Arrivare all'Accademia

Woke up to another warm and sunny day.  We made some coffee in the room and lazed around for a bit, then showered and headed up to the restaurant for breakfast.  Our waiter was excited to see us and brought over a bowl of breakfast zabaglione for us to try.  We had never heard of this except for dessert.......but there it was, a bowl of frothy egg yolks with a touch of marsala and a few lady fingers for dipping!  Crazy, but good.  After tackling the buffet a bit more discretely today, we sat for a while just soaking in the sun, then walked around the pool and the cliff edge........and then back to the room to pack.  It was hard to stop taking pictures of this place.

We found it hard to leave Il Pellicano.....but were supposed to arrive in Rome at the Academy around 2 - 3:00, so made our getaway around noon.  The drive to Rome was fairly straightforward.  We stopped for gas on the highway so we would not have to look for a station in the City.

We made one wrong turn as we got into the denser part of Rome (west side) but Siri got us back on target.  We were lucky and found a parking spot right in front of the gate.  It all looked eerily familiar!  We talked to the guys in the gatehouse and they gave us our keys.  They also called for two people who came down and took our bags........across the street to Villa Chiaraviglio.  They then said we needed to wait for Gianpaolo.  GP, as he calls himself, arrived shortly and took us over to the apartment.  It is in a building right across the street from the front entry.  It is on the second floor (marble stairs are good for the fitbit!).  The rooms are nice and sunny and there is a small balcony overlook.  The only challenge is that it is right on Via Angelo Masina.......and is very noisy during the day.  Time will tell!

We unpacked a bit, took a short rest, and then went over to explore the Academy and the grounds out back, all of which has been renovated since we were here (so long ago!).  It looks great and the grounds feel like an English Park.  We stopped on the way back for tea in the main salon and then crashed back at the apartment for a short nap.

At 6:30 there was a lecture given by a husband and wife team (she was a landscape architect and he was an architect) from New York.  The talk was interesting, but a bit esoteric.  You got the sense they had been teaching a bit too much, as a lot of what they said sounded like most of the words had been looked up in a Thesaurus!  In any case, the basic content was interesting and I had a chance to introduce myself afterwards.  Andrea and I also got to meet the Director, who was from Harvard.......and we had a good chat about the Boston Marathon and the weather.  We also had a fun discussion on our recollections from our stay previously decades ago.  He was fascinated........and introduced us at dinner to the group with a 'welcome back' overture.

We sat at a table with a group of mostly visiting scholars with wives and husbands of a similar age group.  It turned out to be a lively dinner with lots of interesting folks around us......nice way to start.
We are  now back in the apartment and getting ready to hit the sack......but wanted to get some of this up on the blog so that we don't fall behind.  Andrea has most of the pictures ready to go!