Show No Fear! DIS Exclusive Viva Italia+DLP TR Sept 2014*COMPLETE* New TR link added 7/3

[missangelalexis]

Sitting in that wine cellar must have been so cool!

The cookies sure do look yummy!

Wow, interesting concept for the pizza!

This tour sounded really fun, I love all the details you provided so thank you for that! I'm glad it was such a hit for you guys!

 

[khertz]

Prosecco is my FAVORITE!!! Ugh I love it and miss it so. I had it at Via Napoli in July but it just wasn't the same.

The wine cellar looks so cool, but I am not much of a wine drinker either so it would be lost on me.

That fried risotto ball sounds AMAZING!

All that pasta sounds unreal.

Hehe I agree with Anna's assessment of gelato…but did that stop me from eating bright blue cake batter gelato? No, it did not.

I hope I will not be disappointed in our next meal at Via Napoli...It's something I look forward to every trip! I'm afraid it just won't be the same next time now that I've had the real thing.

Yeah, the rest of the group had a much deeper appreciation for the wine cellar than DH and I. It's just not our thing. But it definitely was great that there was something for everyone.

Oh my heavens, it absolutely was. And something I doubt I would have been interested in trying on my own!

We were so tempted by those bright mounds of gelato on so many instances, but we did our best to resist and seek out the good stuff. But bright blue cake batter does sound good! Did you try Grom when you were there? That was a favorite place of a lot of the adventurers! We enjoyed Grom, but found ourselves at Venchi just as often. So good!

Absolutely adore this report! Can't wait for me and am green with envy!! My husband says its too expensive, but I think I will insist... Italy is on the top of my bucket list!!

Thanks so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it. I can completely sympathize. My husband also thought it was too expensive. But eventually I convinced him that going to Europe is going to be expensive no matter what. Why not pay a premium to ensure great service while we're there? ABD is like traveling with a personal concierge. It's incredible! Italy was number one on my bucket list for a loooong time. I hope you get to experience it someday too! It's truly a dream come true!

What a great start (and looong day!). That food tour sounded like the perfect combo of food, fun and local information. Those loaves of bread look so awesome.

All the buildings look beautiful but I particularly loved the church you wondered around before the tour. Wow!

It was an extremely long day, but so worth the lack of sleep to get to experience all that we did. The tour was a great introduction to lots of different Italian staples. I wanted to go crazy on that bread! The pizza was good, but I wish they would have let us get a nibble of that too. Though I can't say I didn't splurge on bread well more than once over the course of this trip...

I am just in love with all of the architecture there. Everything is just beautiful to look at, whether it's a church or a pizzeria.

Well then, maybe I shouldn't be jealous and want to go there after all. I mean, I love Italian food and I'd hate to ruin it for myself.

Well, that's certainly a valid point! I'm afraid the pizza at Via Napoli won't cut it for me anymore, and that makes me sad!

Joining in, and enjoying your report so far! I found the link from Imagineer5's report. This will be the first ABD report I have read, so I'm really interested in it. Also, we are planning a couple of days at DLP in March, so I'm looking forward to those updates as well!

Welcome aboard! Hopefully I can keep it interesting. I think it's pretty safe to say you will LOVE DLP! Hopefully I get to those updates before your trip.

Sitting in that wine cellar must have been so cool!

The cookies sure do look yummy!

Wow, interesting concept for the pizza!

This tour sounded really fun, I love all the details you provided so thank you for that! I'm glad it was such a hit for you guys!

Even not being a wine drinker, being in the cellar was cool as I had never been in one before.

All of the food was delicious, but there's just not much that can top fresh Italian cookies. Yum!

I'm glad you enjoyed it! It was a perfect start to our trip and opened us up to so many different Italian staples that we might not have tried otherwise.

