Thursday, November 9, 2023
Up in time to stretch and shower and do the last-minute straightening and still be ready when the Uber arrives! It's a Tesla!
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| Moxie guarding her treat! |
And. the driver is quite a trip! He is blindingly successful and has done everything to hear him tell it. And we hear him tell it all the way to the airport! But he gets us there safely and in good time so we are grateful. But we're pretty sure he drives an Uber in retirement because his wife needs the peace and quiet at home and he needs a new audience every trip!
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| There has been an accident that snarls traffic. The entire engine fell out of this Chevy! |
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| View through the Tesla's sun roof from the back seat |
Because we are flying a hybrid of United and Air Canada, we can't check in until we get to the airport. It looks easy enough to use one of the kiosks; but, alas, 'tain't so! The attendant who tries to help us gives up after the third kiosk goes belly-up and she takes us to the counter. That goes well until Nick notices that we didn't get our TSA pre-check, so she has to reprint all our boarding passes, of which we each have three. Then we move down to another person to check out bags. They are checked all the way to Rome, so that's a relief!
Security is a breeze and we go in search of a place for a leisurely breakfast. We find Atlanta Stillhouse and everyone gets the breakfast sandwich on a croissant with bacon. Not a virtuous dietary choice, but the first two flights are short and we probably won't get fed. And the layovers are short, so there's no hope there, either. Good thing I brought Barbara's dried apples and Ginger snagged the left-over chicken from last night!
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But it sure was tasty!
Our flight to Newark boards on time and I've got my window seat, so I'm happy. The movie selection is quite limited. I think there are eight! I dip in and out of "Red, White, and Royal Blue" and there are two handsome guys to ogle and a passionate speech about queer rights and the right to privacy. I don't get to see the end; but I'll live! The treat is a chocolate quinoa crisp which is small but crunchy and chocolate and I think I read that the company is woman-owned and concerned with renewability. And we get a cup of water; but I can see it being poured from a bottle, so that's good!
(The photos are waiting to upload to the cloud!? And the above paragraph is just misbehaving!!)
When we get to Newark we discover that the stalls in the ladies' room are all wallpapered in a forest scene! And we can see the city lightly shrouded in smog.
The gate attendant told us our next flight left from C101, which is different from our boarding pass, so it's good that Nick asked! We ride the shuttle bus to terminal C and walk to C101. Just for giggles we check the board and find that it's not C101, but C72! Happily it's not to far back along the way we came and we still have plenty of time! Nick gets some Mexican and Ginger is having chicken wings. I'm still full from breakfast! I hope I don't regret not eating as the day wears on! There's still a lot of flying to go.( I gave in and had one of Ginger’s wings and lots of Barbara’s dried apples!
On our way again! One more United flight, this time to Toronto and the highlight is the sunset! There are no video screens so I’m glad I’ve got my book. We are offered a snack and I go for the savory one this time and a cup of water.
Toronto is such a pretty airport!!
The landing is so smooth!! And transiting to the next gate is, too! Just stick your passport in the machine, show your boarding pass and find your gate. We had been fretting because there isn’t much time between planes; but we needn’t have worried. We’ve got time to write and email (except the WiFi doesn’t work here, either) and whatever else it is that Nick’s gone off to do! I’m exploiting the virtues of Text Edit - Thank you, Betsy! If all goes to plan I’ll be able to copy/paste this into the blog when we’ve settled in Rome!
Whoa! The WiFi came back! We're about to go back to the gate for the looong ride to Rome! |
The Rome flight is a red eye of seven hours duration, so we get both dinner and a light breakfast. We've swapped our middle seat with a rather portly gentleman so we are all in the same row. I watch four movies, since I can't ever sleep on a plane. They were "Magic Mike's Last Dance (Lots of pretty boys who are great dancers, and a well written speech about queer rights and the right to privacy).,"Moving On" with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, "Book Club: The Next Chapter with Jane Fonda, Ddianne Keaton, Candace Bergen and Mary Steenbergen, and "Cocaine Bear" ('nuff saidd!)
