2017-04-29 - Rome


Writing this on the 30th.   I'll see if I can remember everything I lost in yesterday's post.  

Supposed to have the meet-and-greet with the rest of the tour companions tonight.  Have no idea where I'm supposed to go.   Maybe I'll go hang around the lobby.   I'll gravitate toward anyone speaking English.

Had to go pick up a few things in the store today.   I' know how to say, "Inglese" and "I'm learning to speak Italiano".    Then they break into a few of the English words they know and I'm busy flipping pages in my phrase book to show them what I want. 

When I went for breakfast this morning, the same girl was there asking for my room number again.  Yesterday I learned my numbers from 1-10 and today told her my room number in Italian.  She lit up and said, "Bravo!"

Went for a walk yesterday and took a few pictures.  

Gas price is 1.62 euros per liter, equivalent to about $2.30 Cdn.

When I left, our gas was at about $1.04 per liter.

Cambio Olio means oil change.

49 euros is about $70.00 Cdn.

A Holy Crow

(We're close to the Vatican)

Most of the apartments have plants on their balconies.

Probably really nice in summer.  Nothing much is flowering yet.
(Note all the cars.  Most are parked.  Just one narrow lane for one-way traffic to go.)

My hotel is a block to the left of this picture.  It's on a pretty quiet street, although there's a lot of shopping traffic around here.   My room looks out the back of the hotel, so I don't hear any traffic noise.   Only once did I hear a siren of some kind.   Don't think it was a cop car.   The siren didn't sound like the ones on TV.

A lot of people drive those smart cars.  Easy on gas and easy to park into any nook and cranny they can find on the street.   Gotta get a picture of that, tucked into teeny spaces and double parked behind other people.   

Speaking of TV, there are NO channels in English.   Or any other language.  I found my crime channel (ID) but they're all dubbed over in Italian.   Too bad 'cos I've never seen any of these ones before.


Went to the restaurant in the hotel last night because the menu had an English description under the Italian.   I still didn't know what the dish was going to be that I picked, but gawd, it was good !  

The restaurant didn't open until 7:00pm.   It was a pretty fancy one so I dressed up.  When I walked in, there was no one there.   I thought it must not be a very popular restaurant.  Okay, I'll sit in the middle of the room by myself.  Awkward.   These waiters could speak English.  It was still a bit hard to understand them but they were very friendly.

I finally came to realize what the menu was all about --- the tradition in Italy is to have four courses for dinner:   Antipasto (starters), then the Primo Piatti, then Secondi Piatti, then Dessert.   I didn't get that on Friday night at the first restaurant, when I got up to pay and the waitress kept saying, "Secondi?  Secondi?"   Huh, what?      

I told last night's waiter I only wanted Secondi.  I got a dish as full of food as you'd get at a Chinese restaurant for 4 people.  And that was what they serve for only ONE of the courses.   I commented on that to the waiter, saying it was a lot of food, and why aren't all these Romans fat?  

I had ordered dessert at the beginning, but was almost too full to eat it.  Couldn't say no when it came.  It was a piece of cake with a layer of white chocolate on top.  Yum.    It was really good, except the chocolate on top was hardened and wouldn't cut or break up with a fork.  The only thing I could do was lift it off the cake and start hammering at it with the point of a knife to break it into pieces.  I was busy hammering when suddenly a flood of people poured into the restaurant.  Ritzy people.  

Within five minutes, the place was packed.   It was 8:00 at night!   Where did everybody come from?    Then I understood.   Before I left home, Deanna told me that when they were in Spain, everybody went out for dinner at 10:00 at night, kids and all.   So that's what was going on here, only a couple of hours earlier.    That's why both nights when I went out for dinner, the restaurants were empty.   I was going too early.  Sheesh.


I think that's all for last night.......

HOPE WHOEVER'S READING THIS ISN'T GET TOO BORED !!

Front door of the hotel with an outdoor sitting area behind the screen. 

2017-04-29  Rome


Added another page yesterday afternoon and POOF!   Lost it this morning.   Using the laptop's keyboard, which I'm not used to - must have hit a wrong button.  

2017-04-29  Hotel Fleming, Rome    Morning

 

These are the views in two directions from the balcony in my room.   We're in the urban part of the city, but there's a horse farm down below.

Where the mountains and the tall buildings are in the background, I believe that's where ancient Rome is, where we'll find the Vatican, and somewhere to the right will be the Colosseum.   (That's how they spell it here.)   Won't be going there until the week of May 14-20, when Monica and the rest of the gang get here.

This is my room.  It's a decent size for just me.   There's no coffee maker in the room though.  I was up at 3:30 this morning.   The restaurant didn't open for another 3 hours.

Nice bathroom.   Nice bidet.   They supply regular fluffy bath towels for the shower, but the hand towels at the sink are similar to the cloth napkins you would get at a good restaurant, only they're the size of a tea towel.  There are no face cloths, so I used one of the towels at the sink.  This morning I noticed they have the same kind of hand towel draped behind the bidet as are hanging on the rack at the sink.   ????    So ---- that means..................

Nice buffet breakfast for 5 euros.  Fresh yellow bud roses on every table.

When I went down to the restaurant this morning, the girl at the front asked my room number.   635.   I think they all know a little bit of every language in the world, but only enough to try to understand what you want.  She was getting frustrated, I think by number 5.   (She should have asked me to write it down.)  Here, five is cinque, pronounced "cheen-kweh" according to my little book.   After breakfast I came upstairs and learned my numbers from 1 to 10. 

Not everything is in the phrase book, so I opened Babelfish and found out how to say, "post office, postage stamps, postcards, "Can I get coins for this", "How much do I owe you", "Can I pay you now", and "I hope that's chicken".

2017-04-28

Been up now for 28 hours and need some sleep.  Will just put down some thoughts. 

Not very many people I met so far speak much English, so it's kind of been sign language and nodding.  I just went to a restaurant for dinner and didn't have a clue what was on the menu.  The waitress hardly spoke English, and although I had my Italian book with me, none of the words on the menu were in the book.  I knew what Spaghetti Bolognese was, so I ordered that.  It was good, but it wasn't spaghetti.  It was long flat noodles.   I'm not much of a pasta person, so what am I going to do for the next three weeks?  Yikes.   I saw "sweetbreads" in the Italian book, so I'll have to memorize "animelle alla salvia" so I know NOT to order it. 

I had really good company on the plane on both flights which made the time pass very quickly.  Cor was Dutch, going home to Amsterdam for a week while his farm in Barrhead dries out.  Another Dutch lady from Vancouver was on the Alitalia flight beside me.    Didn't ask her name.

Didn't have to go through any customs in either Amsterdam or when I got to Rome.

Had a lurch in Edmonton.  I took two suitcases because one big heavy one would be too hard to lug around, especially where I'm staying without elevators.  Standing at the counter checking in, found out that none of the European connector flights want you to have more than one piece of luggage.  I had to pay  KLM in Edmonton $120.00 for the second suitcase.  I have two more connector flights on the trip where it looks like I'm going to have to pay the same thing.   Don & I brought the big suitcase with us in the car just in case, but once I was at the counter checking in, I didn't feel like going back to the car to re-pack everything.   I was over 50 lbs anyway.

I'm sitting here conking out now.  Better go to bed.  If I get a good night's sleep, jetlag shouldn't be a problem.   It's 7:15pm here right now.   Even if I get up early tomorrow morning, I should be adjust to the time change by then.

Took some pictures, but don't feel like adding any right now.  Must sleep ....................