Glorious and Hideous Ancient Rome

Posted on April 11, 2026 by Catherine

We started our day with pastry and coffee, as usual in Europe. Our B&B delivers breakfast via a coupon for a hot drink and a croissant at a nearby bakery/cafe, a nice morning routine that gets you up and moving. We tend to find a “regular” bakery with coffee whenever we are staying somewhere for more than 2 days so this fit perfectly for us. Perfetto.

We knew Thursday would be tiring, even grueling, as we had booked a 3 hour tour of the Coliseum, Palatine Hill, and the Forum. In retrospect we should have conserved our energy before the 2pm start; instead we walked the mile uphill and back to the main train station in order to, we hoped, get tickets to Orvieto. We have been there before, and really loved it, and a day trip seemed perfect for our free day (free meaning no tours booked) Saturday. David and I had each spent an hour or two online trying to buy tickets but nothing seemed to work. In theory Orvieto is an hour and fifteen minutes away, touted as the best day trip from Rome. However, every train was at least two hours and we couldn’t find a feasible return booking at all. Well, surely the humans at Roma Termini would be able to help us. Alas, it was not to be…she found us an outbound that was two hours long, but the only, the ONLY return was to leave an hour after we arrived and would take two changes and 9 hours. What? “Construction,” she explained.

We walked next door to the Mercado Centrale, a pretty cool, modern food hall where I was happy to find I could get a “trapizzino,” a new fast food that is genius—foccacia cut into triangle, slit, into which you can have various traditional Italian foods such as eggplant parmigiano, chicken, and, what I chose, lingua in salsa verde. Delicious and, for once, not too much food. Our experiences with panini were disappointing. Way too big, and really not that good. Get a trapizzino if you can find it— 6 euro and perfetto.

Here are some more pictures of food we ate this week.

We finished lunch and walked down, down to the Coliseum. There were mobs of people on an April Friday. We cannot imagine what it is like in high season when it is hot. The tour started at the Coliseum where we spent the first 90 minutes. Our guide, Italian, was at times hard to understand but I appreciated her approach. Basically what went on here was a horror, accepted entertainment of murder, animal cruelty, and mayhem. “Little children attended, sitting on mother’s lap watching people kill each other—in battle, or in response to the emperor’s decision or sometimes the decision of the crowd. Kill him slowly! Kill him quickly!” Horrific and probably contributed to the continuation of a bloodthirsty culture that persisted for hundreds of years.

Next we walked up to the top of Palatine hill. It’s not a long walk but boy were we tired so it felt a slog. But well worth it…a beautiful space with stunning views.

We were saturated with sights and sounds and exhausted by all the walking (totaled 5 miles this day) and almost missed our tram stop at our B&B.

Saturday is yet unplanned—but we will have time to do laundry and chill out a bit before we head to Naples.

First Days in Rome

Posted on April 9, 2026 by Catherine

Several years ago I read a piece about why Americans who live in less populated areas are so afraid of foreigners and so convinced Democratic mayors are inept—these Americans have never spent time in a big city. If you have not experienced the messiness of New York, London, Paris, San Francisco, even little old Oakland, it is scary and crazy from a distance. All big cities are messy, noisy, heterogeneous, confusing.

Wow, Rome covers all of those bases. It is big; it is messy; it is noisy; it is complicated. Also fascinating, exuding history—ancient history—at almost every turn. Yup, we’re having a good time even in our first jet-lagged days.

Random ruins we passed on a walk to the Pantheon.

We chose to stay in Trastevere, a neighborhood known for excellent restaurants and a bit removed from Roma Centro, the historical district. It was a good choice. We are staying at Dulcis in Fundo, a B&B right on the tram line. Our host met us at the tram stop from the train station from the airport (easy to navigate even as tired as we were after 24 hours of travel) and walked us into the building, up the steps, up the ancient (our host called it vintage) elevator, and into our room. Room is large, host Alberto is as friendly and helpful as you could ask for, and the plumbing works.

I had asked Alberto for his walkable restaurant suggestions and we were only a few blocks from all of them. Pizza first night, pasta second night, all delicious.

Peppo al Cosimato in Via Natale Del Grande. As good as they look.

Our second night we went to the famous Tonnarello for pasta. Not only were we seated immediately (they often have a 30 minute wait but we were on the early side) but we were surrounded by happy families, gracious and friendly service and delicious pasta. There are comments on the web re Tonnarello—is it still good? Worth the wait? If you are in Trastevere do not hesitate to go.

