Wrap It Up!

This was an amazing vacation. I feel privileged to have been able to spend time with Mariola, Tom, Kate, Sarah and Sammi. Tom was a most excellent tour guide who was patient in guiding us, thoughtful in balancing those things he thought were important for us to see with things we were interested in doing. And wonderfully thorough in the depth and breath of knowledge about the city and its history. For all these, he has my thanks and appreciation.

Spending time with Mariola and the girls was awesome. Talking with them and working to see Rome through their eyes helped me see things I would never have seen on my own. Laughing and playing with them while taking in this eternal city was an experience I will always remember.

Mariola, I love your dry, cutting wit. It's just my style and always brought a smile to my face.

Kate, thanks for playing along with me and filling the city with an amazing though imagined feast. It was most delicious.

Sarah, thanks for smiling even though you really wanted to be quiet and introspective. Consider doing it more often ;-)

Sammi, thanks for sharing stories about your life, your love of dogs and for always being a spot of sunshine on this vacation.

Thank you and good night.

Home!

We're home. The monster dogs are fine and our house is still standing.

Total travel time from the apartment in Rome to our home was 21:46:28. This was a long day.

Zurich, Duty Free and the TSA. Again.

We made our connecting flight in Zurich. It was close but they held the flight just for us. Well, maybe for us and the dozen other people who were running to catch it.

When we were in the airport in Rome, we stopped by one of the duty free shops to pick up some last minute things. On talking with the lady there about taking wine on board, we were assured that we could take wine with us on the plane to the US. So we picked up a couple of bottles to bring home with us. There wasn't a problem carrying them on board the flight from Rome to Zurich.

But the long reach of the TSA screwed us in Zurich. We had to go through another security check point in Zurich before getting on the plane. And at this one, a female security agent confiscated out wine in the sealed duty free bag. Frack you, TSA for these asinine rules. And another hearty frack you to the lady in the duty free shop in Rome who assured us that we could carry our wine on board the plane. The real kicker came when the stewardess on board the flight to SFO asked if we wanted wine with dinner. The wine was served in glass bottles. I took 2, a bottle of red and one of white. They sat next to my metal fork, knife and spoon that were on the tray served with dinner.

Leaving Rome

We're at the airport waiting for our flight. It's been delayed because the plane isn't here yet. Who knows why. Hopefully we'll still make our connecting flight in zurich.

We were up this morning in time to see Mariola, Tom, Kate, Sarah, and Sammi off to the airport. It was nice to send them off with hugs and kisses.

Cleaning up around the apartment, last minute packing and a typical insane roman drive to the airport. We were picked up in a van and the driver had to grease the sides in order to fit the small, packed streets around our apartment. He basically had three states of motion: stopped, accelerating and breaking. Needless to say, the ride was a bit bouncy.

There was another couple in the van when we were picked up and we made a stop for one other person on the way. Listening to them take about their stay in Rome, we realized that our vacation was so much better. The couple only spent a day in Rome. About all you can do in that amount of time is to wave as the sites go by. And the other person had to travel 2 hours by bus every time she wanted to see one of the sites. Mary and I realized how lucky we were to be staying in an apartment in the middle of ancient rome, a couple of blocks from the forum and colosseum. What a great way to see this city.

Seriously Folks

Seriously folks, life just does not get any better than this. We just shared another fantastic dinner at Carlos Menta. Appetizers, first and second courses followed by a yummy desert. Mix in some water and wine and you have a seriously content group of people. That ever so slight drunk feeling on top of a full belly and the remnants of flavors from dinner followed by a nice walk home in a slight rain. What a wonderful way to celebrate our last night here.

Thank you everyone for a fantastic week.

Waiting for the bus

We had a long wait for bus. But it finally came and took us down the Appian Way to the Catacombs of San Callisto.

Our tour of the catacombs was led by a priest as a church is now responsible for the maintenance and upkeep. There 4 levels to the catacombs, each level is around 12 meters deep. There are around 20 kilometers of corridors here and around 500,000 people were buried here at one point. Today there are few if any still buried here. Most of the remains have been taken to another site for safe keeping mostly because of the looting over the centuries. Christians would practice their faith here and the Romans (and others) would persecute them for it. Of the people buried here, 16 were popes and bishops of Rome. Did i mention the looting? The place was forgotten for long stretches of time.

The crypts were small as befitting the size of the people from the time. You can see the tool marks in the walls and crypts where the volcanic ash and stone were cut away. Down a corridor there could be 5 to 8 crypts high lining both walls. The floor of corridor was cut lower as people were buried. There are chambers off the sides for families, guilds and people who wanted to be buried together.

We had another long wait for bus back. Mary and I split from the others since they want to go to the Colosseum to look for souvenirs for the girls and something for Tommy. Mary and I were more interested in lunch.

Lunch was some outstanding polenta for me and some great cannoli w/ pumpkin for Mary. It was most excellent though expensive at 50 euros. Perhaps when I consider the water, wine, appetizer and desert along with the main dishes it's not that bad ;-)

I'm not a coffee drinker, never developed a taste for it. At the recommendation of a friend, I tried an espresso after lunch. It was very good. I must now pause to hurl many curses at Steve for introducing me to this interesting elixir. And i may have to search out a good espresso when I get back home. Damn you, steve!

We walked a bit after lunch before Mary and I split. I head back to apartment to take a nap, she is off looking for interesting treasures to bring back home.

Everyone else return 5 minutes after I do, Sammi, Kate and I spend a few minutes comparing snow globes (I picked up one from the vatican for a friend) and Sarah showed off the small statue that she picked up as a memento of her time here.

Mariola calls Mary and arranges to meet her so they can go shopping together. Tom spends a while herding cats trying to get Kate, Sammi and Sarah to start packing up their clothes. It's pretty amusing from where I'm sitting.

Here's the quote of the day from Sammi: "When I get married, I'm going to take my husband here for our honeymoon." She's almost 12, already getting married and telling him what to do. Too funny!

Fruit Juices and Water Fountains

One thing I'm going to miss is the fruit juices that are ubiquitous here. There is a huge variety available. We had blood orange, peach and pear. They're all thick, rich, delicious and fairly inexpensive. The blood orange was 2 euros, around $2.60 for a liter. Made a great addition to breakfast.

There are public drinking fountains all over Rome and there's nothing like what we have here in the States. For starters, they look nothing like our public drinking fountain and they're always have water running. And to drink from them, you plug the flow with your finger and drink from the stream that comes out the top. Very different and pretty cool.