See, Eat, Listen, Shop, Pray, Watch - Rome at Christmas and New Year's

RST is pleased to welcome back (her last post was in 2014, using her Etruscan specialty) guest blogger Theresa Potenza.  Based in Rome, Potenza is an art historian and freelance writer.  To learn more about her private tours of Rome and read her travel and feature stories about Italy, check out: www.tourwiththeresa.com.

There is no better place to be than Rome during the holidays.  A city that is eternally enchanting becomes even more so during the magic of Christmastime. Whether you want to shop, eat, pray, or witness the great spectacles of holiday cheer, here is a list of what to do and where as 2018 comes to a close.

See

Picasso's sculpture in the Galleria Borghese.

A special treat just this year at the Borghese Gallery, one of Rome’s most important attractions, is an exhibition of the work of Pablo Picasso. The exhibition is a rare opportunity to see Picasso’s sculptural work. It is worth a trip to Rome just to experience over 50 of his three-dimensional works, displayed in the setting of a Baroque villa and surrounded by antiquities. The exhibit runs through February 3 and must be booked in advance. http://www.galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/it/mostra/picasso-la-scultura

For other main attractions, most museums and archaeological sites stay open through the holiday season, closing only on Christmas Day. The Vatican, however, is closed both the 25^th and 26^th.  All sites are free the last Sunday of every month; so you can enjoy entrance to the Coliseum, the Vatican, and other major sites free of charge on Sunday December 29^th (although you might be fighting crowds then).

Eat

Roasted lamb with potatoes.

Many restaurants offer a fixed menu on the holidays, which is a great opportunity to taste the local holiday traditions of Rome. Try Hosteria Grappolo D’Oro or Ditirambo in the historic and lively Campo de' Fiori neighborhood.  Their fixed menus on Christmas day feature an abundant lunch including baccalà mouse, tortellini, and roasted lamb, while the Christmas Eve dinner menu includes pasta with shrimp ragu, pumpkin crepes, and fish fillet. All are served with local wines and traditional desserts.

Campagna Amica market, on via di San Teodoro,
behind the Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill) and near
Circus Maximus.

If you are cooking for yourselves, for food shopping try the Campagna Amica market on Via di San Teodoro near the Circus Maximus. It is open only on weekends and will be bustling with activity the weekend before Christmas. The market is part of the 0-km initiative (in the U.S., we’d say “locavore”), which supports local producers. Everything at the market is produced in Central Italy and is seasonal. It's a great place to stock up on fresh fish and meats if you’d like to cook a holiday meal at home, or to collect local cheeses, honey, wine, craft beer, and other homemade items to bring home as gifts.

Listen

With its Christmas fair and live concerts, the Auditorium Parco della Musica is the place to be. Their Gospel Festival running from December 21^st to December 31^st is the most important gospel festival in Europe, presenting some of the best gospel artists from the United States. For a program of events, see their website, https://www.auditorium.com/.

Ice-skating at Parco della Musica.

The Auditorium also becomes a winter wonderland from the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8^th to the Epiphany on January 6^th, with an ice-skating rink and Santa Claus!

At 5 p.m. Thursday, December 20th, the Chorus from the University of Tor Vergata will give a Chrismtas concert of traditional songs at the Biblioteca Nazionale (Metro B).

If you’re interested in a day trip, Orvieto is a perfect idea, just 2 hours by train from Rome. From December 28th through January 1^st the hilltop medieval town will be host to one of the world’s most famous music festivals, Umbria Jazz - Winter, celebrating its 45^th year. Past performers include Miles Davis, Sting, Chet Baker and BB King. This year there will be street parades, and a mixing of food with music with many places featuring live concerts over lunch or dinner, highlighting the local cuisine and a variety of jazz sounds including soul, funk, classical, and swing. For a program of events see their website, http://www.umbriajazz.com.

