Recipe: Tuscany 2006 Journal Entry #7-Roma, Day Two

Tuscany 2006 Journal Entry #7-Roma, Day Two

Monday March 27th

We have breakfast in the very tiny breakfast room at the hotel. Croissants, hard rolls, soft cheese, jam, butter, honey, cornflakes, melba toast, cookies with chocolate inside, pineapple and grapefruit juice and coffee.

Then we are off to find the Trevi Fountain. The day clerk helps us with the map. We ask if we should take us bus. Banging on the counter once again he says, "NO! You walk! You walk, you see more!" And indeed we do.

While lost, (though we like to refer to it as happy wandering), we stumble upon a building with LOTS of police guarding it. This should be easy to find on the map it turns out to be the President's Palace, that explains the police presence.

When we arrive at the Trevi Fountain it is being cleaned. DH suggests we wait a bit and sure enough, after a while the workers collect their brooms, brushes and hoses and disperse. After a bit more time the fountain begins to flow again. I thought the water came out of the shells held by the figures, but it doesn't. It's amazing how bad people's aim is when trying to throw coins over their shoulder! You can hear coins pinging as they ricochet off the stonework. How many eye injuries a day occur here, I wonder? We toss our coins and smile for the camera.

Near the fountain we find a bookstore with an English section where DH buys a Clive Cussler novel. He reads five books while we are in Italy, it's wonderful, he doesn't get the time to read at home. Also near the fountain we enjoy wonderful pieces of pizza for lunch. We can't pass them up, they are so beautiful. As we walk by the place we are lured in by the looks of them. They are immense, each about 3 feet long. The server holds the knife over it and you decide how large piece you want, paying by weight. They warm the pieces in a toaster oven. I have a piece with fresh mozzarella, fresh tomato wedges and torn lettuce with tomato sauce. DH has a spicy salami one. We share an orange soda that seems to be inordinately expensive.

We have been asking all morning about La Boca del la Verita (the Mouth of Truth), from the movie Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck. No one (including our hotel clerk) could tell us where to find it or even seemed to know what we were talking about.

Then, near the Spanish Steps we see a sign for a Venetian glass seller and decide to check it out. As we go upstairs we find the stair well lined with photos from the movie. At the top of the stairs is a large sculpture of La Boca del la Verita. While looking at the glass for sale we ask the owner about the location of La Boca. He tells us Piazza de Venizia, so off we go .on the way I enjoy rum raisin gelato .

We find the Piazza de Venizia .but where is La Boca? A guard outside a building gives us a map (Rome in 48 hours) and tells us it is just around the corner, 300 meters! DH tries very hard to find it for me. I'm the one that finally calls a halt. It's good to leave something for next time, we decide. We find ourselves back where we were on the tour yesterday afternoon and cut through the Forum area. It's time to head for the hotel and our train back to Buonconvento. We get our exercise in and then some on the way back, but DH does an excellent job of navigating. We pick up our bags and use a bathroom with beautiful seagulls on the tiles at the hotel.

At the train station we try to help a young girl find her train to Assisi. We are old hats at this train thing! The wall schedule is huge, with very small printing. There is a little old lady (in black, of course) standing with her nose to the map scribbling notes on the back of an envelope.

When our train arrives we board the first car while noticing that everyone else is going to the far end of the train. Is this because that end will get there first or do they know something we don't know? Once on board we wonder even more as it seems that this part of the train is all private compartments, we pass thru two sections of this and decide to just pick one and sit down. This is nice! There are overhead compartments for the luggage and the seats are very comfy, they are even adjustable up and down as are the headrests. Later a man comes by with a cart selling coffee and snacks. We take pictures of each other to remember the short time we spent in first class since we are sure that when the conductor takes our tickets we will get booted to the economy section of the train! This is a fast train, moving along very quickly with hardly any stops. After 1 1/4 hours or so when the conductor comes to punch our tickets she doesn't tell us to get out. Cool!

In Grosetto, (because I didn't buy roundtrip tickets in the Buonconveto tabbachi we have to get tickets and only have 9 minutes until the train leaves. The line is short for the ticket seller but it's taking quite a while so DH decides to try using the ticket machine while I stand in line for window service. He gets all the way to the pay part and remembers that Harriet told him NOT to put our credit card into one of those machines at the train station, it may eat it. He trys to back up the transaction and pay with Euro but can't figure out how. By then I'm at the window so I buy the tickets and we RUN. DH still remembers to stamp them in the yellow box though! What would I do without him? Out to the platform, down the stairs, up the stairs and to the train. This one is only two cars! DH says he can feel the driver shifting gears.

This train stops at each station and the conductor walks through the two cars, down onto the platform, turns a key in the side of the station, gets back on the train, walks back thru the two cars and we set off again. We are sharing this car with what appear to be a Mother, Father and teenage daughter. It becomes evident during the trip that the parents are not happy with the daughter. They are eating sandwiches and trying to get the daughter to have one. She refuses, saying something in Italian about going out for dinner with Armando or someone. They don't seem thrilled by this news. They try to get her to eat a banana. She moves to another seat. Mom and Dad discuss this, then move to seats across from where the daughter moved to and they all have another lengthy discussion with their daughter . Seems they aren't thrilled with this Armando character and various other aspects of their daughter's life. We're not uncomfortable, rather somewhat amused. Possibly because we can't understand everything that is being said!

We decide to have dinner at da Mario's when we get to Buonconvento. We grab the car and run by the Coop for some stuff then head to Mario's. When Christian hears we have been in Rome he tells me I need a glass of Brunello. I don't argue and it's very good. DH breaks out of his routine and has ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta with ragu then panna cotta with caramel to share with me. I have turkey with stewed peppers. Five other Untourists come in after we order and we share the last day's experiences with each other. Alan and Angie have been to Florence overnight, she is anxious to go to Rome, too. They got lost in the rain the other night trying to find Pane Vino. When they finally found it, there was a large party of 30 or so there and they couldn't get a table. Gladys, Cynthia and David have been to Assisi.

We go back to Le Chiuse and put a load of wash in the washing machine. The journal in our apartment suggested this as Italian washers and dryers are very slow, something we remember from our last trip. I'm talking HOURS for the wash finish. Off to bed!