Rome: Angels and Demons According To Robert: Sorting Facts and Fiction

8:30 AM Breakfast of croissants and pound cake.

9:10 AM At Barberini Metro station to find the iron gates closed.  The Redline is down at Ottaviano.  Marie and I dashed to Spagna.

9:23 AM Spagna Metro station’s iron gates were closed also.  We flagged down a taxi at the nearby hotel.  I asked the driver to take us to Santa Maria del Popolo/Piazza del Popolo.  The taxi driver looked at me quizzically then asked me to confirm the address from the list on his Garman.

9:35 AM The Angels and Demons group all looked amused as our taxi stopped on the pedestrian square in front of the church.  Marie and I pooled coins to pay the driver.

As we dashed to join the group on the steps, at the same time I pulled out my voucher from my purse, I informed the tour coordinator that the Metro was down.  With a smile, the coordinator confirmed, “Wong? – No need for the voucher, we have your name on our list.”

Our guide, Robert, assured us we were “Fine.  You’re not late.”  Robert continued recapping the differences between the book/movie/reality.  Robert was very animated and entertaining as well as informative.  He speaks four languages fluently and lived many places growing up, moving about every three years as a Navy brat.

Robert handed us each a map of our tour “the Path of Illumination” as set forth in the book.

First stop:  Inside Santa Maria del Popolo, one would never guess the contents of this church from the looks of its facade.  This church contained so many beautiful sculptures and paintings.  Raphael’s Creation of the World mosaics decorates the dome.  The Cerasi chapel holds Caravaggio’s Crucifixion of St. Peter and Conversation on the Way to Damascus, as well as Carracci’s Assumption of the Virgin.  Raphael designed and decorated the funerary chapel, Chigi chapel, which also has Bernini’s sculptures Habakkuk and the Angel and Daniel and the Lion.

From there, we took a private bus to the Vatican.

Second stop:  Robert challenged us to look for the West Ponente (West Wind) tile in St. Peter’s Square.

Back in the private bus, while on our way to the next stop, Robert read a passage from famous sister/nun Santa Teresa’s diary about dreams of angels visiting/surrounding her in a field.

Third stop:  S. Maria della Vittoria church.

This Baroque church houses the sculpture Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Bernini.  Robert pointed to the sculpture and announced, “Not every day a nun is in ecstacy” just as a nun passed behind him.

Fourth stop:  Piazza Navona Fountain of Four Rivers and Saint Agnes in Agony.

We rested at the Marriott café for gelato’s and coke (and also the toilette).  The tour price included this refreshment.

Fifth (and last) stop:  Pont Saint Angelo (Bridge of Angels), a bridge across the Tiber River leading from the center of Rome to the Castel Sant’Angelo.  The bridge, formerly named Pons Aelius or Bridge of Hadrian was changed in 590 AD after word got out that Archangel Michael landed on top of the mausoleum to end the plague in Rome.  In 1669 Pope Clement IX commissioned artist Bernini to sculpt the angels for the bridge.  Bernini finished two, which the pope took for his own collection.  The ten angels on the bridge were made by other sculptors in Bernini’s scheme.  We took the winding staircase to the top of Castle St. Angelo for a panoramic view of Rome.  “The cherry on top.” as Robert foretold.

2:30 PM  We were feeling the heat of the day, so after deciding to make our way back to our hotel, we thanked Robert for an entertaining and informative tour and gave him a hug.  We asked if the Metro might be working by now.  Robert replied that it might be down a few days, where did we need to go?

Catch the bus by the double wooden doors.  The #62 will take us that way.  We’ll need to buy a ticket first, 3 should be enough.

Marie and I found our way out after making a wrong turn and Robert catching up with us.  We didn’t have exact change and the ticket machine doesn’t give change.  We stopped at the audio guide stand to change our €2 coin to two €1 coins.  The clerk didn’t have two €1 coins, but counted out two Euros worth in very small change.

At the bus stop, we bought two one-way tickets, good for use in the next 100 minutes for €3.  We waited about 15-20 minutes for bus 62 to arrive.  We dashed to the front to show the driver our ticket.  The bus driver didn’t glance our way.  As we sat in the non-air conditioned bus, or maybe because it was so hot the a/c wouldn’t make a difference since it opened its doors every few minutes, I noticed others hopping on and off the bus not showing their tickets or using the validation machine next to us.  Marie ventured it was an honor system.  I wondered if the ride was free since the Metro was down.  In our hometown, public transportation is free on “spare the air” days.  When I asked our hotel receptionist, he replied the bus wasn’t free, “you can use your Metro ticket on the bus.” – Never mind.

Stepping off the bus, we found a toy store.  Hoping to find an Italian doll in traditional dress, we stopped for a look.  No luck, but there were some interesting toys for all ages and tastes.

Passing the hotel bar to our room, I stopped to fill a glass with ice from the icemaker for my warm coca-cola.

Marie claimed the shower first.  I journaled and watched the Olympics club and ribbon competition and sipped my cold soda.

After my shower, we took a nap then readied for dinner.

Marie noticed a restaurant near our hotel named White.  Marie also noted that it advertised €5 cocktails after 8 PM.  We started with bread with garlic butter.

My dinner was lasagna, two margaritas and tiramisu gelato;

Marie’s dinner was pizza, two caipiroska (one peach, one strawberry) and a gelato.

We had a very in depth discussion, mainly about relationships.

11:45 PM  Back in our room, packing for tomorrow.  We say goodbye to Italy and hello to Spain.