Our Grand Tour of Europe

Sunday, May 8

I didn’t sleep well again last night. Once again we were in a strange place and a new bed. Although Kelly and I had shut the window in our room, it was kind of cold and it was also different to be sleeping next to Kelly instead of Charley. The bright streetlight seemed almost next to the bed. I got up for a while at 4 am and worked on the computer, then went back to bed after an hour or so. My shoulder hurt from dealing with the luggage yesterday.

When I did get up, Charley had gone to get breakfast. He found a bakery a block or so away. Kelly is our leader for Rome, and this helped us to motivate her out of bed. We had our breakfast of very good pastries, juice and coffee. Charley has mastered the special little espresso-type coffee makers used in Italy. He brought back the London Times from yesterday... the big Sunday Times we like so much wasn’t available yet.

Charley asked us not to use any dishes in the kitchen unless he has washed them first. He’s already set aside a pile of dishes we’re allowed to use. He’s very particular about cleanliness… much more so than me. I keep apologizing about the apartment. How did I screw this one up when there were so many apartments in Rome?

Kelly had a detailed plan for the day and carried the map. Charley and I have barely read up on Rome. She has a little notebook where she’s been writing down the things she wants us to see on each of our six full days here. Since she’s not in school, the process of being in charge for a week is an important part of her educational experience. She’s definitely learning a lot about Rome.

The day started out overcast. Kelly and I both wore sweaters. We were five minutes into our walk (ready to cross the river) when we decided it definitely looked like rain, so Charley turned back to get our umbrellas. It turned out we never did need the umbrellas and it ended up a very pretty day.

Our location in Trastevere is really very convenient. We’re on the same side of the river as the Vatican, just 20 minutes away. We can cross the river and in another 20 or 30 minutes we can reach most of the major sites of Rome. We plan to walk most of the week, though there is a public transportation system. I’ve read some things about pickpockets on the buses, so we may prefer to walk. Charley will use a money pouch hung around his neck here instead of carrying a wallet. I’ve decided to let him handle the money in the Italian cities, so I won’t carry my heavy shoulder bag.

We crossed the river on the Ponte Sisto and Kelly began to lead us on her itinerary. She was very official with her map and guidebook, concerned about any possible deviation to her plan. Our first stop was the Largo di Torre Argentina, a huge excavation of old Roman temple ruins that wasn’t discovered until the 1920s. It sits right in the middle of the more modern city, surrounded by shops. Julius Caesar was actually killed here in 44 BC. As we were leaning down looking at the ruins below, we noticed several cats—maybe 30 or more—wandering around in the ruins. Then I saw a sign that said “cat sanctuary.” Quite a few people were around the perimeter of the ruins, which sit down in a hole of sorts occupying a large city block. I think most people were more interested in the cats than the ruins. Since our stay in Provence with Chico the cat, Kelly has become a “cat person” and was intrigued by all the cats down among the ruins. There was a small gift shop selling cat items down on the edge of the ruins, but it wasn’t open this early on a Sunday morning.

We passed a huge church and decided to go in... the Chiesa (church) del Gesù built in 1568. The church exterior was being restored, and like many we saw in Venice had a giant piece of material covering the front with a picture of the original façade. We like this—it covers the otherwise-ugly scaffolding and lets you see what the real building looks like. This church must have decided to also generate some income for the restoration, since there was a huge advertisement on a part of the covering. We arrived just after 11 am, and the Sunday morning mass was underway—maybe 200 people up near the front of the church. We sat in the back for 20 minutes. I enjoyed the organ music and the singing. The church was absolutely magnificent with painted ceilings in its two domes, lots of gold, and elaborate statuary. We want to come again when we can really take a look around.

A bit further on in our walk we came to the Piazza Venezia, a huge plaza filled with flowers and traffic and surrounded by imposing buildings. At the end of the piazza is a huge white building at the top of wide steps… a modern building (finished in 1911)… honoring Vittoria Emanuele II. There’s also a tomb of an unknown soldier here. We took a few photos and crossed the street to window-shop on Via del Corso. We went inside to browse in a wonderful kitchen store.

One of Kelly’s major destinations today was the famous Trevi fountain—made especially famous for its role in the movies La Dolce Vita and Three Coins in a Fountain. We could tell we were close by because of the growing crowd of tourists and street sellers. As in Venice, there are lots of African men here selling purses along the street. There seem to be more purses than anyone could possibly need. Why are all the purse-sellers African men?

Kelly had read about a possible place for lunch called L’Archetto. Her guidebook said they served spaghetti with 100 different sauces. We stopped by and looked at the menu and the prices—it looked good to all of us. They didn’t open till 12:15 pm, but we decided to come back for lunch. Meanwhile we walked a few blocks to the fountain.

The fountain was amazing… an elaborate scene with Neptune and his chariot. Horses and half-naked men seemed to leap out of the rocks. The fountain is almost as big as the piazza and the whole area was mobbed with people. I held my purse tightly. Like everyone else, we took photos, though it was impossible to get a picture without other tourists in it. The tradition is that you throw coins over your shoulder into the fountain and you’ll come back to Rome one day and also get a wish. Of course we all did it, along with all the other American tourists.

We enjoyed our lunch at L’Archetto. We decided not to sit outside at a table on the street (Charley didn’t think they looked that appealing right there on the narrow street… he said something about gas fumes), so we ate inside and were just about the first people there. They had a self-service antipasto bar, like the place last night. I had the antipasto bar and then spaghetti with gorgonzola cheese sauce. I loved the antipasto bar and went back twice… artichokes, thinly slices zucchini and eggplant, tomatoes, white beans, mushrooms, potatoes. Everything was cold, some marinated in olive oil and some fried in a breading. Kelly had focaccia (a big pizza crust baked with olive oil, herbs and parmesan) and then spaghetti bolognaise. Charley had bruschetta with some type of tapenade and then spaghetti with pesto sauce. None of us were all that adventurous with the sauces, but they really did have 100 different sauces—only one choice of noodles though. They did have some other dishes as well. We had a very good meal and nice waiter—44 euro, so a reasonable price… especially compared to Venice!

Our leader Kelly then took us onto the Spanish Steps, winding our way down the city streets with impressive buildings and various columns and statues. We kept passing good-looking gelato places, but we told Kelly we needed to wait a while for gelato.

