I’d love to recap everything about Rome right now, but that’s not going to happen yet. I lost basically all hope of internet connectivity for the past few days so I haven’t been able to update.
We also missed our full flight home; the train broke down and delayed us almost an hour which was enough to push us just past the “baggage acceptance” timeframe from the airport and they couldn’t put our bags on another flight or something convenient like that, even though we were there with 45 minutes to spare. Brilliant, that.
So we’re in Jersey now, having arrived at JFK yesterday. We’re supposed to be able to get out of here at 6:25pm tonight, but we’re only in “standby” status right now so I’m on the phone with Carnival, who booked our initial air, to ensure they can get us confirmed tickets instead of on the standby list… And so yeah, we’re not able to be confirmed but ostensibly there is plenty of room on the flight and standby should work just fine.
I’ll post a proper post about Rome and the restaurants and the monuments and the statues and the artwork and the fun experiences we had later but I’ll end this post with a quickie:
Outside of the Trevi fountain, there’s a great gelato stand. I went inside, wanting an after-dinner treat. There are about 50 flavors and I see a white one, drizzled in some red syrup, so I point to it and ask “Che?/What’s this?” The older Italian gentlemen on the other side of the counter simply stares back at me and deadpans: “Ice cream.”
I stare for a couple of seconds until his younger associate says “pay him no mind; it’s strawberry yogurt flavored,” while laughing at the other guy’s obtuse response.
Quick list of awesome things for my own future reference:
Coin stealing from the fountain
Blessed by the pope
Guanciale/Bucatini Al’Amatriciana/Al Pompiere
Campo di Fiori/wrong exit in Spagna station/Italian vacationers
Trastevere/$3 shots
Wooden trinkets/successful bargaining
Singing bus
Sistene Chapel
Colloseo
Vin e oli
People-watching in Spagna
Drinking under a statue
Watching Rome in Rome
Spanish Steps/fountain water
Train “explosions”
Etc.