Free at least! Into Rome! I had a choice of going into town on the Massive Marriott Moto-chariot for 10 Euros RT, which takes 60 minutes in bound, and longer to return in rush hour, or the free, itty-bitty Marriott Courtyard shuttle to the suburban train which costs 2 Euros RT and takes 30 minutes, if the connections are working and 45 minutes if the stars are not so arranged. I took the latter along with all the other common folk.
After some unpleasant business at Termini, which I will spare my gentle readers from, I bused out to the St Lorenzo area, to Tram-Tram, the restaurant Colette and I loved last visit here.
Unless I knew it was the same place, I would never have guessed it, it’s fallen so far. Today, it was never more than ½ full (it had been packed to the rafters a year ago), the three ladies (Mama and her two daughters) who ran it, were disorganized and scatterbrained and the food was not knockout (as it was a year ago).
I started out with the exact same dish (orchiette with clams and pureed broccoli) I had gone gaga over before and it was “so what?” Then I had the Salad Tram-Tram with radicchio, microtomed slices of pear, pecorino and walnuts. I dressed the radicchio with I gotta say good Balsamico and Olive Oil, ate it, then the pear shavings, and finally the cheese and nuts - and therefore was able to have a contorno, dessert and cheese, thanks very much!, instead of my hated dish - a composed salad!
With wine, a coffee correct and no water, my bill was 24 E (which they’d miscalculated [having added in water] but recalculated as 24 E [readjusting it for the Berlusconi Factor], so I gave up on their math skills.) As I left, I re-read the article in English on the wall I’d been impressed with last year, and wouldn’t you know, these three (getting older fast) ladies, who when the place opened 16 years ago, had stark black hair – now are all blondes.
I then went to the Villa Torlonia, which my charming concierge had implied was to hell-and-gone but an art historian friend insisted I visit – and was I happy I did (and it is neither far not hard to get to). Wow, how could I have missed it all these years? It’s huge, has about 20 structures in a big tree-filled park and is as marvelous as say the Parc Monceau in Paris.
Entering I saw the huge Casa Nobile up on a hillock, which had casts of ancient statues and wonderful rooms (and I’m an anti-room guy). Walking past palm trees, green grass, wild flowers already blooming (recall - it hailed and snowed just yesterday),
ancient Roman columns and other things,
I arrived at my true destination – the Owl Pavilion,
built and added to from 1840 to 1930. (“Anglo-Americans,” are blamed for its destruction in WWII).
What I loved most about it were not the quirky occult things mentioned on various websites but the Frank Lloyd Wright-esque wood work detailing and Tiffany-esque stained glass, all over this bizarre place. I took some time to walk through the rest of the park
and then toured a temporary exhibition of Roman art from “between the wars,” the highlight of which was a painting of a guy kneeling, tossing off another guy who was seated. The ladies just ahead of me observing the same scene seemed equally astonished.
Then back to the Marriott Nowheresville and a supper of salami and wine and cheese in my room. But, as opposed to my Ma’s Grand Tour, I’m up here, 20 stories above the autostrada, eating my grub and watching the street theater, which consists today of the Great Fiumicina-Roma collision pileup of the century, oh, maybe the month, well, at least today. 6-9 PM nonstop. So far no bodies, but I coulda missed’em.
(OT observation: the new fashionable pants in Italy, everywhere on everyone, are made out of the same fabric our clunky old ski pants used to be in the 1960’s and their trendy purses, brief-cases and coats are all made from plastic-y-oilclothy-looking shiny fabrics too. Fashion!)
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