The tourists who weren’t at the Trevi Fountain were all at the Spanish Steps, located at a big busy plaza called the Piazza de Spagna. The fountain in the piazza was a sinking boat. The wide steps (built in the 1720’s) rise from the piazza to a beautiful church. The piazza and fountain would have been absolutely beautiful except for all the tourists—of course we were there too, so it’s hard to complain. The Spanish embassy is nearby, which is the origin of the name. At this time of year big potted azaleas in full bloom are brought out to decorate the steps—either white or a reddish-purple. The flowers looked better from afar than close up. We took photos among the flowers and sat on the steps for a while. The plaza and the steps were mobbed. There were lots and lots of street sellers—again mostly African: purse sellers, sunglass sellers (sunglasses displayed on some sort of posterboard), and bracelet sellers. The men carried the bracelets on long tubes. The sellers here were very aggressive and a few actually chased after tourists trying to make a sale. We finally walked up to the top of the steps to the big church and another plaza. The church seemed be under restoration and was closed. At least 25%… maybe more… of the churches we’ve seen in Europe are being restored, scaffolding and cranes covering their steeples and domes. There were more sellers at the upper plaza… mostly artists selling their wares… scenes of Rome and big pencil sketches of movie stars like George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Marilyn Monroe. Who comes to Rome and goes home with a big pencil sketch of Julie Roberts? It’s not a particularly special souvenir of Rome. Some of the artists were doing similar sketches of tourists. A snack truck wanted 4 euro for a bottle of PowerAde, so we only bought water. We did get one good deal though: a pack of decent Roman postcards—20 cards for only 1 euro.

Right next to the steps was a Keats/Shelley museum. The English poet John Keats died in an apartment in this building in 1821; he was just 25 years old. We’ve seen the birthplaces, homes or graves of several famous literary figures on this trip (such as Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, and William Shakespeare). I would have liked to add Keats and Shelley to the list, but it wasn’t on the agenda for today… maybe another time.

We were also on a mission today to find English language books. Kelly had a list of several possible bookstores and had marked them all on her map. We decided to stop by these shops when they were adjacent to our other plans for the day. I suspect one reason Kelly chose today’s agenda was because we could detour to several of the bookshops. The first two shops were closed, but the third bookshop—The Lion Bookshop—was a real find. It would have been a good bookshop in America. They had a large children’s section and a lot of books that interested Kelly. They also had a big table of two books for the price of one. I worked my way through that pile and found two books for me. I also decided to buy a Maeve Binchy book that was 564 pages long. I gave Kelly a budget of 25 euro (all the kid books were new) and she picked out four books. We tried to pick books that would occupy her for a while. The nice young Englishman running the shop gave us a 10% discount (thanks to Kelly, who asked!) and also gave Kelly a little bracelet-making kit. He told us there are 50,000 English-speakers living in Rome. Many American and English students come here for a year or semester of college. The bookshop also had a little coffee shop—Charley and I had espresso and cappuccino while Kelly agonized over her book choices. Our drinks came with a plate of really good chocolate chip cookies.

Kelly led us on through crowded shopping streets to the Piazza del Popolo, another huge and mobbed square containing a 3200-year old obelisk brought to Rome from Greece. The obelisk was surrounded by statues of four huge lions spouting water. On our way to the square we passed several street performers… one was a man doing tricks with birds. We also passed lots of designer clothes and shoe places—Versace, Armani, Prada, Gucci. Rome—like Venice—seems very into fashion. Suddenly I feel awkward and dreadfully unfashionable… I should pay more attention to my shoes and handbags. I typically have a black purse for winter and a beige or straw purse for summer and wear the same few pairs of black shoes for everything. But maybe when we go home I’ll be more fashionable and colorful… more European.

We wanted to see the Santa Maria del Popolo church, but it was closed and didn’t open again until 4:30 pm. We would have had to wait more than 30 minutes and we were all were getting tired, so we decided to go on. There were supposedly some very important paintings there… but so be it. Kelly got her gelato on the way back. Charley and I were still very full from our big lunch and didn’t have gelato today. We’ve decided we simply can’t have gelato every day we’re in Italy—combined with all the good pasta, we would just get too fat. Perhaps fortunately, the bread in Italy just isn’t too good… so we don’t have the temptation we had in France where the bread is just so wonderful.

We took the same route back to Trastevere. We stopped again at the Largo di Torre Argentina and watched the cats. This time the small gift shop was open. A handmade sign said the shop was a charity to raise money for the cats. The nice woman spoke English and told us about the cat sanctuary. There are about 300 cats there! In addition to the cats out in the ruins, there were quite a few cats inside a small center, some in cages. The woman said people bring them cats from all over Rome. They have a no-kill policy and run an adoption center. They give the cats shots and health care and also spay or neuter all the cats. (We had wondered why we didn’t see any kittens!) The whole program is run by volunteers and she said they get no support from the city. (I don’t know how they got the use of the Largo di Torre Argentina site.) Kelly and Charley enjoyed visiting with some of the cats, and Kelly bought some notecards. Our daughter—now a cat person!

We got back to our apartment about 5:30 pm. We were all tired, and Kelly and I were anxious to read our new books. Since we’d had a big lunch, we had a very simple dinner. Kelly had ramen noodle soup and Charley went out and brought back sandwiches for us—they weren’t really all that good, but we didn’t want much. Kelly and I read until very late in our little shared bedroom. She is racing through Grisham’s The Summons. Another interesting outcome of this trip is her transition to adult books.

Monday, May 9

Kelly and I both stayed up way too late last night reading. Like mother, like daughter. She was desperate to finish The Summons. I just finished it last week and totally understood how difficult it was for her to put the book down until the “mystery” was solved. I had my 564-page Maeve Binchy book to occupy me. Charley went to bed in his room next door before 11, but Kelly and I stayed up reading in bed until after midnight. I miss my husband, but it’s interesting… fun…different… to be a roommate with my daughter this week.

As a result, we were slow getting going this morning. We all took showers, anxious to see how the little shower worked in the tiny bathroom. There’s no “wall” around the bottom of the shower… just a slight slope in the tile down to the drain. Signora Jones had cautioned us just not to stand on the drain hole. The bathroom’s really quite small, so the shower is right by the sink and the toilet. I had visions of water spraying all over the bathroom or of the toilet paper getting soggy, but it worked surprisingly well.

We finally left the apartment at 10:30 am. I wanted to go to an outdoor market in Trastevere to get some fresh fruit and vegetables, since there was a very limited selection at the little grocery store on Saturday. We walked about ten minutes to the piazza (square) where we thought the market was supposed to be, but the square was totally ripped up in construction. We did find a larger grocery store and bought a few things while Charley went to the post office. We also found a really good internet café, and I bought a card for five hours to use this week… there’s a nice set-up with terminals in several rooms around a pretty courtyard… lots of light and modern furniture.

