Our Qatar Airways flight was great. I think they’ve rightfully earned their awards. The new seats are comfortable and spacious. The service, particularly the Manila-Doha sector, was exceptionally good.
We arrived in Rome at 2pm.
Two Immigration officers very eagerly led us through an empty arrival hall, one helpfully removing rope barriers for me and personally putting me through the passport clearance himself. Wow, what a welcome change from the normally surly arrival procedure!
It’s wonderful to be back in the Cavalieri Hilton where you get all of Rome laid out in front of you.
Too bad the much awaited full moon rising over the Eternal City was a complete washout.
Next day’s sunrise however was well worth getting up for.
At the Imperial Lounge, there’s whimsical Easter decor and we’re happily back in the swing of hotel living.
Monday, 18.
Bach and Vivaldi in the beautifully austere Episcopalian Church, St Paul Inside the Wall.
Tuesday, 19.
I Puritani at the Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma.
Stuart was disappointed that our box seats had a restricted view. I didn’t much mind as neither the staging nor the performers were really anything to look at.
Afterwards, we had a lovely supper at Maestro Bistrot & Cocktail Bar next door. At Via Torino 144.
Food and wine were good. We had a nice Sicilian red wine, tuna tataki, and a seafood pasta. Our chatty waiter provided welcome entertainment for us and a young Argentinian couple at the next table. We were the only diners left, very late on a cold night.
Wednesday, 20.
On a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour. We did a round trip, not bothering to hop off, staying on board all the time.
Thursday, 21.
Rain was forecast for the day so we went to MAXXI. It’s the national museum of contemporary art Art of the 21st century. XXI. At Via Guido Reni 4 A.
Stuart was keen to see the photographic exhibit on the Amazon.
More a political manifesto than an exhibition, Amazônia by Brazilian artist Sebastião Salgado is an immersion in the sights and sounds of the Amazon rainforest.
The enormity of its ecosystem, its power, its beauty. The sounds made by its animals, the wind, the leaves, the rain, the rivers, the storms. The singing of its isolated indigenous communIties. Their collective voice as a people, their pleas, their petitions, their remonstrations, their outrage.
Two other exhibits were not to our liking so we sped right through them. One was a noir-ish film involving dead people and hallucination. We actually walked out on that one. The other had unremarkable photographs of Tokyo scenes and unerotic erotica.
I lingered most of all in the Architecture Collection. I’m endlessly fascinated by architecture models.
Walk thru model
I was interested mainly in the Zaha Hadid-designed building, itself the museum’s star exhibit.
You stand outside by the entrance and listen to sounds of a rainforest. This, by design, sets the mood.
Inside, quirky turns and sculptural vistas.
There’s a garden restaurant set off from the building. Mediterraneo. I rushed in to select a table beside a window only to be told very apologetically that the restaurant was closed for a private function.
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Afterwards, we had a late lunch in Ristorante Arlù. At Borgo Pio 135.
A very Roman meal of straccetti with anchovies and burrata, cacio e pepe pasta, and saltimbocca.
Arlù was one of two restaurants Annette and I discovered when we stayed in the area for our Vatican tour four years ago.
Later, I showed Stuart our hotel. Hotel Della Concilizione at Borgo Pio 163/166.
Then we had ice cream at Sublime at Borgo Pio 40, another one of our discoveries in the area.
