"Rome the Second Time" in the time of coronavirus

In these extraordinary times, it seems frivolous to continue to post about what to see and what to do in Rome. "Resto a casa" - I'm staying home - is THE hashtag these days (we know there are more...for a later post, perhaps).

We at RST are pulling in our horns a bit too. We plan to post less frequently than the usual once/week. And we'll focus on Rome - and Italy - now. We're thinking of writing a few book reviews and reviewing films one can watch at home - that remind one of Rome and all of Italy. And we'll pass along information and posts we think are useful over a longer period, since we can't move as quickly as this virus.

We invite readers to send us information and posts that we can consolidate, pass along, commiserate with, wonder over.  No reaction seems inappropriate now, except that of minimizing what's happening.

For our first post in this new "time of coronavirus" (with a nod to Gabriel Garcia Márquez), we offer a few photos of the Trevi Fountain.  Two of them are from Fabio Milani, and there are more on Facebook, where we shared his post on Rome the Second Time's Facebook site (thanks, Fabio!).

Trevi Fountain, 2010

The last one below is from 12 years ago - from us - the Trevi Fountain at 4:30 a.m. - much like it would be today (except I wouldn't be in the photo).

Good health to everyone as we go through this together.

Dianne

Hiking: Tivoli to San Polo, 10 miles, 2300 feet, great views

One view from the long ridge between Tivoli and San Polo de' Cavalieri.  The hill town at center is Castel Madama.
We've hired near it too in the past, encountering one of our more brutal brier patches.

As the body ages, long rides on the scooter become less enticing.  And so we've taken to doing some of our hiking from train depots.  On a hot Sunday in early June, we scootered in the a.m. to Piazza Independenza in central Rome, walked 10 minutes to Termini, and caught the train for Tivoli (takes about an hour, less on the return).  Our plan (we've done it twice before) was to hike from the Tivoli train station to San Polo de' Cavalieri, a small hill town roughly 5 miles distant.  10 miles total.  Varied terrain, delightful views.

Monte Cattillo, seen from the Tivoli bar,
with requisite beer, after the hike. 

The hike goes up over the shoulder of Monte Catillo (seen here from a bar after the hike).  The trailhead is about half a mile from the train station: exit the station right, downhill to the roundabout, take the road right, up to the arch, and turn right up the road, where you'll find the marked path around Monte Catillo).  Then uphill through scrub to a lone oak (this much we described in an itinerary in our first book), through a lovely grove of oak trees and onto a long ridge, finally pitching down off the ridge, then up on a road and some other tracks to San Polo, where we ate the tramezzini we had purchased in a Tivoli bar in the morning.

Benches line the right side of the street in San Polo.  

We sat on one of the benches on the town's main street.

Bar Centrale.  Quiet, but open, on a Sunday afternoon. 

Or you could buy lunch at Bar Centrale.











Or, from San Polo, you could go on to Monte Gennaro - another 6 hours or so!  We've climbed Gennaro half a dozen times, from several directions, but never from this one.  Tivoli and San Polo are in the Lucreteli, and Monte Gennaro is the highest mountain outside Rome.  The Tivoli to San Polo hike gives you the flavor of the Lucretili and some small town and farm ambience as well.

The ritorno (return) is a reversal of the andato (no good translation, sort of "going" or "the way there"): down from San Polo, steep climb up a hot road to the ridge, more or less flat journey along the mostly open ridge (great views on both sides, especially left), descent through the oaks, the scrub, and along the shoulder of Monte Catillo and down into Tivoli.

There used to be a lot of cows in these pastures, and bathtubs were used as rural fontane (fountains) to provide the animals with water.

Dianne at the oak grove, on the descent.  Several years ago, during a drought,
we feared the oaks might die.  Today, they appear healthy.  Red and white trail
marker on the tree.  A clear path.

Descent into Tivoli.  The white triangle just below the horizon and about 2/3 of the way toward the
right side of the frame, is Santiago Calatrava's famous, but unfinished and unused, swimming pool.  

A short section of road at the beginning and end of the hike. 

The numbers are hours and minutes estimated to reach the
destination, not distance.

Grateful for the shade. 

The trail is well marked (above, a typical sign) in a way it wasn't some years ago, when we first did the hike.  There are just a couple of places where one can go wrong: on the way to San Polo, having passed the lone pine, bear to the right and slightly upward at the fork (the intersection is marked).



Then, about halfway to San Polo, be careful to avoid pitching downward to the left (that's another trail, and a shorter hike) and stay more or less on the ridge.  There are some lovely and cool shaded stretches.







The total dislivello (elevation gain) is about 2300 feet (total for both directions, which involve ups and downs both ways).  That means this one's for hikers, not walkers.  Lots of rocky paths, so hiking boots are highly recommended.  There's water at the Tivoli train station (look for the eagle fountain at one end) and at the fountain in San Polo's main square--but none on the trail, with one exception that's quite close to San Polo.

Water is available at the eagle fountain on the north end of the Tivoli train station.  
You'll be headed for Monte Catillo, whose top is marked by the cross in the center
of this photo.  You can go to the top or across the shoulder on the way to San Polo..

We described another hike from the Tivoli station to the higher Monte Sterparo in 2016. That blog post includes some photos of our "cow map" that has part of this hike on it as well.

We've been partial to Tivoli for a long time, not only for hiking, but also for just the feel of this small, very old town (dating from the ancient Romans), the magnificent 19th-century Villa Gregoriana (#6 on the RST Top 40) and the more famous 16th century Villa d'Este with its fountains (the wild and the ordered, respectively, were compared in Rome the Second Time).

