An Evening in Rome

We spent our first afternoon in Rome setting up camp and relaxing. I took the bus and metro into the city center to find a Wind store and to get our Wind internet USB working. No satisfaction there. I'll certainly post again about Wind if it doesn't get fixed. In the meantime, if you're contemplating cell or mobile internet service in Italy, I'd certainly recommend Tim or even Vodaphone--anything but Wind.

Most of my birthday, apart from the veal and pasta (and cherry tomatoes and mozarella and pecorino cheese, etc.) dish Vicki fixed for lunch, I spent catching up on the blog--using the campground wifi. Then, later in the afternoon, we went into town to do an evening stroll, from the Campo di Fiora to the Spanish Steps and Spagna metro station. With a minor detour for gelato.

In the flower market

The Giordano Bruno monument in the center

of the Campo di Fiora; Bruno was among the

earliest Renaissance critics of the excesses of

the Church; was tried and burned at the stake

in this square; over very strong Vatican

objection, the city of Rome built this

monument and placed it ensuring that Bruno's

critical gaze would always fall on the Popes;

from the 19th century, the Vatican has not 

always been as popular in Italy as one might

imagine 

Bernini's Four Rivers

After all these years, still my favorite building, the

Pantheon

Gelato detour

A very famous column, Hadrian's, I think, or

possibly Marcus Aurelius'--we'll visit again

by day

The Trevi Fountain

Spanish Steps

And accompanying boat fountain

Nach Rome!

So from Caserta, we drove on, spending the night at a huge rest area on the autostrada, finally arriving in Rome on Friday morning. Our first goal was to find a suitable place to store the camper for our return to the States in April. This we did, on the first try, near the Laurentina metro station, on the Eternal City's south side. Vicki achieved another screaming deal, not only storing the rig but allowing us to camp on site for the next ten days, with wonderfully simple and quick transportation to the great city center.

Driving by Monte Cassino--"never was so much suffered by

so many for so little"--parodying the author of the campaign
in Italy in WWII

Caserta Curiosities

Driving to the Royal Palace, Caserta featured the worst

traffic jam we have yet seen, anywhere in the world--again,

no accident, no construction, just the simple matter of getting

Italians to merge two lanes into one and allow entry from a

side street

In the Royal Palace, a delicate reminder from

The very tactful School of Public Administration

Marble everywhere...marble veneer, that is

Kings of Naples..room for six more, too

One of the kings was an avid modeler--here, a model of

flying sailing ships



Touchdown!



Bird-cage clock

Baroque trash-can; seriously

And: the very best nativity scene we have seen yet,

anywhere

Closer up detail

Caserta Gardens

The great palace building and original furnishings at Caserta should rank among the top few of such sights in Europe. For us, however, the gardens, and especially the English Garden--a multi-acre park really--have to rank among the very best things we have seen.

The garden runs a mile or more, up a man-made series of

cascades, then a man-made water-fall, to the top of the

mountain; the English Garden is on the right 

From the pond at the foot of the water-fall, looking back to

the palace

Including today's wedding pix pix

The pond and waterfall and cascade above

Pond sculpture; sculpture everywhere

Some of the quarter mile of lower cascades

In the English Garden, beautiful old pines

everywhere

And Cedars of Lebanon

And trees weird-worthy of New Zealand

Rock gardens, leading to a beautiful pond and

A folly/re-creation of Pompei--after all, these

were the royalty mining Pompei for its

treasures

Everything in bloom

Closer up

The grounds, a carpet of wild-flowers



Vicki assembling a bouqet



You can never have enough Follies at your Royal Palace;

this one a temple on an island in a pond

But it's time to head back to the palace; we're seriously

considering a trip back to Caserta, from Rome, to see the

gardens again



Caserta

After many pleasant days at Camping Spartacus in Pompei, we finally broke camp and headed north, through Naples, and on to Caserta and its Royal Palace.

We've seen many royal palaces, but Caserta was among the

very best

Stark from the outside, but glorious and authentic within



Starting with the grand staircase, all pink marble, domes and

other features of which no lens can capture

Another double-barrel shotgun house, but

even larger and grander than Capodimonte

In the royal nursery

Ditto

King's bedroom

As it looked in the good old days

Queen's bath

Throne room

Not a lot of great art here--mostly original furnishings of

interest--but who can resist the flamenco cherub band?

Nice in-laid marble table

Shotgun view of second floor

Corner of library, with interesting display case