No. 1 – the Gianicolo at night. No contest. Even he and she agree.
The Gianicolo is a lovely hill overlooking Rome from the Trastevere side of the Tiber. It’s easy to get to, even if it does involve a bit of uphill walking. And at night, it’s simply magical. Whether you’re in Rome the first, the second, or the hundredth time, you have to go there. We never miss a chance to soak up the views and the atmosphere (from Punch & Judy shows in the daytime to lovers at night).
In fact #19, the Acqua Paola fountain, is on the way to the Gianicolo, and also looks great at night and has great views of the city. See our earlier post on the fountain.
Our stairways itinerary in Trastevere, the fourth in our new book, Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler, includes part of the Gianicolo and Acqua Paola. See the end of the PS to this post for more on the book.
Dianne
A PS on the Top 40 as we close it. Re the “he and she agree”: “Dianne says” and “Bill says” appear in our book, because we don’t always have the same take on Rome. (In an early manuscript of our book, we used simply “he says” and “she says”, which we both still like, but we bent to the will of an editor and changed to Dianne and Bill). And since we don’t have the same take, we made lists of our top Rome the Second Time sights. Then we collated and voted, made a few compromises (she says), and came up with our Top 40. As I noted, we both put the Gianicolo at night as #1 on our respective lists. Didn’t we, Bill? - she asks.
Yes, dear. Bill
Dianne and Bill managed to cooperate enough to put out vol. 2 of the Curious Traveler series: our
new print AND eBook, Modern
Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler. Modern
Rome features tours of the "garden" suburb of
Garbatella; the 20th-century suburb of EUR, designed by the Fascists; the
21st-century music and art center of Flaminio, along with Mussolini's Foro
Italico, also the site of the 1960 summer Olympics; and a stairways walk in
Trastevere.
This 4-walk book is available in all
print and eBook formats The eBook is $1.99 through amazon.com and all other eBook sellers. See
the various formats at smashwords.com.
Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler now is also available in print, at amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, independent bookstores, and other retailers; retail price $5.99.
2 comments:
From a reader: OK, now I know I have to head up that hill at night when I get back to Rome. I spent quite a lot of time on the way up and up there when I was in Rome for a month in November and December 2010 (my 12th or 13th time to Rome). That is a sight I haven't experienced. Truly with Rome there is always something more.
I also followed the link to your posing on the Acqua Paolo, and was interested to see you mentioning The Fountains of Rome. I did buy this several years ago, not cheap because it was out of print as you say. But it was and is worth every penny! In fact that was another of my projects last time in Rome. I decided I would find all the fountains he mentioned. I actually did very well and missed only a few. I can't find the copy of his map that I took with me and checked off right now, but looking at the book I think I only missed a couple of the Rione Fountains and wasn't sure about a couple of the "remains." I did not on this trip see the battleship from the Vatican Gardens, but I do have a picture of it from a gardens tour years ago when it was included so I count that. It hasn't been on the last several tours I've taken there.
I have one set of pictures from last year only on fountains so I expect that I will eventually find that map in my stacks of notes that I use to ID pictures, a chore that takes me a very long time now that I have a digital cameras. I hope this doesn't sound like bragging too much, but I love Rome and since you do too, I thought you might be interested.
Sincerely,
Joan Schmelzle
In 2011-2012 my wife and I lived at the base of the Gianicolo for seven months (across from the Prisoner fountain). In that time I probably climbed to the Piazza G. Garibaldi overlook over 100 times, at all times of day and all seasons of the year. In winter, after a storm and when the trees are bare, the view is expanded miraculously to the snowy Apennines. The morning of Feb 4, 2012, after the big snow, is especially memorable.
Wish I were there right now...
Roberto
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