August 30, 2009 – Rome: Unfinished Sightseeing And Shopping Business

We will be going home tomorrow, so it was our last full day that we enjoyed in Italy. We wanted to visit again some of the most popular attractions and at the same time we wanted to do some last-minute shopping, hoping for good deals. Here is what happened:

• Breakfast at the hotel. Great espresso coffee and service, as always.
• Bus to Termini and from there metro trip to Piazzale Flaminio (arr. 10:35 AM) – behind the ancient Porta Flaminia – one of the gates of the Aurelian Walls and the starting point of the Via Flaminia, the road to Ariminum, the most important route to the north of Ancient Rome. Entered the Piazza del Popolo from the northern side and visited Church Santa Maria del Popolo where the Mass was celebrated (10:43 AM). We had been there already (a week ago) and saw great paintings of Caravaggio (“Crucifixion of St. Peter” and “Conversion on the Way to Damascus”) and an “Assumption of the Virgin” by Carracci, frescoes by Pinturicchio, sculptures by Bregno and Bernini (“Habakkuk” and the “Angel and Daniel and the Lion”). The Chigi Chapel’s dome is decorated with Raphael’s mosaics “Creation of the World”; he also designed the Chapel.
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  "Twin churches", Piazza del Poppolo, Rome

  Walked across the Piazza del Popolo –  to the the “twin” churches of Santa Maria della Miracoli and Santa Maria del Montesanto.

• Walking down Via del Corso – window shopping, people watching, taking pictures of dozens of tourist attractions.
• Casa di Goethe – Church Gesu e Maria al Corso – Via dei Greci/Hotel Mozart (11:03 AM)
• Shopping at ZARA (11:30 AM). Malta Embassy (11:46 AM)
• Largo Carlo Goldoni (11:40 AM). Shopping at Valentino (11:43 AM)
• Mausoleo di Augusto, new Ara Pacis.
• Via della Carrozze (11:50 AM). We wanted to shop there at the C.U.C.I.N.A. store (Via Mario de’ Fiori 65) – they are famous for their cookware and kitchen gadgets. Unfortunately, it was closed due to the holidays… That store was closed, but being there we had the opportunity for the final visit to one of the most popular spots in Rome – Piazza di Spagna/Spanish Steps
• Walking Via Condotti back to Via del Corso
• Palazzo Ruspoli – Church San Lorenzo in Lucina
• Piazza del Parlamento – Palazzo di Montecitorio – seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, which is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. Palazzo Chigi – at Piazza Colonna – Column of Marcus Aurelius (12:20 PM)
• Galleria Colonna now known as Galleria Alberto Sordi – a shopping arcade in the Art Nouveau-style building. (12:25 PM)
  

  Galleria Alberto Sordi

• Fontana di Trevi (12:35 PM) – another place in Rome that required just one more visit and some more pictures. We threw in a few coins to make sure that we would come back to Rome.
• McDonald’s lunch at Via delle Muratte (1:00 PM)
• Piazza della Rotonda (1:50 PM). Pantheon (1:52 PM) – again!
• Palazzo Madama – the home of the Italian Senate (2:00 PM). Corso del Rinascimento
• After wandering around and with a little help from the carabinieri, we found the famous store we’ve been looking for for some time and couldn’t find it – Ai Monasteri at Corso Rinascimento/Piazza Cinque Lune (2:08 PM). Imagine how disappointed we were to see it closed! But why did we want to visit it so much? Because it’s the world-famous, one of the best perfumeries in Rome. It’s like a medieval apothecary, where you can choose from elixirs, potions, sweets, candles and all the products are made by the Italian monks.
• Piazza di San Apollinare (2:10 PM) -  Palazzo Altemps/Museo da Collezionare
• Our last visit to another favorite place in Rome – Piazza Navona (2:11 PM) – Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone – Pamphilj Palace – Palazzo Braschi.
• Palazzo Massimo – Piazza di Sant’Andrea della Valle with the Church Sant’Andrea della Vale (2:43 PM) – this 16th-century basilica has the second highest dome in Rome (after St. Peter’s, of course); it’s also famous from “Tosca” - first act of Puccini’s great opera is set there.
  

