Monte Carlo Revisited

It was another lovely day-again-to take the €1 forty minute bus ride to Monaco to do some errands. This year the ride was even lovelier for the total lack of aggravation surrounding my being here! I sat by the window to enjoy the lovely view of the Mediterrean, the spectacular scenery, and the many nautical vehicles from small boats to huge yachts. My very charming-and married-seat companion pointed out a boat that used to belong to Onassis. It looked smaller than I would have expected!
Monte Carlo is really a very special place-incredibly clean and lovely, well-kept gardens. I saw a man carefully cleaning the streets, pouring water in the gutter and then moving along the minimal amount of trash to clean it. SO different from anything I saw anywhere in Rome, which is really quite dirty. I walked up to the Palace where Prince Albert still lives. There is a lovely view of the harbor from there also with hundreds of boats.
Gloria had stayed at her place for the plumber who was due to come today at 3, but arrived at 12:30 instead. Unfortunately he could not repair the washing machine, so she has scheduled someone to come on the 1st at 8AM. She sells windows and stairways, etc. to shops, so she has been busy all day with calls from her customers who have started back to work, although she technically is not supposed to be back until the 1st.
The couch surfer cancelled on us, but Spaniard Catalina, another student from her French class, came to dinner at 8! She was also very interesting-bright, well-traveled one of ten children! She was at the 7 week Middlebury College French program before she came to this one, so this one she had taken with Gloria sounded to be a real "let down".

NOTE:There are four posts yesterday (Four Nights in Nice) explaining how to make comments! THANKS...Please DO comment!:))



LEISURELY, lazy Sunday morning in Nice consisted of a European breakfast of ham, cheeses, breads, homemade apple confiture (like US apple sauce) and Gloria’s elderberry jam, accompanied by the coffee Italians are famous for. We sat on the balcony overlooking a quieter street, which we watched and listened to it also waking up! Eventually there were church bells chiming from various parts of the city! FUN!!
Later we will head off to the beach. I’m trying to get internet access with intermittent success, as Gloria is interested in seeing what real estate might be available on Cape Cod. I found four possibilities in Barnstable before I lost the internet! C’est la vie!
Before we left for the beach, Gloria made some hazelnut cookies from this interesting cooker that was her grandmother’s! The hazelnuts were from her trees; last year she had gotten about 80 kg or 176 lbs. I told her she was like Martha Stewart!
(Clough, by the way, yesterday was the PERFECT opportunity to say “Quel dommage!”, when Gloria showed me the pillow stuffing all over EVERYTHING!:))
And there was a wonderful breeze to keep the beach very bearable. Of course, that meant that there was considerable surf, so it was TOUGH (read scary) to get out! I went in twice; the water was great, but I got several mouthfuls of salt water trying to get out! The life guards actually called everyone out of the water for a while. Elsa, Marco, and their three children, friends of Gloria from Milan, were there, so she talked with them; I mostly listened.
Later tonight-it is now 11:40!-a 20 year old named Gul from Turkey is coming to stay overnight. Gloria met her in her French class. To save her the cost of a night in a hotel, as she flies home tomorrow, Gloria invited her to stay here; she may be here at 2AM….
Tomorrow we’ll head back to the beach to say good bye to Elsa and Marco and all. Later in the day we’ll meet up with Kathy, a Nice Couch Surfer.

Four Nights in Nice

Well, Nice has already proven to be a huge improvement over last summer, which most of you suffered through with us! Gloria met me at the airport; she was horrified that she was late, but she does not usually drive to the airport. I was fine, of course! A hot Saturday August afternoon in Nice means horrid traffic jams...it took maybe an hour to go 5.6 km or 3.5 miles!!! She was concerned, because her car was VERY close to being out of gas, but we made it in time!
Gloria has had a month's vacation, like most Europeans. Part of the time she was on vacation with her husband; for the last two weeks she had taken a French course to improve her French. So, we are having multi-language practice! [And, by the way, "hat" in Italian (should I leave it somewhere again!) is cappello!]
We arrived at her 2 bed/2 bath 6th floor apartment, and she made us lunch, after she took her daughter's dog for a walk. She has been dog-sitting for two weeks; she says she will not do it again! That is Gloria and Pippo, a bichon frise, pictured in Place Garibaldi.
Lunch was Insalada Russa with tossed salad. Salade Russa is delicious! She peels, boils, and mashes a few potatoes. She adds half of a small jar of Gardiniera (a mixture of vegetables-red pepper, onions, cucumber, carrots, cauliflower, in white vinegar, or you could add your own vegetable choices). All of this is pureed,food proceed, and then she added some green peas, and two tablespoons +/- of mayonnaise. For dessert she served some cut up delicious blueberries and peaches (from her garden at home in Alessandro) with a touch of simple syrup and some white wine! (She has eighteen fruit trees in her garden at home.) Then it was 3PM, hot, and time for a nap. Two hours late I awoke-and this is a busy, noisy street with the music of cars, busses, and trams, passing by-so I was tired. Unfortunately I found Gloria dealing with a mess! She had washed some small pillows in the washing machine, as she prepares her place for the students next week. One of them had been filled with small pieces of latex stuffing, and it had opened in the wash, so there were small pieces of the stuffing ALL OVER EVERYTHING IN THE WASH. What is worse is that some of the stuffing has clogged the pipes so the washing machine doesn't work; she has no Sears 24 hour service call line, so she has to wait until Monday to find someone to repair the machine!
I thought I needed to stop here, as my computer access from the McDonalds across the street kicked me off, but I'm back on, so I'll be quick! We went for a delightful walk around her neighborhood, along the Promenade des Anglais, and into the famous and popular Old Town.: Back for dinner...fusilli with home-made tomato sauce and fresh oregano and fresh basillico she has growing in pots out here on her balcony. Dessert was grapefruit with homemade elderberry jam she made with sambucus nigra on top. Afterwards we were going to walk down to see the fireworks or fuochi d'artificio or feu d'artifices which were rescheduled from Ferrogusto (August 15th). Instead we sat on Gloria's balcony on-line and also enjoying the terrific fireworks. While I'm finishing up today's update, she is researching elderberry; she asks if any of you know much first-hand about this plant? I didn't!
PS. Some of you have asked how to post comments, and I don't know how you do it, so if anyone wants to add how you did that in the comments,THANKS!!

