Day 320, Rome, Italy
We were in Liverno for four nights. It will always be remembered as the place I had the best pasta in the world, cooked by a man who immigrated from Senegal. We’ve already nicknamed him the Senegal Spaghetti Magician. As we continue our travels through Italy, we will see if he holds his position.
As it is nearing final exams for Madi, she has to limit her outings. Yesterday we drove down the coast a bit further to Rome, where we will stay for two nights. The last time we drove here, pre-GPS, we were lost for almost two hours. We booked our hotel close to the Vatican because we thought it would be easy to find. Not so. Even when you are lost, you have to find yourself on said map to become un-lost. What we learned that day is hat not everyone who lives in Rome can find themselves on the map… we had plenty of company.
This time we put in the address and arrived without incident. The friendly owner was there to meet us. There was a big bag of candy out on the table, and a package of pasta in the cupboard, along with olive oil. Across the street we found the cutest neighborhood restaurant where we ate every night. Lots of families eating there, it had the best vibe of friendliness and people knowing each other.
Today, Madi squeezed about five hours out of her study schedule to see a few of the more important sites to her. Rome may not have been built in a day, but that was all the time she had to see it. Paul dropped us off and went to find parking. A few hours later he joined us after having driven around for over an hour and a half looking for parking without success. He ended up driving back to our house and then taking the metro down to meet us, which was only four stops.
We walked past the Monumento a Vittorio Emmanuele II or otherwise known as that really big white building with the horses on top.
I have other photos that show the monument better, but chose this one because I love how the clouds, simple nature can still overshadow even something as grandiose as this.
The ruins here just go on and on, the history so extensive. It reminds how short our country’s history is.
We relived a little of our own history by getting lunch for the same stand location where we did in 2002.
Also like the last time, the girls enjoyed feeding the pigeons more than feeding themselves. It was actually a lot of fun and I started feeding them, too. The pigeons would peck at the pieces we gave them in a way that they would pop into the air. So I threw a bunch at them and it looked like popcorn everywhere, and one even landed in my shirt. I tried to take a video of it, but it’s amusingness didn’t translate well or we are just easily entertained. Probably the latter.
Once the girls and the pigeons were fed, we walked over to the Trevi fountain and then to the Spanish Steps, which were closed due to repair. At least we saw the fountain. The saying goes if you throw a coin into the fountain you are sure to return to Rome. The girls were pretty confident they’d be back even without the coin.
