid of it.

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Then onto the Jewish ghetto where I scoped out the grand synagogue (from the outside only, I wasn’t allowed in), some ruins, and Palazzo Mattei (very neat place with a library of American Studies inside).

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Then finally to the Colosseum. My tour spent quite a bit of time in here. It was interesting and good to see, but not as profound as I had built up in my head. I suppose this is in part because the scale is similar to arenas we have today, and the ruined nature of the structure has stripped it of some of the impressiveness and allure. My disappointment in not having my socks knocked off was stronger than my unmet expectations. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t nearly bad, just ‘less’.

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My tour of the Colosseum also included the forum, which was similarly fascinating yet not spectacular to behold. The forum goes back to about -750, a place of peace for people to meet and gossip and exchange ideas. Unlike the colosseum and other venues which were exclusive to citizens, everyone was allowed into the forum. It was subject to continued additions throughout history, enabling the ruins to tell the history of politics, people, and architecture.

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Afterward I headed south to the neighborhood of Piramide to meet a friend from college, Danielle, who I’ve been more out of touch with than not over the last 15 years. We guessed that we last saw one another 7 or so years ago. The neighborhood is called Piramide because of the pyramid in the middle of it. Just casually hanging out on the sidewalk in Rome, as if a normal occurrence. It was a good pyramid despite not being a Great Pyramid.

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Dinner with Danielle was good (and healthy for once) and it was great catching up. She was on her way to a capoeira class that evening so we split ways after dinner and I walked a couple of hours circuitously back to my spot near the Vatican. The next morning I revisited St. Peter’s, decided not to wait hours to get in (the Sistine Chapel being the venue that interested me most), and got going toward the Amalfi Coast so I could capitalize on Tuesday afternoon’s great weather.

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The drive between Rome and Pompei (where I planned to park) was mostly pleasant. Although the road was flat, the scenery was mountainous. As I got close I recognized Vesuvius. I parked in Piopaino, a bit of a dump one town south of Pompei. I parked next to the train and left most of my things in my trunk (betting on my car not being broken into or towed), took my small backpack, and headed onto the platform. The train was only 12 minutes late. It was graffiti covered, crowded, hot, and smelly. But I was only on it for about 30 minutes. There also wasn’t a working kiosk in Piopaino, so my ride was free.

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I got off in Sant Agnello, one town before Sorrento, where I was staying at 7 Hostel which was more like a hotel. Sant Agnello is much quieter than it’a more famous adjacent towns. I left my car off the peninsula because I had heard horror stories about driving there. I could have driven to Sant Agnello and maybe Sorrento, at the start of the peninsula, but would’ve stopped there – the roads got pretty crazy after that, with sharp narrow turns on cliff sides. I headed from Sant Agnello out to hit the beach. I had done enough research to know that there were a couple of beaches in Sorrento, but not enough to understand that these were small shaded gravelly beaches hundreds of feet below the cliffs, where all the activity was. This is a town of cliffside verandas and great views, but not known for beaches.

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I grabbed a drink on the terrace of a fancy Sorrento hotel, staring off into the Bay of Naples as dusk set in. It was there that I met, Anthony and Toni, a couple from Westchester County (my old and soon-to-be neck of the woods). We chatted about a litany of things for about an hour. As I shared anecdotes or facts about myself, a reoccurring theme throughout the conversation became which of their two 25 year old daughters they wanted to hypothetically set me up with. After a couple of drinks we parted ways and I got a decent overpriced dinner and walked back to Sant Agnello.

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For Wednesday I had booked a boat tour that went from Sorrento to Amalfi to Positano. Unfortunately of the 11 people on my boat, three were kids between 5 and 8. But they couldn’t detract from the beauty of it all. While the majority of my southern Italy visit had me walking back in time, my trip to the Amalfi Coast felt like it was outside of time altogether. I got the impression that nobody was governed by weekdays in this part of the world. Things here were slow and calm and beautiful, and the passing of time seemed to crawl and cease to exist for extended periods. The towns were all very pleasant despite being overwhelmed by tourists. Many narrow sidewalks and hallways and alleys and staircases wrapped their way through colorful stucco homes that crawled up the hillsides between cliffs. I couldn’t imagine getting around daily or moving furniture in and out of homes here. But as a visitor it was beyond lovely.

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Back to Sorrento in the evening, I went for some sunset views and then to a restaurant Tony and Toni had recommended. I had a good meal and walked back to Sant Agnello.

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Thursday morning now; the upcoming night I had already arranged to stay in a Pompei hostel, so the day had come to leave paradise. But the weather was still good and I wasn’t prepared to say goodbye to the Amalfi Coast just yet. As I lay in bed contemplating how my day will go, I considered taking the ferry to Positano, the nicest beach in the region, but instead opted to head to the island of Capri. It was a good choice: Capri was gorgeous and had multiple spots to eat and shop and relax and hike and people watch, where soaring cliffs were speckled with green and stairs crisscrossed the steep hillsides connecting homes between the few shopping districts. As long as you don’t mind the throngs of tourists in every direction, you’d be hard pressed to complain here. Fortunately I got an early start and things weren’t overrun when I first arrived at port on the island.