Orvieto Winter Jazz

Shop

One of the world’s most creative urban markets expands to 2 levels at Christmastime. Mercato Monti, open on weekends from 10am-8pm, is laden with products, all made in Italy. The market features local, young and creative artisans, designers and innovators showcasing their handmade jewelry, leather goods, shoes, clothes and beauty supplies. Located in Rome’s “hipster” neighborhood, which also happens to be the city’s oldest, makes it the best platform for "Made in Italy." The motto of Mercato Monti is “emancipate yourself from ordinary shopping,” which is perfect advice at Christmastime. 

Pray

It always surprises me how solemn and peaceful Rome can be amid the city’s hustle and bustle. It should be no surprise, however, that the Vatican is impressive at Christmastime. Its life-size nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square this year is uniquely made out of sand, from a beach in Venice. And its decorated tree from Northern Italy is an impressive 23m (75 feet) tall. In addition to information on their Christmas Eve and Christmas Day masses and New Year’s Eve Te Deum prayer and vespers, you can find out about Vatican celebrations and Papal audiences during the holiday period online at the Vatican website, www.vatican.va, under the category of the prefecture of the Papal household.

One of the presepe or Nativity scenes on via della Conciliazione.

While at the Vatican, you will want to check out the 100 Nativity Sets exhibition on Via della Conciliazione, where Sala San Pio X will host nearly 200 (ironically) nativity sets from around the world, such as traditional Neapolitan and Sicilian wooden-crafted creches, to modern techniques using sand, terracotta, and even pasta! These creches are artisan wonders, and some are even life-size.

Several churches in Rome offer masses and music in English, which you can celebrate in a variety of ways, such as traditional midnight mass, carol service, and children’s pageants. Among the primary English language churches are All Saints' Anglican Church, St. Paul’s Within the Walls Episcopal Church and St. Patrick’s American Roman Catholic Church.

Concert at St. Paul's Within the Walls Episcopal Church.

Watch

Because Rome is a world capital, it's a great place to celebrate New Year's Eve.  This year on New Year's Eve Rome is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing with 24 hours of events.  In the Circus Maximus starting at 9 p.m. there will be a free outdoor event, a mix of "moon inspired" performers such as dancers, acrobats and an orchestra, culminating in a fireworks display at midnight.  Another option is to ring in the New Year at the Baroque masterpiece fountain called "Il Fontanone" on the Janiculum Hill overlooking the city--a magical experience (and inexpensive).

And while most tourist sites may be closed on New Year's Day, hundreds of performers will continue the celebration throughout New Years's Day around the Aventine Hill and Tiber Island.  Also on New Year's day, check out the parade of American marching bands that will perform throughout the city's historic center.  The parade starts at 3:30 p.m. in Piazza del Popolo and lasts 2 and a half hours.  Street performers, American high school marching bands and Italian folk singers will turn the Spanish Steps and surrounding area into their stage!

Theresa Potenza

P.S. For thumbnail descriptions of Christmas markets in Northern Italy, see Dianne Hales's post:
https://becomingitalianwordbyword.typepad.com/becomingitalian/2018/12/christmas-in-the-italian-language-seasonal-markets.html

A Scooter in/to Rome: Our Story

Bill on the Piaggio Hexagon, surveying the Futa, looking South 

It's been almost a decade since the idea of riding a scooter in Rome came into our heads--or, should I say, my head.  We had lived in the city for 6 months in 1993, and by 2001 we were taking shorter but regular trips.  Getting around efficiently--and stylishly--on a scooter had considerable appeal.  I thought it would be great fun.  Dianne knew the idea was insane, and she almost immediately announced what I'm sure she thought was an insurmountable barrier to my ambitions: she would consider a scooter, but only if I learned to ride one, officially--that is, only if I was certified to drive a motorcycle.  I had to have a motorcycle license. 

