This morning we decided to go to the Appian Way. We took the metro to the Colli Albania stop on the metro and waited for our bus to take us direct to the area where our bike rental is. We talked to this large family with lots of little kids and they asked us about something with the catacombs, we handed them the Rick Steve book and chatted with them a bit. They are a missionary family that spent a while in Papua New Guinea and were traveling around sharing with churches their story, they were nice to talk to.
Well, we found the bike rental place all right and got our regular bikes with a basket, handbrakes and no gears for 3.50 an hour. We rode the first half block and Luke noted that his pedal was loosening and was ready to fall off. He exchanged the bike for a new one. Then our route took us immediately past this bumpy block. When I say bumpy, I mean like roman stones that are like 12x12 in and are all set or worn at weird angles. It was impossible to ride over these stones so we chose the cobble stoned “sidewalk” and that was better but still very bumpy and hard to navigate. Then thankfully a downhill stretch and some smoother pavement came up. We passed some monuments like a castle and an old building that was falling apart. We have no idea what they were or what the significance was because I just really wanted to go out there to look at pretty things from a distance on a bike. Luke did not know that this was my agenda and he kept waiting for the big bang. You see, there are ancient Christian catacombs out there (for admission) of course. I was not terribly interested in the catacombs. I have seen Rick talk about them on TV and on Indiana Jones so I think I am just about an expert on the subject.
We rode around, ended up essentially lost on a busy fast street. Luke said he was kind of scared with all the traffic. I guess I wasn’t. We only heard 1 horn honk and I am no sure if it was directed at us or not.
We thankfully were able to get back to the old road again after I, regrettably, said some harsh words toward my map reader husband. We stopped to rest after going up a hill and had a water break. We also rode on this older part of the road that was closed to traffic except bikes and people. This had to have been original Roman it had the deep ruts worn in from their wheels. I was interested in riding on this bumpy and kind of tricky stretch of road as I had found the sweet spot where the ruts were and it was not so difficult to navigate. Luke was absolutely nearly furious that I wanted to continue riding on this. I thought it was kind of entertaining. I am and was never a very good bike rider but I was kind of surprised at how I liked this.
We came upon the rental store again and Luke said in so many words that he was “done” with the whole bike riding thing. So we returned the bikes after an hour and a half and only got charged for an hour. That was like the only positive thing Luke got out of the experience, he got a little something for nothing.
We hit the bus back after waiting a bit and found a grocery store. We picked up some lunch a la rice cake chips, a bun, 1 L orange juice box and we saw and smelled a bakery. Luke checked it out and got a sfogliella which is the sweet ricotta filled flaky pastry and a flaky buttery nutella chocolate filled one. The chocolate one was really good and kinda big too. That one was really hard to finish it got pretty rich toward the end, but of course we were able to do it.
We were recharged and cooled off and thus decided to hit a miscellaneous site that I wanted to see that was on a metro stop. We went to see a Pyrimid of Gaius Cestius that is part of the Aurelian wall that surrounded the city. The pyramid was impressive enough to make a special trip there and spend 5 minutes looking at it. I guess we are pretty lucky to see some of these interesting off main stream sights. We walked around a bit at Luke’s request and saw some real Rome where people actually live. We also saw some places where bums ate and drank and defecated. How interesting.
We had to take the B line subway back which is the older, dirter, more vandalized, stinkier and hotter subway. We transferred to the A line, got off at our stop and went home. We were damn hot, we had some beers as that was the only thing we had cold besides milk and tap h2o. Luke quick cooked the formaggio hotdogs and we vegged out and watched some of The Soprano’s. That’s when I noticed my bum hurting from the bike, guess I am glad we only went as long as we did.
Later Luke made some pasta with tomato sauce and the spices we bought. He only added a heaping soup spoon full. He said, “Well, I can always add more.” When we tried it, it was SO spicy. It was like the spiciest chili I’ve had in a long long time. Needless to say we were not really hungry anyway so we didn’t feel bad not eating it. Oh, well, you win some you loose some. Good night.
May 12, 2007
Good afternoon. Today we went to the Via Andrea Doria markets near the Vatican Museum. It was really a large market. They had mainly food vendors, fruit, meat, cheese, fish. They did have a few clothes booths, I couldn’t decide if they were used like garage sale stuff or new. We bought 2 big tasty bananas and some Parmigiano Reggiano that was vacuum sealed for travel. The cheese cost €48, or €13/kilo, that isn’t such a terrible price. We bought a roasted fryer chicken and some mini 3 inch pizzas for lunch with some orange juice. We had to walk quite a ways to find a bench or even some shade. We found the stairs up to the Vatican Museum and parked it there. The chicken was really greasy and you know kind of dry, but edible. The pizzas were tasty.