Charley took our grocery bags back to the apartment while I worked on the computer to check a few things on our finances and trip plans. I worked for maybe 30 minutes, but Charley never came back. Kelly and I wandered down to the big main street (Viale Trastevere) where we saw some clothing stands out on the street. We didn’t’ wander too far from the internet place and kept watching for Charley. I bought Kelly some capri pants at a flea market stand for eight euro. We were worried Charley had gotten lost and couldn’t find his way back to the internet place.

By this time it was after noon. Our Rome leader Kelly decided we would just have a Trastevere day, since we had gotten such a late start. She was frustrated with us and our various delays and detours, struggling so hard to be in charge of the day. We walked down to look at St. Francesco a Ripa church but the church was closed over the lunchtime. There’s a famous statue in this church of a woman saint that’s apparently quite scandalous—I was interested to see it, but maybe it’s a good thing the church was closed. We did find the place where the market was set up, and Kelly wondered about buying food and taking a picnic home. I knew we were going to have dinner in the apartment and really didn’t want to have both lunch and dinner in the somewhat-depressing apartment when it was such a pretty day outside. Charley and I pushed instead for lunch at a pizzeria in Trastevere… there are so many places to choose from.

“I thought I was the leader for Rome,” Kelly said. “I’m not even getting to decide what to do for lunch.”

We ended up eating in the little outdoor terrace of a place called La Scala, not far from the apartment. Charley had a chicken salad and Kelly and I had pizza. I had a “white” pizza with mozzarella, gorgonzola, mushrooms and sausage. Good! Charley and I had beer. The waiter spoke good English and was quite nice. A man with an accordion played outside the terrace for about five minutes and added to the atmosphere. After he played, he walked around the outside of the terrace with his little cup.

We’ve decided we like Trastevere. It feels like a large town… not necessarily part of the huge city of Rome. It is kind of a hip place to stay—lots of clubs, restaurants and young people. The tourists here seem more laid back, and it doesn’t seem to be on the tour-bus route. Kelly finally agreed that we’d just make this our Trastevere day and get to know our own neighborhood.

We went back to the apartment for about 20 minutes, but went quickly back outside to continue our exploration of Trastevere. We had our daily gelato fix and then walked up a steep hill to Gianicolo, where our guidebook said there’s one of the best views in Rome. It was a strenuous walk, but there was a pretty park at the top with lots of statues of the heads of famous Romans and then a giant equestrian monument. We could see for miles. The guidebook listed Gianicolo as one of the most romantic places in Rome, but it definitely wasn’t romantic for us today. Kelly wasn’t happy about having to walk up a hill and wasn’t interested in seeing any views. She wasn’t happy that we had taken over her day. She was being very headstrong, and then Charley got angry with her and gave her the silent treatment. I was frustrated by the whole dynamic and the turn of events. The views were beautiful, but it was not a beautiful family moment. We tried to re-group as a family and recover our day together.

We all wanted to see the Santa Maria in Trastevere church, considered to be Rome’s oldest church (from the 3rd century) and also one of the most famous churches in Rome. According to the legend, the church was founded on a spot where olive oil sprang from the ground on the day Christ was born. When we got to the church, an empty hearse and five men in dark suits were waiting outside. We peeked inside, but there was definitely a funeral going on. We’ll have to go back another day—since this church is close, it will be easy to get to. It was only 4 pm—too early to go back and face a whole evening in the apartment.

We found another English language bookstore right around the corner from our apartment (the Almost on the Corner Bookshop)—all new books. I wish we could find a used English bookstore with some great deals. I resisted Kelly’s pleas for a new book. We walked back across the river to look at a shop we’d seen on Sunday that sold only handles. There were some beautiful ceramic knobs… we had tried to find new cabinet door handles for our kitchen before we left home and never found what we were looking for. We saw several things we liked at the handles shop.

We walked not far to the big Campo de Fiori and had a drink at an outdoor café. We each tried to independently determine how many cabinets and drawers we have in our kitchen at home… and we each ended up with a different answer. There are probably around 35, so buying handles would cost almost 300 euro… 400 dollars. Since we don’t know what we really want to do with our cabinets, we decided it wasn’t a good move to spend that kind of money on handles now. It was a fun diversion and an interesting reminder of home as we each projected ourselves back into the kitchen we haven’t seen in almost a year. I said it reminded me of one of those questions they used to ask on the Newlywed Game: “How many cabinets and drawers are in your kitchen?” A young boy played the accordion by the tables at the café. Charley had his back to him, and didn’t realize it was a child. Of course, we gave some money.

Campo de Fiori supposedly has a wonderful morning market, but I didn’t like it too much in the late afternoon. A homeless looking man kept staring at us and the piazza was just too big and dirty of a place. In the center is a depressing statue of a man with a hood. This was once a place of executions. It gave me the creeps. I finished my beer quickly and suggested we move on.

We walked on back to Trastevere, warming up to each other again. Kelly and Charley had a talk after we got home about how we can make the trip go better. We read and I did computer work. I fixed a really good dinner tonight—pieces of steak in a mushroom cream sauce, pasta tossed with butter and garlic, and fresh green beans. Charley and Kelly both asked when I could make this again. We got to bed at a more respectable hour tonight.

Tuesday, May 10

Kelly planned a really good day for us today—we saw a lot of Rome and had a very positive family day too. Charley gave Kelly an incentive today: if she could go the whole day without arguing, he would buy her a book she really wanted. The deal was that if she started arguing, he would simply say “book,” and if she continued arguing at that point, she would lose the book. He only had to say “book” one time the whole day, and so she did earn the book. She knows that she is not getting an incentive like this every day, but she’s excited about the book. She already has one picked out.

Kelly had studied her books and maps again all evening and laid out a detailed plan for today... another day with lots of walking. We managed to leave about 9:30 am. It wasn’t as pretty of a day—a bit overcast and we probably weren’t dressed quite warmly enough for part of the day. First we walked about 30 minutes down the river to a big fortress called Castel Sant’Angelo, right on the river. It was a pretty walk along a tree-lined road with the river down below…lots of traffic out this morning, the motorcycles zooming to the front at every traffic light. As we reached the castello, we looked back to our left, and we were also right there at St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican City. We stopped at a tourist information booth, and Charley and Kelly went in to find out about transportation to the airport on Saturday morning and also about the Pope’s public audience tomorrow morning.

