{"id":2789,"date":"2019-11-10T16:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-11-10T15:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?p=2789"},"modified":"2019-11-10T21:37:17","modified_gmt":"2019-11-10T20:37:17","slug":"off-the-beaten-path-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/off-the-beaten-path-in-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"\u200bOff the Beaten Path in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those of us who like to get off the beaten path in Italy, the experience is never quite what you expect. Sometimes for the worse, more often for the better, but occasionally it can be downright terrifying. It\u2019s all fine and good to be the curious type of traveler, but you\u2019d better be prepared to face the potential perils\u2026 train strikes, unannounced museum closings, and attacking skeletons. Wait… what?!?<\/p>\n

I really<\/em> wish I could tell this story in the first person, but actually it belongs to my friend Marco. Back a few years ago in Rome, he was a fellow English teacher from Australia, and we had a lot in common. For one thing, we both like to find the little-known sight-seeing gems in this city<\/strong>\u2014the ones that don\u2019t often make it onto the standard tourist itinerary. One Monday afternoon over lunch, he asked me, \u201cHave you been to Santa Maria dell\u2019Orazione e Morte<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I\u2019ve never even heard of it. Where is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s on Via Giulia, not far from Piazza Farnese. Anyway, I was there last Friday evening and the strangest thing happened\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u200bOff<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo: Wikicommons Media<\/em><\/p>\n

I stopped eating and gave him full attention. Something about his expression told me that this was going to be interesting.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this little church\u2014not much to it, really\u2014has one of those chapels decorated with the old bones of their own priests and monks<\/strong>, kind of like the more famous Cappuccino Crypt on Via Veneto, but smaller. This one is not always open to the public, but the old rector was kind enough\u2014or perhaps senile enough\u2014to let me in for a quick look.\u201d<\/p>\n

I had no idea where this was going, but he certainly had my captive audience.<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cI\u2019m taking my time, trying to read some of the inscriptions, when all of a sudden the door slams. A second later I hear the bolt turn and the lock set.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, that\u2019s what I was thinking. But before I had a chance to react, the lights go off and it\u2019s completely dark. I mean pitch black\u2014I literally can\u2019t see my own hand. Then I quickly realize that it\u2019s Friday afternoon, and I\u2019m contemplating the possibility of spending the entire weekend trapped in total darkness, and wondering if there\u200b will be enough oxygen to last until Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHoly s#*%!!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u200bOff<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s me and about a hundred dead guys locked into this little sepulcher. I began feeling around the walls, trying to make my way towards the door without tripping over anything. About halfway around, I clutched onto a lever or something, thinking it might be a door handle. Only it wasn\u2019t… ”<\/p>\n

“It was a crusty 400 year-old femur. I started to panic, and the next thing I know I\u2019m wrestling with skulls and vertebrae, knocking over pedestals, and the whole nightmare is becoming comical, like a bad horror flick. If I hadn\u2019t been so freaked out I\u2019d have been laughing my arse off, mate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is exactly what I was doing at this point in his storytelling\u2014laughing my arse off. But luckily, there\u2019s a happy ending. After about 10 minutes of terror, my friend was rescued when the old, senile rector had at last realized his mistake and opened the door to find Marco holding one of his dearly departed brothers in a full nelson. Apologies all around.<\/p>\n

\u200bSo what\u2019s the moral of the story? I guess it might be this: even in the center of Rome, it\u2019s still possible wander a little too<\/em> far off the beaten path, and an informed guide can make all the difference<\/strong>. Even the great poet Dante needed Virgil to show him the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bOff the Beaten Path in Italy<\/h2>\n

\u200bDespite the omnipresent threats \u200bfrom dead monks\u200b, speeding Vespas and Silvio Berlusconi, I never get tired of playing the tourist in Rome<\/strong>. \u200b However, no matter how much you think you know about Rome or Italy, there\u2019s always so much more that you don\u2019t know. It\u2019s humbling, to say the least. Sometimes even scary as Hell, as my friend Marco would attest to. (Marco, if you\u2019re reading this from Australia, \u201cCheers, mate!\u201d)<\/p>\n

And Rome is just one city in a country overpopulated by UNESCO World Heritage Sites. No other country in the world has more. So in an effort to further expand my knowledge of this incredibly rich and endlessly complex landscape, I\u2019m hosting a tour \u200bnext fall<\/strong> to explore the many treasures of the \u200bAmalfi Coast.<\/p>\n

The trip starts in Rome<\/strong>, of course, where we will rediscover all the highlights of this \u200bEternal City. (We will skip Santa Maria dell\u2019Orazione e Morte<\/em>, however.) But even while in Rome, there will also be time for relaxation and self-discovery<\/strong> before we take off for the tranquil beauty of the Amalfi Coast.<\/p>\n

And you won’t \u200bhave to worry about getting locked in a sepulcher\u200b\u2014or transportation strikes, or unexpected museum closings, or “tourist trap” restaurants. I will take care of all the arrangements so that you can merely relax, enjoy your vacation<\/strong>, and live like an Italian for 8 or 9 days. <\/p>\n

Click here or on the banner below.<\/p>\n

\u200bI look forward to meeting you in Rome. Ciao!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those of us who like to get off the beaten path in Italy, the experience is never quite what you expect. Sometimes for the worse, more often for the better, but occasionally it can be downright terrifying. It\u2019s all fine and good to be the curious type of traveler, but you\u2019d better be prepared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[378,456,15,489,153],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}