Journal 6
June 19, 2006
Day Six, Monday
Breakfast back in the dining room and I smiled when I saw that not only did Mario and Tony finish the plant stand, they had built two. We ran into Antonio in the lobby on the way back to the room and I introduced Stacey. Antonio, was very nice and informed us of the final figure his manager had decided on, for our long term stay. It was $20 more than what we were hoping for and it was in Euro, which means even more, but I think Stacey had his mind made up that we were going to move to the room with “our” views. He was off the Naples again and I was working around the house. I had planned to sunbath, but it was cloudy, so I spent the day reading, writing, and when I got tired of that, I pugged a movie into my computer. I tried to make myself cozy on the cushion-less back wicker couch, by bringing out a couple of pillows from the bed and my red blanket that I carried over on the plane with me. I moved our other piece of furniture around, the other wicker chair, so I could stretch out and kinda lay down. I was really uncomfortable but I pretended I wasn’t and just watched the movie anyway. I shifted back and forth several times when ever one part of my body would fall asleep or have a dent in my skin from the wicker edge. After the movie, I had a great idea. I opened our back doors and moved our livingroom chair out onto the patio. I moved one of our two wooden chairs out onto the patio, and pretended it was my ottoman. I plugged in some great music, brought out my water, sat down and said to myself, “Now this isn’t so bad.” I closed my eyes and tried to tilt my head back and take in the moment, but the back of the wicker chair was too short and it hurt my neck. So I wiggled down into the chair more and that worked for my neck, but within a minute my back was hurting. I sat up and looked around and realized that the sun had come out, I was at the back of the building and had no breeze, and it was hotter than blue blazes! I was going back inside. I moved our living room furniture back inside and shut the door. All the cool air had escaped when I had the doors opened for my five minute patio stay, and it was hotter than blue blazes inside now_ With the weak air conditioner, it was going to takes hours to cool down, so I got me camera and went for a short walk around outside to practice some things I had learned earlier when watching my Nikon CD. Stacey came home just as I was loading my newly taken pictures onto the computer. He asked why it was so hot in the room and I told him, “I didn’t have a clue?” He said, “We really do need to move out of this place!” I cleverly thought, I couldn’t have accidently set that up any better if I tried. He said, “Let’s get out of here and go into Rome for dinner.” It didn’t take me but a minute to touch up my makeup, grab my camera and purse, and we took off to catch the hotel bus into Rome. On a previous trip, Stacey had eaten at a place close to the Pantheon that he said was really good. He had just read an article in a magazine located in our hotel room that it rated the resturaunt as the number one pick by some New York food critic. After getting off the bus, we walked into the direction he knew we needed to go. I love the fact that I can now recognize a large section of Rome and get to most places. But it was reassuring to know that Stacey knew exactly where he was going and all I had to do was hold his hand and let him drag me so I could sight see along the way. Just five minutes into the walk, we rounded a corner and we were walking through the piazza where the Pantheon is located. Like a kid at Christmas, I couldn’t take me eyes off the historical site the entire walk across the piazza! I realized that by the time we walked out the other side of the piazza, my eyes had never left the Pantheon and my neck was completely turned to the back. When we found Stacey’s place, Guido, the guy at the door, asked us if we made reservations. Stacey looked at me and said, “Did you call earlier today?” I looked at him and said, “No, sweetie, you said you were going to make the reservations.” In any case, Guido, didn’t speak any English and didn’t get our joke. He just looked at us and said 10:00 o’clock! It was 7:00! Ok, we had six months to come back to check this place out, no need to wait three hours. The number two place mentioned in the article was over by the Vatican, and also sounded good. Stacey had never eaten there, so it would be a new place for both of us. We could make it in a brisk 30 minute walk. But we would be all sweaty, so we took a taxi. This restaurant was a great find1 It sat just off to the side of the Vatican, in a residential neighborhood. There were still plenty of shops and eateries around, but it was a slower paced neighborhood. I saw a nun watering her flowers at the edge of her rooftop garden a block away. It was a good sign. They seated us outside, and I instantly made a connection with our waiter, who reminded me of my Uncle Willy. I could have stopped at the anti pasta appetizers and been totally satisfied. The fried zucchini blossoms, fried artichoke heart with the stem still on, and the two other things on the plate were amazing! I then ordered my favorite, Ala Carbanara, and Stacey ordered something that looked more like typical spaghetti. We didn’t even care that we were passing plates back and forth and sharing the food like a couple of out-of-towners. For dessert, we let the waiter surprise us, and he brought out a bowel full of baby strawberries in this ice cream stuff that was deliziosous! To make the evening even more enjoyable, we met the couple next to us who were from San Francesco. They were here on a two week vacation. At the end of dinner Stacey told them that someday we wanted to go to the Napa Valley and check out the wine in California. They looked at each, handed us a business card and said they had a second home in Napa Valley and to be sure and call them before we came so they could help us with the trip! Wow! How lucky was that?! After our Lemonchello, we were off the bus stop. We were a little early so I took about fifteen minutes to practice and play around with some new buttons on the camera. Night shots in downtown Rome! What a place to learn!!!