We found out that the new pope (Benedict XVI… Benedetto is his name in Italian) will give his first public audience tomorrow at 10:30 am. I think he just appears on the balcony and waves or gives a blessing, I’m not really sure. It’s open to the public, but tickets are required. We had to go to the Vatican City prefecture to get the tickets, so we decided to go on and get the tickets at that point before continuing with the agenda Kelly had planned. Kelly protested a little about the change in plans, but also seemed intrigued by the idea of seeing the Pope.

We walked down the wide street to one of the most famous places in the world—St. Peters Square (Piazza San Pietro, a big and extremely busy place… thousands of tourists from all countries, many in groups. The square itself is imposing and quite incredible (designed by Bernini)—facing the great Basilica and circled by porticoes filled with columns. There are 140 statues of saints along the top of the porticoes. In the center of the piazza—surrounded by tourists—is another ancient obelisk incorporated into a fountain.

We saw lots of priests and nuns in the square, the nuns wearing habits in a variety of colors. Some of the nuns were quite old, usually being helped by a younger sister. We even saw a monk… a normal looking man in a loose brown robe tied with a rope, wearing a pair of sandals… and carrying a briefcase. We walked on past and once we were by, Kelly and I turned to each other and gasped, “A monk!” This is not someone we would likely see walking down the city street in Knoxville, Tennessee. Later in the afternoon we passed another monk in downtown Rome. Again, we looked at each other and whispered, “A monk!”

We wandered around the square trying to locate the prefecture. The Tourist Office had told Charley and Kelly to look for the Swiss Guards outside. I finally saw a few Swiss Guards by a gate. The Swiss Guards were formed in the 16th century to protect the Pope. They have extremely unusual uniforms… kind of a medieval costume in bright colors of blue, orange and red with short pants, tights, and a big white collar. They wear a black beret cocked to one side. One of the guidebooks said the uniforms were designed by Michelangelo, but another book said they were designed by an Italian seamstress. The Michelangelo story definitely has more appeal! There were three of the Swiss Guards—all young and very clean-cut—and they were doing some kind of saluting exercise. One of them spoke English and he directed Charley around to the other side of St. Peters. He was to look for something called The Bronze Door.

We finally had to go through some security gates—joining hoards of other tourists, most trying to visit the Basilica or the Vatican museums, the only two areas open to the public. I think we actually entered the Vatican City when we passed through the security gates. We were looking for something called the Bronze Door. The Vatican City is the world’s smallest nation, totally separate from Italy. It covers 120 acres and has less than 600 citizens. I wonder how many millions of visitors annually? We followed a sign pointing to The Bronze Door and finally saw a couple more Swiss Guards at the top of some steps. A security man said only one of us could go up the steps, so Charley went up and talked with the guards and came back with three tickets for tomorrow. I would have expected a long line of people trying to get these tickets, but there was no one else at all. Supposedly the tickets actually give us seats in St. Peters Square tomorrow. Thousands of chairs are already set up at the front of the square, facing a little stage up on the steps of the basilica. The audience is at 10:30 am, but the gates open at 8:30 am. We plan to be there early.

We then walked back to Castel Sant’Angelo, a very imposing circular structure. The castello was originally built by Hadrian from 123-139 as his own mausoleum, but it was incorporated into the city walls and made a fortress for the popes in the 6th century. There’s even a little raised aqueduct that leads over to the Vatican so the popes can hide out over at the fortress. Kelly was interested in touring the castello, so we paid our five euro each (discounted tickets were available only to members of the European Union) and started climbing a circular ramp leading up to the top of the castello. At the top of the castle there were a few papal apartments, a rather large display of armor and old weapons, and (surprisingly) a set of tourist offices for other areas of Italy. There was a really good view from the top ramparts.

After our visit to the castello, we walked across the beautiful Ponte Sant’Angelo, a pedestrian bridge lined with imposing statues (more Bernini, I think). We found a little café for lunch on the other side of the river… decent but nothing really special. We all had pasta. From there it was just a short walk to the famous oval-shaped Piazza Navona. The square stands on the site of an ancient sports stadium. The square is just beautiful, including not one, but three big fountains. The most famous of the fountains is the Fountain of the Four Rivers by Bernini, built in 1651. The buildings around the piazza were very impressive—several palaces, a big church, and of course, lots of sidewalk cafes. At one end of the piazza was a big circus tent set up as a bookstore…. unfortunately the only books in English were souvenir type books. On the other side of the tent the piazza had almost a carnival atmosphere—almost overwhelming really. There were the usual purse, sunglass and bracelet sellers, women wandering around trying to sell scarves, stands selling sports shirts and hats, artists selling their work, and several street performers. We had to wave the scarf-selling women away several times.

We had some very good gelato…maybe the best we’ve had so far. The best gelato is usually homemade, packed in big tubs often with the key ingredients piled attractively on the top. Charley usually gets cioccolato (chocolate) and pistacchio. I really like the amareno (cherry). Kelly often orders fragole (strawberry) and some other fruit flavor. You can get two or more flavors, regardless of the size of your cone or cup. Today Kelly got greedy and ordered a larger cone than normal…then tilted her cone and lost part of her ice cream. She said she learned just to stick with a smaller cone.

Kelly led us a few blocks to the Pantheon, another of Rome’s most famous ancient structures and probably the best preserved. Hadrian built the Pantheon as a pagan temple between 118 and 128, on the site of an even earlier temple. In 608 it became a Christian church. It’s a beautiful and very open building, dominated by a huge dome that is exactly as high as it is wide (142 feet). There’s a huge opening at the very top of the Parthenon that allows a lot of natural light. Supposedly when it rains the water pours down this hole into the building itself. But where does the water go then?? The tombs of several famous Romans are in the Pantheon. We were really only interested in Raphael’s tomb, but it was covered up for restoration.

We walked a bit further beyond the busy Piazza della Rotunda, passing shops and restaurants. Kelly led us to the ruins of another structure—eleven huge columns… all that remain of Hadrian’s Temple, built by his son in 145. The columns were surrounded by buildings much more modern (only a few hundred years old). Rome is so astounding because there are so many very old… ancient… buildings here. The more modern city is just built up around them. And who knows what else is still underneath the city? Kelly took us a few more blocks to see a bit of a statue she read about: a huge foot that’s probably over 2000 years old, just sitting on a street corner next to a tiny parked car… all that remains of a once proud statue I took Kelly’s photo by the foot. As we walked away, I heard an American tourist exclaim: “Oh look, what’s this? A foot!” The name of the street is Via Pie’ di Marmo… actually named after the foot!

