Arrivederci Roma..............e Italia

Our last full day in Rome brought beautiful weather with the sun breaking out. It was a good thing, too, since Judy had had planned a pretty good walk in the morning. Today the main thing we were going to do was to meet up with our good family friends, Brunilde & Dino Alberti, her sister Silvana Fichera, and Irene Gianinni, who had traveled down to Rome from Arezzo to see us once again.

After a complimentary breakfast at our new hotel, we headed out to the Metro to take the subway to the Piazza del Popolo. We took some pictures there and also checked out the church on the square called S. Maria del Popolo.

Once we left Piazza del Popolo, we headed down Via Flaminia to Brunilde's house. When I checked on the internet the previous night where her house was in relation to this starting point, I discovered that it was approximately 3.5 miles down this road beyond the Ponte Milvio. I noticed right away that a tram ran down this street and I tried to talk Judy into riding this down the avenue. However, she was not having it. Oh well, it was a nice day after all.......

At the end of Via Flaminia is the Ponte Milvio which we found out is the oldest bridge over the Tiber River in Rome. It also has another unique feature......there are padlocks all over the place on this bridge. We later found out that legend has it that people go there to "lock their love" for one another.

We got to Brunilde's house right at the appointed hour, even after a stop down the street at one of the best bakeries we've seen on this trip. We just had to stop in and get some crostatas and amaretto cookies for the lunch we were going get at Bruni's house. It was great seeing Brunilde, Dino, Silvana & Irene. We visited with them for about 4 hours, which included one of the tastiest lunches that we had on this trip.

The lunch was appetizers of focaccia & supli (a breaded & fried rice ball stuffed with mozzarella), a veal saute with carrots & broccolini (you know what part of that that I didn't eat), and all of the desserts & pastries that I brought and Irene brought also. Oh, and of course, vino!

After we left, we headed back towards the Piazza del Popolo, but this time I was prepared. I had purchased tram tickets on the way there, so that we could use them for the journey back. You know, I didn't go to school just to eat my lunch. That ride was interesting because it just happened to take place right about the commute hour. Within one stop, that tram was trying to set the record for the most people squeezed onto one car. When we got to our stop, it must've looked like one of those circus cars that has the clowns pouring out of it for what seems like forever.

We made our way across town stopping at the Trevi Fountain, since Judy wanted to see it lighted up after dark...........which it now was. We ended up sitting there for quite some time gawking at all the people coming & going. At one point, I noticed that one man was making his way around the fountain slowly studying the water, not the fountain. When he got close, I could see that he had a metal rod that ran down his sleeve and he was palming the end of the rod that had a magnet at the end of it. Clearly he was going to fish some coins out of the fountain with this instrument. I watched him for a while, but it appeared that he moved on unsuccessfully, since most of the coins that were up close seemed to be Euro pennies.

After we left there, we decided to stop at a deli and get a bottle of wine, bread, some cold meats & cheese for dinner since we had to pack for an early morning wake up call. It turned out to be a good decision, since, while we ate,  we got to watch the festivities at the San Francisco Civic Center honoring the WORLD CHAMPION SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS.....will you ever get tired of saying that?..... that was streaming over the internet.

We get up at 6:00am tomorrow to be ready for the 6:45 ride to the airport to begin the trek back home. We arrive at about 9:45pm, which makes about 23 hours of traveling time when you add in the 8 hours we are picking up in time zone changes. I'm sure we are going to be a couple of tired puppies when we get back. We both had a great time and will always look forward to coming back to Italy once again.