Journey to Italy always starts in Rome, the Eternal City, and one of the best ways to explore it is by foot (with an occasional bus ride thrown in). My wife Grace, children Jandy and Cheska, my grandson Kyle and yours truly did just that. As soon as we arrived at the Fiumicino-Leonardo da Vinci Airport and checked in at the refined, very Roman and charming Anahi Hotel, we began our exploration of this Old World city. But first, we tempted fate, audaciously sticking our hand inside the lie detector called La Bocca della Verita (“Mouth of Truth”), made famous by Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in a memorable scene in the 1953 movie Roman Holiday.
Must-see are the monuments of the city’s more than 2,000 years of existence, such as the oval, entirely free-standing Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, the Arch of Titus, the Palatine Hill and the Pantheon (now adaptively reused as a Catholic church), all iconic symbols of Imperial Rome.
Fast-forwarding a thousand years brought us to the revolutionary and grandiose Fountain of the Four Rivers (Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi), Rome’s greatest achievement in this genre and the epitome of Baroque theatricality. This monument to the power and glory of the pope is a dynamic fusion of architecture and sculpture, with its highly dramatic, evocative and individualized figures, plus a wealth of surprising and charming sculptural details.
Visitors to Rome are advised to follow the old adage, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” After all, this is where la dolce vita originated. At the impressive Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi), the most beautiful fountain in all of Rome, we followed a curious Roman tradition.
To make sure we would return to Rome, we threw a coin, with your back to the fountain and using our right hand, over our left shoulder into the water. This coin-tossing tradition was also the theme of 1954’s Three Coins in a Fountain and the Academy Award-winning song by that name which introduced the picture. The fountain was also featured in Federico Fellini’s renowned 1960 Italian film La Dolce Vita.
Romans also love to eat and, following this tradition, we had our first Italian meal at the nearby Ristorante 59, a favorite hangout of the great Italian director Fellini, dining in style as the chef played a lively tune on the piano.
Throughout our stay, we continued this tradition, indulging ourselves in decadent pasta, true Roman pizza and usually capped our meal with a cappuccino or gelato.
Rome also has more Baroque churches than you have the time or interest for. Coming in all shapes, sizes and time periods, from the 4th century to the 20th, almost any church in the historical center has some kind of treasure in it that makes it worth a quick look inside, whether it’s the head of a saint, ancient ruins in the crypt, or famous works of art. What’s more, they’re free to enter, usually have seats, and are a great place to escape the heat of summer or the cold of winter.
Worth visiting is the beautiful but very modest Paleo-Christian Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin (where a relic of Saint Valentine and the aforementioned La Bocca della Verita can be found); the Basilica of Saint Mary above Minerva (housing the tomb of Saint Catherine of Siena); the Church of San Rocco; the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena; the Basilica di Sant Andrea delle Fratte; the Basilica dei San Carlo al Corso (housing relics of a Roman martyr, Saint Saturninus); and the Church of Saint Jerome of the Croats.
It goes without saying that Rome has enough art, as well as architecture, to overload your senses and there’s a lot of museums to explore to keep one busy for years. So much to see but so little time. Still, with our limited time, we visited the Borghese Gallery, which houses a substantial part of the Borghese collection of paintings, sculptures and antiquities in 20 rooms across two floors.