Our hotel breakfast is available until 10am and we take advantage
of the slow mornings. A cab ride to the Parthenon and no crowds to slow are
access. Very impressive. One of the only buildings from Ancient Rome to have
survived almost completely intact. We were able to leisurely tour the area. Had
time for a cool drink at an outdoor cafe and Laurie did a sketch of the
building. I got a photo of several Nuns sitting on the steps of the fountain
eating their brown-bag lunch.
Sitting next to us was a woman and her young daughter. The woman
was correcting school papers and waiting for her husband to return. He is an
avid architecture buff and stopped quickly to get his camera gear before he
headed off to photo-op Rome. The woman was indeed a school teacher from Manchester,
England. She knew some of the victims from the terrorist attack and her
daughter was the same age as the youngest victim. We talked about the tragedy
and she was struggling with how to explain it to her daughter. A sad note on a
nice day! The world is very small, indeed.
We strolled back towards our hotel and had a nice lunch in a
small trattoria mixed in with many of the local working folk. We did some last-minute
browsing and shopping at the Square and returned to our hotel to pack for
tomorrow's departure and a quick nap before dinner.
We returned to our favorite restaurant near the Square, La
Quercia for our farewell dinner. The food is fabulous and reasonable. Our
waiter from the first night was off and the service was good but the ambiance was
not the same. Still a pleasant way to dine on our last night in Rome. We
returned to Farnese Square, of course for a last pleasurable night cap and
Laurie's favorite guitar player. Using the table top brown paper, she sketched
him and along with a generous tip we presented him with our parting gift.
Arrivederci Roma.
Yuck, a 4:00 am wake up! Hotel provided a car service to the
airport as part of our stay and the driver was waiting for us when we checked
out. We fly on miles and this time it was Iberia Airlines which is a partner
airline with American. We generally fly Business class due to the lengthy
flight time and the need when using miles to use the European hub system. We
flew from Rome to Madrid (Iberia’s home) and from there non-stop to JFK. Comfortable,
reclining seats, good food choices, booze and wine, movies and great service.
It makes the time go by quickly.
This was our first experience with the Global Entry System. We
had been vetted by Customs & Immigration some months before and the process
is almost all automated and we sailed through the waiting lines of weary
travelers. Didn't quite do it completely right but we eased through the process
in about 15 minutes. Our son-in-law Vlad picked us up and despite rush hour
traffic we arrived at our daughter Kristin's home in about an hour.
Great to see the kids and we did Chinese take-out. We have our
own bedroom and bath in the house and despite having napped on the plane it was
an early night. Our daughter Katie & grandson Kane stopped as well. A fun
evening.
Our granddaughter, Gwendolyn turns 6 on the Tuesday after we
arrived and we had a big pool party with all her friends. We spent time with
family, did some shopping and relaxed after our trip and told the usual travel
stories.
Monday morning found us in an Uber after tearful goodbyes. Easy
ride to LGA & an uneventful Delta trip home. Our friend Al picked us up in
Sarasota and our trip is over.
So, completes another Gene & Laurie adventure. Just shy of a
month and thousands of miles. We visited 4 different countries and travelled
through a 5th, Spain. We met countless numbers of other travelers and swapped
stories and ideas. We navigated through some dicey political discussions, I
know never talk religion or politics especially where there is wine being
consumed by several of the participants, and we were thrilled by the sights,
sounds, tastes and aromas of so many different peoples.
No comments:
Post a Comment