 

[khertz]

Day 2: Tuesday September 16th

The next morning, we were up bright and early at 7 am. We had another busy day ahead of us! There were still about 10 hours before we had to meet the group in the lobby for the welcome dinner, and DH and I didn’t plan on sitting around idly all day. We had looked around for things to do in Rome, and come across a tour company called Dark Rome that did tours based on the novel Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (this wouldn’t be the first time his name came up on this trip!). Although it was only offered certain days of the week, we were lucky that it was available on Tuesday mornings. Perfect timing for us to enjoy it!

But first, we needed something to eat so we headed down to the breakfast buffet at the hotel and found a pretty good spread available.

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My plate. After this morning, I realized how good it tasted dipping that bread on the top of the plate in the egg yolk. Yum!


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DH’s plate. He was happy to find the omelets because the scrambled eggs were extremely runny.​

We both went back for seconds, but I got more of what I already had, I think. Meanwhile, DH had this (and had it again every single morning!).

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Cocoa Krispies!
​

We stopped in the room after breakfast to grab our pre-order sheet. The instructions said to make sure at least one person from each group went down to the lobby between 9 am and 12 pm to meet the guides and drop off the form. But it said if you couldn’t go during those times to leave it at the front desk. That’s what we planned to do since our tour started at 9 am and would go past noon.

However, when we got there to do just that, the gentleman working the front desk had no idea what to do with the paper! I mentioned we were with ABD, and he said he had just seen someone with a Disney shirt on, so we decided just to wait. Just when we were about to have to come up with another plan and leave to make our tour, in walked our guide Dusty! Unfortunately, we had to bum rush him while his hands were full of bags of bottled water to give him the paper and hastily introduce ourselves, but we apologized and told him we were trying to make a tour and he was very understanding.

We headed out of the Bernini Bristol in the direction of the Piazza del Popolo where our tour was to meet. Of course, DH couldn’t walk all that way without taking at least a few pictures. We passed through the Piazza de Spagna, home to the famous Spanish Steps that we would be seeing on our walking tour of Rome the next day. I’m glad we took these pictures though, because it was a lot less crowded than we would find it the next day.

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You can get more of a sense of the scope of the steps without all of them covered in people sitting. We also discovered that the Who Dat Nation is alive and well in Rome.

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We were running a little earlier than we had planned, so we stopped in a church we found along the way. I was a little surprised to see that it was an Anglican church, considering how heavy the Catholic influence in Rome is, so I thought it was interesting to check out.

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Mother Mary still keeping an eye on us.


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Soon enough, we made it to Piazza del Popolo with plenty of time to spare. It said to meet in front of the church, but there were three total in the whole piazza so we took a few minutes to walk around, orient ourselves, and find the church we needed, but we definitely didn’t mind!

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One church, but not the one we needed.


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Another church! But still not the one we needed.


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The obelisk, discussed in the book and shown in the movie.​

The piazza was flanked by a fountain on each side, so we went over to one to take some photos. It was beautiful, but up close you could see how much trash had been thrown in the water. That was pretty disappointing.

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Hey, there’s the church we need!​

We met on the steps of Santa Maria del Popolo and found the coordinator to check in for the tour. He told us that we would be split into two smaller groups, and that when the time came to split, we would be with Mike’s group. It wasn’t long before we split up and met Mike, a laid back, kind of rocker guy from Southern California. Unfortunately, we have no pictures of him, but we totally enjoyed him as a tour guide! Very informative, but also very funny.

He started off the tour telling us what to expect from the tour. We would visit the four “altars of science” described in the book, and along the way, learn where Dan Brown took some artistic license to make a good story. Our first stop was of course, inside the Santa Maria del Popolo church where the Chigi chapel is located. If you read the book or saw the movie, you might remember this as the location of the first cardinal’s murder, the one branded with Earth.

As soon as we walked inside the church, I was blown away! DH was trying to take pictures, but we kind of stayed over by the chapel that was part of the tour. We made a mental note to come back to this church later to look around more extensively.

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The dome inside the chapel


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The statue from the book of Habakkuk and the angel​

Continued in next post...

