Hello!! It’s our 25th Anniversary today!! And what a great day – in Rome!! But first, dinner last night. We decided to get on a bus and follow it wherever it led – and, fortunately, it led us to the Teatro de Marcellus, near the Tivere and across from Trastevere. Had a nice leisurely stroll and found a small restaurant that looked good. R had steamed artichokes and I had bresaola for starters; I had their great lasagna as a main, and R had spigola (non-Chilean sea bass). We passed on dessert, as it takes many, many steps to take off each gelato! Back home via bus, around 10:30; lovely day!
So, today. We wanted to be at St. Peter’s at 7 a.m. as it’s the only time you can really have the place to yourself. Got our daily metro passes and headed across the river; nice walk to St. Peter’s; SO different from our first journey here, years ago – now there are metal detectors, and screening and barriers like at Disneyland to control crowds! Fortunately, no crowds at 7. Toured the church; again, so incredibly beautiful! I love the domes; it is such a moving place. (OK - R just found “Pretty Woman” in German on the TV, and they have been going on with commercials now for almost 15 minutes! What’s the deal here??) Back to the hotel around 9 for their incredible breakfast buffet – really love this hotel! We wanted to locate the rental car location where we will be picking up the car tomorrow, so after breakfast, we headed out to the commercial gallery at Villa Borghese; nice walk, found the place, got some hair gel for my new haircut at the grocery store (I’m going to try the slightly-spiky look), and headed back to the hotel – passing, by the way, another Europcar rental agency, right at the corner of the block our hotel is on! Decided to check and see if by chance we could pick up our car there tomorrow, instead of the Borghese, and they said yes! Will have to see; will know in the morning! Then we headed up Via Gregoriana, to look at our old favorite Rome hotel, the Gregoriana. It has been totally done to EU standards; was closed for YEARS. Looked nice, but to be honest, now that we know about La Residenza, we’ll be staying here! From the Gregoriana, we were almost at the top of the Spanish steps; lovely view, and no kids sitting there! Where did they all go? Walked down, and ambled down to the Via Del Corso and back to Tritone. Lovely, HOT morning! (10,000 steps done by 10:12 a.m.) Caught the subway out to the Circus Maximus as we were heading out to do something we’ve wanted to do for a long time – walk the Via Appia Antica! (We had walked a portion of it several years ago, but wanted to cover a different section.) The bus took us right out of Rome, and down the Appian Way past the Quo Vadis church. It was quite a walk, but once we got away from traffic, there we were, walking on the original Roman road! There are incredible ruts made over the years by chariots; makes walking difficult! The road is lined on both sides by all sorts of ancient monuments; everything from fragments to entire family tombs, as well as incredibly expensive houses! We walked for miles, and while it was truly beautiful – all sorts of flowers, very quiet (a real change from Rome) it was REALLY HOT as well! Finally got to a main road with bus line ... and it’s amazing how buses work! We waited for over half an hour – and when the bus finally came, there were TWO, one right behind the other!! Got on and headed back to the nearest metro line, and back into the city. Headed right back to the hotel (without even a stop for gelato!!) for our second showers of the day; whew, were they needed! It being by now well advanced in the afternoon, we decided we needed rest – and ambled into the bar (with the most beautiful ceiling in the world!) – where we were presented with a cold bottle of Prosecco, in honor of our anniversary! How NEAT! Needless to say, that bottle never left the room ... By now, it was time for dinner. We headed out yet again, but not far, as R says – the ol’ legs were feeling it! (Stopped counting steps, as the counter went crazy on the bus.) Went to the Café Alex, in front of the Hotel Alexandra. It’s one of the large glassed-in restaurants right on the Via Veneto; pricey but fun! We both had bresaola with rocket lettuce and parmesian cheese for starters, and both had chicken for dinner! R’s was grilled, mine with an almond sauce; both delicious! No room, actually, left for dessert, so instead we headed home, calling it a day – and what a great way to spend our 25th anniversary!!
So, up in the morning and packing and moving on ... fortunately, no airline weight limits to meet! And we’ll see how well our car pick-up works...hoping for the best!!
Take care, and love to all!
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