Steps, Shops, Tower of the Monkey, and Dolls
Rome, Italy, Saturday, July 8, 22:50
We spent today walking around Rome and saw a lot of the city, and quite a bit of it was off the beaten track. We started the day, though, at one of the biggest tourist spots in the city: The Spanish Steps. After having our photo taken by some Irish tourists, returning our favor to them, we climbed to the top. The view from above is nice, the best part being that you can survey the mass of tourists moving around the streets in this area.
On the way down we were accosted by two street vendors who insisted on selling us this thread bracelets they tied on our wrists, with a great pitch about three wishes and one promise. One asked Katie if she had a sister for him, to which she replied "Yes!" So, Jane, there is an Italian at the Spanish Steps waiting for you.
Aside from a set of steps (Kevin wasn't impressed 12 years ago when he visited here and still isn't, what's the big deal?), the blocks around the Spanish Steps are full of prominent - and mostly expensive - stores. Gucci, Prada, Dulce-Gabanna, even Nike and Timberland have shops. Though we ducked into one of the Gucci stores, Kate decided not to spend 600 euros (almost $800) on a small purse. Good choice. (Besides, she can get a knock off from a street vendor for pennies on the Euro to that price and just tell everyone, "Look at the purse I got in Rome!")
We did find some cute Italian dolls in a shop that we thought the girls would like, but decided to try and find them another place for less.
We then walked toward the Piazza Navona in search of a shoe store called Petrocci which Kate had heard of before coming over. They measure your feet and make custom shoes for you after you've selected a style. After they make them they ship them to your home. Alas, it was closed, even though the hours we found listed in a magazine said they should be open. The note on the door was in Italian, so we copied it down to try to translate later. Since we go to Florence on Monday afternoon, and they are usually closed Sunday and Monday, we'll have to try to visit Friday evening when we get back in Rome.
After that, we took a very interesting audio tour of the area around Petrocci and just outside the Piazza Navona. It was part of an audio book called RomeWalks that we downloaded to our iPod before leaving. The tour took about 90 minutes and showed us areas off the normal tourist haunts. It also filled us in on the history and architecture of the buildings. It was very interesting. For example, this tower is known as the Tower of the Monkey because legend has it that the family's monkey kidnapped the baby and took it to the top of the tower. The child's father prayed to the Virgin Mary for the child's safety and the monkey brought it back down. So he built a shrine to the Virgin Mary at the top, on the right corner.
There are three other audio tours from the book and we are hoping to do at least one more before leaving Monday.
The tour ended at the southern end of the Piazza Navona, so we walked to the north end to a little toy store we'd visited briefly our first night here. They had the same dolls as the shop by the Spanish Steps, only less expensive. So we picked up one for each of our girls. (Proving that the Spanish Steps are a little more of a tourist trap than the Piazza Navona. We joked that if we found a toy store near nothing touristy that we could save even more.) They are an Italian collectors series of dolls called My Doll and you can see what they look like at their website www.MyDoll.it. Just don't show our girls, we want them to be surprised!
Next we searched for a dinner spot, finally settling on a restaurant on the piazza containing the Pantheon. Dinner was good, but didn't top last night's. The long walk home included our traditional stop for gelato (Katie had caffe, Kevin had cappachino, and there is a difference. Caffe was more coffee flavored.)
Tomorrow: More walking and sight seeing! Oh, and more eating, too.
We spent today walking around Rome and saw a lot of the city, and quite a bit of it was off the beaten track. We started the day, though, at one of the biggest tourist spots in the city: The Spanish Steps. After having our photo taken by some Irish tourists, returning our favor to them, we climbed to the top. The view from above is nice, the best part being that you can survey the mass of tourists moving around the streets in this area.
On the way down we were accosted by two street vendors who insisted on selling us this thread bracelets they tied on our wrists, with a great pitch about three wishes and one promise. One asked Katie if she had a sister for him, to which she replied "Yes!" So, Jane, there is an Italian at the Spanish Steps waiting for you.
Aside from a set of steps (Kevin wasn't impressed 12 years ago when he visited here and still isn't, what's the big deal?), the blocks around the Spanish Steps are full of prominent - and mostly expensive - stores. Gucci, Prada, Dulce-Gabanna, even Nike and Timberland have shops. Though we ducked into one of the Gucci stores, Kate decided not to spend 600 euros (almost $800) on a small purse. Good choice. (Besides, she can get a knock off from a street vendor for pennies on the Euro to that price and just tell everyone, "Look at the purse I got in Rome!")
We did find some cute Italian dolls in a shop that we thought the girls would like, but decided to try and find them another place for less.
We then walked toward the Piazza Navona in search of a shoe store called Petrocci which Kate had heard of before coming over. They measure your feet and make custom shoes for you after you've selected a style. After they make them they ship them to your home. Alas, it was closed, even though the hours we found listed in a magazine said they should be open. The note on the door was in Italian, so we copied it down to try to translate later. Since we go to Florence on Monday afternoon, and they are usually closed Sunday and Monday, we'll have to try to visit Friday evening when we get back in Rome.
After that, we took a very interesting audio tour of the area around Petrocci and just outside the Piazza Navona. It was part of an audio book called RomeWalks that we downloaded to our iPod before leaving. The tour took about 90 minutes and showed us areas off the normal tourist haunts. It also filled us in on the history and architecture of the buildings. It was very interesting. For example, this tower is known as the Tower of the Monkey because legend has it that the family's monkey kidnapped the baby and took it to the top of the tower. The child's father prayed to the Virgin Mary for the child's safety and the monkey brought it back down. So he built a shrine to the Virgin Mary at the top, on the right corner.
There are three other audio tours from the book and we are hoping to do at least one more before leaving Monday.
The tour ended at the southern end of the Piazza Navona, so we walked to the north end to a little toy store we'd visited briefly our first night here. They had the same dolls as the shop by the Spanish Steps, only less expensive. So we picked up one for each of our girls. (Proving that the Spanish Steps are a little more of a tourist trap than the Piazza Navona. We joked that if we found a toy store near nothing touristy that we could save even more.) They are an Italian collectors series of dolls called My Doll and you can see what they look like at their website www.MyDoll.it. Just don't show our girls, we want them to be surprised!
Next we searched for a dinner spot, finally settling on a restaurant on the piazza containing the Pantheon. Dinner was good, but didn't top last night's. The long walk home included our traditional stop for gelato (Katie had caffe, Kevin had cappachino, and there is a difference. Caffe was more coffee flavored.)
Tomorrow: More walking and sight seeing! Oh, and more eating, too.
posted by Katie | 1:01 PM
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