 

[khertz]

Day 2 Continued: Tuesday September 16th

In the novel, Robert Langdon used the angel pointing to lead them to the next altar of science. However, Mike let us know the angel is actually pointing toward the statue of Daniel at the other end of the chapel, since the angel was plucking up Habakkuk to bring him to Babylon to bring food to Daniel in the lions’ den! Guess Dan Brown forgot about that little detail…

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Beautiful altar
​

The scaffolding made it difficult to see the demon’s hold in the floor. It’s basically a manhole cover to block the opening to the crypt down below where people were buried.

We saw some cryptic stuff in this church, including this shrouded skeleton in the wall.

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Mike explained that this was not intended to scare people, but to give them hope. Bones were a common decoration because of the belief that at the second coming, we would need our bones in order to rise from the dead. This is why Catholicism prohibited cremation for so long.

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After a little while inside the church, we headed outside and under this archway, the Porta del Popolo.

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We had to walk a little ways to a bus that would take us to the second altar of science at St. Peter’s Square. On the bus, Mike prepped us a little for what we would be looking for and refreshed us on the events of the book. The second altar of science is the carving of the West Ponente (West Wind) around the monolith at the center of St. Peter’s Square.

Unfortunately, we arrived to find most of the square blocked and covered in chairs! So, we couldn’t really see the West Wind at all, but Mike still gave us some more info about the square before turning us loose for 10 minutes to look around. One of the things he told us about was the pillars curving around the square. They are lined up 4 deep so that when you look at a row head on, they line up perfectly and look as one.

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The Basilica


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Look at that line of people waiting to get in!


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The columns where you can kind of see what I was talking about


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Obelisk


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Once we met up, we went back to the bus and drove over to the next altar of science at Santa Maria della Vittoria. Looking through the book now to help refresh my memory, I am realizing that the hotel we stayed at, the Hotel Bernini, is mentioned in the book several times! At this point in the book as they are looking for the church, they are looking around the Piazza Barberini and see the hotel looming “eerily.” Then it’s also the scene of the final scenes of the book as Robert Langdon and Vittoria are staying there once the events of the novel are over. It’s been so long since I read the book that I didn’t even realize that! How cool!

Anyway, the second guide Roberto explained that this church looks very plain from the outside, so much so that it can be quite easy to overlook. But once inside, it is so over the top in the Baroque style that it’s hard to imagine what lies beyond the door. It’s the scene of the fire murder in the book and is home to a statue I learned about in high school and have been wanting to see ever since, The Ecstasy of St. Theresa. Roberto explained that this statue was created based off of diary entries Theresa made about dreams she had of angels stabbing her.

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The unimposing entryway


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Bam!


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Looking up at the dome


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The Ecstasy of St. Theresa. Check out all that marble!


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Closer up


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Continued in next post...

 

[khertz]

Day 2 Continued: Tuesday September 16th

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Mike had explained to us at the beginning of the tour that Santa Maria del Popolo was Renaissance architecture, but that we would be able to tell the difference between that and Baroque style immediately. Boy, was he right! Baroque was all about being over the top. Lots of gold, marble, or bling, if you will. Every inch of the interior is covered in something!

We got back on the bus for the last time and went to the Piazza Navona, the site of the fourth cardinal murder for the element of water.

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Hey, look, we did get a picture of Mike! There he is in the sunglasses. ​

One of the most glaring inaccuracies from the book was pointed out to us here by Mike. In the book (and movie), the assassin drives right up to the fountain and dumps the cardinal in, but in this photo you can see the handrail all around the fountain.

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The Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, or Fountain of the Four Rivers, represents the major rivers in the 4 continents known at the time: the Nile representing Africa, the Danube representing Europe, the Ganges representing Asia, and the Río de la Plata representing America.

After exploring the Piazza Navona, we took a break at a nearby bar where we got a drink and had a chance to use the restroom.

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We enjoyed the nice break out of the heat and some cold drinks. Another couple was asking Mike about a necropolis tour that the same tour company provides, so he was on the phone setting that up for them to do as soon as this tour was over. We really wanted to join them, but it would run past the time for our welcome dinner, so we couldn’t. Several of our adventurers were doing a similar tour that day while we were on this one.

