On the Road to Rome (Saturday, October 15, 2011)

Last night and this morning, the girls have been on a mission to finish the bulk of their schoolwork. And they’ve done it. There is great rejoicing in the land. Poor Andrew.

We said goodbye to Isabela, who so warmly wished to make everything perfect for us. We also said goodbye to the wonderful “apartment” we had in her old farmhouse, which is so equipped with everything you might ever need that it is hard to find a place to put your own stuff. Our biggest concern was that we would not be able to tell if we left anything there! And then, saddest of all for at least 2 of us, was saying goodbye to the crazy galoot of a dog, Tata. Lots of hugs for her before we departed.

Today I turned 43 years old. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than the itinerary for the day: Drive through Tuscany, stop off at a chocolate festival in Perugia, and end the day with our arrival at the rooms we are renting near Rome. There was one minor flaw in the plan—the drive through Tuscany. It’s breathtakingly beautiful, and our off-the-cuff decision to take the back roads to Perugia resulted in a good case of carsickness for both Natalie and me. I tend to forget that I have this tendency—switchback roads and my stomach are just a bad combination. I can take wild seas, and huge rollercoasters for the most part, but put me in the car on a back-and-forth road and in minutes I’ll be begging for a break.

Eventually we passed to straighter roads, and Natalie and I made a miraculous recovery. We headed to Perugia, where I found, via Google on Brian’s phone, that we could take a kind of monorail—the Minimetro—from a free parking lot on the outskirts to the downtown area, avoiding all city traffic. Perugia was kind enough to put up signs that made it obvious where to turn into the parking lot. There was a decent public bathroom and a carnival with rides was set up a few hundred yards away, but had not opened for business just yet.

The Minimetro is truly mini. Single cars pass through the stations every few minutes or so. The cars carry you up the hill to the city of Perugia. It feels like some weird combination of a cable car, Space Mountain (Disney) and Mad Mouse (cheesy coaster at Michigan’s Adventure). As many people as possible cram into the tiny car, and off you go.

After the ride up the hill, you disembark and take a series of 3 long escalators up to the very top of the city. Exiting the rather utilitarian passageway, you find yourself in some medieval-looking arched brick shelter, and then you pass to the crest of a hill which overlooks the cascading buildings of the city as they go back downhill and more luscious landscape.

We walked further and found ourselves in the middle of the chocolate festival. Booths lined both sides of the long main street, and people crowded every inch. There were visitors from around the world, as far as we could tell. And, oh, the chocolate.

We saw mountains of chocolate, and walked up and down the street drooling over each new offering. After a while, Natalie said “I just want to point out that you cannot go to a chocolate festival without trying any chocolate.” I assured her we had no such plans.

At one booth, we each picked out two chocolates, then sat down on some steps to savor them. Thus sustained, we walked some more. We took some small lanes off the main drag, and at every corner were arches and old brick and narrow alleys. So interesting! Then back to the chocolate. We watched clowns, ogled an enormous chocolate bear, and took a quick peek into an ornate building that remains unidentified. We got sprayed by a fountain and watched people doing numerous tasks in the hopes of winning even more chocolate.

Our big splurge was one piece of chocolate torte to split amongst us and one hot chocolate for each of us. You have never had hot chocolate like this. It’s like they melted down solid chocolate, stirred it up, and sprayed it with real whipped cream. We could only finish half the cup. The perfect birthday treat, in my opinion.

Then we joined the hordes trying to get back onto the Minimetro, walking back to the hilltop view of the city. Natalie says Perugia is the “City of Whoas”—as in, “Whoa, look at that.” We finally got into one of the cars and returned to the parking lot. I will spare you a full description of the meltdown that ensued when we explained to Allison that, yes, the rides are now operating, but we will not be trying them out. Ugh.

The drive to our bed and breakfast near Rome was uneventful, aside from the fact that Andrew completed one of his Zelda DS games after years of attempts. Our hosts are very warm and interesting people. Our friends, Carsten and Louise along with their 4 children are flying in from Denmark tonight. We haven’t seen them in a couple of years, and we’re looking forward to renewing friendships. Not to mention seeing the baby boy that was born to them this summer.

Happy birthday to me!