We tried to go to the Gesù church again… the one where we had watched part of the mass on Sunday morning… but it was still closed for the long (very long) lunch hour. So instead we visited the Cat Sanctuary one more time. Kelly has been fixated on buying one of the t-shirts from the shop, talking about this several times a day. She and Charley stayed in the little cat center for a long time visiting with the cats and choosing the shirt. The cat smell bothered me, so I went up to the street-level to wait. Tourists kept walking up to look at the ruins and then spotted the cats—just as we had done on Sunday. I ended up telling several people about the cat sanctuary. They were all very appreciative!

We walked across the Ponte Garabaldi back into Trastevere. The bridge passes by the tip of Isola Tiberina, the only island in the river and the site of Rome’s maternity hospital. We stopped by the internet café in Trastevere, but there wasn’t a terminal available and we didn’t want to wait. Instead we decided to try again to see St. Maria church in Trastevere—fortunately it was open, and there wasn’t a funeral. Several women were begging on the wide portico, right by the door. We just walked on by. There are quite a few beggars in Rome… several dirty young people with dogs are based on the bridge we normally cross over to the main part of the city. Today we saw a really pitiful man who was clearly handicapped, and Charley gave him some money. But this week I also spotted a beggar—a woman—arranging herself in her prostrate begging position. She was checking out how much money she had in her little scarf, and as I looked at her, I realized that she wasn’t a woman. I think it was a younger man pretending to be an old woman. Although some of the beggars are very elderly or seriously disabled, others seem perfectly employable. Many use dogs or babies to attract sympathy. There are just so many more of them than I had expected.

The Santa Maria Church in Trastevere was worth going back to see. It’s decorated inside and out with beautiful mosaics from the 12th and 13th century. And of course it’s filled with unique little side chapels, a beautiful altar, statues, and paintings.

We stopped at the Almost Corner Bookshop to get Kelly her book, and then went back to the apartment for an hour or so to read and rest. We left about six o’clock to go back to the internet café before dinner. We passed lots of restaurants as we walked through Trastevere, all with sidewalk tables. Italians love to eat outdoors, even if the outdoor spot isn’t at all attractive or private. But many of the restaurants we passed have a really nice atmosphere, and some early diners (or drinkers) were already out on the terraces.

After we left the internet café, we decided to eat at Da Otello again. We were the first ones there at 7:00, and the staff was still eating their dinner. A nice older man waited on us today, and we also spoke with the waiter from the other night. We got a complimentary aperitif at the beginning of our meal. Our waiter tonight really liked Kelly a lot—he patted her shoulder and pinched her cheek several times. I think he responded to her because she tried so hard to speak Italian. We had a really good meal again, but I ate too much off the antipasto bar…today I went back for seconds.

We finished dinner about 8:30 pm and went back to the apartment for reading and our various projects. We are actually amazingly busy… writing postcards, keeping up this blog, organizing our digital photos, researching the next day, making plans for our travel on Saturday. A week’s vacation in a big city is definitely different than a week in the countryside. After two weeks in cities, I’m looking forward to relaxing on the Amalfi Coast next week.

Wednesday, May 11

We got up early so we could leave the apartment by 8:30 and walk to Vatican City. It took us about 30 minutes to get there this morning. Once we got near St. Peter’s, we stopped to buy a few “Pope” postcards. Kelly got a Pope keychain. The street leading up the Vatican City is lined with souvenir shops selling Pope souvenirs and religious items…. related to the new Pope Benedict XVI and also Pope John Paul II, who was clearly very much loved.

The crowd was arriving for the Pope’s mass audience, which is apparently held every Wednesday that the Pope is in town. This was the first public audience for Pope Benedetto since he was selected just two weeks ago. Many of the people were in groups and identified themselves in some way… schoolchildren in matching ballcaps, adults with matching neckerchiefs. We saw one large group of monks in brown robes and sandals, following a monk carrying a Brazilian flag. Kelly and I are no longer quite so intrigued to see a monk… it’s starting to seem normal.

We went through the security check and were able to get seats about five rows back from the front of the middle section. We were in our seats by 9:15, over an hour before the 10:30 start. Although there were Swiss guards and other officials everywhere, no one checked our tickets. In front of us was a big stage, right in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. The very center of the stage had a small white awning covering a big white chair. There were several rows of chairs on either side of the stage. To the left of the stage were two rows of people in wheelchairs. To the right of the stage were two rows of cardinals in their magenta hats. We watched as other cardinals arrived, and eventually there were at least twenty in attendance. As the sun grew higher, the cardinals’ chairs were moved to the back of the stage where they were shaded by the awning. The wheelchair people stayed out in the sun.

The thousands of chairs filled and many people stood in the back. Others clustered under the columns of St. Peters Square where they found some shade. There were at least 20,000 people. Charley thought maybe 40,000, but I don’t know how to even guess at the size of the crowd. We were really quite far up in the front, close enough to almost see the expression on the Pope’s face.

About 10:15 several officials got up to the microphone and read out names of groups in various languages. Two men and a woman sang. We all waited.

Then some holy-type music was played over the loudspeaker. I had expected the Pope to come walking out of the big doors of St. Peters, but he was driven down a ramp in a vehicle (some type of jeep), standing up and wearing his white robe and little white cap. There didn’t seem to be any bulletproof glass… it wasn’t the “Pope-mobile” John Paul II used after he was shot. People went crazy. Everyone stood up and some people stood on their chairs. The German people next to me got very angry at some people in front of us who stood on their chairs and managed to get them to just stand on the ground. There were several big screen TV monitors. Because the seats were all on the same level and everyone was standing, it was hard to see exactly where the Pope’s vehicle was. We watched the cameras positioned on the top of the columns to see where they were pointing, we watched the big monitors, and we also watched where people seemed the most excited. Then all of a sudden, the Pope passed within 20 yards of where we were standing. Kelly took a couple of photos and actually got a few good ones. We really could see his expression as he waved to the crowd. The Pope traveled all around the square for maybe 10 minutes, while the holy music played. Then the vehicle drove right up on the stage—we thought it somehow drove up the stairs, but later we saw that a section of the steps was actually a ramp.