En route to Nice

I had some points so tonight I'm staying in an (air-conditioned!) Hilton Garden Inn at the Rome Airport to simplify my 9AM departure. To get to the airport there is a bus and the "Leonardo Express" train. I WAS looking for the bus,but by the time I got to a bus station office, the woman told me it was for the Ciampino airport! So I gave up and took the train...what is 6 euros(difference betw bus and train) when you are tromping around a crowded train station with a backpack (weighing who knows how much?) and pulling a little "wheelie". I'm STILL preparing for my Ryanair flights that will be very strict about checked (15kg) and ONE only unchecked luggage (10kg).Anyhow...made it.
On the train I finished a book I'd brought with me and left it on the train (to lighten my load) along with my straw hat! hadn't gotten too far before I realized that I had left my hat on the train, so I went charging back for it. (Tough to explain to the conductor that I'd left my hat on the train! Have to learn Italian word for hat....) As I turned to leave (with visions of my hat going back to the train station), a young Austrian couple passed me, and she handed me my hat and book!"I said to my man,my husband,maybe we can find her!",she said.
Earlier in the day, Gino at Femme Sistina, Salon de Coiffure/boutique, at the top of the Spanish Steps had cut my hair. It's pretty short, but two months is a long time, and I figured I should get it cut before I leave Rome. Every time I've been across the Steps,I went down, but I was late, and a bit twisted around (AKA lost?), so to keep from being any later, I walked UP THE SPANISH STEPS. And now I can report that there are 132 steps,which doesn't count the "landing" steps....That equals ten stories if 13 steps is the standard "set of stairs"!
As a side note, it turns out that Angela and her family never stayed at my house,but she just told me a few days ago! And then it took me two days to remember my (now pretty dead I'm sure!) houseplants. Luckily my orchids are vacationing at Jane's in Cotuit on the harbor (no pressure,Jane!); a lot of my other houseplants are at my sister Helens'. (Jane HATES taking care of plants,so I asked if my orchids could sit on her wonderful deck while I'm away, when I saw what amazing success she had had with an orchid last summer-TONS of buds!)
Tomorrow I'm going to meet Gloria, who lives in Italy and owns this apartment in Nice that she rents to students.(She is one of my Facebook friends,if you care to see her on FB!?) I "met" her,when I emailed her about a possible swap for her place in Genoa on the exchange site. So we've been in touch for over a year.She bought a short sale condo on the beach in Miami last winter, and she emailed me about that, etc....So it will be interesting how this visit goes. Then on August 31st, I'll be couch surfing....

Leaving Rome....

Today was the third day of my Roma Pass, so I needed to take advantage of that. This is really a “good deal”. For €25, you get into two places free, and then there is a reduced rate for any other place on their list. For me it was also an insurance policy that I would do something now that Mallory and Dayle had left!
But first I was to meet Monica, another couch surfer, in Trastevere at 10:30. She had offered me a drink which I thought would be coffee, but, she describes herself as a "hippy", so it sounded like a sort of “health drink”, but the place was closed. There is an irony here, since she not only smokes but she smokes heavily…for example, as we walked through Trastevere, she lit up a cigarette(s). We ended up having a gelato, but with no preservatives, I guess? We walked by a very old pharmacy, which I went into; Monica stood outside smoking. It reminded me of my earliest Gillette days when we called on the independent drugstores.
I found on this on-line:
"Piazza della Scala
Any house with walls that go up diagonally can be considered medieval. There are a few along Via della Scala, especially on your right. Look at no. 54, an ancient farmhouse. This area was a fief of the Stefaneschi family in the Middle Ages - and some of the women were so powerful the men had to take the women's name in marriage and not vice-versa.

Old Pharmacy of Piazza della Scala
This pharmacy was opened by the Carmelite monks in 1523 to help the sick and needy.
The monks had invented a special "Acqua della Scala", a deep red liquid with properties that cured many forms of plague, one of which just happened to be raging that very year. The 16 C alone had no fewer than four plagues: 1523, 1527, 1538, 1558.
The populace of Medieval and Renaissance Rome was constantly being decimated by a variety of diseases: bubonic plague (brought on by the bite of a flea who had first bitten an infected rat); dysentery (widespread through dirty food); typhus (from contaminated drinking water, often due to the Tiber flooding which brought water mixed with sewage into the streets - the Ancient Romans were the first to eliminate their "used water" via pipes into the rivers); and malaria, which occurred regularly every summer when the mosquitoes could breed happily in the stagnant ponds or moats around the city.
In 1726 Fra’ Basilio concocted such famous herbal remedies that he was consulted by kings and cardinals and held a study program for fledgling chemists.
The old pharmacy on the upper floor still looks much like it did, with marble urns where the decoctions were stored."(Picture is RX store ceiling.)

