Roman Holiday

 Remember us telling you that we were taking Tony away for his 60th birthday? Well, we've just got home! 

Last Monday we took the 7.15am flight from Birmingham to Rome, hopped into a taxi and checked into our rather grand city centre hotel just over three hours later.

 Ravenous, we checked in, dumped our bags in our rooms and headed off for an early lunch at the rooftop bar at the Michelin-starred Singer Palace Hotel, built in 1850 and the former headquarters of the Singer sewing machine company.

Caprese, Caesar salad, tuna & caper salad, freshly baked bread, Italian olives, local salted almonds, crisps, Sardinian beer, sunshine and a roof top view. Spectacular! 

Hunger sated, it was time to explore Rome and our first stop was The Pantheon. 

Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime, even Byron struggled to find adequate words to describe this marvel. 

Designed by the Emperor Hadrian in 118 - 25 CE and said to be the best preserved building in Rome. Once the Roman temple "of all the gods", it became a church in the 7th Century. The pediment's inscription "M. Agrippa made this" was Hadrian's modest way of paying tribute to Caesar Augustus's son-in-law, Marcus Agrippa, who built the first Pantheon in this spot in 27 BCE.

The portico rests on sixteen pink and grey granite Corinthian columns, all but the three on the left are original. 

Inside The Pantheon is the tomb of Raphael (1483 - 1520), darling of the Renaissance art world who died at just 37 years old. Inscribed in Latin is the poet Bembo's epitaph:  Here lies Raphael, whom Nature feared would outdo her while alive, but now he is gone fears she, too, will die. 

Red porphyry, giallo antico, as well as other ancient marbles grace the interior. More than half the polychrome panels cladding the walls are original, the rest are careful reproductions, as is the floor.

The widest masonry dome in Europe is as high as it is wide; 142ft. 

The Oculus, a bold 27ft wide hole at the centre of the massive dome provides light and structural support.

The walls are 20ft thick and incorporate the built-in brick arches to help distribute the weight downwards, relieving the stress of the heavy roof.

Two of Italy's kings are honoured by simple tombs, Vittorio Emanuele II (1861 - 78) unified Italy and became its first king, his son, Umberto I, was assasinated in 1900, shot by an Italian American anarchist. 

Giacomo della Porta designed the fountain in the piazza and it was carved by Leonardo Sormani in 1575.

All that remains of The Pantheon's old neighbour, The Basilica of Neptune, are an elaborate cornice and elegant fluted columns against the rear wall.

 

Rome's most famous sandwich shop..... 

Bernini's Elephant Obelisk was carved in 1667 by Ercole Ferrata and carries a miniature 6th Century BCE Egyptian obelisk on its back. It is a playful reference to Hannibal's war elephants which carried siege towers across the Alps to attack the Romans in 218 BCE. 

Directly behind the obelisk is Santa Maria sopra Minerva, the only truly Gothic church in Rome, built over an ancient temple dedicated to Minerva. 

Michaelangelo's remarkably muscular Risen Christ (1514 - 21) was considered so shockingly nude that church officials added the bronze wisp of drapery.

Capitolini Hill, Ancient Rome's religous heart, is reached by a 16th Century walkway, the Cordonata, designed by Michaelangelo. At the summit is a star-shaped piazza with a statue of Marcus Aurelius. The plaza is flanked by Palazzo Nuovo (currently undergoing restoration) and Palazzo dei Conservatori.

From Capitolini we enjoyed some magnificent views of The Forum, bathed in the late afternoon Winter sunshine. A symbol of civic pride for over a thousand years - and a hilarious film released in the year the three of us were born, 1966. Once the setting for gladitorial combats, public meetings and courts of law, it was lined with numerous shops and sprawling open air markets. We planned to expore the Forum in more detail another day.....

Our hotel, The Pace Helvetica, is just around the corner from the Forum so we popped back to unpack before heading back out.

We'd passed Trinity College on the way to the Pantheon and with beer prices a fraction of those we'd seen elsewhere, we popped in for a couple of pints of Italian IPA (who knew?!) We discovered when we visited Cyprus last year that Irish theme pubs aren't all about Brits abroad, burgers 'n' chips and televised sport, they're mostly informal places to drink with a varied clientale and the vast majority of the other drinkers were locals.  

I'd spotted this osteria (Italian for a cheap, simple restaurant) when we were exploring earlier and noticed that it had been awarded Trip Advisor Customers Choice Award last year. 

Jon ordered lamb chops with thyme and roasted potatoes....

Tony had pork tenderloin with mustard and rosemary and roasted potatoes....

And I had the Roman speciality, Tonnarello cacio e pepe, handmade spaghetti with Pecorino cheese and cracked black pepper... the best pasta I've ever eaten.

The house wine was €14 a litre and was absolutely fabulous.

Check out Tony's pudding, a deconstructed tiramisu!

Back at the hotel we headed to the rooftop for a beer under the stars...

What a view! 

What would tomorrow bring? Stay tuned for part two!