Then our friend Kevin called and he and his wife Liz and his sister Dawn had arrived in Rome. We hopped on our favorite public transportation and headed toward their location. We found it with some uncertainty but not too much difficulty. They were waiting outside on the lawn as their room was not ready yet. We chatted a bit while the kids at the hotel were playing soccer with a pine cone and some rocks to mark the goals. Luke and Kevin drove to the airport to drop off their rental car and they took the Leonardo Express back to the city. They took an exceptionally long time as their tram was 30 min. later than was expected. Liz, Lisa and Dawn played cards and drank some wine.
When the boys came back we sent them right down to the front desk to ask about a restaurant. They did, and made us a reservation at the same time. It was called Il Postiglione and it was right next to a police station. So we felt safe. We all sat down at a reserved table for us and proceded to look at the menu. It was a decent menu with enough selection for everybody to have what they wanted. The waiter was fluent enough in English so if we said something in English about the menu, he knew what we were talking about. Of course there were appetizers, first course, second course, pizzas and desserts. There was also a clearly explained drink menu. Since most of the time you don’t know how much you are spending on water, much less else the wine and beer. So that was nice. (Luke writing now) I ordered the tallest beer they had for 5€ and it turned out to be like a 40 oz beer, so Kevin and I shared the beer, and Lisa ordered a liter of the house red. All drinks were good in my opinion. By the end of the meal I think Kevin and I drank 3 bottles of beer. So we ended up ordering. Lisa got 4 cheese gnocchi and a mixed salad. I ordered the risotto, and an onion pizza. The risotto was okay, but not as creamy and cheesy as I wanted it. The pizza was awesome along with Lisa’s gnocchi. The gnocchi tasted like white macaroni and cheese only with potato dumplings. Yummy. The pizza was the size of our plates, so easily 10 inches. Thin crust and lots of cheese and onions. After dinner nobody wanted desserts, so we told the waiter no desserts, we were done. So the guy walked away, and we thought he was going to get the check, but he never did, so we sat around and chatted for about half an hour. It was a nice time at the restaurant. Finally we got the check and figured out who owed what, etc. After we paid, we walked out the restaurant and we were about ready to walk across a road meant for parking (so we figured no fast cars, etc) and this scooter zipped by us going about 60 mph. If it was a split second sooner, one of us would be hurt bad, or the scooter person would be dead. Jeez. They think they own the road. So we walked back to the hotel, and said bye to our friends, and Lisa and I took off for the subway.
When we got to the bottom of the subway and almost through the gate, a person who worked for the metro asked which stop we wanted, and we said Barbarini, and they told us it was closed, so we had to take a bus to barbarini, so we asked which direction, and they told us, and were the stop was. So we went upstairs and we found the stop, but it was going in the opposite direction, so we ran across the street, and they didn’t have the bus we needed. So we thought it might be next to the McDonalds near the hotel, so we ran down there, no luck. I had seen a bus on another street, so we headed over there, and found the stop. And right when we found it, here comes the bus. It was a fun ride because it was at night and you could see some of the Italian Nightlife. We ended up also passing a hot dog shop called Mr. Doggys. It said it was open all day and night for hot dogs. I wanted to stop there and have one, but oh well. We got home without any problems after that. Before we went to the apartment, I stopped and had panna cotta gelato with chocolate gelato as well. It was only 4€. Boy does the Campo really turn to life on weekend evenings. The whole square was filled with people just dinking around. Half the people we saw were either eating gelato or drinking alcohol. So that was nice to see before we left. Thankfully the noise of the night doesn’t reach our apartment. We ended up taking a shower to wash the hot night off of us, and went to bed, since it was almost midnight.
Sunday May 13, 2007 11:00 a.m.
We are slowly starting to get our stuff packed away. Hopefully we can pack everything smartly and equal everything out. We have 20 lbs of parm to stash and olive oil and balsamic also. I hope we don’t go over our weight limit. That might suck because we might have to get out of line and move stuff around. We are also watching Italian MTV. That is a nice change to the music we have been listening to. Plus they play a ton of videos and some are in English, but most are in Italian, and it is nice to see the differences in music videos. So that is about it. Nothing else to report. Breakfast was just the same as it was the last few days. We still haven’t figured out how we are going to eat all the cheese we have. We will most likely toss it, because we can’t eat five lbs of cheese between the two of us. Maybe, but I doubt it. Okay, later ljf.
Hello, we finally got the gumption to get up and go see The Amoriellos. They said they’d be arriving at the Spagna Steps shortly. Luke and I got on the stick and got there via bus/metro asap. We even beat them there. It was hot of course, the others were sunburned, Kevin’s feet too. You’d think he’d learn I am positive this is not the first time that’s happened to him. We hung around and watched juveniles pour water on each other and then another group jam with their acoustic guitars.
