If you love roses ... and other Rome, Italy Off The Beaten Path Tips

... like I do - and you happen to be in Rome in the blooming season - this could be a very wonderful thing to do.
I was lucky - I got in a few days before it was open to the public because of an amico of an amico - plus I got a bit of a guided tour.
I recognised Peace - which used to be called Madame de Meilland I believe, when it was developed in 1945 - then the war ended so it was renamed Peace.
But in Italy it is called Joy - Gioia.
I don't know if it costs anything - sorry - but I do know it was a Jewish cemetery for a long long time - then the land was presented to the city (I think the dead were re buried somewhere else) and the garden is laid out like a menorah.
It was just what I needed after a few months in Rome.
There is a famous rose garden in Werribbee just out of Melbourne that I have been to - and I was so stoked and so homesick when the Werribbee garden was mentioned.
I also really liked the small bed of the original roses Romans got their rose petals from.
It became such a thing to shower people with rose petals that useful vineyards and olive groves were ripped out to grow the roses for the display of luxury and excess.
The whole spectacle - looking out over Circo Massimo where I saw the World Cup Final (Italy won) was very telling.

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Website: http://www.italyheaven.co.uk/rome/roseto.html

Because my daughter is a jockey, when she came to visit she really wanted to go to the races.
I cannot begin to tell you how hard it was to find out where the races are held. Or how to get there.
Because it is not something that tourists seem to do.
I found a tourist info booth with a really helpful girl who gave me a phone number to ring. Many had fobbed me off, scornfully.
Ippodromo Capannelle.
It was a nightmare finding out what day the races were on, and how to get there.
In the end we found out that many many trains go to Capannelle, it is the first stop out of Termini. It would help when you get there that there was a station name up on both sides of the platform, but there you go. It's not for tourists.
Once there we looked for a cab rank to get to the races. No luck. No public phone to ring for a cab and none of us had cellulari.
But Alex squizzed into the distance and saw white rails and a grandstand so we walked.
No entrance fee to the course.
Bars, fast food of very poor quality, teeming crowds of locals.
What I liked most was listening to the race announcer. He said something like "Volta." Which I took to mean - "They're off."

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Because this experience was so familiar to us - almost exactly the same - just re tuned to Italian - we noticed the small differences.
My husband kept picking people. "He's a strapper. He's a colourful racing identity. He's a punter."
My daughter commented she was surprised at the standard. It was like a country race track. Not a big classy metropolitan track.
And she noticed the different whip technique the jockeys used. She said something like -"They must be only allowed to use their stick every three strides."
They didn't seem to be - 'riding the horse out.'
I noticed - no women jockeys or trainers or strappers. None. But then Italy, as my local friend has commented, is the land feminism forgot.
And I noticed - and it was like seeing an immutable law not working - no clerk of the course in a pink (red) coat on a grey horse leading the runners out onto the course.
Jocks with bolshie horses got no help. They just had to help themselves.
We wanted to have a flutter but there didn't seem to be bookies (another difference) and the betting all seemed to be computerised - so we let it go.
A great day out. Though the weather wasn't great.
I think the Ippodromo must be near the Ciampino aerodromo because Ryanjets kept lobbing in low over the field.
We went for a wander and found the old derelict grandstand covered with wisteria. Slowly becoming an ancient monument. And the stables where the Italian racehorses are kept.

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This is such a pleasant thing to do - and it is totally free.
For much of its course through Rome the Tiber is accessible for pedestrians, and joggers, and bicyclists. As you can see from the first pic there is a broad pathway and every so often a set of stairs so you can return to street level. We walked from Ponte Garibaldi in Trastevere up to the Vatican and it was a pleasant respite from Rome - which can be so full on. Just crossing the street can be an adventure.
From the second pic you will see that from time to time it becomes more rural. Behind my flat in Trastevere there was only a narrow dirt track. I was very tempted to walk there - but I was a sook and just didn't risk it. I wouldn't walk down by the river on my own at night for sure.
The river is of course rather polluted - but really not all that bad. You don't see swimmers, but you see water birds and canoeists. It doesn't flow very fast, and it isn't as big as I expected, but it is the Tevere. That's a thrill.