Monica is in her late 50’s and very interesting. She has been a weaver for ten years; here is her site http://www.textilesoleil.com/ (Ten years prior to that,she was a housewife.) I was interested in seeing her work, so we took the tram back to her place, and she showed me some of her shawls, stoles, and scarves. Her stoles sell for €80. She lives in a two bedroom basement apartment with GREAT outdoor patio space, which she said is bigger than her apartment. Right now she has two cats, although one (Leopoldo or Poldo for short) of them, who is 20, was not to be found, and they really can’t get out of this space….Sometimes she has had as many as six cats!
While we were there I asked if she would call the airport shuttle service, as my connection on 9/1 is very tight, since I have to go between airports, which are on the opposite side of Rome. For €45, a car will pick me up at Fiumicino and take me to Ciampino. (Thanks, Rick Steves!) HOPEFULLY it will get there in time!
She dropped off me off at the apartment, as she has a friend who lives in this complex. I had a quick lunch and was off to see a few more museums, although I was coming to my limit! I visited Palazzo di Venezia (60 steps each way!), which was the only place so far with any ceramic display to speak of, so that was fun to see. Chiesa del Gesu, the main Jesuit church, was nearby, so I visited it next. Churches have become a refuge from the heat and provide a momentary chance to sit! Spaniard Ignatius of Loyola(1491-1556) founded the Society of Jesus in 1540. Weston College formerly taught Jesuit priests; BC and Seattle University(among many more, of course) are Jesuit colleges. Ignatius’ rooms(hallway pictured.) are open every afternoon from 4-7, so to complete this little exoerience, I visited them also.
Meanwhile I had gotten an email from Gianni saying that his Irish couch surfer was going to be playing his guitar on Corso and then in Trastevere, if I wanted to meet them. Alas, the details were non-existent, so I came home, picked up some lasagna to go at the favored pizza shop at the bus stop and came home to crash relatively early.
Today I opted not to go to Tivoli with Giulia (and, of course, Giovanni!). It would have been very interesting to see Tivoli, but I think that not going made better sense. I got up this am to clean, since I’m leaving tomorrow. Then about 11, I was off to the pool across the street from the Colosseum. I’d checked it out earlier in my visit…walked up to see what it looked like and how crowded it was/might be. So for €14 I had a chair and water access. Now I grant you the water was maybe 39” deep, but it was refreshing and relatively cool. A group sat near me shortly after I arrived, and they were from Alaska (couple w/4 yo) and Boulder (grandparents). (THE CHAIRS WERE MORE THAN CLOSE!!! Everyone was trying to be under an umbrella!) So I had some English dialogue; woman from Juneau loves living there, but for the politics! It was a really cool place. There was a snack bar, so you could buy lunch and drinks. (€5 beers). I chatted with grandmother Lisa at lunch to get her story. I read and got into the still refreshing yet shallow water for my petite height until nearly 7.
I came home,, got showered to go out for dinner down the street for my “going away “ dinner at Lumie di Sicilia, where we had had dinner with Ben. (Never mind that the owner or whatever he is replied to my “Only one”, when I arrived, said, “Bettter than none!” I’m sure he was being funny…) Forgot my camera to record my inslata mista and fettucine with cherry tomatoes, eggplant and small (very) pieces of swordfish(less mercury, I guess). Oops-with some red wine (Nero d’Avola) from Sicily. EVERTYHINJG was delicious!/delizioso. Gelato at the Miami gellatoriam across the street, and I’m done eating here!
Tomorrow at 11 I’m getting my haircut at the top of the Spanish Steps, because I have no idea what I’ll find in Sardinia! I was told they do speak English!:)) Then I’m back here to get all my stuff and head over to the Hilton Gardens at the Airport (points),as my flight to Nice is at 9am. I’m staying with Gloria, an internet friend who bought a studio on Miami Beach in a short sale, for three nights and then one night with a couch surfer….No clue when I will be back on-line. So ciao and keep in touch!!xooxxo

Of Museums AND Music….