Bill

Ballad of the Aegean Sea: Patrizio Nissirio's new Historical Mystery

A little-known World War II war crime on a Greek Island is a major focus of a fascinating first novel by Patrizio Nissirio, an accomplished journalist and author.

The book's title, Una Ballata del Mare Egeo/A Ballad of the Aegean Sea, does not reveal its ties to Rome. However, the novel's protagonist, himself a young journalist, was born and raised in Rome's Piazza Bologna area (the setting for two of Rome the Second Time's 15 itineraries).  And it is from this mid-century, middle-class quartiere of Rome that the story unfolds. The journalist-protagonist, like the author, is of Greek descent, and he traces his family's history back to those Greek Islands that were the last part of Greece to be reclaimed - in 1945 -  after Italy invaded Greece and the Axis powers then occupied it.

Nissirio expertly weaves the story of Italians on the Greek Islands in World War II with present-day desires to explore one's family roots and the origins of right-wing nostalgia.  The mystery is fascinatingly complex and fun to follow.  Even more fascinating for me is the history on which the novel is based.  The book definitely will appeal to those who like "true crime" stories.

Nissirio's visceral love for Greece jumps from the pages of the book, as does his knowledge of the Greek islands.  These islands even today bear witness to significant signs of Italian colonization (if I can call it that), with their Fascist-era town plans and buildings that remain.

Kudos to Nissirio for a story well-told, history well-revived, and a good read.

Ah, yes, the question of language.  The book to date is available only in Italian, from amazon.it.  For those of us whose knowledge of the language is less than perfect, it is a surprisingly easy read.  And hopefully a translation and movie rights are in the book's future!

Una Ballata del Mare Egeo is available on amazon.it.

Patrizio Nissirio

Nissirio has spent most of his career with ANSA, the Italian news service, with long assignments (as in 4-6 years) in Washington, DC., Athens, and London. He is director of ANSAMed,  ANSA's multilingual information service for the Mediterranean.   He has written several nonfiction books, including one on the Greek economy.  Full disclosure: Patrizio Nissirio is a long-time friend of ours.  He helped us secure Walter Veltroni's (then a recent mayor of Rome) introduction to Rome the Second Time.  And, he introduced us to much of the Piazza Bologna area.

Dianne

MODERN ROME: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler, now in paper edition

Dianne Bennett and William Graebner are pleased to announce that Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler (Curious Traveler Press, 2014), is now available in paperback ($5.99, 92 pages, 63 color photos, maps) as well as in eBook format ($1.99, same color photos and maps, over 100 hyperlinks, in all e-formats).  Both versions are available at amazon.com and other retail outlets, including independent bookstores.  Both books are in Kindle's "Matchbook" program, qualifying for heavily discounted Kindle versions; see details below.

Following Rome the Second Time's successful format, Modern Rome offers four new Rome walks, all outside the city's tourist core, all easily accessible by Metro or tram, and all in neighborhoods where Romans live and work.  Together, Rome the Second Time and Modern

Rome constitute, we believe, the most important alternative guide to the modern city ever published.

Garbatella: Garden City Suburb is a guided tour through one of the world's most engaging and mysterious planned communities, a 1920s creation featuring curving streets, enchanting stairways, interior courtyards, some of the most unusual public housing ever built--and a café where Pier Paolo Pasolini enjoyed the local scene.

EUR: Mid-Century Spectacle features a dramatic locale, now a center of Rome's business community, but planned and constructed in monumental style to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1922 Fascist March on Rome.  Highlights include the striking Square Coliseum, Massimiliano Fuksas' Cloud (incredible even under construction), a mosaic by Fortunato Depero and a mural by Gino Severini, and Adalberto Libera's remarkable Palazzo dei Congressi.  Near the end of this walk, you can have lunch in Caffè Palombini, a 1940-vintage gem with artwork from the period.

From Mussolini to MAXXI: The Changing World of Flaminio. On the opposite end of the city, a walk through Flaminio introduces Rome's sensational 21st-century, starchitect designed (Renzo Piano and Zaha Hadid) cultural centers, and across the Tevere, the suggestive site of the 1960 Olympic Games, the Foro Italico, a virtual Mussolini theme park built by the Duce in the 1930s. And you can enjoy the splendor of the Foro while relaxing in one of our favorite outdoor bars.

The Stairs of Trastevere. A fourth walk begins just beyond the Trastevere so well known to tourists, winding up, down, and around Rome's 8th hill, the Gianicolo, traversing a multi-layered 17th-century villa, a compelling and seldom visited Fascist-era monument to the Italian unification movement (don't miss the incredible underground portion), and one of the smallest and most charming temples in all of Italy.  Lots to see, calories to burn!

Pack your bags.  Or enjoy the walks in a comfortable armchair.  In any case, bring your curiosity!

Kindle Matchbook program: Under Kindle's Matchbook program, the Kindle version of Rome the Second Time  is available for $1.99 if you buy the paperback from amazon.com.  The Kindle version of Modern Rome  is only 99 cents if you buy the paperback from amazon.

Dianne Bennett is a tax attorney and former managing partner of Buffalo's largest law firm. William Graebner is a widely published author of books on American history, including Patty's Got a Gun: Patricia Hearst in 1970s America (University of Chicago Press).  They live in Buffalo, Los Angeles, and Rome, where they get around on a Bologna-made Malaguti 250, a large scooter.

Dianne and Bill