After visiting the Church of Sant'Agnese in Agone, we headed back to our one night stopgap hotel (which proved to be just perfect for us), checked out, and walked over to our apartment for the next week, wheeling our luggage behind us.
We couldn't check into our apartment, the beautiful Garavani, until 4pm, as a family had stayed there the night before. However, through our concierge we were able to leave our luggage there for safe keeping.
Eldest daughter Julia had joined us at this point, as did Maria and Van. After dropping off the luggage, we headed to Campo de' Fiori for lunch and to start the Rick Steves' "Heart of Rome Walk."
We thought it would be a good introduction to Maria and Van to the city, as well as reacquainting us with some of our favorite parts of Rome.
Our first task was lunch, which we eagerly looked forward to. We went to Forno, which is said by many to have the best pizza in Rome. It was fine, but it wasn't magical and was definitely not the best. Maybe we went on a bad day for the restaurant. There was no "wow factor" for any of us.
The market at Campo di Fiori ("field of flowers") was worth a quick stroll. After lunch, we checked out the statue of Giordano Bruno, a rebel priest and intellectual who was burned on the spot of his statue in 1600.
Bruno was a free spirit who is viewed as either a martyr to free thought or as an intellectual flim-flam man and heretic. Your blogger takes no position on Bruno as I don't really know enough to care. He was a Dominican priest who joined with Calvinists in Switzerland before being persona non grata. He met in London with Queen Elizabeth I, who found him subversive, and in Germany he was excommunicated by the Lutherans.
Bruno was arrested by the Inquisition (yes, the Italians had one as well, but Saturday Night Live never gave it the same publicity as the Spanish Inquisition).
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