Day two in Rome started in the late morning with a parade. The second day of June is the Festa della Repubblica, which commemorates the 1946 vote to determine which form of government would succeed Fascism: Republican government beat out the monarchy by about 8% in the popular vote. The celebration is marked by a military parade through the center of Rome, down the Via dei Fori Imperiali. The Via dei Fori Imperiali, a grand and wide street evoking the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, was laid down by Mussolini for just such an event. The magnificent street was intentionally laid through ancient Roman ruins to provide an imperial backdrop for the Fascist nation’s display of might. It draws a straight line from the Coliseum to the Piazza Venezia, and symbolically, from the empire of Ancient Rome to the Fascist Italian empire. They are still excavating ruins from around the road, which bulldozed incalculable ruins for the opportunity to draw such a contrast.
The parade itself was as grand as the setting, with tanks, missile carriers, beret doffing special forces units, soldiers in wet suits and scuba gear, horse mounted officers with flamboyant plumage on their helmets, and a squadron of fighter jets streaking the colors of the Italian flag overhead.
After taking in the parade and some ruins along the way, we had a pizza lunch. The check arrived with a several euro “cover charge,” a de jure tourist tax we anticipated having to pay once or twice on the trip. We recognized it as a sort of bogus tourist charge and were willing to pay; however, not without first watching another American couple have a hilarious exchange with the waiter trying to figure out exactly what they were being asked to pay.
We walked the busy streets up the Quirinale, the tallest of Rome’s seven hills, up to the Quirinale Palace, the President’s residence.
The square features an obelisque from Augustus’s mausoleum and two ancient roman statutes of Castor and Pollux, which have traveled from square to square in the city over the millennia. A rain broke out, and the entire square rushed under awnings nearby, waiting for the storm to pass.
After a short while, we ventured further down the Quirinal, stopping in the Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, which had some amazing works by Bernini. The clouds under St. Peter’s feet appear so light and fluffy it is inconceivable that they were carved of marble. We then went to a church next door, the San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, with a haunting but empty crypt Borromini designed for himself, but did not ultimately come to occupy.
On the way back we stopped at the Largo di Torre Argentina, a busy square right in the center of Rome, were cars, buses and scooters zip around four large Roman temples excavated below street level. The ruins also serve as a cat sanctuary, and hundreds of cats can be seen lounging among the ruins.
We had dinner at an amazing restaurant right next to our apartment in Trastevere, Le Mani in Pasta. A small and charming restaurant with an exposed kitchen, charming staff and amazingly fresh local produce and seafood (we were introduced to some lively crustaceans in the offering); it was wonderful. We had some amazing buffalo mozzarella and prosciutto--honestly the best mozzarella we have ever had. The pasta was fresh, homemade, and bright, and Chris had a steak cooked in green pepper sauce and Dave had a traditional Roman veal saltimbocca. The quality and quantity of the food was overwhelming, and the delicious local Lazio wine helped make the whole meal an embarrassment of riches. We are proud to report that we were able to at least finish the mozzarella.
Stuffed, slightly sun burnt and happy, we waddled back to the apartment (one door down from the restaurant) to rest up for another day of delighting in each other, sun, ruins and overeating.
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