Romantic Roma

Here are a few pictures of our trip to Rome sans kids. We had a wonderful time, a memorable time, stories we can tell our grandchildren.

A year and a half ago Johns' division had a company picnic and they were conducting a fundraiser to raise money for the Christmas party. We bid on a weekend of babysitting and won. We had a difficult time trying to pinpoint a date to use it. I think when John said to the family, if we don't agree on a date, we just may have more children to watch if we keep postponing. We agreed to last weekend. The family watching the children have 4 of their own and John knows them from work. So they were more than capable. It was a little bittersweet for me. I was really looking forward to spending some time alone with John, but I really, really did not want to leave the children, especially baby boy. We loaded the car up with several pack 'n' plays, portable highchairs, baby gates, car seats, diapers of various sizes, formula, bottles and clothes. Then of course our things. The dogs and their things were last. After dropping my babies off with several pages of instructions we were off to drop the dogs off somewhere else. Off to the airport in Baden Baden we went.

We left the house around 10:45 and arrived at our hotel around 9:30. It was a long trip door to door, especially since the flight was a little under 2 hours, but we were relaxed. Our hotel did not look like the pictures posted on the website. There was graffiti all over the front and the room was really dirty, mold all over the bathroom and holes in the wall that had been patched, but not painted. The insulation wasn't very good either, because every time a car drove by it sounded like it was in our room. You get the idea.

We had dinner and bought some wine to bring back to the room. When we bought the wine I asked the shop keeper how much this bottle was and that bottle was and they were all 18 Euro, but when I went to pay the shopkeeper said, "My boss really likes the two of you, so for you I only charge 16 Euro."

The next day, I was taking my cold shower thinking what a shame it was that the hotel was so... dirty and such a disappointment on our romantic weekend getaway that was not going to happen again for a VERY long time. While I was thinking this, John was thinking the same thing and phoning the Marriott to see if they had vacancies. We had points and we were planning on going to the Marriott at first. John announced the Marriott had vacancies and would I want to change hotels. How glad I am we did, because it didn't take much time out of our day to move and it was truly a slice of heaven. The difference between night and day. We have stayed in many hotels and B & B's and never left a hotel. Sparse decor and no frills don't bother us, dirt does. After we checked in we set out for a wonderful day of sightseeing and put the night before, behind us.

We walked by the beautiful Villa Medici on our way to the Spanish Steps. It was very crowded and then we noticed some demonstrators so we moved on towards Vatican City. I was so excited to see Vatican City, it was everything I expected and more. It was truly a religious experience. Michelangelo's Pieta was phenomenal, sculpted between 1498-1499. Apparently there was some controversy over Mary's age. Some felt she looked to young in the sculpture to be depicted as the mother of Christ at the age Christ was depicted. One day an unhappy worshipper came into St Peter's and started firing away at the sculpture, fortunately not causing too much damage, but now the Pieta is encased in bullet proof glass. We went into the Chapel of the Sacrament to say a prayer for Christopher and all the other wonderful people who have touched our lives and we have lost. We also said a prayer thanking God for our 3 precious little gifts. We were amazed at the beauty of the confessionals and were in awe over the Papal altar. Bernini's famous canopy was gorgeous and I was in awe over the bronze spiral columns. The papal throne was exquisite as was St. Peter's tomb. The pictures of the Sistine Chapel don't do it it justice. How lucky are we that we could see all of these amazingly beautiful spots. We took a few pictures of Carlo Fontana's beautiful fountain in St. Peter's Square on our way out. We stopped for a scrumdiddlyumptious panini for lunch and walked along the Tevere River towards Circus Massimo, where they held the chariot races, back in the day. We passed the beautiful Island of Tiberina on the way. We were finally nearing Circus Massimo, but noticed streets were roped off with a large police presence. I asked a polizei if it was safe to go to Circus Masimmo and he said, "No" and then pointed us in the direction and said go that way. That way was towards a few hundred demonstrators waving their flags. We decided NOT to go that way and headed towards the Colosseum only to stumble upon the fabulous Palentine Hill, what a treasure. We weren't planning on going there, but were so fortunate to see it. What an amazing display of Roman ruins and spectacular architecture, from the Roman forum, Capital Hill, House of Livia and many other historic sights we walked. Later we reached the Colosseum, it was in sight, but we had a small problem, a couple thousand demonstrators were blocking the way. We took some picture of the outside of the Colosseum and decided to stage left that area. On our way out we decided to detour as 20 police vehicles came towards us with about 100 Carbinari (I think they were the military police) followed by several thousand demonstrators. Of course I had to take some photos and video, because it was a pretty awesome sight. You always hear about these big Italian protests, we just happened to stumble upon the grand daddy of all protests. We later found out that this particular protest hosted over a million people from all over Italy. No wonder everything was so crowded, more so than usual, because we did see some demonstrators taking some time off with their flags in tow, sightseeing. We moved onto Trevi Fountain, which was wall to wall people, but we were able to take some great pics of the gorgeous fountain. We stopped by another shop to buy a bottle of wine and were told this bottle was 18 Euro, that one was 16 Euro, etc... We took the 16 Euro bottle and were told, because we were so nice they were only going to charge us 14 Euro. Wow, how lucky were we? Everyone always thought we were so nice and gave us discounts. Yeah, right how gullible did they think we were. We knew they were hosing us, but what are you going to do. Smile, nod and say thank you (for sticking it to us). Very funny culture. We headed back to the hotel.

Via Veneto is truly a beautiful street and that was where our hotel was located. That evening we enjoyed listening to the piano in the bar for several hours while enjoying some wine and playing some Phase 10. Later we went across the street for a romantic dinner at Cafe Veneto. The first hour was quiet and charming and then the Hollywood crew arrived and unfortunately they were sitting a foot away from us. The actor, Mathew Modine was with the director Bob Hoskins (Ocean's 11, etc...) and a few other director, producer and writer types. Apparently they were filming "Go Go Girls". They were so loud and obnoxious you couldn't help, but hear what they were saying. Of course the service for the surrounding tables pretty much came to a halt. Our dinner arrived about 2 1/2 hours after ordering it, I am sure due to the fact of a very demanding Hollywood table. A little annoying. I always enjoyed Mathew Modine's movies, but I have to say I don't really care for him as a person after one comment he made. Someone asked him what he thought about Iraq and he said,"I can't be bothered with Iraq and what is going on, but on the other hand I would like change the size of scripts. At the moment your average script weighs 7 pounds and I feel we can change it to about 3 1/2 pounds by decreasing margins, font, etc.... That way I don't have to go lugging around a 7 pound script. We save plane fuel by reducing weight and we save trees." But he can't be bothered with human lives. Hmmmm. Back to our hotel we went.

The next morning we were going home, but John woke up with food poisoning, which made for a miserable and long trip for him. I felt so bad for John. We looked forward to seeing the kids, I really missed them. In spite of the glitches we really enjoyed ourselves and were grateful for the time away in such an historic city. Every corner you turned there was always something ancient and amazing to see. The Romans are crazy drivers. I would never drive in Rome, it was worse than London or Edinburgh. Also the Romans are always trying to make you feel like you are getting a great deal or bargain. We really would like to go to Tuscany and Venice in the spring and experience more of Italy, we shall see where John's job takes us.

Ciao