Villa Borghese

Our first booked tour was of this private family art museum from the 1600’s. If you have read any of my trip reports you know we love museums and this was spectacular. Much smaller than Musee d’Orsay or the Louvre or the Uffizi, it is overwhelming nonetheless with rooms decorated with frescoes, paintings, finely detailed mosaics (I thought they were paintings until I looked closely) and stunning marble sculpture. We were not so familiar with Bernini and we were wowed over and over. The Rape of Persephone, terrifying…but not as terrifying as Apollo and Daphne, showing her transformation into a laurel tree at the moment Apollo touches her. Those Greek myths are not kind when it comes to forcing young women to submit to the gods who want them. Bernini’s skill at depicting movement turns cold white marble into hot violence.

Our guide was an expert, so articulate in English and so charming to our ears with the beautiful rolling “allora” with which she began each explanation. Every language should have “allora!”

David’s intensity as he prepares to sling the rock to kill Goliath. The face is the sculpter’s.

Tomorrow the Coliseum and Palatine Hill.

Rough Start To A Month In Europe

Posted on April 9, 2026 by Catherine

We would have called ourselves experienced travelers but there are always things to learn.

Even if you have used an airport dozens of times for international travel, be sure to confirm which terminal your flight departs from. We started in the International Terminal at SFO, not knowing that there are now two—at opposite sides of the airport. The only way to get from one to the other is a 30-40 minute walk. Thank goodness we had allowed plenty of time.
Even when your agent and the airline sell you an itinerary with a connection in a foreign airport, double check that it is doable. For example, a 90 minute connection at Heathrow via British Airways sounded reasonable; now we know we would have had only the tiniest chance of making it. “Luckily”our initial flight from SFO was on the ground an extra two hours due to a customer incident so our initial 90 minute connection was not to be and British Airways automatically rebooked us to a later flight to Rome with a 3 hour connection. It took more than 2 hours to get from arrival gate, passport control, security (agonizingly slow even with light traffic), and to find which side of the very large and crowded concourse our gate was…and…
Do not assume the departure gate information is correct. When we arrived at SFO International Terminal our departure gate was posted on the boards as G2. We left from A11. (When we asked about this the answer was “oh, you cannot trust the board.”) And at enormous Heathrow gates are not even posted until 30 minutes before boarding time, probably why we saw so many people literally running down halls looking panicked.
Do not expect new processes to work well. Europe is instituting a new biometric system to track visitors which entails photos and fingerprints. How hard can this be? The Rome Airport is riddled with brand new kiosks and signs instructing foreigners to stop at a kiosk to preregister. Kiosks which were all blocked off until right before passport control. Why quickly became obvious—the kiosks are incredibly slow, so slow that they are difficult to use. Attendants wandered the crowd helping travelers follow the instructions. In the end it was pretty simple, but the learning curve was steep.
Just because there are elevators doesn’t mean they work. Especially when you are hauling baggage.

Enough said. We made it.

Charles de Gaulle Airport…yes, you need 2 hours

Posted on October 29, 2025 by Catherine

OMG. We went to the tax refund station, hauling our bags (which we planned to check—passport control at SFO means no waiting for your bags because you have spent 45 minutes in line before you can get to the baggage carousels). Tax refund process absurdly easy—you scan the bar code on the forms and zip, that’s done. So far so good! The signage to departures and baggage check is rather confusing but we knew it was one floor up and found an elevator. The sign at the elevator read as every other elevator sign in Paris, that it is only for the use of those with impaired mobility. We get in. Doors close. We push the button. Nothing happens. We push again…nothing. Again, again. Now I push the emergency button as we cannot open the doors. The small elevator is getting hot. The emergency person comes on, speaking rapid French. I respond in French that the doors will not open. She tells me the elevator cannot be operated without a badge. I repeat that we are in the elevator and the doors will not open. She thinks we are outside, trying to get in. It gets hotter. After some back and forth she tells me someone is coming. Perhaps 5 minutes later we hear scraping and pushing on the door…and a minute of struggle and the doors open to two security guys.

No, it wasn’t the badge problem, clearly, as one of them asks me twice what happened. “The doors wouldn’t open?” He’s confused, we are also confused, and the other guy was fiddling with the elevator as we left.

