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Concluding Rome & Heading Home
The sun continues to shine from cloudless skies – as we enter the second half of October and near the end of this short Italian sojourn, temperatures of up to 29 degrees surprise and delight us. We had hoped for sunshine but this warmth has been a big bonus, so perfect for exploring the two wonderful cities of Bologna and Rome. Tucked into the tight streets between the Trevi fountain and Piazza Navona, The Pantheon is a remarkable and beautiful building, boasting the widest masonry dome in Europe which in turn houses the oculus through which sunlight cascades in spectacular shafts. The whole place is fabulous. The walls are adorned…
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Stories And Histories: More Days In Rome
On our previous travels we have visited the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz in Krakow and walked through the chilling and horrific histories at Auschwitz and Birkenau, wandered through the former ghettoes of Venice, Thessaloniki and others, visited Jewish museums in several cities as well as Ann Frank’s House in Amsterdam, learning again and again of the bigoted persecution of people of that faith. Even so, there is a different element to Rome’s equivalent, the former ghetto now known as Communita Ebraico, knowing that creation of this particular ghetto took place under the watchful eye and direct personal instruction of the Pope, who ensured that, as with all other ghettoes, the…
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From Bologna To The Eternal City
Our last post left us going through an unassuming unmarked doorway in amongst the restaurants of Bologna’s Quadrilatero district and entering a parlour full of evocative old photographs. Many show the famous faces of previous visitors to this strange little room: here Mohammad Ali’s autographed golden boxing glove, there Richard Nixon, then Tony Bennett, even a laughing Marilyn Monroe. This is Bologna’s oldest inn, the Osteria del Sole, where the wine has flowed since 1465 and been quaffed not only by the glitterati but also by the learned intellectuals from the university, students and professors alike. Yet the joy of “del Sole” is as much about its custom as its…
