Two Weeks In Trastevere

I’ve wanted to stay in Trastevere since my first visit to Rome. We followed my niece through the cobbled streets along twisting alleyways, listening to the rats dive into the river Tiber,  until we found the restaurant, da Luce (now Hosteria Luce).

I’ve since eaten there three times and painted one of the meals.  Although bloggers and TripAdvisor all lament that Trastevere is no longer what it once was (and who among us is?), that it has become a tourist-infested, rowdy students, all-night party zone, I was hoping to find something that would work for me. I looked up Hosteria Luce online, and they’ve tarted the joint up with chandeliers and schmancy cuisine, but maybe they still make spaghetti cacio & pepe. Here’s hoping.

After prowling various apartment vacation rental sites, and getting some interesting feedback on TripAdvisor, I found several promising apartments. I  exchanged emails with a Trastevere couple.  One poster warned to stay away from two ‘party’ piazzas and the busy main highway, and with the magic of Google maps I could determine the flat I liked wasn’t on those piazzas or near that road. After not sleeping in Madrid, I’ve learned to read reviews carefully and do my due diligence. I even I PM’d one of their last guests (formerly from our neighborhood in Atlanta – small world) who assured me noise was not an issue.

I rolled the dice and booked it for the first two weeks of my trip, when Robert is joining me. I hope I have chosen wisely – an apartment not on a square or piazza, tucked away on a pedestrian street, with a small balcony and a fair amount of space. It’s one block and an alley away from Hosteria Luce.

Trastevere Espresso Finito, oil on canvas

The Eternal City

Next spring I’m traveling to Rome, and taking six weeks to wash the dust of the world from my soul. My primary goal is to thoroughly explore the Vatican Museums. It’s a challenging prospect; this bastion of papal privilege is filled to the brim with the best art that power and wealth could accumulate, but housed in a venue conceived and built for the delectation of a very limited audience. As a building, it was neither planned for nor concerned with the priorities and comfort of multitudes tourists.
As I see it, the three most daunting obstacles are

1. The one way system. There are set routes through the museum and no backtracking is permitted.
2. The paucity of bathrooms. I’ve read there are four. Holy cow.
3. The surge of tourists, art lovers and pilgrims alike, that can transform the experience of viewing art into something resembling an overcrowded TSA line.

I am going to have to bring my A-game in terms of strategy. I hope I am equal to the task.

“Troppo vero!”

The beauty part is Rome is covered up in amazing venues. Not only is every church door is worth opening, there are private museums I plan to visit and revisit. Caravaggio’s The Repentant Magdalene and Rest on the Flight into Egypt would be more than enough to bring me back to the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, but they also have Velázquez’s portrait of Innocent X.