Last Day in Rome: Not So Much in Rome (Tuesday, October 18, 2011)

Rather than a third day spent fighting the crowds in Rome, we decided to go to the ancient Roman town of Tivoli to visit Villa d’Este. This is the summer home of some cardinal or other who was in power way back when. He built it on the remains of a Roman structure, which was then a convent, which he then replaced with his vacation home. It’s amazing! He channeled the natural flow of water to fill the entire building and grounds with fountains. Paintings and sculpture abound, and we only had to share the space with a few other people. Highly recommend it.

We enjoyed lunch in the main square, to which several in our group were attracted because of a sign that said you could get a hamburger and French fries for 5 Euro. The hamburger, to their disappointment, was not as expected—just a small hamburger patty minus the bun, tomato, lettuce, whatever. Andrew even requested his with some mozzerella on top, a request which made the server shake her head. It was hard not to laugh at their expressions when the server laid the food in front of them. They were some pretty decent French fries, though. Meanwhile Natalie had linguine with lobster, which turned out to be half a lobster laid out over the noodles. She turns into a more adventurous foodie every day.

Next up was the Villa Gregorio (I might have that name wrong), where there are some natural waterfalls in a big park. We walked there, only to find that the place had closed about 15 minutes before, as they had begun winter hours 2 days before. We were disappointed, but this proved to be a new opportunity for all teen-ish girls who wanted to do some shopping in the main square.

Terhi came to pick up half of us—she was shuttling since we only had our car for 10 people—so we decided to send the kids back to our place while we drove through the old town of Zagarolo. It is also fascinating, and I wish we had time to explore all of the places we get a glimpse of. Italy is crazy in that everywhere you turn, there are just pieces and fragments of truly ancient things. Some are memorialized and honored and revered; others grow trees out of the roofs of the abandoned places. No telling why some get the special treatment.

A last dinner of pasta surprise at Carsten and Louise’s place, and then we said goodbye. It’s a melancholy parting with them, since, unlike most of our friends, we really have no idea if and when we might see them again. Our children enjoy each others’ company too, but there are no guarantees. I learned to really hate saying goodbye to people when we shipped back and forth from Dallas to Grand Rapids twice a year, and I still do hate it. I try to remember what a friend in Mexico told me—when you believe in the same Lord, you never have to say goodbye. You just say until next time, if not here then in the heavens.

Until next time.

Popular posts from this blog

Banff and Beyond (August 4 and 5)

Image
Tuesday morning came around and there were a few unspoken understandings in the air. First off, very few of us were interested in returning to our tents as the predictions for our upcoming stay at Glacier National Park showed nights in the 30s again. Also, there was still a wildfire at Glacier, and it was affecting the area just west of St Mary Campground, where we had reservations. The road going across the park was closed from St Mary to the top of the mountain pass, so our movement would be quite restricted. I ended up scouring VRBO, Homeaway and Airbnb for a place to rent somewhere near Glacier. There was one house available in our price range in Whitefish, Montana, about 30 minutes from the West Glacier entrance. We decided to rent it. I called the phone number, the woman who answered was very gracious, and our Wednesday-Saturday itinerary were the only open dates she had. Second, no one wanted to pack sandwiches today. Plus Katy had a bunch of canned goods and mac & che...
Read more

Little Earthquakes Everywhere

Image
This morning, just before 5 am, a 5.0 earthquake somewhere northeast of us made a Tokyo’s ground tremble. I happened to wake up to the bed shaking a bit; this is the fourth time I’ve felt one in my life. Three of those four times I’ve wondered what Brian could possibly be doing in his sleep—a constant leg twitch? a terrifying nightmare?— to cause our bed to shimmy this way. One of those times was three days ago in the middle of the night in the same hotel room, but it didn’t occur to me then what it was. This morning I heard the wall shift slightly as it was happening and it became clear. Japan has small earthquakes almost every day, so this should be no surprise, but of course my nighttime self is not the most reasonable version of me, so I lay in bed another half hour wondering what might come next. I am the family seismograph—everyone else slept through both tremors this week.  This echoes my function in our family in real life. When one of our children is going thr...
Read more

[British] Open Minded

Image
About a year ago, a friend asked us if we’d be interested in going to Scotland for the British Open if he won the chance to buy 4 tickets in the ticket lottery. At the end of October he found out he’d won. For a few hours I was celebrating my opportunity to see top-notch tennis players, until my ignorance became apparent to the rest of the foursome. Turns out it’s a golf tournament; I offer that tidbit for anyone else out there like me. After 9 months of anticipation and almost 2 weeks of touring Scotland, the big day was here. Our fellow traveler not only won the chance to buy tickets, he won the chance to buy them for the final day. Again, for those like me, that means they have already played a round of golf for each of the first 3 days, and those that made the cut play a last round on the final day. The excitement of it was heightened because it was the 150 th anniversary of the British Open, and it was being played—as it is every 5 years now—at the birthplace of golf, St Andr...
Read more