I had been on a scooter for two days 30 years before--the entirety of my experience--and I wondered if, at 59, I was too old to learn.  That summer,  I took a three-day motorcycle course:  on Friday, classroom instruction, focusing on safety, followed by a sleepless night, repeating in my head the complex, intimidating sequence of hand and foot actions (using both hands and the left foot) required to shift and downshift a cycle's gears; on Saturday, in a parking lot in the back of a derelict suburban shopping center, morning and afternoon sessions on a Honda 250: riding in ovals, turns, abrupt stops, "posting" while going over a piece of wood, figure 8's at agonizingly slow speed, hoping not to fall over; on Sunday, a parking lot driving exam (putting the bike down meant automatic failure) and a written exam.  I passed, and--the great benefit of this special program--earned my license.  But I had never had a motorcycle on the street.  (The following year, Dianne took the same course and earned her license - to her shock.)

Where could we find a scooter in Rome?  We could rent (see our previous post on Renting a Scooter in Rome), but that option seemed so expensive that we were unlikely to do it for more than a few days.  What happened next was pure serendipity.  I was teaching history at a state college near Buffalo and a colleague--native Italian, but a professor of Chinese history (let's call him Giovanni)--offered to "sell" us his Piaggio Hexagon, a heavy, powerful, 2-cycle machine (the kind that mixes oil with gasoline) that he was storing in Bologna, 250 miles north of Rome but also, coincidentally, a place we knew well; we had lived there for six months in 1993.

Because it's illegal for non-residents to "own" vehicles in Italy, our agreement was an unusual one: we paid $1400 and took informal ownership of the scooter; Giovanni remained the legal owner and agreed to be responsible for insuring the vehicle (at our cost).  He drafted a brief note, in Italian, granting us the right to use the machine as long as we did not do so under the influence of alcohol.  Giovanni gave me some basic advice about driving on Italian roads.

In Rome the following spring, we purchased helmets at one of the Porta Portese motorcycle shops, caught the train to Bologna, and found our way to the complex where the Piaggio was stored.  A friend of Giovanni's was waiting for us.  He started the scooter (we wouldn't have known how) and I, not wanting to put Dianne at risk until I had a little "practice," took it around the block--once.  After the three of us had a celebratory beer at a small cafe, Dianne took her place on that very soft and comfortable Piaggio back seat (the seat was comfortable; she wasn't), and off we went, pulling onto the busy multi-lane thoroughfare that circles Bologna's medieval core.  I think we were both anxious and tense, and I know I drove those first few miles in a posture of rigid determination, but we survived the first day.

With friends in Vado, ready for adventure

The following morning we ventured to a friend's house in Vado, in the mountains south of Bologna (photo at right), though how we got there--how we climbed those hills--I can't fathom.  Over the next three days we worked our way over the mountains and down the boot.  We survived the Futa (photo at top), a pass infamous for its dangerous curves, Dianne exhorting her driver to slow down and hug the shoulder.  When, even at that slow pace, this centaur crossed the center line and had to swerve to avoid an oncoming semi, the trucker blew his horn and wagged his finger.  Shame on me.




Dianne, in Vasari's loggia,
in Arezzo



We spent that night outside Firenze, totally psyched; the next  in Arezzo (an unplanned stop but necessary because of the cold rain), still psyched, celebrating our 2-wheel adventure in a romantic, wine bar below street level off Vasari's loggia (photo left).  Because of the limited storage space on our scooter, we carried our helmets everywhere (the "box" held underwear and toothbrushes and that was about it).  We stopped at Lake Trasimeno to track Hannibal's battle with the Roman legions, then turned west to the overlook at Montepulciano (yes, a glass of red wine) and the gardens of Iris Origo's La Foce before heading to a one-time luxrious hotel in hilltop Orvieto, where we got more practice in ascending and descending absurdly steep roads and parking our scooter in a real garage.  Then through medieval Viterbo and along the eastern ridges of volcanic lakes Bolsena, Vico, and Bracciano (amazing views, for Dianne only) to the outskirts of Rome, where in the late afternoon we found the frightening tangenziale (a fast-moving urban highway) and held ourselves together until we reached our exit and our destination: Piazza Bologna.  Minutes later, we asked a passer-by to take the picture below.    Bill

We felt like Hillary and Tenzing