The Afternoon Stroll

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After Luca left us, we were on our own for an afternoon of leisurely walking around Rome.  And walk we did.  Boy did we ever walk.  Here is Cindy admiring Trajan's Column.  A history of his conquests is described in a spiral all around the monument.

Patty takes in the sights at the Trevi Fountain.  She threw in only two coins and Bill called her a cheapskate so the threw in two more.

 

Cindy is only considering throwing coins in the fountain.

 

Bill threw in the one Euro penny he had left over from the episode at the Campanile in Venice.

 

Of all the coin-tossers, Cindy seemed to have the most fun.

 

Bill Blackberrys while the ladies throw money away.

 

It's Vento Forte Movie Time!
Episode: Three or More Coins in the Fountain

Cindy shot some video at the Trevi Fountain.

 

 

Bill rests in front of the hotel where he stayed on his first trip to Rome back in 1986.

 

That's Cindy and Patty off in the distance.  Hey, wait up!

 

Cindy and Patty are at the Spanish Steps which were build by the French but are called the Spanish Steps because they're near the Spanish embassy.

 

That's a lot of Spanish steps.

 

Cindy's not afraid.  She'll tackle those steps.

 

Bill takes a deep breath and imagines himself Sir Edmund Hillary.

 

We made it!  Wheeze!

 

Now there's an interesting sight.  It's a church where Cindy's kids played in a string orchestra when they visited Rome about ten years ago.  It's called the church of Santa Maria della Concezione and it houses one of the weirdest things any of us had ever seen.

 

Up the steps we walked to the open door.

 

And looked out upon the street.

 

Cindy was wondering if her kids would remember the place from these pictures.  I believe it has turned out that they don't remember it very well.  They do remember something else in the neighborhood, though.  I'll show you in a minute.  But for now, the amazing thing is that they don't remember this place.  They were teenagers at the time; they were with an entire group of teenagers; and I'm pretty certain they would remember this place if only, when they'd been here, they had been escorted to .....

THE CRYPT

 

Can you believe it?  This is for real!  These are the bones of hundreds upon hundreds of Capuchin monks all arranged in tasteful decorations.

 

It's not tongue in cheek -- the people who put all this together were quite serious.  There's a sign declaring, "What you are, once we were; what we are, you someday will be."  It's meant to be cautionary and artistic at the same time.

 

See what I mean?  Fibula flowers, clavicle carnations, literal racks of ribs.  I cannot believe I was actually there, that this really exists.  But there it is.

 

After that episode it was time for a little R&R.  The ristorante recommended by Luca, the Cherry Tomato, wouldn't open for another hour or so, so what to do?

 

Easy:  we stopped at a ristorante and shared some prosecco as an excuse to use the restroom.

 

Bill was the first to discover there was no toilet seat.  When he returned to the table he told Patty that if she wanted to go, she ought to go right away while the porcelain was warm.  Ha ha ha, Bill is a real joker.  But when Patty returned, she had discovered one of the best jokes of the trip: some graffiti written on the bathroom wall.  Bill hadn't noticed, but little escapes Patty.  Look below:

 

Ah, the magic of Rome.  Heh.

Don't get it?  Say it aloud.

 

After leaving that nice ristorante we discovered one of the sights in Rome that Cindy's kids do remember.  Well of course.

 

We didn't go in of course.  We had too much fun having our pictures taken outside with the Kang.

 

Now off to find the Cherry Tomato.

 

Along the way we spotted some pretty impressive artwork in a bakery window.  So Bill snapped a picture.

 

About then a crazy Italian lady walked out of the shop and demanded he take a picture of the pig.  So here's a picture of the pig.

 

Finally we've arrived at Il Pomodorino, the Cherry Tomato.  Good food once again.

 

Bill had pasta with black truffles hoping it would be as good as the pasta with white truffles in Florence.  This was good, but it really didn't compare.

 

Patty prefers the risotto.

 

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