From that point we walked a long while on the floor above—this terminal is circular and we almost started over again looking for the United counter. Found it, tagged and checked our bags, and then it was another long and confusing walk (the signage is very poor—I had to ask where security was, something most airports are clear about), a line for security which turned out to be simply boarding pass/passport/facial recognition. Another long walk and we arrived at security where the queue for personal baggage was long and the scanning extremely slow. Bags were being pulled seemingly at random for examination, mine included, but he just wanded it and handed it back. But that was another 10-15 minutes. Then another long walk to the lounge; hung out and had some breakfast, long walk to the gate, another queue, Finally we were on board. As soon as we settled in the flight attendants came to ask us to change seats to accommodate a father and daughter, and we agreed. Attendants couldn’t have been nicer and kept insisting we would be compensated. I did have a request: “Will you help me get on wifi? Couldn’t do it on the way over.” We moved; attendant appeared after take-off and, following MANY confusing steps (“Okay, let’s try it on your phone. Huh. Let’s see if we can get on with your iPad…”) got me onto wifi. These big lovely planes…seems like they could do that part a lot better. I need wifi to write this blog, so that was great and we are on our way home!

P.S., against all expectations getting a Global Entry interview at passport control was incredibly easy and fast. Faster than getting in the passport control line!

Last Day in Paris

Posted on October 29, 2025 by Catherine

Musee de Liberation & our last meal

Last day—and hotel transfer day as we had an early morning flight back to SFO from Charles deGaulle airport. We knew trying to get there on time would be stressful day of, so David had booked a night at the Hilton Express. What a lovely hotel! There is a kind of courtyard area between all the onsite hotels with a teeny green park and very respectable playground which I imagine could be a life saver for families traveling with smaller kids.

Our plan worked just fine. We took an Uber to the hotel right after breakfast, observed rush hour would have been impossible if we weren’t a day early, checked in—our room was ready—and then took the B train back into Paris which dropped us a block away from our last museum, the Musee de Liberation of Paris. Fascinating and sad—this was not the end of the war and the destruction and sheer horror of being occupied by a fascist army was difficult to absorb. Highly recommended if you are able to manage it emotionally.

We got on the Metro and headed to Au Pied Du Cochon for our last big meal in France. It was a fitting end…and my bonus was we were a few doors down from the enormous kitchenware store E. Dehillerin and I actually had a few things I needed. Plus one impulse item, the square bread pan with the slide on lid for making certain breads and other fun foods. We got back on the B train in the midst of rush hour and some train system problems, but after three trains one arrived with “room” and we squeezed in…back to CDG and our last night in the Holiday Inn Express.

Catherine learns to shape baguettes

Posted on October 29, 2025 by Catherine

I have been so looking forward to Monday…even though it’s almost our last day, this was the day for my baking class!! I am a sourdough baker and for special occasions I often make baguettes (have to eat them the day they’re baked so you need enough people to accomplish that). After umpteen youtube videos and cookbooks I have still struggled to shape them–they have a tendency to snap back instead of remaining baguette shaped. So this class was eagerly anticipated–a class on baguettes (mostly) and shaping croissants at a master bakery with a master baker. There were only five of us in the class, and yes, it was wonderful.

This baker is very, intensely opinionated, which was so helpful, and he explained to me that keeping the baguette dough chilled right up to the point you are shaping is the secret. And yes, it works!

While I was in class David took a walk (the class was 2 1/2 hours), during which our cell connection (which the eSim uses) disappeared! All of a sudden we had no google maps or directions, and we were in an unfamiliar neighborhood. However, this was day 9 of our trip and we knew a few things–like a bus that goes to Gare du Nord would connect us with a bus that goes to our hotel. So we hopped on, had a nice ride, and were back to hotel home in 45 minutes (rush hour). We felt so smart! The cell network clicked back on that evening and all was well.

Weekend Bonanza

Posted on October 29, 2025 by Catherine

After eating our fill of seafood at the Marche Couvert des Enfants Rouges, and shopping (in vain, it turned out) for a sweater for our son, we confirmed the site of the Paris No Kings demonstration and headed over.

It was a bit surreal but also fun in the way demonstrations can be–drumming, speakers, jokes, some good signs. We stayed for maybe 45 minutes.

Philip Guston Feast (for Catherine) and a little Picasso (for David)

I had seen a few posters in the metro for a just-opened retrospective of Philip Guston’s (ne Philip Goldstein) paintings at the Picasso museum. Guston is not a favorite of David’s, while I have always found his work compelling and intriguing. I also have read a bit about his life–he was an abstract impressionist, hanging out with Jackson Pollock, etc., but then swerved into more representative work. Boy, did the art world come down on him for the change!

I must quote Wikipedia here–this is so illuminating: “Calling American abstract art ‘a lie’ and ‘a sham,’ he pivoted to making paintings in a dark, figurative style, including satirical drawings of Richard Nixon” during the Vietnam War as well as several paintings of hooded Klansmen,^[4] which Guston explained this way: “They are self-portraits … I perceive myself as being behind the hood … The idea of evil fascinated me … I almost tried to imagine that I was living with the Klan.”^[5] The paintings of Klan figures were set to be part of an international retrospective sponsored by the National Gallery of Art, the Tate Modern, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2020, but in late September, the museums jointly postponed the exhibition until 2024, “a time at which we think that the powerful message of social and racial justice that is at the center of Philip Guston’s work can be more clearly interpreted.”^[4][6]

Two thousand artists signed a protest letter. I think the performative left wing needs to take a breath once in a while.

