October 11 – 15

Day 56: Sunday, October 11… St Peter’s Basilica in Rome was meant to be the crown jewel of Christianity. The finest craftsmen and artists were recruited. There is little doubt that for many, work on this building was an act of devotion and love. It shows. Every detail was stunning.

Interesting side note: St Peter’s Basilica was also partially responsible for starting the Reformation. Building such a large and lavish church was expensive. Under Pope Leo X, the church heavily marketed the sale of “Indulgences” to fund construction. An Indulgence was basically a gift card good for X number of years off time in purgatory. A popular sales pitch from the time was, “As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.” That prompted Martin Luther in 1517 to nail a challenge to the practice to a church door. The rest as they say…

Our goals for today were #1 – Visit the Vatican. #2 – Walk. With #1 checked off, we walked up Giancolo hill, second highest in the city. We admired a sweeping vista before heading down to the funky Trastavere Quarter for lunch. We meandered past the site of a Jewish ghetto established by Pope Paul IV in 1555.  We contemplated the site where Julius Caesar was murdered. By the time we passed the Pantheon, wall to wall people convinced us to be done touristing for the day. 

Day 57: Monday, October 12… Rome always had an … uncomfortable relationship with Israel. “And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.” Not winning hearts and minds with that upheaval to their lives. Some Jewish folks did avail themselves of Pontius Pilate’s ability to hand down a death sentence when they wanted rid of a certain carpenters Son. Otherwise, Jews hated being under Rome’s thumb. They revolted in the late 60’s (foolishly it turned out) and were crushed in 70ad. People were massacred. The city and temple were looted and destroyed.

In the Triumphal arch erected by Emporer Vespasion and his son, there is a picture of a parade showing off the spoils take from the Jerusalem Temple. The golden candlestand (menorrah) is clearly visible.

Fun fact: Treasure taken from the looting of Jerusalem and Temple financed the construction of the Colosseum, officially known as the Flavian Ampitheater (after Emporer Flavius Vespasian).

One has to admire the scale and engineering prowess that enabled this imposing structure to be built in eight years. Less admirable is the use of an estimated 40,000 slaves to do the heavy lifting. And whilst admiring the grandeur, it also pays to remember its sole purpose was to allow as many as 70,000 citizens to be ‘entertained’ by watching people hack each other to death.

We left the Colosseum and made our way to the nearby Palatine hill and the Forum. The Forum was not a building, it was more like the “downtown” of ancient Rome. The most important buildings were clustered together. Sadly not much remains from from that era.

 Another fun fact: We walked past this temple dedicated to Emporer Antoninus and his wife Faustina. Their son Commodus was the Emporer played by Joaquin Phoenix in the movie “Gladiator”. By all accounts, Commodus was every bit the psycho portrayed in the movie.

We roamed the grounds for a bit after our tour, but it seems our brains were full and our bodies were overheating. We grabbed a bite and called it a day.

Day 58: Tuesday, October 13… There are few better ways to explore a new place than by taking an early morning run. As the city yawned and stretched, Sharon headed south. I ran north along the historic Tiber River and then back through neighborhoods. People were running, biking, rowing and heading off to work. Just another day in the life.

After our Alta Via hike (a lifetime ago) we reached out to Francesca – a fellow Warmshowers host. She allowed us to send our hiking specific gear in Rome, and graciously agreed to hold it until we arrived there. While we had messaged and even chatted on the phone, today we met to claim our gear. What a lovely visit!

Francesca works at Radio Vatican. She and co-worker/friend Kielce (from Jacksonville, Florida) graciously gave us a tour. News about the Pope and the church’s work around the world goes out from this place in 57 different languages. Francesca and her colleagues work in the English language department.

As interesting as the tour was, Francesca and Kielce were even more so. It was fascinating to hear their stories. Their backgrounds. Their interests. Their travels. Their unique approach to what is already a unique job. I could easily have spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and listening and sharing stories. But alas, twas not to be. Work called. So we gathered our gear and parted ways with a heart-felt invitation for them to visit Durango.

And then it was just another day in the Eternal City. There were still neighborhoods to explore. Cafes in which to lounge. People to watch. Churches, fountains and architectural gems to admire. It was late when we arrived back at our little hidey hole, pleased with our accomplishments.

Day 59: Wednesday, October 14… On the map, Borghese Park looks large. Wrong! It is massive. Most of my a.m. run took place inside the park. I didn’t come close to seeing it all. At 200 acres it is only Rome’s third largest park. After exercise, we asked ourselves “What do we want to do on our last full day in Rome. One our last full day in Italy?” In the end we did pretty much what we had done every other day. We strolled. We sat on the Spanish steps and took in the prime people watching crowds. As we often do, we looked back on the highs and lows of this trip. Shared thoughts and observations. And then we began to imagine what our next trip might look like. Its never ending folks. We ended the day exploring a new part of town and sampling the offerings of a new restaurant.