First stop today was Palazzo Corsini.(See the man walk his dog who lies down in the middle of the street in front of the Corsini!) (Thanks, Stephen!) It is really fun to see these wonderful old homes/mansions used to display all this amazing art from the 14th to the 18th centuries. It was formerly the residence of Queen Christina of Sweden in the 1700’s. One of the guidebooks said that they don’t usually even get fifty visitors a day, so that was a real plus. It was especially interesting that one of the guards, perhaps a volunteer, followed me from room to room!
Right across the street was the Villa Farnesina, which was very small, but also interesting. Banker Agostino Chigi, the original owner in 1511, was also known as “the Magnificent”, as he entertained his guests in great style. There was a wonderful trompe l’oeil landscape by Peruzzi (new to me today) that I especially liked. There were fifty steps to the next floor, so either the kitchen was upstairs too, or they had their food sent up!
Heading over to the Ghetto, I decided to visit the Spada Gallery, although it should have been easier to find than it was! It is actually in a complex that also houses various offices, including a police office. In the courtyard, there is the famous (also new to me today) F. Borromini “Perspective”. It is a series of columns with a statue at the end, which looks huge, but, in fact, the statue is only 2’ tall. The male guide who is “one meter 85” walked through the columns to show me. It was really pretty funny to see. UNFORTUNATELY no pictures! I’d noticed the sign at the cashier which said it was not safe for people to go thru the columns. On the second floor there were more pictures. I was especially interested to see two paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi(1593-1652/3), whose father Orazio, was a famous painter, but she was all the more unusual because there were no women painters in those days!
All three of these small galleries were certainly interesting, but difficult to really appreciate, because they were CROWDED into the space!
Next stop…back to the Ghetto, and visited the Jewish Museum of Rome. This included a tour of the synagogue, which is much more ornate than most synagogues, according to the guide (of the 15 minute tour?). However, it was VERY interesting, as the museum contained all sorts of information about Judaism, as well as the history of Jews in Rome.
When Mallory, Dayle, and I returned from the Vatican on bus 40, we met a young woman in a period costume who gave us a brochure about a musical program of arias from various operas at San Paolo Entro Le Mura. So tonight I went over to hear it, and I really enjoyed it, in spite of the twelve fans which didn’t do much to cool the church off. Actually the church is part of the Anglican Episcopal Church and has services in English and Spanish. The Rome busses run almost around the clock, but this was over at 10, so with some on-again-off-again bus action, I got back here by 11)

Have breakfast with me...

Sitting here eating Mallory's Honey Cheerios with the TASTIEST PEACH EVER (until the next one),the windows are open to the balcony. I'm off soon to the Palazzo Corsini and another walk through the Ghetto and who else knows where! It is hard to believe that I have been here nearly three weeks and will leave on Saturday for four nights in Nice and then on to Sardinia. I have no idea what the computer access situation will be....
Ciao and buon giorno!

Second Visit to the Colosseum

Well, I missed my 8:30 deadline to beat the Colosseum by 15 minutes, but I was still able to whip by tons of people with my RomaPass. DEFINITELY worth having! I got the audio €4,50, which I had to return within two hours or I’d be charged €4,50 for EVERY additional minute. (I returned it within an hour.) It was great to be there with fewer people to enjoy the space and continue to marvel at it all. I went across the street to go up Palatine Hill where the Forum is. This is building (ruined, I grant you) after building; archaeologists will have work therefore ever! It WAS hot, so once again, I was constantly looking for shade. I opted not to get the audio here, so I just kept checking with my Michelin book.
All over Rome there are water fountains, so you can just keep refilling your water bottle as you go. As I was looking at some building on Palatine Hill, some guy asked me from outside the gate, if I would give him some water. Of course, I did, and as I returned his bottle, I said, “That will be one euro!” “Nice price!” he replied.
Luckily the end was in sight! I headed for the bus; it was now 12:45, so I was out in the wicked heat of the day! I headed back to the apartment, but I did stop at the pizza place at the bus stop which reopened today. Once back at the apartment I took a short nap, and have just decided where I want to go before I leave!

Couch surfing and flea markets….

Well, I’ve checked into www.couchsurfing.org a few times since I’ve been here, and that is how I found Rita and Giulia. However, the site also registers that you have signed in, so people know that you are here! So one day last week, I got this email.
“Hello!! if u want cs nudist experiences i can cs you in ostia lido..the beach of rome..30 min of center of rome..let me know..see ya :D”

Oh, you have to see his picture! I tried to send the link with no luck. He is in his early 30's and owns his own business. I told him I'd love to meet him, but NOT at the nudist beach!
Today I met Gianni,who is, you will happy to know, 62. (The site is very clear that its objective is to connect travellers!!!) I met him at 11 at the right hand side of the Porta Portese entrance to the biggest(probably the only one) Sunday flea market in the city. He arrived a few minutes after I did, and we walked around the tables, which were, like most of flea markets, pretty filled with junk. AND IT WAS HOT!!! I can't even imagine how many tables there were-1000?
Then we walked over to Campo di Fiore for lunch. It was much quieter today than when I was there with Mallory and Dayle. At least half of the restaurants were closed. We had a relaxed lunch of pizza and beer (good thing I had a salad here for dinner tonight!) He worked for Alitalia for thirty years and is very fluent in English,
French, and Spanish. He grew up in Verona and LOVES Rome, which has been his home since his divorce. He is very knowledgeable about the city and the history. The original plan was coffee and a walk, but I needed to go to check on a ticket to see the Bourghese Gallery again, so he offered to go with me.
I couldn't get the ticket today after all, so we had had quite a walk for almost nothing.
He had quite a conversation with the woman selling tickets,when she said she didn't know if the Rome Pass was good for the Gallery.When we walked out, he said, "She should get another job!"
The picture of the statue is of Lord Byron, a famous English poet, who also spent alot of time here.
Tomorrow I'm planning to be at the Colosseum when it opens!