The public audience was an interesting process. The Pope shared some sort of message in Italian. Several different cardinals or other high-ranking people stood at a microphone and spoke—six different people, each speaking a different language: French, English, German, Spanish, Polish (we think) and Italian. Each person welcomed the speakers of their language and then read through a list of groups that were there. The English cardinal (with an absolutely beautiful voice) named groups from England, Scotland and America, describing most of them as “pilgrims.” Most were groups from churches or parishes. (“A group of pilgrims from St. Stephens parish in Baltimore, Maryland….“) One group he announced was a group of executives from an Italian-American association. As each group was called, they waved madly, cheered or stood up, and the Pope waved in their general direction. Some groups had signs or banners. The groups of teenagers went absolutely wild. Some of the kids started chanting “Ben-ne-det-to” over and over again. After the end of each set of introductions, the Pope gave a welcome or blessing in that language. We were very impressed that he spoke all six languages—he is apparently very much an intellectual. We watched the Pope up on the big screen TV… he had a very nice and genuine smile.

In this environment, the Pope was very much a celebrity. Goodness—how much this man’s life has changed in just two weeks! I almost felt like we were at a rock concert or sporting event—there was so much excitement. Or maybe it reminded me of the time a couple of years ago when Kelly and I got to see George Bush give a speech in Knoxville… the experience of being at an important event, seeing and hearing one of the most important and famous people in the world.

At the end of the formal program, the Pope stood and began to individually greet each of the cardinals. It was obvious that this would take a long time, and the crowd kind of drifted away. There wasn’t any real “ending” to the event. It was so horribly hot and sunny right there in the square… there was nothing else really to see and no reason to stay until the Pope left the square.

We went to the Vatican City post office and bought a few stamps so we could send some postcards. (I had written my parents a card while I was waiting for the Pope to appear.) The Vatican City has their own postal system, so these are unique stamps.

We wandered north of St. Peter’s Square to look for lunch. There were thousands of people milling down the street, most of who had been at the square for the audience. We picked a pizzeria that seemed reasonably price and each ordered a pizza. Charley and I shared a salad, and we had drinks. It was another one of those “average” 50 euro lunches. I have to keep reminding myself that it isn’t 50 dollars… 50 euros is more like 65 dollars. I’m never quite sure how the money adds up to be so much, when the pizza prices seemed reasonable on the menu. There was another child playing the accordion outside the restaurant. His little brother—not much more than a toddler—came around to collect money. I have a feeling the young accordionists may collect more money than most of the adult accordionists.

After lunch we walked around the back of Vatican City and toured the Vatican Museums, located in the Vatican palaces, homes to the popes since the 14th century. This is truly an amazing complex… the works of art just overwhelming. Many of the rooms were decorated with painted ceilings or wall frescoes. We were especially interested in a room decorated with paintings of maps… the world as it was seen several hundred years ago. There was a large map of Provence, which even included our former home village of Bonnieux, which was a summer home of the Popes when they were based in Avignon.

There are works of art by many of the great masters (Raphael, Bernini, Caravaggio) but the most famous spot in all the museums is Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. You can bypass many of the other rooms to go right to the chapel, but we tried to save it as a climax of our visit. It’s a relatively small chapel built as part of the palace, not a separate building… a rectangular hall separated into two parts. Paintings and frescoes cover basically every available inch of space in the room—the most famous done by Michelangelo. He painted the ceiling from 1508 to 1512 with scenes from the Old Testament. The most famous sections are probably “The Creation of Adam” and “The Original Sin.” On the back wall behind the altar is a huge fresco called “The Last Judgment,” painted by Michelangelo between 1536 and 1541. The Sistine Chapel was restored between 1981 and 1994 and the colors are vibrant and fresh, probably much as they were 500 years ago. Just two weeks ago the cardinals had gathered here to select the new pope.

We probably didn’t take full advantage of our time in the Vatican Museum or in the Sistine Chapel. You could definitely spend the whole day there. I should have invested in a detailed guidebook to carry with me so I could better understand what I was seeing. Charley had a somewhat negative reaction to much of what he saw at the Vatican…he doesn’t like the idea that a modern church has retained so much incredible wealth, is charging large admission fees and selling expensive guidebooks… especially when there is so much poverty in the world.

After our daily gelato break, we went back into St. Peters Square and up into the basilica, the largest church in the world. The basilica is named for the apostle Peter, who was likely martyred somewhere here around AD65. The remains of St. Peter (at least what are considered to be his remains) were re-discovered in the 1940’s and are now kept in the crypt. The first basilica was constructed in 326 on the site of Peter’s tomb, but the current building was built beginning in 1506; Michelangelo took over responsibility for the project in 1547 when he was 72, and he designed the famous dome.

There was a long line of people lined up to see the tomb of John Paul II and pay their respects. The basilica was truly spectacular. Just inside the door on the right is Michelangelo’s famous Pieta… carved in 1499 when he was only 25… the Madonna holding the dead Christ. The statue is now in a glass case… a man smashed the Virgin’s hand with a hammer in 1972. We wandered around the basilica, truly impressed. The high altar is topped by an enormous canopy (baldacchino) designed by Bernini. The canopy sits atop four swirling bronze columns. A lot of people were lined up at the statue of St. Peter, sitting on a throne. Most of the people touched or even kissed his foot, believed to bring good luck.

Kelly and I wanted to go up into the dome (435 feet high), but Charley said he wasn’t that interested and would meet us outside. He said it wasn’t because of the heights, but I’m not sure. (Maybe he didn’t want to pay the admission cost, since he struggles with the idea of churches charging for entry. Fortunately, entry to the basilica was free.) Kelly and I waited in the line to go up into the dome, but when we got to the ticket window, we didn’t have enough money to ride the elevator. We ended up walking—over 700 steps. We came out onto the roof and then went back inside to climb a few more steps. You actually are inside the basilica and walk around a little catwalk high up in the dome. The top of the dome is decorated with mosaics. We had a great vantage point to see the basilica far down below. I decided to go on up to the top of the cupola—outside on the very top of the dome. Kelly didn’t want to do this and waited for me. Once I started climbing up into the cupola, I wondered what I was thinking of to do this… everyone else climbing up the narrow twisty steps seemed to be a college kid. I tried not to get claustrophobic, but I did worry a little about reconnecting with Kelly back down in the dome somewhere. Should I have left my 11-year old daughter down there? The views made it all worthwhile though. I took a few photos and headed down quickly. Fortunately Kelly had figured out where I would be coming down and was there to meet me. We got something to drink at the little snack bar on the roof of St. Peters and took some pictures of the back of the 13 statues that line the front of the basilica. Then we walked the hundreds of steps down to meet Charley who was waiting patiently by the Vatican post office. We had been gone well over an hour.