Our last stop for the tour was to walk over to Castel Sant’Angelo, the scene of the final confrontation with the assassin in the novel. We crossed over the Bridge of Angels, noting that each one holds an object referring to the passion of Christ.

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This one is holding the whips


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The crown of thorns


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The shroud


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Hard to see from this angle, but this one is holding the nails


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Well, this one is pretty obvious, I think…


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The superscription


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The lance


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The sponge


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Pretty view of St. Peter’s


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Looking back across the bridge​

Then, we were ready to head inside! But I'll save that for the next update.

UP NEXT: Inside Castel Sant'Angelo

 

[Dugette]

Wow, great tour! Sounds like you saw a lot and, as always, awesome pictures!

 

[KelleyK75]

The tour sounds awesome! The architecture is gorgeous and the pictures show how lovely it is.

 

[skier_pete]

Interesting. I read that book, and found it both a fascinating read that I just couldn't put down and at the same time a utter pile of BS. I remember thinking to myself "this is so ridiculous"! I haven't seen the movie yet though it is in my Netflix queue.

It is pretty amazing the density of spectacular architecture over there!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

ooh, I love the idea of a tour based on Angels and Demons! I love reading the Dan Brown books or other books of that type (fictionalized adventures based on history/religion). My favorite is actually Map of Bones by James Rollins ... but anyway

That is great that you were able to get some pictures of the Piazza de Spagna without the crowds - really is an amazing sight and the statues/carvings are amazing!

The fact that there were three churches at the piazza you were to meet your tour in reminds me of the time I was supposed to meet a friend at a Starbucks at an intersection in NYC only to find that the intersection had 2 Starbucks and we were waiting for each other in different one. So, I guess that Starbucks are to NYC what Churches are to Rome

Bummer that you didn't get to see the West Wind more - that is one I would have liked to check out the details on ... still an impressive scene though! Did you find out what all the chairs were for?

Wow, the inside of Santa Maria della Vittoria is amazing! And you know what they say, if it ain't Baroque, don't fix it (ok, they probably don't actually say that )

The bridge of Angels is beautiful - thanks for pointing out how they are holding the different items related to the passion. Very neat.

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

Your pics are just amazing!!! I am embarrassed to say that I looked for Santa Maria del Popolo and got so confused by the multiple churches in that area that after going in a few, I ultimately gave up! This was right after our walk all around Rome so I was beat.

Laurie

 

[courtneybelle]

I loved both Grom and Venchi! My favorite was from this place at the end of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence but I really liked Grom too.

I loooove the artwork inside the dome.

WOW Santa Maria Della Vittoria is insane!!

Sounds like a really great tour so far!!

 

[MiaBella05]

joining in

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Ooh, that is quite the breakfast variety. You don't often see anything but scrambled eggs.

Haha, "just seen someone with a Disney shirt on" I don't know why that cracked me up, but it did. I guess I just take Disney shirts as the norm, lol.

I didn't read Angels and Demons (of course like everyone it seems, I did read DiVinci Code), but I did see the movie. This tour sounds very cool.

Wow look at that line!!! Are you sure this wasn't an Anna/Elsa Meet and Greet?

I'm just amazed at the architecture, and of course the as always awesome photos.

 

[missangelalexis]

BEAUTIFUL pictures. Santa Maria della Vittoria is stunning. The tour sounds like an interesting one!

 

[schmass]

Seems like a cool tour! Your photos came out amazing!

 

[khertz]

Wow, great tour! Sounds like you saw a lot and, as always, awesome pictures!

Thanks so much!

The tour sounds awesome! The architecture is gorgeous and the pictures show how lovely it is.

It was a great tour, and definitely an interesting way to spend a day on our own before the official start of ABD. The architecture all over the city just fascinates me.