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I wandered around near the docks, then walked up to what I declared the saddle of the island (the lowest part of the ridge separating the north from south), and visited a former monastery turned museum for painter/sculptor Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach. The best part of the monastery was the silence, as it offered an escape from the streets overrun with tourists. I then headed back down toward the docks and spent some glorious time on the picturesque beach here.

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I took a boat tour around the island that ends in one of the big attractions, the blue grotto. The boat ride was great, but long. From minutes 45-75 it started to drag a bit (I got a gelato prior and my blood sugar probably didn’t help; but at least I didn’t pass out like the Japanese guy sitting across from me). After an hour and 20 minutes, we arrived at the entry of the blue grotto! It was closed due to the ocean being too rough that day. Bummer! Oh well, onward.

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With the boat tour done, I boarded the ferry back to Sorrento, walked to the train (paid this time), rode to Piopaino, got to my car (no damage or issue), and drove to Vesuvius. You can drive most of the way up Vesuvius, so I did. I had been chasing sunsets the last few days, and the mountaintop seemed like a good spot to continue this trend. Sadly, it was closed to hikers by 17:00 or so when I arrived. Bummer! This was starting to feel like a day of cake with no icing between Vesuvius and the blue grotto. At the top of the road there was a nervous looking young Ukranian couple unable to hail a ride from the last buses and vans leaving the parking “lot” atop Vesuvius. I gave them a ride down, dropped them somewhere outside Pompei, and then headed to my spot to check in.

Friday morning I toured the ruins of Pompei. It was pretty incredible strolling down Roman Streets, visiting homes, baths, the forum, and more. Lava turned out to be truly amazing for preservation. I couldn’t imagine how much color survived, in frescoes and tiles. Pompei was definitely a must-see, and I saw a good chunk of it.

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I did discuss with one person how we morbidly wished to see more bodies. I saw three.

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From Pompei I headed to Naples where I was meeting Max and Rachael. Max was another college friend coming to Rome for a long weekend, and Rachael his girlfriend who I hadn’t yet met. I picked them up from the Naples train station midday and we headed to Enzo’s airbnb. From there we went for a long walk seeing the sights of Naples. The dirtiest city I had seen yet, not a must-see unlike Pompei and the Amalfi Coast.

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Max had made a dinner reservation at a Michelin Star restaurant so we started heading in that direction. We tried walking through a nearby neighborhood to see more of the city on the way to the restaurant, but after what my phone told me was 26 flights of stairs, we doubled back because we had gone too high to the ceiling of the city. While American cities are often flat (at least on the east coast), Naples probably once offered a great advantage by being so steep for views and defensibility. Now it was just a gorgeous inconvenience.

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Dinner at Veritas Ristorante was phenomenal, and undoubtedly my best of the trip (one would hope as it was probably double the cost of my next priciest meal – but I’d been good with money so far and was happy to treat myself). I’ve tried to keep my Food page limited to one photo per meal, so I’m bucking my trend of keeping food there and showing my complete meal here. Max and I split an a la carte selection while Rachael got their four course tasting menu. Not pictured: multiple little off-menu snacks and treats throughout the meal.

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Saturday morning the 3 of us had nothing left to see in Naples so we headed to Tivoli en route to Rome. The gardens of Tivoli make for a worthy half day excursion out from the city. They’re vast, lush, peaceful, sublime gardens and fountains spreading up and down and left and right. Around every corner or behind every tree there was a trove of plants and water and views.

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From Tivoli back to Rome, for the sandwich to finally be completed. Max, Rachael, and I were a little behind schedule but headed out for a walk to see more of the same. We also got a highly recommended gelato from Giolitti, possibly the best ice cream I’ve ever had. Max and Rachael had a fancy shmancy dinner planned so I headed to see the few public spaces still on my to-do list; Piazza Navona, Campo De Fiore, and the Spanish Steps.

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I got dinner by the Spanish Steps, and then met back up with Max and Rachael for a drink. We wound up at Jerry Thomas Speakeasy, declared to be one of the best 50 bars in the world. Rachael had the required password, and we were eventually admitted to a small perch where we could stand tightly huddled. After buying $5 euro membership cards we were given menus, ordered an excellent round of drinks, and called it a night. The bar was a good speakeasy and the cocktails were great, but the ‘top 50 worldwide’ status of the bar is pretty subjective. Also, too smoky inside.

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Sunday morning we headed to a flea market, where I said my goodbyes to Max and Rachael, and met back up with Danielle. Short of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which would’ve required a half day waiting on line, I had seen everything I wanted to see in Rome. With my time traveling sandwich complete, I found myself ready to head back north. Danielle gave me a nice surprise for my ride: herself! She had a couple of days free so she came with.

This blog post probably encompassed my favorite part of the trip so far; history, coastal beauty, perfect weather, and great people made for an amazing week. And when it comes to Rome, Dylan said it best: ancient footprints are everywhere. However, he didn’t sing it best: