Arriving in Rome

Siena to Rome:  Our day started kinda krappy, but ended up in a perfect combination of fun, food and friends. We were all organized and checked-out of our villa at precisely ten o'clock, which is check-out time by the way. DT loaded all the bags in the van and was ready for another shower after this bit of exercise (of course, he had already had a short jog). We left all the bags, and our friends, at the considerably gritty Siena station and drove several miles to the car rental agency in an industrial part of town. I am no city planner, but it seems to me it would be more convenient to have a car rental agency actually at the train station??? There was one couple ahead of us in line and there were two agents at the desk. When it was finally our turn, the agent went out to see our van. She wanted to check the mileage and to see that we had filled the fuel tank. We showed her the filthy car, showed her the broken window and missing hub cab. She tisked-tisked, as to apologize for the conditions the awful Venice office had offered the car, and then traipsed back to the counter.

As she was finishing our paperwork it was suddenly time for her break. Never mind that we needed only 2 additional minutes of her time! She dropped what she was doing and handed us over to the other counter clerk! I am NOT kidding! When the other girl finished with her client, we were moved to the front of the line and she started to finish our paperwork. Except that the phone rang. Since she was now the only clerk in the office, Clerk #2 had to handle the phone calls too. She jabbered on and on and on and on and over and over about how you cannot get a refund if they had already charged your card to an unknown English-speaking nut-job on the other end of the phone.

Finally, the call complete, she was able to finally finish our paperwork. This consisted of tearing-off a copy of the receipt for us! Goodness, couldn't she have done this while chatting on the phone??? DT finally had to ask her if we were finished. She said yes, and would we like a taxi? There was no need for her to call a taxi, because there were several taxi's outside. No, she insisted those taxi's were not really there, so she called us a taxi. A taxi appeared in a few moments - the same company as the taxi's parked in their lot - and we headed over to the train station.

It had taken over one hour to return a rental car.

Back at the station, everyone was bored to tears. They had each read and re-read the International Herald Tribune. The station is very dirty, and there were flies all over the food in the cafeteria - over-all, not a pleasant place to kill two hours. (Since the harvest started on Friday, the flies have been swarming - attracted by all that sweet grape juice.) Our train showed up and we were off. We took the local train to outside Rome and then changed to a first-class compartment train. We had our own cabin and drank a bottle of wine on our way to Rome.

All roads lead to Rome: DT and me on the train

We hopped into two taxi's and easily made it to our hotel in Rome, The Apollo. Mary had made our hotel arrangements and the accommodations are perfectly located. The rooms are small, but fancily furnished, with big baths, fantastic showers, air conditioning, mini-bar, flat-screen TVs, etc.

Everyone wanted internet and everyone wanted laundry and just down the street was a launderette with internet - next door to a beer joint. Heaven in Rome! Not only was the beer cold and cheap, the name of the bar was Mary Love!

The owner of the launderette and the worker at Mary Love Cafe were both from Shanghai. The laundry dude was too busy to be friendly, but the kid in the cafe, who had lived in Italy four years, was talking a mile a minute and asking us all sorts of questions - especially after we spoke to him in Chinese. A cute girl came in and asked "do you have a toilet I can use?" and he plainly said, "For you, yes." Two Australian girls came in and asked how much beer costs. He said, "Five Euros, but for you 3.50." (We were charged five for our beers!) He really, really wanted to make me a cocktail - he kept asking if I wanted a mojito - but I settled for an icy cold Italian beer. It was fun meeting this New Italian.

Back to the Apollo Hotel, with our clean clothes, and time for a rest before dinner. The hotel recommended a place a few blocks away. It wasn't the best food we have eaten, but we sure ate a lot of food. They also served the garlicky Tuscan-style bruschetta, so we ordered a plate. We had meats, risottos, mussels, pastas and fried cheese!

Roast chicken with potatoes


Fried cheese

After dinner, we walked a few more blocks to the fabulous Trevi Fountain. The fountain takes you by surprise. You are walking along regular city streets, filled with offices and shops and then suddenly you can hear the water and you turn a corner and there is the incredibly huge and grand and noisy Trevi Fountain. It was commissioned by a Pope to celebrate the completion of the Roman aqueduct system. It is a thing of beauty and here we are enjoying the romantic spot (along with several thousand other beautiful couples, vendors, tourists, students, old folks, homeless and the required errant Gypsy.

Mary tosses a coin in the fountain


The Trevi Fountain at night


Tourists: not a good photo... but proof we were there!

Pedometer: 12,600 steps. Gelato of the Day: Well... making up for no gelato yesterday... I had a small cup with hazelnut (wowser!) with a little bit of chocolate on top. The combo was incredible. DT had a sweet and spicy chocolate with chili gelato.