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)
(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.)
(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.