Off to Siena

Okay….I met Shona at the Termini train station at 6:30 yesterday morning, and we were off to Siena. We had hoped to also go to San Gimignano, but the timing didn’t work, so we just stayed in Siena. (We had to change trains to get to Siena, and we would have to take another to St. G.) Our first stop was San Domenico, “an enormous, severe, and vaguely unattractive pile of bricks” per Fodor. We were really looking for Casa di St. Catherine, who was chosen in 1378 as Siena's ambassador to Pope Gregory XI in Avignon. She was responsible for having the papal seat returned to Rome from Avignon with her scholarly letter writing campaign. We did find her Casa, which is the home she grew up now, several small chapels. We stopped for lunch of a slice of pizza sitting in the Campo, “arguably the most beautiful piazza in all Italy”, “crafted like a sloping scallop shell”. The focal point is the Fonte Gaia, a ”poor replica” of Jacopo della Quercia’s masterpiece fountain. It didn’t look that bad to me, EXCEPT for all of the pigeons enjoying the Fonte!
Our next stop was the Duomo,another incredible cathedral filled with Tuscan art…and people!(It is in picture from a distance.) Our last stop was the Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala, where sick people were cared for from 800 to the 1990’s! Now it is really a museum, but there were scenes to show the hospital parts of it, so I found this really most interesting. There are frescoes of the history of the hospital and its role in the town. I had trouble getting the image of lying in hospital bed looking up 20’ at some very elaborate paintings. We headed back to the bus, which would take us to the train, and we had no idea what the schedule was.
We got to the train station easily, and had to wait for the train to Chiusi where we changed for Rome. Our train had to stop for about fifteen minutes, so we missed the Rome train, but luckily another one bound for Naples was due in seventeen minutes. When it arrived, it was a very long train; that was the good news! The bad news was that it was packed, apparently with many returning from their holidays in Florence and that area. We walked through every car and found no seats; they were all six person compartments. I did have visions of us standing for the two hour trip, but we found a car with three people in with a huge suitcase blocking the way, and they said we could sit there. They spoke no English, but were pleasant; it made an interesting end to a fun day!
Today I met with Shona for a walk over to the Colosseum and a gelato before she headed off to Croatia. It was probably about 93*, so we headed for the shade whenever possible. I just came back from a “serious” run to the grocery store. The Simply market is closed for vacation-like most everything around! Luckily the DOC, another market just up the street, was open, so I could get what I needed-mostly replacement stuff, which went into the grocery cart. How spoiled we are that we can hop in our cars, go to the grocery store, and bring them home!
By the way, I just realized that you could post comments, or I would have responded sooner! Thanks.

Day trip....

Add Orvieto and Assisi to the itinerary with a full day bus trip via Green Line Tours. This meant getting to their office by 7:15, but I had NO idea how long it would take the bus to come, etc., so I was there by 6:45…just enough time to find a tasty chocolate pastry around the corner. It was a fun day, although only one-half hour in Orvieto!!????????hmm (This is where travel writer Frances Mayes lives.) Then we went on to Assisi, where St. Francis was from. There was only one other American on the trip-maybe 20 total on the tour. I did meet Shona from Victoria, BC, who asked me to go to Siena with her tomorrow, so that is where I am off to then on a 6:43AM train

Lunch with Rita...

Several days ago I had contacted Rita, another “couch surfer”, who is 67, lives over near the Vatican, and had invited me to lunch today. While we had been to the Vatican, her neighborhood was yet another area I’d not been. I allowed one hour to get there by bus and Metro, which was just right.
She has a very spacious apartment on the seventh floor which she owns. Most Italians do not own their apartments.
Off her balcony you can see mountains and the area around the Borghese Gallery.

She served a nice fresh Caprese salad, prosciutto, cantaloupe, fruit, and white wine from Abruzzi, which is where she is from. Rita is a former teacher, who married late (1995). Her husband (a “nice” man and philosophy professor) died the following year, as he had had a kidney transplant which did not take. She sounded like she really didn’t care if she had ever gotten married. Now she travels a lot, does some tutoring, and volunteers. In October, she is going to Lourdes with a group as a volunteer. She was really delightful!
She told me about her father who was in Germany during the war, and he never came back. Of course, he had met another woman. She saw him again for the first time when she was 18; he just wanted to buy her things to make up for lost time, which didn’t work. When the father met her brother again, he cried because of all he had missed. He offered to buy the brother a Volkswagen, and when the father was signing the check to finalize the purchase, he had a heart attack and died. Rita had dreamt the night before that her father had died; the next morning the mailman brought her a telegram saying that he had died.
She has a cousin on Long Island, so perhaps she will come to Boston. Or I may stay with her before I leave Rome....
I didn’t leave until about 4:30, as she got me all sorts of information on line about my next adventure. Tomorrow I need to be at the Green Line office by 7:15 to go on another day trip to Orvieto and Assissi. So she printed out the receipt for that as well as my boarding pass for my September 1st trip to Alghero, Sardinia.
One of these days, I'm going to fill you in on some of the specifics of living here-besides the washing machine! The four key system to get into the apartment,etc. There are no screens on the windows here, so some kind of biting bugs have been snacking on Dayle, Mallory, and me. (We couldn't even see them!) We could find nothng to review the itch, But I just found on-line that tootpaste works! It does!:))

The Jewish Ghetto...Catacombs...

