On the road (literally!) again!!

Robert on the Appian Way;
View along the Way;
Look at those cobbles! They’re originals!!
Hotel at Sperlonga;
Town of Sperlonga

Friday, November 21, 2008

Ciao!

Today was our first day to pack up and head out of Roma – always sad to leave such a beautiful city; hope we’ll be back soon! Think both of us were still having jetlag issues, as neither of us could get to sleep! Really unreal, being SO tired, but not nodding off! Think I fell asleep around 12:30 a.m. or so. R had fallen instantly asleep as soon as we got back from dinner last night, but then woke up around 11 and did some Caltech business for a few hours! So – we may NEVER get our sleep straightened out!

Awoke around 7 and went down for breakfast; again, just terrific (sincerely wish I had a cup of that hot chocolate now!). Packed up and headed out around 9. Took a cab the short distance to Villa Borghese and the Hertz office – but it was still too far to walk with luggage. Picked up our little 4-door Fiat; perfect size trunk, as we can put everything in it and close it just fine! (R the expert arranger strikes again!)

So…now we’re heading out of town…and driving in Rome, let me assure you, is not for the faint of heart … or it could lead to faint hearting, or whatever! Why is it that wherever we seem to want to go, they’re doing ROAD construction? And I don’t mean just a little repair work here and there! In this city, when they fix the roads, they start by taking up the stones or cobbles first, and go from there! NO way a car could get through! So…we headed from the Hertz office down the Via Veneto, and through the Piazza Barberini. As a side note, let me say that we try – really hard! – not to drive where we’re not supposed to … but this is, after all, Rome – and heaven only knows where we were driving – I mean, do taxi/bus lanes REALLY only mean taxis and buses? Can imagine we’ve been caught today by various traffic cameras – oh well; we did our best! Wound around the Piazza de Venezia and the Emannuelle Due monument, past the Forum and around the Coloseo; finally making our way out through the wall of the city and on to the Appian Way!!! Did make a few stops here – places we’ve been or walked already; also drove down a lovely stretch of road. The weather is really grey and cloudy and spritzing rain; SO glad we had three wonderful, sunny days in Roma!

We headed south, winding around Castelgondolfo (Pope’s summer residence) and down toward Terracina. There are places where the Appian Way is no longer – and places where it is; tried to hit as much of it as possible.

Around 1:30 we drove into Sperlonga, our stop for the next two nights; the Grotta di Tiberio hotel. It is on a wonderful section of coast, and is just beautiful! (Think this is a very “Laguna-Beach-y” type place; fortunately, as it is November, not very many people!) Lovely pool (which we won’t be making use of!) and nice, albeit small, rooms. (Think we may just be spoiled by the lovely, big rooms at La Residenza!) We’ve got room 201, on the end, with a great balcony – just glad they have heavy wool blankets on the bed!

Dropped all the luggage, and as it was getting on in time, headed into Sperlonga for 1) Bankomat (of which they have two) and 2) LUNCH – we were starving! Found a lovely restaurant on the main street in town; both of us had bresaola (yes, I know, you’re wondering if we’re sick of it yet, and the answer is NO!) salads and lots of water; didn’t want to chance wine on the road! Think we’ll go back to this place tomorrow night; plan on eating in our hotel restaurant tonight I think …

From town, we backtracked past our hotel to the Grotta di Tiberio – not our hotel, but the REAL grotto where the Emperor Tiberius had his summer residence! The Grotta is absolutely beautiful; a natural stone grotto which had a pool built out in front of it with the excavated ruins of his palace next-door. In the good old Roman days, there was statuary in and around the pools, but today it’s in a really wonderful museum at the top of the hill. We had the place to ourselves – in fact, the entry fee was 8 Euros, and the guy at the ticket booth didn’t have change! So, he let us in for FREE! How about that for a good deal!! He also directed us to head down to the Grotta first, before going through the museum, as it was supposed to rain! By the time we got to the beach level, it was POURING rain, and really blowing! Fortunately, the Grotta is open, and we were able to get some protection from the elements inside. Had a good look around, then a wet schlep back up the hill!

From there, back to the hotel, as it was almost 5, and settled in (we think) for the evening. Dinner here is at 7:30 – and I ONLY hope that I can find something OTHER than FISH on the menu! If not – oh well! We’ll see what they have!

We do have a bit of homework to do for tomorrow, to find the places we want to see, but will be able to take a nice leisurely day and see what we can find! The weather isn’t supposed to improve much until Sunday…but we’d still rather deal with that than tourists!

So – more later!!
Much love,
m