We walked back to Trastevere. We were all really tired from the long and busy day… but very impressed with ourselves. We had seen the Pope. We had visited Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. I had climbed to the very top of St. Peter’s Basilica. We were totally saturated with history, architecture and art.

We had a simple dinner at the apartment… Charley’s famous chicken soup, a special request by Kelly. Kelly was very busy again tonight with her maps and guidebooks, working on her plan for tomorrow.

Thursday, May 12

Another Kelly day—our focus today was Ancient Rome. She warned us that there would be lots of walking again. We are definitely getting good exercise in Rome. We bought a USA Today yesterday, and it forecasted rain and cooler weather for Rome, so we carried umbrellas and wore warmer clothes. We never saw a cloud and wished we had worn lighter clothes. We won’t rely on USA Today for European weather predictions again.

We left the apartment about 10 am, following our tour guide Kelly. She took us across the river, and then we walked along the river, in the opposite direction from the Vatican, passing alongside the little island in the river. As we’ve come to expect in Rome, there were ancient ruins here and there, just tucked in among modern structures.

All of a sudden we arrived at Circus Maximus, a big grassy field below us where the chariot races were held over 2000 years ago. At one time the circus had a capacity of 320,000 spectators! Today we saw a group of people—maybe 20—riding horses along the other side of the circus. We cut left at the end of the circus and walked up the street to arrive at Constantine’s Arch, the largest of Rome’s ancient arches built in AD 315. And there just beyond the arch were the ruins of the Colosseum, one of our major destinations for our day in Ancient Rome. The Colosseum was the largest amphitheater ever built in Rome, the construction of the current structure beginning in AD 79. This structure could seat more than 50,000 people… this was where the gladiators had their bloody fights against each other and sometimes against wild animals. The emperor Trajan once held games at the Colosseum that lasted 117 days… more than 9000 gladiators fought to their death. And now here we were…

As we are finding at most of the famous sites in Rome, there were tourists everywhere. And where there are tourists, there are street sellers and the ever-present carnival atmosphere. Two men were dressed as Roman soldiers and you could pay to get your photo taken with them. Two young women tried to solicit us for a group tour… I couldn’t quite figure out the deal and waved them away. She jokingly told some other tourists, “These Americans are always very suspicious.” We decided to just tour ourselves, though we did get the audioguide for Kelly. She listened to every single bit of information on the tape very intently. This made it a very slow process for Charley and I, but Kelly just loved it and would report bits and pieces of information to us every few minutes. The Colosseum is an absolutely amazing structure… even now, almost 2000 years after it was originally built and with huge chunks missing. It is much larger than Charley and I had expected (576 yards in circumference and 187 feet high)… we were thinking something more like the Colosseum in Arles, but this one made Arles seem so small. We did see many people doing the tour with a guide. If I ever come to Rome on a “normal” vacation (not as part of a 14 month budget-sensitive trip), I think it would be beneficial to tour the ancient sites with a guide.

After our time at the Colosseum, we had lunch at a café on a side street a few blocks away. We sat at one of the sidewalk tables—I had a perfect view of the Colosseum from my seat. The things we have seen on this trip! We had a good meal: ravioli for Charley, pasta bolognaise for Kelly, lasagna for me.

Continuing on Kelly’s well-planned itinerary, we climbed up a nearby hill to see “Nero’s Golden House,” also known as Domus Aurea. Nero’s house once took up two-thirds of Rome, but after his death in AD 68, much of it was destroyed and built over. Today you can still tour some of the ruins, set on the hill above the Colosseum in a pretty parkland. We arrived near the end of the long Italian lunch hour and would have had to wait 30 minutes for the afternoon opening. Kelly decided not to wait.

We then walked over into the Roman Forum area… more amazing ruins, almost too much to absorb: arches, columns, temples, bits of statue. We used our Colosseum admission ticket to go up onto Palatine Hill above the other forum ruins… masses of other ruins… palaces, fountains, gardens, even a stadium. Our little Top 10 guidebook listed a few of the sights of Palatine Hill, but there was very little signage up among the ruins and I found it all somewhat confusing…hard to figure out exactly where to go and what exactly we were looking at. Some of the ruins are almost 3000 years old. The views of the modern and ancient city all around us were quite impressive.

We continued back down through the various forum areas… again, an incredible number of ruins and several forums built by different Roman emperors over the years. Kelly and I were both busy snapping photos. We walked up some very steep steps to emerge again in more-modern Rome. Outside the Capitoline museums we saw a famous status of the “she-wolf” nursing the two twins—Remus and Romulus—who legend has it founded Rome and were raised by the wolves.

Today we were finally able see the inside of the Gesù church. It was absolutely beautiful and well worth our three attempts to visit. And from that point were then very familiar with the route back to our Trastevere apartment.

We got back to the apartment about 6 pm—a very long day. I fixed pasta with chicken in a cream sauce, using the multi-colored pasta noodles we’d bought in a little shop earlier in the week. Kelly seemed excited about the meal.

After dinner I worked on writing. I listened with one ear to Charley and Kelly’s conversation—they were having an informal history and geography lesson. Kelly wants to be an architect when she grows up. She has learned an incredible amount on this trip… and what architecture she has seen in our travels in England, France and Italy. I definitely think this trip has occurred at the right age for Kelly… young enough to miss a year of school and to be open to a year away from friends and activities, but old enough to really participate and learn… and to remember it all for the rest of her life.

Tonight was laundry night—one of the practicalities of a long trip like this. There isn’t a dryer and no place to dry outside, so we have laundry hung up on a big drying rack in the living room.

Friday, May 13

I didn’t realize until I typed the date that it had been Friday the 13th… funny how our sense of time has changed on this trip. Three months from today we will be at home, staying at my parents’ house for a few days until our movers come to Ethans Glen. We still have a very meaningful vacation ahead of us, though we all have a sense that our trip is approaching its end.

We carried umbrellas today “just in case” and we all took sweaters. But Kelly and I did wear our capri pants today—we just weren’t happy in our long pants yesterday. We had five minutes of sprinkling mid-morning, but otherwise it was a beautiful day. Kelly had her hair in braids and wore a bandana on her head. She rolled up her capris and at one point even rolled her t-shirt sleeves up to her shoulders. Walking behind her, I was shocked to think that she looked like a college student touring Europe. My little girl!

It was our last day in Rome and another very busy walking day. We tried to cover several things we hadn’t seen and to do something each of us wanted.