Yesterday we headed off to the Jewish Ghetto;food display at one of the restaurants we passed there. On our way we passed another archeological dig called Portico di Ottavia. (I'll go back to the Ghetto, as we did not get into the Synagogue or the Museum.) Then we were on to the Isola Tiberina, in the middle of the Tiber, which really houses only a church, which was closed and a hospital. We had a gelato on our way, and decided to go to one of the five catacombs in Rome. Once again, getting there was much of the fun-or frustration-depending on how we looked at it! The catacombs are all a bit off the “beaten” track transportation-wise. (One lady told Dayle it took them two hours to get there, which made us feel a little better!) They are all off the Appian Way, which I remembered from Latin(!!), along with “All of Gallia is divided into four parts.” We did finally get to the correct bus to take us to our destination. (Thanks, Michelin!)
How do you decide which Catacomb you want to see? Each guidebook gives them a different spin….Luck or chance took us to St. Calixtus Catacombs, which the guidebook says is “the first official Christian cemetery; our guide said it was the oldest in Rome. No matter….over 12 miles of underground tunnels connect half a million tombs. We were some 40 feet underground, and it was a very delightful 15*C. Some 3rd C. Popes and St. Cecilia had been buried there, but have since been moved. A very interesting tour we all agreed!
We came back for a quick change, and then Dayle and Mallory(GRAZIE!) took me out for my “birthday” dinner, in honor of why I’m on this trip AFTER all! We went to Hostaria del Moro da Tony in Trastevere which we just happened upon. It turns out that it is #46on the Trip Advisor rating out of 1910 restaurants in Rome! I had a really delicious Chicken Parm, since I’ve had no chicken since I’ve been here; I know it doesn’t sound too creative, but it was GREAT! For dessert I had another favorite, crème caramel, and that was the first time I’ve had it since I arrived. (I wish I could say the same for gelato, which seems to call me as I walk by….)
We were out early this morning, as Dayle and Mallory’s flight was at 10:55. We caught the bus about 7:30 to the Termini Station, and they headed off to the airport. We said good byes, and I had to check some connection info for future trips. I also bought a Roma Pass, which for 25 euros, gives me free admission to two sights and 40% off other places on the list in a three day period. I did run into McDonald’s for coffee and a blueberry muffin (for shame-maybe less fat grams than a croissant!).
Then I went to the John Keats’ House, right next to the bottom of the Spanish steps, so now I have walked down three times. (I think it is the equivalent of six or seven stories.) Keats, the”Young English Poet”, died of consumption/tuberculosis at 25, in this bedroom.
I came back to my now quiet digs at Piazza Franchesco Cucchi 3 about 1. Rosa, the cleaning lady is supposed to come on Tuesdays, but again she is a “no-show”. I did a wash, as running the European washing machine is now "a piece or cake"; clothes dry on a drying rack on the porch off the kitchen. In the Roman heat they dry in no time!
So now I’m doing what I’d do if visiting friends had just left…figuring out what I will do next! What else do I want to see or see again? Where else will I go? Rita, another Couch Surfing “friend” who lives near the Vatican, has invited me to come to lunch tomorrow, so that is on the calendar for tomorrow.

Borghesi Gallery plus............

Yesterday we got tickets to the Borghesi Gallery, as they only allow 350 people in during each two hour period. Michelin says you should spend a day there: there is much to see there besides the Gallery,and I hope to return before I leave. Seeing some of the paintings and sculptures always helps to make a city/culture come together for me, and this was the case here.(It was raining when we left, so I headed off in my LLBean yellow slicker; luckily I did not need it for long.) There is so much history here in Rome and Italy that it is hard to keep it straight…the various feuds, such as between Bernini and Borremini, add to the intrigue. There were some significant sculptures that I especially enjoyed. Afterwards, we walked back to the Piazza de Populo, and we had lunch at Canova-more salads with shared pizza, and Pinot Grigio. We came back to the apartment to regroup and figure out how to get to Trastevere, a “trendy” area popular with the tourists, where we wanted to have dinner. Getting there, as always, was half the fun, since this was our first trip there! We took bus #44 which dropped us at the Trastevere Train Station. (I’d been there early on when I was having my computer charging crisis.) We finally got over to Tram #8 to get us right to where to we wanted to go. However, in the course of figuring this out (several inquiries, of course!), we crossed the street only to return to our original point. We passed a lady in her 60’s, and I guess she didn’t like the way I looked at her, because she spit at me in the face! “What was that about?” I wondered. (Mallory thought it was because she thought I was an American.) I couldn’t wait to wash my face and my glasses; what a NASTY FEELING! Luckily we passed one of the hundreds of fountains all over Rome, so I could wash off my face and glasses to get “cleaned up”!
We found a great, cute little restaurant for dinner, 76 via della Lungaretta. I had delicious pesto lasagna and salad; we have had some wonderful salads! I liked this place so much I wrote a review for it on www.Trip Advisor.
Today Dayle plotted our course so we saw where Berloscone lives (La Quirnale) and travelled that area. We walked down the Spanish steps for the second day in a row, and found another great restaurant Dolci e Doni, where Mallory and I split a cheeseburger and a salad.First thought,we stopped at the Trevi Fountain so I could throw in my coins!:)) I totally indulged my dessert side with this lemoncake.(Picture!) We came home for an R&R break; then we took a short walk in the park before we came home for another awesome salad supper. Today is Ferroagusto, an Italian holiday that seems to be only to be a holiday to party. Shops still seemed to be open, but some were closed, but it is, of course still August, so many are still closed.
Dayle and Mallory leave Tuesday AM, so tomorrow will be our last shot at seeing what they have missed!Buona notte!:))
PS. Ben heads back to RI next Wednesday; he and Mallory went for a gellato yesterday.:))

