The flight back from Boston to Rome went fairly well. I had not realized that it was much shorter than the flight over. On Thursday night it took 9 hours, and today it was only 7 ½. I had a light dinner and watched about an hour of ‘Murder on the Orient Express, and then I closed up shop and actually fell asleep for almost 4 hours. Never happens like this!
Arriving in Fiumicino, I was the first person off the plane from Business Class. Things went well until I hit the passport control screening, where I ended up with probably a 20 minute wait.
When I got to baggage claim, my bag was already there……..and just outside security Claudio was waiting. We had a short walk to the car in the parking garage and before I knew it I was back on Via Angelo Masina! We had been texting, so HB was waiting up on the balcony, waving! Nice to be back.
We grabbed a little lunch in the apartment……and I succumbed to 30 minutes on the bed. We had been wanting to go to the City Rose Garden near the Circus Maximus and Andi had read that it had just opened for its two week public viewing period. We checked the weather and it looked a bit brighter, although the phone forecast was for a possibility of mid-afternoon showers. We jumped in the car and wound our way down the hill and across the river, making all the right turns and showing up near the garden……with an open parking space staring right at us! We only had to walk a block to the gated entry.
The roses were in full bloom and quite amazing. The pattern of planting was a bit funny, but there were convenient walkways that took you through the garden. It was a unique experience and the photography was actually better than on a bright sunny day……very atmospheric. Get ready for a true overdose of rose pictures!
Towards the end of our tour it started to rain a bit. Within 5 minutes we were on a fast pace back to the car as things really started to open up. We had hooded rain jackets but still got fairly we along the retreat! We sat in the car waiting for 10-15 minutes to allow the downpour to let up.
We decided to go take a look at the small piazza with the Fontana delle Tartarughe. The ‘Turtle Fountain’ is a fountain of the late Italian Renaissance, located in Piazza Mattei, in the Sant'Angelo district of Rome, Italy. It was built between 1580 and 1588 by the architect Giacomo della Porta and the sculptor Taddeo Landini. The bronze turtles around the upper basin, usually attributed either to Gian Lorenzo Bernini or Andrea Sacchi, were added in either 1658 or 1659 when the fountain was restored. We are firm believers in the former story, as we are the ultimate Bernini fans!
We parked in a slightly illegal space, but figured anything goes on a rainy Saturday afternoon. We stopped for a caffe and dolce in a fun bar located just on the side of the Piazza. It was a fun part of the city and quite atmospheric in the light rain, which had tapered to a drizzle. On the way back up the hill, our GPS went haywire and we managed to make a wrong turn into a ‘bus only’ lane and to quite stressed out. It was a bit bit awkward, if not scary…….and after a couple of hair-raising lane jumps and illegal turns (and honking horns) we managed to navigate back onto normal streets as if nothing had happened. Yikes!
We relaxed back at the apartment with a few glasses of prosecco! For dinner we decided to try Litro, a local organic wine bar and trattoria. We did not have a reservation and when we walked in it looked hopeless. It is a very small place and people were standing. Then someone tapped me on the shoulder, and it turned out that P.K. (Rahm) and Sasha were at the bar having wine in advance of a 9:00 dinner reservation with a New York restaurant critic and blogger at another Monteverde restaurant. They had mentioned to us that they loved Litro and had gotten to know the owner. Rahm took us over to the owner (behind the bar) and introduced us.
Within 5 minutes we had a great table! Sasha and Rahm headed out to their next adventure! The meal was really good…….lots of prosciutto and cheese! And the desert choices were incredible (flourless chocolate cake and a crème caramel). The highlight, however, was the wine. It was called Ageno. It was technically a white wine, but was allowed to age another 6 months with the dark skins in the barrel, giving it a rose/orange color. It was truly incredible.
We drifted back to the apartment, wandering into those inevitable reflections that arise as the end of a trip nears. How did the time go so quickly?
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