Charley and I wanted to go to the Galleria Borghese, a museum of paintings and sculpture. This seemed like a long walk, and Kelly lobbied to take a bus instead. We didn’t have information on the bus routes, so we walked first to the Tourist Information stand in Trastevere to get help. The woman gave us the bus information, but then asked if we had a reservation for the museum. We didn’t. We called the museum from a pay phone and there was no availability today. Charley and I weren’t all that disappointed (we have seen so much art already this week), and Kelly of course was delighted not to spend the morning in an art museum. I guess we’ll visit the Galleria Borghese on another visit to Rome. (We do think this is a city we’d like to visit again.) We did decide to take the bus though...l from the stop across the street up to the Piazza della Repubblica, right near the train station.

The bus was very quick for the first part of the trip and then bogged down in traffic once we reached a long busy street called Nazionale. There were just a few seats on the bus, so we stood up and tried to keep our balance as it lurched up the hill, holding onto poles, straps and each other. The bus was very hot but definitely quicker than walking—and very reasonable too… just 1 euro for any travel in a 75-minute period. We bought our tickets at a newsstand.

The Piazza della Repubblica is a beautiful traffic square surrounded by a semi-circular grand hotel, palaces and other old buildings with an elaborate fountain (by Bernini) in the middle. I had read that there were some used booksellers nearby, and we wandered over to the stands to look… we spent several minutes browsing, but we didn’t find anything that would work for us… the only books in English were romance novels.

Right across the street was the Santa Maria delgli Angeli church, constructed in a section of old Roman baths that had been built in the early 4th century. The church project was led by Michelangelo in 1561. This was Michelangelo’s last architectural project… done when he was 86 years old. There was a big white limousine right outside the church and a wedding taking place inside… a bride and groom in full wedding regalia up in front with the priest and about 100 guests. We joined the other tourists who were standing in the back watching the wedding. I thought it was interesting that a wedding would be scheduled at 11 am on a Friday morning. While some tourists watched the wedding, others wandered discreetly around the church. At one point the priest seemed to pronounce the couple man and wife… everyone applauded including me and the other onlookers. When they went up front behind the altar to sign some sort of book, we decided to leave… I was hoping to see them walk smiling down the aisle to their waiting limousine and friends throwing rice, but it seemed like there was still a lot of business to take care of up front.

We walked around the side of the baths where there was a big museum (the Museo Nazionale Romano Terme di Diocleziano) that was on Kelly’s list. In front of the museum was a beautiful garden filled with bits of old Roman buildings and statuary. It’s amazing how much “stuff” there is in Rome that really can just sit around here and there, not even in a museum. The archaeological museum was fairly expensive… we would have gone if Kelly was interested, but she decided she didn’t really want to go after all. There was a nice shop and we bought her a little journal book decorated with sketches of the Colosseum instead of the museum ticket. We posed behind head-less statues of men in togas, placing our heads on the necks for funny photos.

We continued on to another of Rome’s basilica’s—Santa Maria Maggiore, most of which was built in the 5th century. Rome is filled with beautiful churches. Kelly had quite a few churches on her list of things she wanted to see. The churches are really wonderful museums of art… paintings and statues, often by the great masters. This basilica had two domes and a bell tower, decorated inside with gold and mosaics. I saw a woman in a tank top get turned away at the door for her dress. You're not supposed to be in churches in skimpy tops or shorts.

We had lunch near the church at little pizzeria/trattoria that was just opening at 12:30. This turned out to be a decent meal… big portions, good food and economical. I never even saw the name of the place—nothing really special but good. Charley had pizza, Kelly surprisingly ordered risotto Milanese (an absolutely giant plateful), and I had an big serving of gnocchi with gorgonzola. We also had bread, a mezzo liter of wine, a soft drink, and our normal Aqua Naturale. The bill for all this was 31 euro. Our half-liter wine was about the same price as Kelly’s can of Fanta.

We walked down through the parkland area above Nero’s Golden House, with various ruins here and there. We sat for a while in the park. We walked past the crowds at Colosseum and then back down toward Forum area again. This time we took a different route to pass by Trajan’s market, the remains of a very large shopping/office complex from the 2nd century AD. A massive column honoring Trajan stood at the end of this area of the Forum. We peeked in another little church-- Santa Maria di Loreto (from 1501) as we left Ancient Rome.

We were ready to head home, but Kelly secretly planned our route to take us by Piazza della Minerva near the Pantheon. She knew I wanted to see a statue in the square—a small elephant statue by Bernini holding an ancient Egyptian obelisk on his back. The little elephant was delightful, and I was so excited when we arrived on the square and there he was. We also looked in the church, Santa Maria sopra Minerva... one of the most beautiful churches yet (Rome’s only real Gothic church, built around 1280) with a beautiful painted ceiling. There was a Michelangelo statue (called Risen Christ) and a beautiful altar. St. Catherine of Siena is buried here, though apparently her head is in a church in Siena.

I’m glad we came to Rome near the end of our trip. The many Roman sites we saw in England and France… and all the beautiful churches… would have seemed anticlimactic compared to Rome. There’s just so much packed into this one city. We have enjoyed our week in Rome a lot, and Charley and I are very proud of the good job Kelly has done in planning our sightseeing.

We had about an hour at the apartment. Around 6 pm we walked to the internet café, though I had to wait for a computer and Charley ended up with just a few minutes on-line. I had hoped to post my blog, but my computer didn’t take a CD disk. I’ll figure this out in Ravello next week.

Trastevere was very busy on a Friday evening... everyone was going out for dinner and the cafes were getting ready for the weekend. Hundreds of people were out on the street and in the big square by the fountain. Some children were playing soccer in the square.

We had dinner again at Da Otello, our third meal there. The waiters were glad to see us and as always, we like the feeling of being “regulars.” We got another complimentary aperitif. I had the misto bar, though only one serving today. I had pasta alla carbonara, Charley had lasagna and chicken, Kelly had the spicy pasta arrabbiata and a steak. The waiter said the steak was small, but it totally filled her plate. We got back to the apartment about 8:45 to start packing. Kelly and Charley never really unpacked, so they didn’t have much to do. We packed another box to send home, which Charley will take to the post office in the morning.

Tonight Kelly and Charley both said our Rome apartment had grown on them. I know that when we’ve come in at the end of the day, there has been a sense of coming home, but it’s still been a strange place to stay. The strangest thing is that out of the couple thousand books in this apartment, there was really not one that any of us wanted to read.