Positano Coast and Pompeii

Yesterday was a BIG DAY, as we waited outside our building at 6:45 for the driver to pick us up. The third tour we had chosen with VIATOURS was a thirteen hour trip down the Amalfi Coast which included a two hour tour of Pompeii with five other travelers in an air-conditioned Mercedes van.
Ben had told us it was a 2.5+ hour trip down there, and he was right. We stopped for a quick coffee and “breakfast” en route, but the whole trip was very quiet as everyone slept. It was an interesting site with countryside and the mountains and finally passing Mt. Vesuvius. This is still an active volcano, which they monitor very carefully. It last erupted in 1944, but they did do one evacuation after that, but an eruption didn’t come, so they are more careful now. They do encourage people to move away from the area with some financial reward. In 1995 they made Vesuvius a national park; people can drive to within 660 feet and then climb the trails that are there.
We drove along the-as expected-lovely Amalfi Coast, a series of little coves whose beaches were packed “chair to chair” with sun-worshippers. The road itself was very narrow, so a most challenging drive for the driver. Several times they held up the traffic to let vehicles coming from the other direction pass. I, for one, held my breath on more than one passing car, but our trip was without incidence. We got out in Amalfi(pic.!) for a half-hour walk around. It is lovely, but one church and mostly shops. We continued north along the coast and stopped in Positano (pic. 2) for a good salad lunch on the water.
An hour later-and another short nap-we were at Pompeii(pic. 3) for our two hour tour with Gaitano, who proudly told us of this CNN appearance and his thirty-three years of experience as a guide. It was an excellent tour, and since I never had taken world history, MOST informative. I think that seeing Pompeii would be really a great learning experience for a younger person to help put all the history into perspective. (That is, of course, from the non-history student!)
We got back home by 8:45, and by 9 we were devouring a quick Sunday night supper of scrambled eggs and improvised salad.
Today we met Ben to go to the beach at Ostia, but first we had to run to the bakery for bread and the corner market to find some things for sandwiches. Luckily there is a good little fruit and vegetable store across the way.
Our weather has been PERFECT so far. Unfortunately our one beach day promised to be cloudy with chance of PM showers...The forecast was accurate! While we had some good hour + without rain, it did come, but it was a fun day in spite of it! 5 euro to rent a chair, and we were good!

The Pantheon and Our new Friends.......

OKAY!! Another busy way of navigating ourselves around Rome! First stop was the Pantheon, then to Plaza Navona, Sant' Agnese in Agone, a Borromini creation, and on to the Campo di fiori. The Pantheon, which is where Raphael is buried, was first a temple and now a church. The walls below the dome are 19’ thick. ANOTHER TRULY INCREDIBLE BUILDING here in Rome! We walked over to the Piazza Navona, which Eyewitness says is the “loveliest square” (HOW can they say?) in Rome. (I’m loving them ALL!) We headed over to the Campo di fiori for lunch, where we found a restaurant that had at LEAST fifteen salad choices-each one better than the next!
At 4PM, we were due to meet Giulia, a woman I had connected with on www.couchsurfing.org. This took us to the Metro and a part of the city we had not yet seen. She and her son Giovanni met us at the metro stop in Eur, which is a part of Rome which is fairly new and all developed as Mussolini had ordered it. So we drove around and saw some of this area, and then we stopped for drinks at a delightful outside ice cream/gelato café, called Giolitti. (Giovanni, an only child, is probably 40ish,and doesn’t work; we couldn’t learn what he might have done for work. Giulia retired in May from what sounded like a fairly high level job in the government.) There was a small man-made “lake” right there where there is only boating, no swimming. We stopped at another amazing church, called St. Paul’s Basicilica (One of the seven basicilas open during the Jubillee.) They offered to give us a ride back to our apartment, but there was a misunderstanding, as to where we really lived. So it got a little stressful as mother and son were going backand forth. WHO KNEW? At they were both most gracious and fine, but….
Giovanni , who was driving, really didn’t know where to take us, so Giulia ended up navigating….Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I had NO idea what they were saying…it didn’t sound too sweet
We needed to get home to meet Ben(remember him from the gelato place? Thx, MC!) for dinner at the Sicilian restaurant place just up the street at eight. We all got ready in a quick fifteen minutes and were off for a tasty dinner. He is a most interesting guy….He asked us if we wanted to go to Ostia, which is THE beach scene nearest to Rome. Who knows what it will be like, but we’ll be meeting him at 10AM on Friday to take the train there. Tomorrow we are off to our all day trip to the Amalfi Coast, so I’m off. Ciao!:)) PS. Rome is really growing on me; it is a truly amazing city!!!

And thenwe saw the Vatican!

