Happy Birthday Gloria!!! Glad you spent the day with all your boys!!! Imagine....Troy and Ryan BOTH having babes this year...and you a grandmother twice over.....amazing how these boys grow up! Gee. Second cousins for Sam and Elise!!!!
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Here we are.
Beautiful Rome.
That's what it is. We spent Friday walking the cobbled streets of Rome..and the scents, the flavours, the people...are all so beautiful. Traditions are deep and astounding. The history is ingraining.
First we searched for the gelato Silvia told us about...at the Allemagda...and we roamed...literally, the streets looking for this delicious delight! We stood in front of the Vittoria Emanuelle 11 building...walked up directly opposite..to the front of the building, to Via De Corso..turned towards the right side...and saw...Bar Brasile! But thatàs not the name, we thought! Walked up further..and saw Bar Dante...Bar Baby..and asked the man behind the counter, °Fintito!° he said. °long ago, many year ago, finito!!!° Had to laugh.
Sent Silvia a message and told her, finito!! And told her weàd toss a coin for her in the Fontand di Trevi...and thought, that should still be there! And she sent a message back, °easy come, easy go..at least the trevi will be there!!° We laughed. Weàd been thinking the same thing!
The Bar Brasile was wonderful...looking out onto the old streets...and eating stracciotella gelato! (creamy vanilla with huge lumps of chocolate in it!)...and lapping it all up....what a beatiful hour we spent there....in fact, ok we spent longer..:Greg had a beer and i had a vino...again! Weàre certainly getting into the European wine culture, very easy to do! But hey...it's good for your heart hey!
On the way back..in a little street off via de corso, Via Dei s.s. Apostoli we saw a 1 hour film being advertised. With English Audio. Called the Time Elevator. IT traced Romeàs history back 2750 years. What a fascinating history..and experience. We were strapped in chairs which rocked and rolled according to the audio. We even felt rain sprinkle and rats tails (during Rome's dark period) move aound our feet. Most of all, we learned more about Rome.
We tossed the coin at the Trevi Fountain and wondered the streets....climbed the spanish steps and saw the monastery on the top...popped into the hotel where Greg stayed on his many business trips to Rome....enquired about the price...270 Euro per night...just a couple of hundred Euro more than weàre paying at our B&B...and not that much more luxurious...well..ok, it was a bit...
But we're happy where we are..who needs all those exclusive streets on the same street anyway!!! (I do! haha..but canàt buy anything anyway, with our motto, what you buy, you carry!) I mean...itàs not every day you return to your accomodation to see a mattress pulled up outside the door..with a couple of feet sticking out at the end....hmm. The homelesss in Roma. That's us...! (haha..only kidding.)
Oh dear....anyway, Greg reminisced, a lot, and so i heard many more stories about his experiences in Rome, some very weird....and it wasnàt the beer talking. He really did have some wild and wonderful times in Rome! (quite revealing) And all this talk...extended to more tales over dinner...at our 'favourite restaurant' where the man has taken a liking to us...and this time, gave us a nip of rocket fuel after our dinner...(sweet dessert wine!.
We took the underground to dinner by the way...just to save the feet a bit...and it was RUSH HOUR. No kidding. Everyone was squeezed in like sardines. I've seen tight..but this was impossible. Everyone hugging everyone. The steps back up to fresh air was a nightmare. It was claustophobic. In fact, Rome is like this..very, very busy. Itàs easy to see passed the chaos, the confusion, the weird complicated directions of the trains because Rome is so beautiful...but honestly, when they say °Itàs on Roman Time° i know what they mean..because..it really is. Nothing seems to have order or logic! Not the train system, not the restaurinte system..not anything that requires order..because, this is Italy, where time is, Italian time. And order is, non existant.
One has to wonder about that..after Julius Ceasar invented the calender...and spent a lot of time thinking about time...a lot of the buildings were built by the Romans...cities were structured by the ROmans...and yet, there is chaos in a lot of itàs systems in Italy. Reminds me..in Florence..the train was great...the food system of serving was great, ordered and structured...but when we got to Venice...there was this wonky system...you buy coffee here, but cooldrinks there, you pay for pizzas here but choose it over there. You canàt eat it here but you can there. TOTAL DISORDER!
Even when the computers break down..or the train breaks down...they just laugh and wait. Then try to fix it. Even if the train breaks down right there, on the track. No problemo..we fix!! They have the patience of saints...which is probably where the saying comes from. And we, as tourists, have to adjust!
But we can accept that...because WE ARE IN ITALY! :-)
What a day roaming bella roma....a place that is just BEAUTIFUL.
Tomorrow will be busy.....visiting the towns off Rome..
