St Peters, Garibaldi Park & Glass Hosteria

Wednesday, 4 October 2017 

So we were going to go to St Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday. OMG the crowds. Well, it turns out the Pope likes to chitty chat to the crowds on a Wednesday. When we saw the queue to get into the Basilica we decided…perhaps another day. Besides, by then we’d already seen at least 300 churches, and although St Peter’s is the biggest (and apparently the best) we kind of didn’t feel we were necessarily missing too much. 

Decided to take a walk to Garibaldi Park instead. Ah, the serenity. So much green space in the middle of Rome. It was really nice.

The Monument to Garibaldi.

This is the Villa Pamphili.

Decided to go and see the Roma Cannon Shot.  Since 1847, on the order’s of Pius IX, a special canon fires blanks at noon on the hour. The pope wanted to set a standard time for all the bells of the Church of Rome so that they would chime at the same time.  Got there just in time and we got some video.  


Roma Cannon Shot from Trevor Angst on Vimeo.

They counted down to the required time…Ding, Ding, Ding…Bang. Somehow (don’t ask me how) we didn’t quite expect it to be as loud as it was. Like huh? It’s a cannon. What were we expecting? The whole crowd seemed a little freaked out by it actually (in a good way). It was really cool.  

Our final destination for the day was the Glass Hostaria in the Trastevere district of Rome. The chef (Cristina Bowerman) is one of Rome’s major up and coming chefs. 

The 60 month aged Parmesan stuffed ravioli with Isigny butter and mushrooms was particularly good. It was recommended by the waiter who said you have to like cheese. Ah yes.

Some pictures of the Tiber river on our walk home.