jupiter's party
May. 28th, 2002 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fictionalYesterday, we walked all over the Campo dei Fiori, the Piazza Rotunda, the Piazza Navona, the Piazza Farnese and across the Tiber to Trastevere. One of my favorite places is in the Piazza della Minerva, where a wise little marble elephant carries a stolen Egyptian obelisk onwards through time. I want to try and sketch him, so I can take him home with me. He is very comforting, in a playful kind of way.
In Trastevere we saw this church, Santa Maria which is the first church in Rome that was dedicated to a woman. It's this bizarre mixture of byzantine, renaissance and baroque architecture, and stolen marble columns from ancient buildings all over Rome. It looks like it was designed by someone with a serious case of multiple personality disorder. The statues of various popes by the outside adds the final touch.
The english language bookstore in Trastevere is rapidly becoming one of my favorite places in Rome. (Big surprise, huh?) It's tucked away in the most picturesque of alleys, right next to a jazz bar called the Stardust. It's run by a British gentleman with a perfect accent, who owns a cat named Priscilla who enjoys sleeping on top of the Roman architecture books, and Victorian mystery novels. The store opens at "half past nine-ish", this being Italy. All the books are shelved in a clutter, and the book smell mixes perfectly with the scent of Rome.
We went to dinner in Trastevere, which is even cheaper than the historic district in which we live. Huge helpings of pasta, (in a pungent tomato garlic tuna mushroom sauce) and glasses and glasses of wine, with fragola con panno (strawberries with cream) for dessert. On the way back, the skies opened with purple lightning and huge crashing thunderbolts. Unlike the more civilised Italians, we left the restaurant, not realising that you can sit here in restaurants for five hours at a time without a problem. We were soaked to the skin, using our jackets to protect our sketchbooks and journals. The Italians laughed and pointed at us crazy Americans shrieking with laughter as we got wetter and wetter. We were waiting for the tram to take us home, and one actually passed us by without stopping, and we could see the driver giggling to himself, as it rained harder and harder. i just hope I don't get sick....
Now we're off to lunch and and then to sketch in the Piazza Rotunda and the Pantheon.
In Trastevere we saw this church, Santa Maria which is the first church in Rome that was dedicated to a woman. It's this bizarre mixture of byzantine, renaissance and baroque architecture, and stolen marble columns from ancient buildings all over Rome. It looks like it was designed by someone with a serious case of multiple personality disorder. The statues of various popes by the outside adds the final touch.
The english language bookstore in Trastevere is rapidly becoming one of my favorite places in Rome. (Big surprise, huh?) It's tucked away in the most picturesque of alleys, right next to a jazz bar called the Stardust. It's run by a British gentleman with a perfect accent, who owns a cat named Priscilla who enjoys sleeping on top of the Roman architecture books, and Victorian mystery novels. The store opens at "half past nine-ish", this being Italy. All the books are shelved in a clutter, and the book smell mixes perfectly with the scent of Rome.
We went to dinner in Trastevere, which is even cheaper than the historic district in which we live. Huge helpings of pasta, (in a pungent tomato garlic tuna mushroom sauce) and glasses and glasses of wine, with fragola con panno (strawberries with cream) for dessert. On the way back, the skies opened with purple lightning and huge crashing thunderbolts. Unlike the more civilised Italians, we left the restaurant, not realising that you can sit here in restaurants for five hours at a time without a problem. We were soaked to the skin, using our jackets to protect our sketchbooks and journals. The Italians laughed and pointed at us crazy Americans shrieking with laughter as we got wetter and wetter. We were waiting for the tram to take us home, and one actually passed us by without stopping, and we could see the driver giggling to himself, as it rained harder and harder. i just hope I don't get sick....
Now we're off to lunch and and then to sketch in the Piazza Rotunda and the Pantheon.