Day 60: Thursday, October 15… This trip has given us plenty of opportunities to show our ability to adapt. It seemed entirely appropriate then, that a spanner got tossed into our efforts to leave Rome. Late on Wednesday, Sharon was notified that her flight was delayed. That delay would make impossible to make a connecting flight. She adeptly rebooked on a different flight – only for the same thing to happen again in the wee hours. Third times the charm? I awoke at 3:00am to find that my flight had been delayed which meant I wouldn’t be able to make a connecting flight. By the time we got that all sorted, we started waiting on the only one of a dozen shuttle services that guaranteed they had a vehicle that would accommodate both our bikes and our gear. After playing Tetris with the boxes for ten minutes, turns out they did NOT have a large enough vehicle. No one panicked. The driver made a phone call and within minutes a second van arrived. Nessun problema!

From that point on, everything went smoothly. Seventeen hours after takeoff I arrived in Durango nine hours later (time changes – right?) Somewhat later Sharon arrived in Florida to spend time with mom and sister. And thus ended our trip to Italy.

This was a trip that bore little resemblance to the trip we envisioned or expected.

We expected the Dolomites to be beautiful. They were. It was stunning. We enjoyed the hike tremendously. (If we’re being honest – maybe I did a bit more than Sharon). We did not expect the Alta Via 2 to be quite so difficult. There were almost no “easy” days or trails. We were challenged every day. Still, would we do another Alta Via route? Absolutely.

From our research, we thought finding places to camp was going to be an issue. We expected that. Wild camping was/is illegal. A reliable Italian authority said that in places it was tolerated. Yet, we rarely found appropriate places when or where we needed them to be. Campgrounds were expensive and also not often conveniently located. Out of sixty days, we only set up our tent three times!!! That was completely unexpected. That also may have contributed in part to the next point.

On every other trip, we’ve met locals and other travelers almost on a daily basis. In Italy we made friends along the Alta Via hike. We won the lottery when we met Vera and Luca in Taranto, and Francesa and friend Kielce in Rome. Beyond that, we did not expect to meet and talk to so few people. During our two months, the kinds of interactions we’ve come to expect were almost completely absent. We did not expect to feel so isolated. Good thing we like each other’s company!

We are used to changing plans. That is how we travel. We did NOT expect my “bomb-proof-trouble-free-ride-around-the-world-indestructable-Pinion-drive-equipped” bike to break down. We did NOT expect the Pinion company to tell me to “sod off we don’t talk to customers – only dealers.” We did not expect to be completely ignored by every authorized Pinion dealer in Italy listed on the Pinion site that we tried to contact. We did not expect to not have a rideable bike one week into the biking portion of our trip. We did not expect to have to come up with a completely new plan. Having said all that – we also recognize these were “First World” problems. Nothing important was at stake. We adapted and ended up enjoying some amazing places and experiences.

Some Favorites!

• The Dolomites: Mind blowing, world class scenery, every single day
• The Puglia region: The coast. The unique cities. Narrow lanes winding through endless miles of olive groves.
• Italian Trains: They went everywhere. The Trenitalia app was easy and intuitive to use. Fares were reasonable. Since we couldn’t travel by bike, trains made it possible to travel easily with our bikes.
• Swimming in the sea caves outside Santa Maria di Leuca.
• Almost every Italian city: We never tired of roaming the narrow streets of the “old towns.” Having said that Matera and Alberobello were among our favorites.
• New Foods: When you go beyond ‘normal’ Italian food, you find things like Piadina. Panzerotti. Orecchiette. Burrata and stracciatella cheese. Pasticciotto. Nduja sausage. Puccia. Arancini. Primitivo Rose’ wine. Inexpensive every other kind of wine.
• History. Come on man! This is Italy! Some of these towns have been continuously inhabited for 9,000 years. The Greeks were here. The Roman empire. Major players have been taking the stage here during major world events for thousands of years. All over Italy there are little pockets of almost unknown history with minor players. For a history nerd, this is a slice of paradise.
• One more time. Vera and Luca for making it a bike ride in Puglia possible. Without them, it wouldn’t have happened. Francesca (and Kielce) for her openness and willingness to offer whatever help we needed, and for sharing their time and knowledge of Rome.
• The best travel partner anyone could ask for. Thank you Sharon for coming up with ideas, and doing so much work on the details to make them reality. And for fighting through difficult days.

I could go on, but I think I’ve said enough. Thank you all for coming along, and for the many kind thoughts and comments. Until next time, and (Lord willing and the creek don’t rise) there will be a next. Write your own stories. Take your own adventures, big or small. Seize the Carp!