I'm really psyched that in two days,I have seen two places of such huge significnce to the world...BOTH the Colosseum AND the Vatican.We walked down the hill from the apartment maybe two miles...great views of the city and the Roman countryside. We got there very early, as our tour was due to start at at 1PM. We wandered around the area outside the Vatican and then found a place to have our gelato lunch. (Neither Dayle nor Mallory had yet had any!) Well, it was VERY hot,so we opted for a place where we could sit with a bit of shade and a fan that almost hit our whole table.Ah,little did we know!!!!!! We didnt'd ask (OOPS!!!) the price,so when I went to tpaythebill,it was 37 euros. I ALMOST had a heart attack when I went to pay the bill,as our three gelatos were 37 euro!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is mine! I'm off gelatos for a while!
Today's tour was really excellent; Jeannette, our guide was really very good. (She has $93,000 in debt for her Art History training.) The tour indcluded the museum,the Sistine Chapel (Michaelanglo's TRULY amzaing painting on the Sistine Chapel; and St. Peter's Church, TRULY fscinating to see and learn about! Mallory took a ton of pictures,as I was "on break" today from taking many pictures!

Touring with Dayle and Mallory

Yesterday I met Dayle and Mallory at Termini, the train station. They had had a long flight from Salt Lake City by way of Detroit, but they were ready to go once they "checked in". Off we went-it was Sunday, so nothing much was open, but a friend had told me about Ristorante Scarpone, which is only .2 of a mile away! It was closing last night at 7:30 for their August holiday, so luckily we got there before then! It is the quintessential Italian restaurant favored by locals, and we were the only Americans there,which I always prefer! Our meals were good standard Italian fare.AND we ate outside under a vine-covered pergola! Afterwards we walked around the Villa Pamphili Park and came back to the apartment. A little more rest, and we took a bus back into the city to find a place for dinner. Now that the bus system is a known entity, it makes the whole city totally workable! The transportation system in Rome is not as user friendly as Paris or London or even Boston! The stops are all very well marked with lists of all the stops at each stop, but no where have I yet found a bus map that clearly details this.
This morning we went on the three hour tour of the Colosseum, Palatine,and the Roman Forum. Our guide Francesca was excellent, and the tour was very informative.
This was one of the times that I was glad I was on a tour, because we were able to get into each place without waiting in line. To see places like this with such an incredible history is more than amazing. We had lunch in the city,and we were all pretty HOT and tired, so we decided to come back home to regroup.
I did a wash; I'm glad to have that done, as the washing machine is different from what we are used to! A rest later, we took bus 44 into Piazza de Venezia to go to the Trevi Fountain and see the sunset on Spanish Steps.(While we waited for the bus-forever-some man with his daughter,son,and dog asked us if we needed help for the bus.It turned out he is from San Francisco; we were still there when they came back-much to our frustration-,and he told us how you can check where a particular bus is on your PDA, so Dayle now cn do this on her IPhone. Both sites were very crowded, but interesting to see. There was no way we could climb the Spanish Steps with all the tourists on them, but I'm glad I saw them! I have no idea what time you'd have to get there to climb the steps! On the way to those two sites, we passed by the Memorial to Vittoria Emmanuele, which I saw the other day. Now you can see how impressive it is! Tomorrow we have an afternoon tour of the Vatican.

Retracing my steps from yesteday

Well, by now I'm getting the bus system down. My first stop was at the Vodafone store where I picked up the piece of the adaptor that I had left behind. I thook a bus over to Termini, the main train station in Rome, to get a map of the bus routes. I felt like I should "see" something=go into something that makes Rome so special. We had passed many of these sights on the way to Termini, and we will actually take two half day tours in Rome next week.I had passed this most spectacular monument on the way, so I got off the bus to see what it was. Lifted right from the internet, "One of the imposing landmarks in Rome is the Monument to Victor Emanuel, II, built between 1885 and 1911 and dedicated to the memory of King Victor Emanuel, II of Savoia who achieved the unification of Italy in 1870 with Rome as its capital. Visitors climbing a broad flight of steps soon notice an imposing statue flanked by a two-man honor guard and highlighted by an eternal flame, kindled in memory of the Unknown Italian Soldier of World War I." There is also a museum there,but everything (except the sign to the restrooms) were in Italian, so I was out of luck.
Unfortunately this picture doesn't give any idea of how spectacular the monument really is.
I returned home and decided to take a walk in one of the nearby parks. This neighborhood reminds me of Brookline with far less shops. It is just so interesting to see the varied architecture everywhere-this little park included.
On my way home I continued to wander through the neighborhood; most of the shops are closed for the August holiday,including the great pizza shop. However, I stopped for a gelato (I have checked the calorie count!),and the only empty chair outside was at a table with two women-one in her late 80's perhaps, and the other,not her daughter as I first guessed, but her caretaker, in her late 40's. I asked if I could use the chair,and they motioned for me to sit with them. Well, a young man, Ben, sitting at a table nearby came up to me and asked where I was from. When I told him, I noted his Hardrock Cafe shirt was from Boston; he is going to be a senior at Kingston,RI, High in the fall.He has studied Italian for three years,so his Italian is excellent. The older woman even said so! She actually had spoken at Cambridge and Oxford years ago, but we couldn't get any details. She did speak some English with us.Ben has been here for three weeks working at a B&B with three more weeks before he goes home. He warned me that I should always carry my passpor, but he doubted I'd have any trouble. It turns out that several nights ago, he had been out very late and picked up by the police. With no identification on him, they hauled him off to the police station.Needless to say,he was BEYOND SCARED! Once he gave one of them 100 euros, they let him go! He asked me if there was anything I wanted to know how to say in Italian. "Where will you be when I do need your help?" I asked. I do have his phone number if the need arises!