The theme of the past two days seems to be the glory of Italy. Yesterday, we walked through the Vittorio Emmanuale monument, which is also known as (and it's not hard to see why) the wedding cake. The monument is an impressive temple to the effort that went into the unification of Italy, filled with busts, statues, paintings, swords and other artifacts. Vittorio Emmanuale was the eldest son of Charles Albert of Sardinia and Maria Theresa of Austria and he became the first king of a unified Italy in 1861. The Italians refer to him as "padre della patria" or "father of the fatherland". We had fun wandering through the monument and looking for the best view of Rome.
Today, we decided it was time to see the Castel Sant'Angelo. Originally a mausoleum built by and for Emperor Hadrian in 135 AD, the Castle has since housed popes, soldiers, and prisoners. In 401, the tomb was converted into a military basis. After the 590 plague, legend says that St. Michael the Archangel appeared on the top of the Castle brandishing his sword to signal the end of the plague.
In Puccini's opera, Tosca, the heroine leaps to her death from the Castle's ramparts. Jamie and I had fun pretending to be Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.
The labrynth-like structure of the castle makes it easy to get a little turned around; we had some tourists try to follow us out to the exit. The different corners and curves are also ideal for surprising people, something I had to subject Jenna and Jamie too. They were good sports though.
After a hike around the castle, it was time for lunch. What was on our minds the most? Cannoli. A previous cannoli quest and pastry pilgrimage had failed a few days ago but the cannoli at Castel Sant'Angelo made up for the prior disappointment. Jenna shared her cannoli-eating expertise: just dig in! Jamie tried to remember a line about canolis from the Godfather but none of us could figure it out...well, here it is: "leave the gun, take the cannoli."
Ah, those Hapsburgs! I've read quite a bit about Maria Theresa - the old one of Pragmatic Sanction fame. She is the grandmother of your Maria Theresa. A whole slew of them are named Maria something or other. I think I remember that the Tuscany Maria Theresa shared the same grandparents as her husband. In my defense, I have a freakish memory for genealogy charts.
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