No way you can do 9 days in Rome with five people, two of them little, and stay in a hotel room. My very-brief research showed me that anything even approaching the hotel standards we spoiled Americans are used to with our Residence Inns, for example, would be quite costly and probably really hard to find in Rome. So we went the apartment route: this one.

It turned out to be an excellent choice, except maybe for the two bars/restaurants located directly underneath. Honestly, the noise didn’t bother me, but it did bother others. I have to say, though, that from my searching, I think it would be difficult to find a centrally located apartment in Rome that didn’t have attendant street noise at night.

Here’s one street view from a window and here’s another:

If you look at the pictures in the first post below, you can see an arch in the Vatican walls. We were very close to the Vatican, one street over from the famed Borgo Pio, filled with souvenir shops and food joints, but not, apparently, the Borgo Pio that Cardinal Ratzinger lived on – that, someone told me, was on the other side of the Via Della Conciliazione. But I never could really get that straight.

The apartment, except for the noise, I thought was great. As per usual, I had heard stories – oh, those Italian bathrooms, oh, those Italian beds and linens, etc.

Well, the bathroom was just fine – a shower that would make any American happy – no drain in the middle of the floor with only a hand-held shower head and no shower curtain. It was completely enclosed, towels were large, and I guess the bidet worked, althought the only person to use it was Joseph, who was caught washing his hands in it once. Well, he’s short.

Beds were good, the kitchen was great – here’s a photo of it in use. Being used mainly to eat up all the candy I had bought for distribution to Katie’s classmates, however.

Right across the street, in a basement, actually, was this restaurant, at which I had really superb spaghetti carbonara (sound like a no-brainer? No…I had it one other place, and tasted some of Katie’s that she had elsewhere…this was by far the best), and some bruschetta I really liked. I wouldn’t have minded one more meal there to try something different, and perhaps without little ones.. but…ah well.

I really, really liked the location of this place. We spent quite a bit of time over in the Piazza Navona and Campo di Fiore areas – both popular areas for vacation rentals in Rome (as well as those blasted Spanish Steps), and I’m really glad we settled here. Michael went to a 7am Mass at one of the countless Masses being celebrated at St. Peter’s every morning (something I’m sure he will blog on at length when he digs out from under at work). Whenever we came in during the evening, there it was…that last night, Katie and I walked over to St. Peter’s to mail her last postcards – which will, of course, get here next week. It was magical – this gorgeous piazza, the whole place beautifully lit, the Swiss Guard standing at the Porta Sant’Anna, a few tourists drifting, standing, talking amid the fountain, beside the obelisk, the sound of shoes on cobblestones. I have varied and even contrarian thoughts about some of what I saw in Rome, including St. Peter’s, but the fact remains, it is a presence attesting to permanent things, it is a gathering place for people of all nations – just, what I suspect, it is supposed to be. I am so grateful that for 9 days, I lived in its shadow and in view of its lights.