The Birds and the Bees
34006 feet over the Atlantic – It’s time to put in to words what took place yesterday, and finish up some of today.
We drove down to Rome to see the Colosseum and such. We got in to Rome before noon, but we ran in to traffic. We ended up parking at a subway station – one of the ends of B line, which means we we had a thirty minute or so train ride, including a swap to A line. It was interesting to see the difference on the two lines – the B line trains were new, clean (on the outside) and had TVs showing 5 minute commercial loops. The A line trains each had more graffiti on them than you can find in most US cities. We got to the Colosseum around 1PM. Luckily for us, by taking an English language tour for 4 Euro extra per person, we were able to bypass the line and get in quickly – We had to be out of Rome by 5PM. The most important parts of the Colosseum were the pidgeons having sex, and the cat who lived down near the bottom.
After the tour and taking a bunch of pictures, we had lunch at an Einstein “themed” trattoria, then we piddled around the Forum for half an hour.
We took a few group pics, and then took the subway back to Anagnina an the car, so we could make it back to the villa by 7PM to meet with Miss Teodora and check out, since we had to leave at 6AM the next morning. The checkout went smoothly, and we spent less on heat than we had budgeted. Then we changed clothes to go out to dinner to a town on Lake Trasimeno, one of the biggest lakes in Italy, and conveniently close to Perguia, to try some Italian sea/lake food. Well, the place we THOUGHT we had made a reservation for the night before was closed – very mysterious, but we found another restaurant on the lakefront. It was a very nice dinner – the food was different than we had been eating, and we had white wine with the meal, along with shrimp. We spent several hours eating and talking about the Constipootional Convention, finally leaving at about 11:15 to go home and pack, and sleep and such.
I woke up at 5AM to shower. We were out of the place by about 6:10AM, and Fred and I were dropped off at the Terminal by 8:30AM. Joan and Chris, who’s flight was several hours later than ours, then went on to drop off the car – and ended up being at the airport too early to check in.
Terminal 5 at FCO is just a security shell for flights to the US. In the outer area there are catwalks manned by policemen with submachine guns – not exactly what I am used to. After you check in, you are taken by bus to a proper terminal. The flight left about on time, so we should be OK for our connecting flight at Dulles. I can’t wait to get home, even though the vacation was fantastic.
