ROME Part 2

Day trip to Montepulciano

Around a week into my stay in Rome, Greg invited me to join him, Rita, and his friend Maurizio (the host of the dinner party my first night) on a day trip to Montepulciano. This area, a bit to the East of Montalcino, was one I reluctantly skipped on my way down, and I had been very sad about it. Here, then, was my chance to experience it in good company, with the luxury of the automobile. We headed onto the freeway, flying about twenty times faster than I walked, and passed some similar landmarks. I smiled to myself as we whizzed by Castiglione in Teverina, location of the vineyard where I had worked, and Orvieto, looking menacing atop its plateau; sure, this was one way to tour Italy, pressing the glass with your index finger as you identify dots on the horizon. Still, I will take my way any day, one twentieth of the speed but 100 times the detail and pleasure.
Of course, we stopped when we reached our destination, walking around and taking long looks at the sights. One could even argue that this "middle road" was the best way, though of course I would take exception. Let us just say that I have invested a bit of time in the "slow approach," and therefore feel bound to defend it (to the death). Whatever the method of travel, one thing was certain: we had reached a truly magnificent slice of Italy. We saw the famous zig-zagging cypress driveway on the La Foce estate, various towns in the Val d'Orcia, Pienza with its famous sheep's cheese, and settled in Montepulciano for dinner. We even got to go downtown to an ancient cellar, which was still producing wine in large barrels.

Having performed a lightning tour of Montepulciano and the Val d'Orcia, we turned home, blasting Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and contributing with extravagant drum solos on laps and dashboards. Good times...

10/12 - 13.74 The Walk to Ciampino

One thing was certain, that prudence dictated a necessary day of travel while I had the luxury of leaving my backpack at home. I finally got around to it after a week of procrastination, walking from my doorstep to the entrance of the Appia Antica, the most famous of Rome's Ancient Consular roads.
The road itself was loaded on both sides with various ruins, and I noticed with satisfaction the aqueduct that ran parallel to the road. Little did I know that three weeks and 150 miles down that same road, I would see once again the Appia Antica and the same aqueduct. Humbling...

I reached the airport at Ciampino, and as it was a good stopping point, took the train back to Rome, and the bus back to Trastevere. Not quite convenient, but nothing could beat leaving that pack at home.

10/15 - Walk to Genzano di Roma - 14.84 miles

It took me three days to negotiate the next portion of my journey, but I was determined to squeeze one more day out of my fortunate (read: sans backpack) situation. Hopping on the bus and then the train, I rode back to Ciampino, and started where I had left off. The portion of Rome's suburbs I saw was the Castelli Romani, a historically wealthy area, home to the Pope's summer residence. My destination was the Museum of the Two Ships, a fascist-era structure housing reconstructions of two large pleasure craft built by Caligula and pulled from the lake through great effort in the 1930s. Destroyed either by retreating Germans or by bombing Americans, the museum now held little bits and pieces of the original ships, and 1:5 reconstructions of both. While theoretically really interesting, the museum was no must-see, especially since all the signs were in Italian, and featured nautical language that would have been equally unintelligible to me in English. A slavish devotion to hearing out every museum kept me there as long as humanly possible, but after chatting with the curator, I found out about an ancient temple a kilometer away.
With twenty minutes until the sun set, I hurried to the temple, but found it closed off by two imposing aluminum gates. Slightly to the left, however, was a beaten grass path around the gates, gaining me unobstructed access to the temple remains. So much for security measures... Feeling like Indiana Jones, I looked both ways for huge boulders and other intricate booby traps, and descended into the archaeological site.

Funny how if I had paid to see this, I would have been sorely disappointed, but finding it alone just before dusk was nothing short of a religious experience. Indeed, a sort of guest book nearby contained various prayers to Diana in this "time of great need," as one entry put it. Excited to once again have the opportunity to wander through ancient ruins alone (I swear, it will never grow stale), I walked out and hurried back to modern civilization.

After walking the entire circumference of the lake, I finally made it back to Genzano di Roma, where I found one of many places selling porchetta sandwiches, the local specialty, as it turned out. I made one disappear (some of Diana's magic must have worn off on me after all), caught the bus (or, to be exact, the Pullman), got to the metro station, then another bus, and another day's walk was successfully concluded.