We decide it's time to add a little food to the liquid nourishment we've been consuming. After wandering around for 15 or 20 minutes, we find a street-side pizza restaurant. Forgetting our good intentions, we order and just about finish a bottle of Chianti before we order our food. We now know we must have something to eat so, with weakened restraint, we order more than we can possibly finish, bruschetta, two different kinds of pasta, two veal steaks with sauteed mushrooms and spinach and, of course, another bottle of Chianti.
We introduce ourselves to two very young female students at the next table. Only one of them can speak English. They are from the South of Italy, outside Naples and are visiting Rome for the first time. Somehow, everything we say and they say is hysterically funny. Everyone is laughing. In retrospect, perhaps they are laughing at us rather than with us. We offer to buy them an after dinner drink and when they demur, we force the issue by agreeing to have one ourselves. We order Sambucas all around. Not being totally out of it, we drink the Sambuca the "boring" way. You'll have to check the link to discover what that means.
About this time, Tom runs out of cigarettes and asks where he can buy some. The Maitre de indicates no problem, walks across the street to his Vespa and returns with a pack of cigarettes for Tom. Tom is so taken by this act of generosity that he tips the guy about three times as much as the smokes would have cost.
The girls leave. We settle our bill. Now we must somehow find our way back to our hotel. This becomes a bit of a problem as we can't remember how we got to where we are. We don't realize this immediately, of course, and, when we do, we can't seem to find anyone from whom to ask directions. Lurching from side to side, we wander around until we find the Piazza Barberini and from there lurch our way to our hotel. We lurch to our rooms. I manage to undress and lurch into bed. This act is the last thing I remember.
I decide to sleep in until 9:00 AM., it being Sunday and all. Tom and I breakfast in the crowded dining room. This seems to be a very popular hotel with Americans. We Americans do love our breakfasts.
Tom and I stroll to some of the nearby tourist sites. You can access pictures of these sites in my Rome photo album. We start with Trevi Fountain, hoping to see Anita Ekberg wading in the pool. We are disappointed but continue on to the Pantheon and the Piazza Navona. It's Sunday and families are out in force. Church bells are ringing all over. I feel like I'm in a video being shot by the Rome Tourist Authority. We also visit the churches of San Luigi dei Francesi and San Agnes fuori le mure. Even the most obscure churches in Rome are filled with beautiful art and sculpture. They also almost always have an old woman or a young woman with an infant begging on the front steps.
Gesu, the mother church of the Jesuits, is not available for tourists. We should have guessed that. There are no begging women in the vicinity. It's Sunday. We can't figure out why we can't get in. Do you suppose the "Soldiers of Christ" are hatching some kind of plot? Nah, we've been reading too many Vatican conspiracy novels.
We continue to the Piazza Venezia. Mussolini loved to orate from the Vittorio Emmanuele Monument, overlooking this piazza. I'm tempted to climb the steps and yell to the masses of people in the area, "Go home, Mussolini is dead!" The architecture here may define the term wretched excess. Look at the picture below and draw your own conclusion. The historically significant Palazzo Venezia is also on this piazza.
We cross the piazza to visit Trajan's Forum and Trajan's Column. I'm flagging badly but walking with Tom is such a pleasure because he is so obviously enchanted by everything. At one point I see him hug a pillar. This is not the same as hugging a tree, I assure you. Maybe he's using it to cool off. It is hot in the sun but comfortable in the shade.
We must return to our hotel. Tom has booked a tour for the afternoon and I plan to find an internet cafe and take it easy. I grab a couple beers at a corner combination caf�/bar/grocery store on Piazza Barberini which contains the well known Fountain of Triton designed and built by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1642-44.
Ouch! I awaken with a headache but a couple Tylenol and breakfast take care of the pain. We meet a lovely couple from Vancouver, Canada over breakfast. They had spent time in Hong Kong so we had great fun talking about it. I can't believe that I'm feeling a little homesick for the place.
Tom is off on a guided tour and I decide to visit the Forum. Last time I was here with Pam, we only saw the Forum from above. This time I want to walk among the ruins. Before I take off, I call SOSRome, a home away from home for Americans in Rome. It's run by a retired air force officer, Mario Brunetti. Pam and I had some problems with our tours when we were here in January and Mario had gotten us credits which Tom was using. Mario's operation is first rate and I try to set up a time for us to meet face to face. Unfortunately Mario has a medical problem he needs to have treated daily and we just can't put a meeting together - next time.
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I give up and return to the caf� for more beer and a sandwich. I meet two young couples from Chicago who are sick of riding on tour busses and have decided to strike out on their own as frightening as that might seem to them. We discuss possible scenarios and they set out with renewed determination, partially fueled by cheese, sausage, beer and wine.
At the hotel, I sneak in a nap for an hour or so waiting for Tom to return from his tour of "Early Christian Rome." On his return, we grab a table at the corner caf� and suck down a few beers while watching the world walk by.