Dreams from Biancavilla

Santa Maria Degli Angeli doors Baths of Diocletian, now Santa Maria degli Angeli Bronze angel in light St John’s beheaded head  Pendulum Meridian line Pisces Aries and Libra align Virgo (and Taurus) Symbol of Rome Newspaper setting where Gigi Proietti’s reporter character, ‘Bruno Palmieri,’ worked. Volunteers Piazza del Popolo Twin churches in Piazza del Popolo Up the steps to Parco Pincio Views The little owl house Windows on the road back down Moto row Jewish ghetto Stefano’s recommendation  Fettuccine with clams and artichokes  Scottodita https://photos.app.goo.gl/vtzQNReaZ6VjmYTA7 Today was a day of copying our friends, Stefano and Cara. They live in Minneapolis, but Stefano is Roma DOC. Due to Covid, we restricted our travel, otherwise we would’ve met them and our friend Giuseppe over the holidays. When they were recently in Rome, Stefano posted a few walks they took and restaurants at which they ate. If Stefano and Cara are posting about a restaurant, we must go there! It is an i

After another surprisingly good hotel cornetto e caffe, we Uber’d past the Aurelian walls to the bike rental at the Apia Antica, the old Roman road that was built to connect the city to Brindisi. I know Joe likes a bike ride over a long walk, so I generously suggested we traverse this beautiful stretch on bicycles. Although, I was not so generous. Take a look at the roads, and add some uphill climbs. The f-bomb slipped out of my mouth a few times.  An 8-mile road, the Appian way is studded with ruins, catacombs, tombs, and villas. There are equally astounding current-day villas, which lead me to ask, multiple times, “Who lives here?”! There are cars only at the beginning of the route; we saw just a resident here and there, turning into a gated spread in either a car or on horseback. We made it 6.5 miles, just past the Villa dei Quintili. Along the way, we stopped to peruse the villa Caffarella, the imperial residence of Maxentius, the Tomb of Romulus, the Circus, many smaller ruins an