  Giordano Bruno at Campo de' Fiori

• Campo de’ Fiori (2:50 PM) – another spot that we considered as deserving a 2nd – or maybe it was 3rd? – look. That Bruno’s monument is just fascinating, and there is such a nice atmosphere in the local restaurants.
• Corso Vittorio Emanuele II (3:14 PM). It was getting late so we jumped on the bus that via Piazza Venezia was going in the direction of the Termini station.
• However, we got off somewhere in the area when Via Nazionale starts its run towards Piazza della Repubblica.
• It was hot so we got some good cold Italian beer at a small store. We consumed it rather discreetly as we didn’t know if  it was legal to drink it in the street.
• In five minutes all beer disappeared and we were ready to continue our walk along Via Nazionale, looking for some more souvenirs to bring home to Canada from Italy.
• [Seriously looking Banca d’Italia building (3:37 PM) on the right, then interesting Palazzo delle Esposizioni on the left (3:43 PM, @Via Milano).]
• Around 3:45 PM we found a nice store – Castroni (Via Nazionale 71). It offered a lot of local goodies beautifully packaged to take home. We bought there delicious Modena balsamic vinegar and candies, and then had fantastic coffee in the store’s elegant bar.
• @ Via Venezia (4:22 PM).  St. Paul’s Within the Walls – the biggest protestant (episcopalian) church in Rome – something rather unusual in the city where the Pope resides. That church has interesting design and apparently offers some good programs. Built in 1873, it was the first non-Roman Catholic church to be built inside the walls of Rome ( 4:25 PM).
• @ Via Firenze (4:30 PM) and finally we reached the Piazza della Repubblica (4:35 PM).
• Piazza Repubblica – The Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs (Santa Maria degli Angeli) (4:50 PM) – built in the tepidarium of the Baths of Diocletian and the church facade is the ancient frigidarium of the Baths. This church shows Michelangelo’s genius in architecture. Also, the Basilica features another unusual attraction – Bianchini built there a meridian line, a sort of sundial inside the basilica. The sun shines through a small hole in the wall to cast its light on this line each day. Moreover, in addition to using the line to measure the sun’s meridian crossing, Bianchini added holes in the ceiling to mark the passage of stars. Inside the interior, darkened by covering the windows, Polaris, Arcturus and Sirius were observed through these holes with the aid of a telescope to determine their right ascensions and declinations (5:05 PM).
• Planetario (5:15 PM).
• Church Santa Susanna (5:19 PM) – Church Santa Maria della Vittoria – “Ecstasy of St. Teresa” sculpture by Bernini is there ( 5:20 PM). “Ecstasy of St. Teresa” was made famous by the Angels and Demons – the novel by Dan Brown which lists the sculpture as the third “altar of science” and by the movie featuring Tom Hanks.
  

  Santa Maria degli Angeli

• Going back to Piazza della Repubblica – downstairs to Metro Repubblica (5:50 PM) as we realized that if we still wanted to buy something to take back to Canada then our only choice would be a big department store. Based on the Frommer’s “Rome Day By Day” book, the best choice would be the COIN department store. Unfortunately, it was quite far – in the Vatican City! But what to do; the day was not done yet and by metro it’s never too far and long. So from the Repubblica metro stop we went to the Ottaviano, where we arrived around 6:08 PM. By the way, another recommended department store chain was La Rinascente, but we visited its few stores and the prices there were rather (too) steeep…
• So there we were at Via Ottaviano/Piazza del Risorgimento and it was 6:15 PM. This place was rather empty at that time. We remembered it so crowded when we came to the Vatican the first time about 10 days ago.  From the Piazza del Risorgimento we turned to Via Cola di Rienzo and after a few hundred meters (just few blocks) we found the COIN department store – at corner of Via Paolo Emilio/Via Cola di Rienzo (6:20 PM).
• The COIN didn’t disappoint us. We bought a number of top-class Italian goods (e.g. leather and fantastic wine, like 1997 Chianti at just few euros!).
• Very happy with the final shopping results, we took the Metro back to Termini; had quick supper at the McDonald’s there (Yeah, I know… McD for the 2nd time today, but it was too late for anything more sophisticated). Then it was the last time to take the bus from the Piazza dei Cinquecento in front of the Termini station to Piazza Fiume. That bus stop was so conveniently located near our hotel, like the bust stop in the opposite direction – at Via Salaria/Via Aniene. Plus there was another stop on Via Aniene that we never used.
• Our last night at the Executive Hotel was ahead of us, but before that we had to pack our things – the old ones and those newly acquired in Italy. Not surprisingly, the bags were overfilled.