Interesting. I read that book, and found it both a fascinating read that I just couldn't put down and at the same time a utter pile of BS. I remember thinking to myself "this is so ridiculous"! I haven't seen the movie yet though it is in my Netflix queue.

It is pretty amazing the density of spectacular architecture over there!

That's a good way of putting it! When I was reading the book for the first time, I was sure none of it could really be true, but he says it all with such authority and never having seen the places he describes in person, I had no choice but to believe it is how Dan Brown says. So it was definitely enlightening if nothing else!

That's a completely accurate statement. I never got tired of just walking around and taking it all in!

ooh, I love the idea of a tour based on Angels and Demons! I love reading the Dan Brown books or other books of that type (fictionalized adventures based on history/religion). My favorite is actually Map of Bones by James Rollins ... but anyway

I totally agree! I read a lot of historical fiction, and I like that Dan Brown does a twist on that. I'll have to check that book out, it might be something I would enjoy!

That is great that you were able to get some pictures of the Piazza de Spagna without the crowds - really is an amazing sight and the statues/carvings are amazing!

I didn't realize what a blessing it was to get those pictures at the time, but I'm SO glad we did!

The fact that there were three churches at the piazza you were to meet your tour in reminds me of the time I was supposed to meet a friend at a Starbucks at an intersection in NYC only to find that the intersection had 2 Starbucks and we were waiting for each other in different one. So, I guess that Starbucks are to NYC what Churches are to Rome

I can totally see that happening!! It was funny because it said that it would be the church next to the big arch, but when you enter the piazza from where we did, the church and arch are kind of hidden around the corner of another building so we didn't notice them at first. Then when you see the GIGANTIC arch, it's a bit obvious!!

Bummer that you didn't get to see the West Wind more - that is one I would have liked to check out the details on ... still an impressive scene though! Did you find out what all the chairs were for?

I know, that is one I would have liked to see in person so it was disappointing not to be able to get close enough. Everyone kept saying that the chairs were from an audience with the Pope, but they were out there for several days, so I really don't know if that was for sure why.

Wow, the inside of Santa Maria della Vittoria is amazing! And you know what they say, if it ain't Baroque, don't fix it (ok, they probably don't actually say that )

The inside was absolutely breathtaking. It is really what inspired DH and I to visit almost every church we passed in Rome, because you never knew what could be on the inside that you wouldn't want to miss. I struggle with post titles, but that's exactly what came to my mind for this one so that's what I used!

The bridge of Angels is beautiful - thanks for pointing out how they are holding the different items related to the passion. Very neat.

This TR is a lot more difficult to construct posts for because there is SO much information to share! So I refer a lot to my notes and the internet to help fill it all in. I don't know if everyone is like me, but while I do love looking at old, beautiful places and buildings and artwork, I love it even more when I have the context for it to help me understand it better. So I'm trying to include that wherever I can. Glad you enjoyed!

Your pics are just amazing!!! I am embarrassed to say that I looked for Santa Maria del Popolo and got so confused by the multiple churches in that area that after going in a few, I ultimately gave up! This was right after our walk all around Rome so I was beat.

Laurie

Thanks Laurie! The church was hard to find because it was kind of hidden around a corner. And then there's those two huge ones as soon as you walked in from the direction of our hotel, that it was definitely misleading! We almost missed it ourselves and thought we might be in the wrong place! You definitely have an excuse, especially if you mean the first official full day when we walked all over Rome with Cristina. That was an exhausting day for sure!!

 

[khertz]

I loved both Grom and Venchi! My favorite was from this place at the end of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence but I really liked Grom too.

I loooove the artwork inside the dome.

WOW Santa Maria Della Vittoria is insane!!

Sounds like a really great tour so far!!

I think our driver one night pointed out the one at the end of Ponte Vecchio and we forgot all about it until our last night and we had just finished some at Venchi so we didn't stop there. But Venchi & Grom were both pretty amazing too!

Santa Maria della Vittoria was one of my favorites. I loved how it was so unassuming outside and then you walk in and it's just STUFF everywhere! I can't even imagine that just being where I go to Mass every Sunday...

joining in

Happy to have you!