Day Six, Monday
Breakfast back in the dining room and I smiled when I saw that not only did Mario and Tony finish the plant stand, they had built two. We ran into Antonio in the lobby on the way back to the room and I introduced Stacey. Antonio, was very nice and informed us of the final figure his manager had decided on, for our long term stay. It was $20 more than what we were hoping for and it was in Euro, which means even more, but I think Stacey had his mind made up that we were going to move to the room with “our” views. He was off the Naples again and I was working around the house. I had planned to sunbath, but it was cloudy, so I spent the day reading, writing, and when I got tired of that, I pugged a movie into my computer. I tried to make myself cozy on the cushion-less back wicker couch, by bringing out a couple of pillows from the bed and my red blanket that I carried over on the plane with me. I moved our other piece of furniture around, the other wicker chair, so I could stretch out and kinda lay down. I was really uncomfortable but I pretended I wasn’t and just watched the movie anyway. I shifted back and forth several times when ever one part of my body would fall asleep or have a dent in my skin from the wicker edge. After the movie, I had a great idea. I opened our back doors and moved our livingroom chair out onto the patio. I moved one of our two wooden chairs out onto the patio, and pretended it was my ottoman. I plugged in some great music, brought out my water, sat down and said to myself, “Now this isn’t so bad.” I closed my eyes and tried to tilt my head back and take in the moment, but the back of the wicker chair was too short and it hurt my neck. So I wiggled down into the chair more and that worked for my neck, but within a minute my back was hurting. I sat up and looked around and realized that the sun had come out, I was at the back of the building and had no breeze, and it was hotter than blue blazes! I was going back inside. I moved our living room furniture back inside and shut the door. All the cool air had escaped when I had the doors opened for my five minute patio stay, and it was hotter than blue blazes inside now_ With the weak air conditioner, it was going to takes hours to cool down, so I got me camera and went for a short walk around outside to practice some things I had learned earlier when watching my Nikon CD. Stacey came home just as I was loading my newly taken pictures onto the computer. He asked why it was so hot in the room and I told him, “I didn’t have a clue?” He said, “We really do need to move out of this place!” I cleverly thought, I couldn’t have accidently set that up any better if I tried. He said, “Let’s get out of here and go into Rome for dinner.” It didn’t take me but a minute to touch up my makeup, grab my camera and purse, and we took off to catch the hotel bus into Rome. On a previous trip, Stacey had eaten at a place close to the Pantheon that he said was really good. He had just read an article in a magazine located in our hotel room that it rated the resturaunt as the number one pick by some New York food critic. After getting off the bus, we walked into the direction he knew we needed to go. I love the fact that I can now recognize a large section of Rome and get to most places. But it was reassuring to know that Stacey knew exactly where he was going and all I had to do was hold his hand and let him drag me so I could sight see along the way. Just five minutes into the walk, we rounded a corner and we were walking through the piazza where the Pantheon is located. Like a kid at Christmas, I couldn’t take me eyes off the historical site the entire walk across the piazza! I realized that by the time we walked out the other side of the piazza, my eyes had never left the Pantheon and my neck was completely turned to the back. When we found Stacey’s place, Guido, the guy at the door, asked us if we made reservations. Stacey looked at me and said, “Did you call earlier today?” I looked at him and said, “No, sweetie, you said you were going to make the reservations.” In any case, Guido, didn’t speak any English and didn’t get our joke. He just looked at us and said 10:00 o’clock! It was 7:00! Ok, we had six months to come back to check this place out, no need to wait three hours. The number two place mentioned in the article was over by the Vatican, and also sounded good. Stacey had never eaten there, so it would be a new place for both of us. We could make it in a brisk 30 minute walk. But we would be all sweaty, so we took a taxi. This restaurant was a great find1 It sat just off to the side of the Vatican, in a residential neighborhood. There were still plenty of shops and eateries around, but it was a slower paced neighborhood. I saw a nun watering her flowers at the edge of her rooftop garden a block away. It was a good sign. They seated us outside, and I instantly made a connection with our waiter, who reminded me of my Uncle Willy. I could have stopped at the anti pasta appetizers and been totally satisfied. The fried zucchini blossoms, fried artichoke heart with the stem still on, and the two other things on the plate were amazing! I then ordered my favorite, Ala Carbanara, and Stacey ordered something that looked more like typical spaghetti. We didn’t even care that we were passing plates back and forth and sharing the food like a couple of out-of-towners. For dessert, we let the waiter surprise us, and he brought out a bowel full of baby strawberries in this ice cream stuff that was deliziosous! To make the evening even more enjoyable, we met the couple next to us who were from San Francesco. They were here on a two week vacation. At the end of dinner Stacey told them that someday we wanted to go to the Napa Valley and check out the wine in California. They looked at each, handed us a business card and said they had a second home in Napa Valley and to be sure and call them before we came so they could help us with the trip! Wow! How lucky was that?! After our Lemonchello, we were off the bus stop. We were a little early so I took about fifteen minutes to practice and play around with some new buttons on the camera. Night shots in downtown Rome! What a place to learn!!!
posted by Kathy at 9:24 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home