Day Eleven -- November 7, 2012

Mike was up coughing allot last night so we decided to stick around Rome today instead of going to Ostia Antica or Tivoli.  We were happy to see that Obama had won the election, even though the votes in Florida were still uncertain.


We made our way over to Campo de' Fiori (Field of Flowers).  Once a grassy field (hence it is called a campo, not a piazza) where public hanging took place, today it is the site of one of Rome's largest outdoor markets.  The stalls are shaded by ombrelloni (big white canvas umbrellas) and it is wonderful to stroll among the heaps of fruit, vegetables, packs of herbs and spices and even shiny kitchen and cooking equipment!  A statue of Giordano Bruno, an intellectual heretic who was burned on this spot in 1600, marks the center of this great and colorful square.

We made our way through some of the surrounding narrow alleys where the street names are a record of Rome's retailing history:  Via dei Cappellari is where the hat makers worked, the nail makers were on Vicolo de' Chiodaroli, the crossbow makers on Via dei Balestrari, and tin washbowl makers on Vicolo de' Catinari.  We ended up near the Tiber River on Via Giulia and decided to have lunch at Taverna Giulia, a Ligurian restaurant I had read about.  We enjoyed splitting an order of Trofie al Pesto (a Ligurian hand-formed pasta with fresh pesto sauce, green beans and potatoes) with a nice bottle of Frascati wine.

We crossed the busy Corso Vittorio and wound our way down Via del Coronari whose name comes from the rosaries once sold in shops here to medieval pilgrims en route to St. Peter's (corona means a string of beads and was another word for rosary).  The street now is lined with antiques dealers selling Roman columns, marble busts, and one store was full of silver and gold-plated serving dishes.


This side street goes up Monte Giordano, an artificial hill made of rubble from the ruins of an ancient river port.





We walked through Piazza Navona which used to be full of street performers and artists selling their original paintings and is now full of tour groups and people selling posters -- most of which have nothing to do with Rome!  We then walked back through the crowded area around the Pantheon, making our way back to our apartment for our afternoon gelato break.

We kept passing this fountain on our way to and from our apartment and I found out it was called Il Facchino (The Porter) and is one of the talking statues of Rome.  Irreverent satires poking fun at public figures would have been posted beside Il Facchino in the 14th and 15th centuries.  The statue depicts a man wearing a cap and sleeved shirt carrying a barrel of water from the Tiber to sell on the streets of Rome.



We decided to go back to the Corre del Grillo restaurant in the Monti neighborhood for our last dinner in Rome.  We split a misto salad and had a whole sea bass and baked potatoes with a bottle of white wine.  We had seen the waiters bringing a whole grilled fish to the table and expertly skinning and de-boning it on every trip and decided we just had to experience it ourselves.  Our waiter was an artist at taking the fish apart and the fish was very tasty also.