ROME, ITALY, Thursday, March 24, 2011 — Rick laid down the law today: we must sleep in, no agenda, and at most two museums. OK, so I let them sleep until 9. And we spent at least 30 minutes relaxing on a very tiny but busy piazza near the parliament building at Caffe’ Sant’ Eustachio (Rick was gracious and took the chair inches from traffic.) (It was especially busy and full of security because we believe we saw Berlusconi duck into the government building just before we had coffee.) But after that, all bet’s were off.

We headed off to climb to the top of Castel San’ Angelo, built in the 2nd Century AD for the Emperor Hadrian’s tomb and and later converted into a fortress and later a hideout for the popes. But on the way we just happened to pass by the Palazzo Altemps, another of Rome’s amazing national museums. And I mean it, it was an accident. I asked if we could just “pop in,” and they couldn’t refuse me. An amazing palazzo filled with gorgeous ancient sculpture. Small detour, none hurt.

We then trekked to the top of Hadrian’s tomb for a spectacular view of the city. It was worth the climb — the dome of St. Peter’s rising to the west, all the places we’ve visited –the Campidoglio, Victor Emanuel Monument — everything but the ancient ruins, which were blocked by the newer monuments facing the Vatican. There was also a cool museum on armaments that Will grooved on.

We then tried to find a recommended restaurant, but couldn’t, so ducked into a tres chi restaurant called Fleur, and the second we sat down, we thought, “Oh no we are going to get “hosed.”” in Rick’s words. It was a “tea bar,” with only like four menu items, and a kind of Abercrombie and Fitch meets Zen ambiance. Well it was expensive, but not as bad as we thought, and the food was amazing. (We actually paid more for a worse meal elsewhere). It was the best we’ve had in Rome, and has me dreaming of how to recreate the couscous shrimp dish I had after we get home.

We then had a forced march to the Gallerie Borghese (Rick Steves failed us here — we should have taken a taxi — it was a long hot unpleasant hike through an underground tunnel and a “park” that makes Avery Park (or Waterfront Park) seem like Queen’s gardens. The Borghese, which requires a reservations and limits attendance, was amazing — from the ancient mosaics in the entry-way to the marbled walls, the frescoed ceilings, the Baroque statues of Bernini alongside reproductions of classical sculpture — it was all so over-the-top. Every surface was tricked out. There were some haunting Caravaggios, but we didn’t really get to enjoy the painting gallery because Will was so traumatized by the paintings of the Christian martyrs at the Vatican that he now “hates painting” and only wants to see sculpture. Damn. Well, I don’t blame him, you never know what you are going to see in Renaissance art.

Finally, because Will felt badly for rushing me through the Borghese, he agreed to go to the one museum I was really dying to see — the Villa Giulia, with its unbelievable collection of Etruscan art and ancient Greek ceramics, among other things. But it was the museum too far. First, there was a TV crew doing a piece on two uber-famous vases the New York Met had to return to Italy — we got to see the vases, one by Euphronius — but they kept shushing us and were totally rude. I felt like telling them they ought to return some of the Greek treasures I was seeing to Athens, but thought better of it. Anyhow, the museum was a budding archaeologist’s dream, but it is one of the places we will have to go back to. And that is the really good news: Rick is even talking of one day coming back to Rome!

We finally caught a cab back home, and are unwinding (well not really, I’m blogging and Rick is washing clothes and packing). We are heading out soon for our last dinner in Rome, for now, at lovely place called La Gensola. Then tomorrow, we rent a car and head to the countryside, where, I’m sure to Rick’s relief, there really aren’t any museums. But I do have an ancient Etruscan necropolis on the agenda for the morning… we’ll just pop in, it’s just off the autostrada…..