He died a few years ago. The exhibit included a documentary and it was icing on the cake to be able to watch two filmed interviews with him, one at SF MOMA, and hear him talk so vividly about being an artist, how he paints (e.g., one of his paintings he explains to the art critic was an experiment to see “if I could paint like I write, just start on one side and paint to the other”), how he selects colors (many of his paintings have a pink background). I was mesmerized. David tolerated it, and then while I sat on a bench and looked for a place to have dinner he wandered the rest of the museum. There is a small subset of Picasso work that I enjoy, but mostly it’s not for me especially while looking for a place to eat is very much me! Division of labor.

We left in light rain and happily ended up at Comptoir des Archives, which I wrote about elsewhere.

Musee D’Orsay, Musee d’Art Moderne, Georges de La Tour

Posted on October 28, 2025 by Catherine

The Louvre

While we were here the shocking theft occurred and, though we had left the Louvre in the “maybe” column, this cinched things—the museum closed, and the morning of the theft our bus was rerouted to avoid the vicinity. Fortunately we had already selected several other museums to enjoy, and enjoy we did.

Musee d’Orsay

Musee d’Orsay…a train station transformed into a gorgeous, albeit confusing, temple to art—painting, sculpture, art nouveau furniture, and more. The building itself is massive, with some galleries by theme (French Impressionism) and some by donating collector. So you think you have absorbed all you can of French Impressionist painting…until you wander into another part of the building where a private collector’s donation includes even more. A great experience, utterly exhausting.

On the top floor are several lovely views of Montmartre and Sacre Coeur.

I snapped the smallest selection of stunning paintings, including this beautiful portrait by Singer Sargeant (the special exhibit and it was a stunner), two very different Renoirs, and one Van Gogh from his final few months of production. Re the Van Gogh, you can almost feel the manic energy he must have been feeling as he painted faster and faster.

Portrait by Sargeant of Violet Paget, who went by pseudonym Vernon Lee.

Musee Jacquemart-Andre

This stop was a recommendation of a friend and it was different and kind of amazing. A wealthy man, in some decline in health, married a young friend of the family arranged by them so he would be cared for, and they built and filled an enormous, enormous mansion with art. Paintings, sculpture, frescoes—they traveled Europe buying things and when they died willed it to the city. The house and its hodgepodge collection is entertaining, but the real gem was the special exhibit—absolutely magical paintings by Georges de La Tour, whose work was completely forgotten after his death in 1692. He was not rediscovered until 1919, by an art historian who went on to curate Hitler’s (stolen) artwork. They had maybe 30 of his works, some quite large, and they cast a spell in the way he used candlelight to illuminate a scene. He also painted scenes of common people when this wasn’t popular, in addition to his (mostly) religious scenes. It was great, albeit the exhibit was very crowded.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_de_La_Tour

Musee d’Art Moderne

Great, great, great! We saw lots of things we liked by artists we had never heard of. Like the d’Orsay, there are exhibits by era and also by private collector/donor. The first big room—a huge room-wrapping mural about the scientists who contributed to the development of electricity—is a stunner.

**If I recall correctly this is Interdit est Interdit…forbidding things is forbidden.**

Paris Miscellaneous Observations

Posted on October 28, 2025 by Catherine

Lots and lots of vaping, and still more smoking than in the US. Why?

Contraceptive vending machines are common in the metro, which seems, uh, handy?

People watching on the metro is great! And the metro is extremely fast. However, the bus allows you to see things and to stay, or get, more or less oriented geographically. The metro just whisks you along and boom you’re in another part of the city. Our rules: If it is rush hour, take the metro even though it is crowded because it is so fast. If not rush hour, try to take the bus for its sightseeing benefits. And while the metro is too noisy for conversation, I had a few lovely conversations on the bus.

Weather in the fall was perfect for us. Cool, one or two bits of light rain, and the gradual turning of the leaves was very pretty.

I recommend having a few shopping quests that will take you to non-tourist places and activities.

I speak almost intermediate French (i.e., not a lot), but I have a very good accent. Hence my French was complimented virtually every time I had even a short conversation. Made me feel wonderful! Learn a little French, and also never forget, I mean never, to say “Bonjour” to initiate a question or conversation. One of our first days we got flustered in the metro because our passes didn’t seem to work, and when I approached the agent I launched into our problem. He smiled and said “Bonjour, madame” and I realized my mistake. “Pardon, bonjour monsieur, mais le billet ne marche pas” and he smiled and helped us. I cannot emphasize enough the magic of being polite in the local language.

