Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(preferably in front of a camera) in order to ensure your return to Rome one day.
The city collects these coins daily for the Red Cross.
If you've got kids in tow, or are obsessed with Italian cuisine, don't miss the
Museo Nazionale delle Pasta Alimentari
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(Piazza Scanderbeg, 117; % 06-
6991120; www.pastainmuseum.it; 10 adults, 7 children; daily 9:30am-5:30pm),
which is fondly called the “Spaghetti Museum” and offers much more information
than you probably need about the art of making pasta by hand. Kids love it, though.
And there is an excellent gift shop here with great Italian pasta souvenirs.
VIA VENETO & VILLA BORGHESE
Back behind the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain are several interesting piazze to
savor and stops worth making. If you walk along the Via Tritone or any of the
streets parallel, you will easily reach the bustling Piazza Barberini, with the play-
ful Fontana del Tritone by Bernini in the center.
This glorified traffic circle is at the base of the Via Vittorio Veneto, the leg-
endary hub of la dolce vita, which has now mostly relocated to the Tridente area
below the Spanish Steps. Walking up the Via Veneto now is a mixed experience.
There are expensive shops near the top, as well as the standards like Harry's Bar
and Le Sans Souci restaurant. But there is also a Hard Rock Cafe (the Planet
Hollywood down the street from here failed), which is great if you need a T-shirt
for your collection, but the food is hardly comparable to regular Roman fare
unless your children are dying for a “real” hamburger. Here you'll also find the
heavily guarded American Embassy and a handful of luxe hotels, but mostly this
street is a has-been and a mere silhouette of its former glory.
There are a few stops to make, namely the bizarre church of Santa Maria della
Concezione
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(Via Vittorio Veneto, 27; % 06-48711857; donation requested;
Fri-Wed), which is about as creepy as Rome gets. Downstairs, accessed around the
back, is the Cappuchin Crypt, where the bones of over 4,000 monks are used as
decorative art on the walls, urns, and chandeliers in the various chapels. There is
a sign explaining the monk's take on mortality ( YOU WILL BE WHAT WE NOW ARE )
near the back. Kids, especially preteen boys, seem to love this spot, but it's also
fascinating for adults. After about 5 minutes perusing the galleries, you won't even
remember that you are looking at bones, until you see the inverted pelvic-bone
hourglasses and delicate finger remnants shaped into religious art.
At the end of the Via Veneto lies the sprawling Villa Borghese, which is home
to the city zoo, three magnificent museums, and the best green spot in the city
complete with cultured gardens, a boating lake, and an equestrian stadium. Not
to mention its fairly new free Wi-Fi capabilities (1-hr. limit per day) through 22
hot spots across the park (www.comune.roma.it).
Galleria Borghese
(Piazzale Borghese, 5; % 06-32810; www.galleria
borghese.it; adults 8.50, seniors and students 5.25; entrance by appointment
only every 2 hr., 8:30am-7pm) has been reopened for several years after extensive
renovations, but it is still considered the hot new spot on Rome's museum run.
The art here is significant, from Bernini's Apollo and Daphne statue in Room 3 to
Raphael's Deposition on the second floor. Don't miss Canova's 1808 topless mar-
ble figure of Napoleon's sister Pauline in Room 1, and the collection of Roman
copies of Greek original sculpture in Room 5. There are six Caravaggios in
Room 8, including the much acclaimed Boy with a Basket of Fruit (1594) and
Sick Bacchus (1593), which art historians believe is a self-portrait.
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