Apartment in Rome

Bill and I have been catching up on the 1,750 pictures we brought home and we are now ready to return with you to our Roman holiday. We want to show you the apartment we stayed in.
 

It is on the 6th floor of this building. I'll push open the heavy, street door and hold it for you. Come on in!

How about this fabulous gate between the street and the elevator? The tenants usually left it open.

The building's elevator has mirrors on all four walls and holds four people. That's us!

This is the view you get from the window, when you're waiting for the elevator on the 6th floor. It was never a long wait. Just enough for a glimpse of fascinating rooftops.

This apartment was heaven. It was absolutely perfect for our needs. It had a full bathroom, a galley kitchen with all the glassware, plates and cooking utensils that we needed. Sleeping options included the fold-out bed on the ground floor or a choice of 2 bedrooms in a sleeping loft at the top of that ladder/staircase, We chose the upper bedroom with the walk-in closet. Both bedrooms also have windows cut into the lower space making them well-lit with natural light.

There are two tables. Here, Bill has set a dinner of aglio e olio (garlic, olive oil and grated pecorino romano) on spaghetti, with marinated tomatoes. It was our mission to eat as many tomatoes as possible during our month, as we wouldn't see proper tomatoes in Toronto until August. He's also serving slices of porchetta, pork, that has been roasted with rosemary. The rosemary made all the difference to that delicious pork. We bought ours in the market in Piazza Testaccio.

Bill has set up his notebooks and some postcards we'd just bought at an exhibition of Edward Hopper paintings, drawings and prints, just around the corner at the Fondazione Roma Museo on Via del Corso. This was a nice table to sit at. Our netbook soon commandeered the prime real estate where the notebooks are right now. We spent many a happy hour there, looking at the pictures we'd taken that day, deleting as many as we could, and planning posts. It was also nice to have Google along in a big, complex city like Rome. Wifi is a great luxury.

We enjoyed caffe lattes every morning. I invariably made time to fill and empty that cup twice every morning -- that would make for about four cups of coffee. Then we'd shoot out of the cannon and on to the chaos of the Roman streets.

We had fun building up a pantry of staples. Our first visit to Campo de' Fiori market and our local supermarket netted good olive oil and red wine, balsamic vinegar,  garlic, espresso, a piece of pecorino romano and lemon biscuits. Begin as you mean to go on.

South facing terrace with a protective five foot wall and steps up to a higher terrace with a view of Roman rooftops. 

We are actually right over the front door, but the street is so narrow that you can hardly hear the traffic roaring below. This terrace is a perfect sanctuary. Bill was often to be found in the morning half-way up the steps to the higher  terrace gazing over the rooftops. Oddly, staying at the apartment often reminded us of being by the seaside because the rooftops are circled by a flocks of seagulls.

That is part of the dome of the Pantheon on the left. We were in the very heart of the centro storico (historic centre) of Rome.

Meet Julia and Bruno, our proprietors, and two very cool cats.

We'd both been to MAXXI, Zaha Hadid's new museum of 21st Century art, which had opened that week, so it was fun to compare notes. We all agreed that it's a triumph.

I think you'll be able to see why we found this apartment so comfortable. It was the perfect fit for us.