Paris has the typical amount if street work which in a city of lots of buses means bus stops move temporarily. Several times I had to ask a local for help, which, (see above) was given with a smile after the requisite “bonjour.” Once a clerk even left his post to come out onto the street to help us find it. Fortunately the transportation system is excellent and missing a bus means maybe a ten minute wait in most cases. Breathe.

Enjoy seeing dogs in restaurants!

Save time to simply wander a neighborhood.

We use an eSIM on David’s phone and I join his hotspot. Monday while I was at baking class and he was walking around the cellular network went down. Yikes! We had been in Paris for 8 days and knew enough to make our way home by getting on a bus that went to a major train station and finding a bus there whose route we knew would get us back. This was only feasible because we had been there long enough already. As a backup, block key routes (we use google maps and google lists, very functional if often annoying) out on your phone and take a screen print.
We have yet to conquer the problem of getting verification codes via email OR text. They just don’t show up…until you’re on the plane heading home. Sigh. So try to get all apps loaded while in the US.

Shopping Quests, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame

Posted on October 28, 2025 by Catherine

Thursday was the first day we had no museum timed tickets, no things we had to go see, just an open day and thank goodness for it. It was lovely to dawdle over breakfast and hang out.

We did have assignments, though. Our wonderful daughter had given us, as she did in April, a list of skin care items only available in France, and two fun things that she hoped we could track down. One of the fun things was at a store “Merci”, which was noted in France as “the hottest concept store in Paris” and I’d say from the activity around the store (tourists were photographing the outside of the Merci used bookstore/coffeeshop as we walked up) yes, it’s hot. Concept store is a phrase we have seen around Europe which seems to describe a store that is not built around one particular consumer category (clothing, household goods, coffee beans) but is the more eclectic kind of store that is so common around where we live. Merci is anchored by its clothing, but has housewares–very trendy and cute–lots of accessories, handbags, etc. We were the oldest people in the building.

Our assignment from Merci was to find a tote bag, apparently something that went viral and comes in a bunch of colors and is not expensive. Sure! Then we agonized over the colors but settled on brown with the name Merci in dark blue. As we were ringing up I asked the (of course lovely and sweet) young woman at the counter where we could get the skin care stuff. When she saw the list she said any “Pharmacie” would have it all. Super! Our other assignment was to find a Kutjen store–tiny boutique stores that sell cashmere things. One of them is in Le Marais, so off we headed to our favorite wandering- -around neighborhood. We were, it turned out, on the edge of Le Marais so decided to walk.

Within two blocks we found a a pharmacie and though it didn’t look very big what the heck. The store security guy was an older man who was able to point us to a particular brand we were looking for, and as we pulled things from the list he appeared with a basket. So nice. We had one last item we couldn’t find but the young woman at the cash register knew exactly where it was. We also grabbed a few more tubes of Homeoplasmine, a magical skin irritation ointment that for some reason only exists in France. It’s pretty great. We crossed the 100 euro mark and got our tax refund forms, and off we trekked to find the Kutjen store.

Again, tiny store, super nice people working there, and they had exactly what our daughter had requested. It was delightful.

It really does help you explore and enjoy a new place if you have a quest or two! We would never have gone into these stores, never would have had such pleasant interactions, without a list of stuff we had to find. I recommend having a few of these for the times you don’t have plans and want a little guidance in your wandering.

Onward

After our delicious falafel lunch (see post on restaurant notes) we thought we’d better at least walk by the Eiffel Tower, so took the metro out to the banks of the Seine and a lot of people taking pictures. We stood there for ten minutes, looked up at the tower which is so big and quite ugly, watched tourists, and that was that. But, wait, isn’t there something else we could do or see in a drizzly late afternoon? Notre Dame! We hopped on the RER (the train) and were there in a few minutes. Stood in line 10 minutes and we were in. WOW. So glorious, clean, light…it was just fantastic. And at the last chapel there was a plaque that this was where Charles deGaulle and his generals came the day Paris was liberated for a singing of the Magnificat. We learned more about this at the Musee Liberation de Paris. It’s so cool to learn how things unfolded back in the day when the US was a hero.

By the time it was evening and we were back in our hotel we decided to return to Poni, where we had eaten our first night in Paris, and had another very good meal. What a great place. As I paid the bill I mentioned we had been there a few nights earlier, and the man said of course he recognized us and pointed to the table where we had sat the first night. “Bonne nuit!”