Ooh, that is quite the breakfast variety. You don't often see anything but scrambled eggs.

Haha, "just seen someone with a Disney shirt on" I don't know why that cracked me up, but it did. I guess I just take Disney shirts as the norm, lol.

I didn't read Angels and Demons (of course like everyone it seems, I did read DiVinci Code), but I did see the movie. This tour sounds very cool.

Wow look at that line!!! Are you sure this wasn't an Anna/Elsa Meet and Greet?

I'm just amazed at the architecture, and of course the as always awesome photos.

Breakfast in Rome ended up being my favorite of all the hotels where we stayed. They had a great variety! That's why I found it so comical that DH was wasting prime stomach real estate on cocoa krispies!!

How true is that?! Someone in Rome in a Disney shirt is out of place, but to us that's the complete norm. We went to the playground this weekend, and DH pointed out that all 3 of us were wearing Disney shirts.

The movie was pretty true to the book with only one or two big plot points changed. It's worth reading though, especially if you enjoyed Da Vinci Code. It was interesting to see how he used facts that are technically true, but he changed their meaning or intention to further the plot of the story.

ONE DAY ONLY! Meet the Princess of Arendelle in Vatican City!

The architecture was amazing to me, just to walk around a modern city and be surrounded by all of that history.

BEAUTIFUL pictures. Santa Maria della Vittoria is stunning. The tour sounds like an interesting one!

Thanks! That church ended up being one of my favorites. It was just such a surprise when you saw how plain the outside was! It inspired us to visit as many churches as we could just because you never knew what you could be missing out on. The tour was great, especially for fans of Dan Brown like we are.

Seems like a cool tour! Your photos came out amazing!

The tour was great, and took us to several places that we didn't visit on our ABD guided tour. I had thought there would be a lot more overlap than there actually was, so it was a nice way for us to see more of the sites in the city. Thanks! All the credit for the great photos has to go to DH for taking them & editing them!

 

[BennyFedora]

Reading along and caught up! Rome is a place I've always wanted to go, so it's fun to follow along with a Disney eye. So far it looks like a great trip!

That food tour sounded awesome! It's like F&W, but wandering one HUGE Italy pavilion. I hear you on wishing you could have grabbed a hunk of bread. My father owns an Italian bakery (mostly just bread and rolls) and I'm kind of a bread snob. Just by looking at the bread in the baskets, I could imagine the smell you must have experienced and the restraint it must have taken not to try to sneak a loaf out under your shirt

As a side note, I thought it was funny that the bread was un-bagged, in laundry bins, on the floor. My father remembers delivering bread with his father back in the '50s and they would just put the loaves in wooden crates and drive around leaving them at people's houses between the storm door and the front door. It was fine back then, but today everything is glove handled and double-wrapped. Don't forget your hand-sanitizer!

You are making a great case for ABD, but sadly for Joyce my wallet isn't easily pried open. I look forward to hearing/seeing more, and remember, this TR isn't just for you, it's ammunition for Joyce

 

[sayhello]

Santa Maria della Vittoria was one of my favorites. I loved how it was so unassuming outside and then you walk in and it's just STUFF everywhere! I can't even imagine that just being where I go to Mass every Sunday...

I felt that way about a lot of Rome! Approaching the Colosseum, I was surprised that is was just at the side of this major road that curves past it. People were walking & driving past it like it was nothing. "Oh, yes, that's the Colosseum. Ho hum!" I can't imagine it being something you just pass every day to get to work!

Sayhello

 

[LoveMickey]

We are doing an ABD to Rome next year. I loved your description for the tour

"Dark Rome that did tours based on the novel Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (this wouldn’t be the first time his name came up on this trip!). Although it was only offered certain days of the week, we were lucky that it was available on Tuesday mornings. Perfect timing for us to enjoy it!"

I tried to look up that one on line and could not see this particular tour. Do you still have the link or how you were able to do the tour. Did you set it up before hand?

Thanks,