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This is a wonderful liitle bookshop at 329 Via G. Giolotti (runs down beside Termini) which often has events like plays or readings. I have been to a play here, a New Zealand play which made me a bit homesick.
Anyway I popped in to see if they had English books - I was beginning to worry I might run out of reading material. And no, they don't have English books but they do have a Bookcrossing bookcase. This is a website where you register a book and release it into the wild. There were two English books and one was Pride and Prejudice - which I adore - so I seized upon it with glad cries and then logged onto the site to let Francesina know that I had her book. It had been there for 7 months and she was very happy and asked me to take it back to Australia with me. But I gave it to a friend from Puerto Rica who loves classic english texts and she will leave it either in Cyprus or Vienna.

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We were trying to find out if we could get a tour of the Cinecitta studios. I don't think it is possible. But I love Fellini films (and other Italian films of course) so much I said to Matt - Let's just jump on the metro (Line A - get off at Cinecitta) and go out there.
So we did.
I got all trembly. I could see the big front garden where the scene in Intervista takes place.
Very cheap trip. Very big thrills.

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... if you get all overcome because you are going to see Cinecitta - and you really dislike being underground and it is your first time on the metro in Rome and you jump on a train just as the door closes and your husband did not jump on the train. And all you can do is mouth - "See you out there" (and hope there will not be a sciopero) and you wait paitently at Cinecitta and he gets off the next train ... (take a photograph of him approaching you) and is very very patient with you.
If you are going to do this - and I would not recommend it - make sure you have your train ticket and some money and know how to get back to your hotel in case things go very wrong.
A couple of mobile phones would probably help too. And a mighty patient and forbearing husband.

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After your filmic pilgrimage to Cinecitta walk on the same side of the road for maybe 10 minutes and you will find the first mall built in Roma. It's kind of hard to know it is a mall. In Australia it would have huge signs and arrows saying - This is a mall. Here is the mall. Shop here. THIS IS A MALL.
But that is not the Italian way.
(The toilettes are also modestly signposted inside the mall.)
It was exactly like any mall anywhere but with very subtle differences. We loved it. We had got up early, taken a stroll through the forum, done the film studios and moved right along to where the Romans hung out, ate fast food, bought their TVs and proudly displayed their grandchildren.
The subtle differences? Well, that depends on where you come from.

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If you wake - like I did - bright as a button at 5am (jet lag thingo) dying for a cup of tea - and of course your hotel doesn't have tea and coffee making facilities (never found one that did in Italy) just set off on the dawn streets and find a neighbourhood bar.
After 5am the streets are full of early workers heading to work - and anywhere that sells newspapers, smokes, bus tickets and coffee and brioche will be starting to open.
I had to go quite far afield to find one that opened at 5 - down by San Giovanni Metro station -but they will all be open by 6.
Approach the patron at the till - pay for what you want. He will give you a ticket. (Which you keep.) Then he will make it for you. (If you want a brioche take a napkin from the dispenser on the counter, open the display case, grasp your brioche firmly and show it to him.) If you want cold milk in your tea - say "Latte freddo." Otherwise you will probably get limone.
Try to indicate if you want to sit down outside (so you can smoke) because that usually costs a bit more. Maybe 20 cents.
If you are lucky he will chat to you a bit - curious. Then the regulars will greet you. What an adventure.
The bars won't probably have a name. They are all called - it seems - SNACK - BAR - CAFE - GELATERIA.
I went back in daylight to take a photo and no name posted that I could see.
When I say - don't be afraid - I don't mean throw caution to the winds. This is Rome after all.

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This is a pleasant and very cheap thing to do. It's not for tourists and the info booths know nothing about it - but you do see a few tourists on it.
It goes from the river side just under Ponte Garibaldi which is on Viale di Trastevere. Opposite Isola Tiburtina. You can see the jetty and there is a notice board with sailing times. There are not a lot of sailings! Costs about 3 euros one way. When you get an hour or so up river to .... hmmm .... wish I could remember where it stops. It was a sports stadium. When you get there just pay the guard again and chuff slowly back to Ponte Garibaldi.
Great photos ops as you pass Castel St Angelo.
The company is called Battelli di Roma but if they have a web site I couldn't find it.

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