May 4, 2015
Buona Sera!
As far as I know, that means “good evening” in Italian … but
then I am fair to partly tired, so who knows?
To start from the beginning…
We left Tucson about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday for Phoenix and
the lovely Doubletree Hotel, Phoenix Airport.
I think all their rooms are suites, and it was very spacious and lovely
… the kind of place you wouldn’t mind staying in for a few days. We decided that steak as our “last meal”
sounded good, so found Stockyards, a
little less than a mile from the hotel.
We were in shorts and t-shirts, but they were very gracious and seated
us in a very nice booth. We both ordered
their 8 oz. filet, which came with house salad – with blue cheese dressing – as
well as potatoes. I had baked and R had
their “parmesan pile” – both good.
Everything was exceptional; the steaks were perfectly cooked (rare) and
we washed everything down with a couple of glasses of French Bordeaux. Very, very satisfied with our meal!
Then we headed back to the hotel for an early night (as our
plane was set to leave at 7:05 a.m.) At
8 p.m. I called our wonderful friend Anne Vaughan, who told me that Arthur, her
loving husband of almost 40 years had just passed away. We had known it was coming for some weeks
now, but it was still really a shock.
Sincerely wish we could be at two places at once, but unfortunately that
can’t happen. Arthur, who is also an
astronomer, and Robert have known each other since 1970, and worked together at
Carnegie Institute of Washington (Mount Wilson Observatory). Art and Anne were truly a wonderful and
amazing couple, and we are going to miss Arthur very, very much.
Really seems like it’s difficult getting back to the trip,
but needs must, so we will move on. We
had set the alarm clock for 4:00 a.m. but of course I was up at 3:25 a.m. Jumped in to the shower (like to be clean for
a l-o-n-g flight) and out, and we were out the door of the hotel by 4:30
a.m. Returned the rental car to Thrifty,
and didn’t have too much of a scrum in the check-in area at United. Checked two
cases to Rome. We are TSA pre-checked,
so that was wonderful – we were able to keep shoes and belts on, and we didn’t
have to get computers or even our bag of liquids out of our cases!
The flight to Washington/Dulles was fine, about 4+ hours
long. I actually did some sleeping,
which is highly unusual for me, as did Robert – NOT unusual for him. In DC we had about 2½ hours for layover, so decided
to get some lunch. Found a nice sit-down
restaurant and ordered excellent cheese burgers and fries. Great way to leave the country! Then, on to our plane for the 9 hours 5
minute flight non-stop to Rome.
Lovely new plane, and we had splurged on Economy Plus and had the first row
(bulkhead) on the left-hand side of the plane, two seats across. Very comfortable! Got settled in, and off on time at 5:05 p.m.
Very uneventful flight – I watched a few movies I’ve already
watched, as well as a few Big Bang Theory episodes. I did start to watch the Great Budapesth Hotel, but it truly became so inane that I gave it
up as a lost cause. We picked up a bit
of time, and arrived about 45 minutes ahead of schedule!
That’s when things got interesting! The total scrum at passport control rivaled
Istanbul, which is certainly no compliment!
It probably took about 35 minutes for us to get through – and then to
look for the luggage.
So…we are told it is coming out on carousel 8. So…there we head. However, what they didn’t tell us was that a
really big plane from China had arrived before us, and their luggage was
everywhere on the carousel – so much so, that there was no more room for any
new luggage; bags were coming out at the incredible rate of about one per
minute! And of course, no one around to
handle it and pull bags off to clear some space! It probably took more than an hour for us to
find our first bag. And, when one finds
one’s first bag, one generally assumes the second is close behind! Well…WRONG!
After waiting over a good hour, it just wasn’t showing up. So, we went to the lost luggage area to file
a claim.
As it turns out, they already knew about us! And, had I turned on my cell phone, we had
not one but two messages from United!
Apparently they had forgotten the bag in Dulles, and were sending it out
via Frankfurt on Lufthansa! Whew! So, decided after all the hassle, that we
would take a cab directly to the wonderful Casa
Cleme which we have rented for the week.
It wasn’t too costly (50€) and it was certainly appreciated, it being a
very warm day.
Into the flat about 11, and then took some time to get
organized.
Good morning!
Whew! Talk about sleeping like a
rock … although how anyone knows how rocks sleep…
Last night I collapsed just as we got into our flat. It is wonderful, and superbly located! There are two big bedrooms – one of which
we’re using as a library with computer and R has all our electronic cords and
cables spread out on the bed … two bathrooms (one of which is SO cute, but the
size of a small closet! Along with a big kitchen and living room. The flat has windows on two sides, so we are
able to open then up and get a lovely cross breeze. An amazing place – SO much better than a
hotel!
After getting organized yesterday morning, we were
definitely in need of lunch…so, out the door and in search of a good
place. Luciana, our wonderful landlord,
has provided us with lists for everything – stores, markets, restaurants – so,
down the street and around the corner, we found Café Valentini. As lots of people were smoking outside, we
headed inside.
So, time to head back out to the airport to retrieve our
lost suitcase! At the Re di Roma metro
station several blocks away, we got week-long bus/tram/metro cards (24E each –
quite a bargain over 6E a day!) Then
headed to Termini, the main train station, to catch the train to the airport. No problems with the train, but a bit of
difficulty getting tickets, as the machine wouldn’t take our American
CHIP-provided credit card, and we ended up buying the tickets from a travel
agent located in the station. Need to
find out what that’s all about. On to
the train for the pleasant and uneventful ride back out to the airport. Of course the security people would ONLY let
Robert in to the luggage area, so I had to wait outside – but it wasn’t long,
and out Robert comes WITH our little suitcase!
SO happy to be reunited!
Took the train back to Termini and splurged once again to
take a cab back to the apartment.
Unpacked little case and we are now complete with all our
belongings! As it was 7:30 p.m. or
thereabouts, we headed immediately back out to find bank and dinner. (And we’re heading out to Villa Guilia, the
Etruscan museum, so more later and I will post this afternoon – promise! And then we should be back on schedule for
daily postings!
m xxx
Hello! We found dinner
last night near Piazza Navona after a nice bus ride around the It was a
small place, and we ate inside. I had a
bresaola salad on arugula with parmesan, and R had a plate of penne arrabiata,
both washed down with classes of dry white wine directly out of a cask – great fun! Then, I got gelato at Blue Ice, right across
the street. They had at least five
different kinds of chocolate – milk, dark, with rum, with whatever … I had dark
chocolate and stracciatlla on a cone; fabulous!
Much love,
m
xxx
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