Friday, June 19, 2015
SADLY, I WILL NOT BE ACCOMPANIED BY AUDREY HEPBURN: So, I will be in Rome in September for 4 and a half days (a Tuesday night through early Sunday morning), preceded by a jaunt to Manchester, England. I invite the collective wisdom of the ThingThrowers for things to do (and eat), places to stay, and books I should read.
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I'll always recommend the Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough, but I'm useless on modern Rome.
ReplyDeleteI recommend getting the Roma Pass, which worked pretty well for us. Be careful when you activate it, because it's only good for 3 days, but you can gain entry to 2 museums and get free transport for those 3 days. And some discounts are available. Also, if you're going to the Vatican, get your tix in advance. Skipping the line is glorious. And Maret and I both strongly endorse the day trip to Orvieto. If the waiter brings you wine instead of water, just drink it! Keep your camera out all the time. Sometimes, you're on the bus, and you pull up to a red light, and you look to the right, and there's some 3000 year old column or some such. Rome is just LITTERED with that sort of thing. ;) Have fun!
ReplyDeletehttp://basilicasanclemente.com/eng/
ReplyDeleteIf you don't eat gelato at least twice a day, you're doing it wrong.
ReplyDeleteOH, and go to the Jewish district in Rome. The old synagogue is gorgeous and the restaurants are wonderful. I'm still dreaming about the food. The name of one of the places was Ba'Ghetto - I'll have to look up the other. They're right down the street from the synagogue.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, you are the second specific person (from completely different universes of my life) who's provided a "two gelato daily minimum" rule to me for this trip.
ReplyDeleteEat...lasagna.
ReplyDeleteSee...the colosseum. And whatever art and old thing you stumble on.
You know, it's kind of hard to go wrong in Rome.
Occasionally just lift your hand to your ear, fake cell-phone-style (thumb as earpiece, pinky as mic) and shout "Si, pronto!" Just to fit in, you see.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Robert Harris's Cicero novels (Imperium, Conspirata, and the forthcoming Dictator), but I bet they're a lot of fun.
Incidentally, I loved learning once that Harris and Nick Hornby are brother-in-laws.
ReplyDeleteYep. Hornby mentions this occasionally in his column for The Believer, "Stuff I've Been Reading," which I think you'd love, by the way. They recently issued an omnibus collection, Ten Years in the Tub, which is available in paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Years-Tub-Nick-Hornby/dp/1940450365
ReplyDeleteI do love that column!
ReplyDeletevoice - have NOT yet mastered the technique to throw my voice
ReplyDeleteAgreed! Go to Nonna Betta for fried artichokes and other traditional Roman Jewish food.
ReplyDelete