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| Chicken, couscous, bread and cheese, brownie, water, and red wine, thank you! |
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| yogurt and a dessert bread with cherries |
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| The Mediterranean as we approach Rome's airport |
(It's now Friday, November 10th)
When we land we first go to baggage claim where Nick's suitcase isn't on the carousel! Turns out someone had already pulled it off and left it over to the side! Then passport control where one of the policemen is giving a young man a hard. time because France is broke!! (Maybe we missed something?) We breeze through and finally figure out the taxi line. Our cabbie is a woman! She finds our B&B with no trouble and. we press the button for someone to open the gate.
Our room is lovely and I have aa separate bedroom (no door; but who cares!) We chat with our hostess about tomorrow's breakfast (spoiler alert - she won't be making breakfast in time for us to leave at seven!)
and she recommends a restaurant right down the street for lunch. We spend a few minutes getting reorganized and then set off to explore. Our first stop is Al Cupolone Ristorante-Pizzeria where Nick has pasta ccarbonara aand Ginger and I split pasta with clam sauce. It is actually clams still in their shells! The pasta is buttery and divine. If I hadn't eaten everything Air Canada put in front of me I could have had a serving of my own!
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| Cab fares are posted both at the cab stand and in the cab, so there isn't a question. |
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| So many apartments!! |
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| View from our balcony |
Nick andd Ginger have both got Rick Steves' walking tour of the heart of Rome downloaded and we follow faithfully as long the the power lasts. There is a plaza that has housed a market place for centuries and it also has a statue to a monk, Bruno, who was thrown out of several different faith traditions for his radical thinking. He said the Earth revolved around the Sun before Galileo! He is still a symbol of rebellion and free thinking. You can see two white columns that are all that remain of the temporary location of the Roman Senate, which is where Caesar met his brutal end.
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| St. Peter'ss Basilica is visible from our B&B |
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| A surprise treat of lemon cello and almond cookies, both made in house, when we pay our bill! |
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| There's something ancient around every corner! |
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| Posters for people missing in Israel |
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| The Tiber runs through the heart of Rome |
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| One of the oldest statues found. |
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| The Four Rivers statue and one of the many Egyptian obelisks in the city |
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| Yes, that's a palm tree! |
We buy tickets (only five euros) to see the amazing inside of the Pantheon with its oculus open to the heavens.
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| It's just so hard to wrap your mind around these ancient buildings being right in the middle of modern Rome! Imagine what people were thinking when they started new constructions! |
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Even the floor is gorgeous, and this gives a feel for the
scale of the building, with statues to the gods of various religions
lining the walls, as well as an altar and several tombs. |
My favorite is the Trevi Fountain. Seeing it in pictures just doesn't give any idea of the scope and grandeur. Of course there were about a million people all vying for the perfect tourist shot and visions of COVID danced in our heads. But we did get to see it!
And we concluded at the Spanish Steps, being mindful of the fact that sitting on the steps can get you arrested!
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| The view from the top of the Steps |
During the last part of the tour it started to rain, but we all had rain gear, so no big deal. We also stoppedd at a MacDonalds; but before you scream BLASPHEMY it was just so I could spend a euro to go to the bathroom! Money well spent!
We agree to walk back home and it is pretty dark by the time we return to our new favorite restaurant, this time for pizzas. Ginger and I split a white pizza with porcini mushrooms and it is heavenly. Nick has a red one with sausage and peppers. And the beer is Birra Moretti La Rossa.
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| This may look like an ordinary pizza, but, believe me, it's not!! |
By the time we get home we've logged 7.8 miles! A little organizing, a little showering, a little blogging and straight to bed for the first time since Wednesday night! We have to leave tomorrow morning between 6:30 and 6:45 for our tour of the Vatican!
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| Vatican City |