After much deliberation we thought we’d go to the Campo area and find a place to eat as kev and liz haven’t eaten since breakfast and it is now 1700. We went to the apartment to originally go to the bathroom and get some water. We tricked the visitors to try some of the cheese of which they were really impressed. We left after sharing some postcards and pictures. We looked like we always do for the perfect restaurant. We thankfully didn’t have to look to long or too far away. There are so many places to eat there. We ate at Ristorante Grotte del Teatro di Pompeo. I ordered a ensalada verde, Luke had the vegetable anti pasto which he liked but did not finish or do backflips over. For first course we had Spaghetti Bolognese, I had Pesto linguini which I quite enjoyed it had lots of cheese on top and a bit mixed in. Then Luke had cannelloni that was pretty good, in fact the best I’ve ever had. We had it at G-Jo’s for homecoming when we were in high school and it tasted like dog food. I’ll never forget that, maybe that’s why I’ve never had it since. During dinner Luke pointed over Kevin’s shoulder and said something like, “look at that lady.” Kevin turned around and kept looking and intently trying to locate this pretty lady and meanwhile Luke stole one of his tortellini off his plate. We all laughed and laughed as it seemed like it was in slow motion cause he took so long to look for this lady! It was hilarious.
We ordered dessert 1000 Leaves which was crumbly torta or shortbread with creamy fluffy pudding type stuff paired with it. Luke had mixed gelato with chocolate, lemon and hazelnut. He said he wasn’t terribly impressed. We had 2 bottles of house wine between the 5 of us and the wine was only €6 and it was pretty good. They did only have 2 choices of wine on the menu Red and White wine of the house. It was bottled or at least labled with the Restaurant label.
We finished dinner at 2200 and encouraged the Amoriellos to get going before the subways get close to closing. They took the Electric bus to the Barberini stop and their subway stop was closed just like ours was the night before. So they had to take the bus like we did to their hotel. They made it home but it required 2 calls from Kevin, one with the initial request for instructions when he came upon the road block and the other one when he called to tease us to say they were in a bad neighborhood with graffiti all around and no street signs. Luke was worried at first and felt bad about the metro not working, but then he figured that Kevin was being Kevin and was joking.
We packed some more, did the dishes, and said a prayer that the luggage was not too heavy. We went to bed separately, as we have been doing, and I couldn’t sleep worth crap.
Monday, May 14, 2007
This morning started early. We zipped up the bags and were out the door by quarter til 7. We had no breakfast no sip of h2o or the milk we wanted to devour. We scooted out the door and realized the dilemma of the gate at the bottom of the stairs. You have to use the key to unlock the gate and the keys are supposed to be left on the table. So Luke went down first with his luggage and I buzzed him in the gate when he gave the signal “OKAAYY!!!” and he kept it open and I hauled suitcase down them steps.
We were going to wait for our bus OR wait for a taxi as we thought we wouldn’t get to the train station with enough time. We ventured off a blocks walk and found a “direct” bus to the train station that took a quarter of the time to get to there. We took a bus past Vittorio Emnauale and the Bronze Nymph Bernini? Fountain. We quickly found the Leonardo Express to the Fiumincio airport- it cost €11.
We had a seat by ourselves. The most exciting part of the trip was seeing all the bums sleeping. There were tents and mattresses out and you could literally SEE them rolling around and waking up as it was like 8 am or something. There were so many it was kind of sad. We also drove by some of the aquaducts that I wanted to see, too.
We arrived at the airport and found where we were to check in (with a little bit of searching). Checked our bags of which one was a little overweight (surprised?) and they let us sneak by. We waited for our plane. We had a bit of a sandwich breakfast from a vendor. Then Luke, at my insistence, bought some Bueno with the left over € he had in his pocket. He had just € 0.10 to spare. How awesome. We boarded our late plane at a different gate.
We had an uneventful trip to Amsterdam. We did get to have one of their VERY good interesting sandwiches. We RAN to the gate for our departing flight as we thought we only had a half an hour. It turns out that our plane started check in at that time and did departed an hour later. We had to go through an impromptu security check. They asked all kinds of questions like who packed your bag, what kind of electronic devices are in there etc. We got frisked and I had to throw out the water I had that I filled up in their bathroom. Whatever. We boarded the plane home.
The ride was SO long. My nerve in my leg was going crazy numb and tingling. We didn’t really sleep. My feet swelled for the first time ever. We finally made it home to MSP. We turned on our cell phones to find no messages on my phone. We called our friends/family to let them know we were home. We then waited to catch our shuttle from the airport to Rochester N Walmart. Nicely, Luke’s dad dropped off a car waiting for us with the keys hidden so we didn’t have to call a cab or anyone to pick us up at 10 pm.
Our first stop was not home, but to the Outback Steakhouse so we could get some real meat. We were so tired the food wasn’t coming fast enough. We were nearly falling asleep at the table. We scooted out of there as quick as we could, went home, and went to bed. We had a big day ahead of us as we had to till and plant the garden and containers.
So ends our trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment