We settled on "La Taverna Degli Amici" which served very nice roasted potatoes and salad (we ordered extra buffalo mozzarella). We sat at a table next to a British couple and their very well behaved four small children (I can't imagine.<BR><BR>After lunch we returned to the Capitoline Museum. We saw bits and pieces of Constantine in stone and in bronze. It's a cool museum and has, you guessed it, a good gift shop. D wanted to keep going, but the rest of us were tired so we returned to the hotel for a short nap before dinner. While we were resting a little storm blew up and we had to close all the shutters that were banging around.<BR><BR>Laura and her mother picked us up at the hotel and drove us to a wonderful little restaurant whose name I cannot find anywhere. It was full of locals (not a tourist in sight except for us). The food was great and the place was noisy with chatter. It was terrific. Laura and her mom told us to order the creme brulee which actually turned out to be creme caramel which if you're from Texas is a lot like flan.<BR><BR>After dinner, they took us to the Knights of Malta gate where if you peek through the keyhole you can see the dome of St Peter's. Then they drove us back to our hotel.<BR><BR>Laura and her mother are both lovely, wonderful people and we thoroughly enjoyed their company.

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That little keyhole is one of my favorite memories of Rome!<BR><BR>Thanks Belinda!

You know, it's a funny thing because they didn't tell us what we were going to see when we looked through the keyhole. At first I couldn't tell what I was seeing. I thought I was looking into a building which was really confusing and I hadn't even had that much vino. Once I figured it out, it was really cool.

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Only two more days to report. Whew! This thing is taking me forever.<BR><BR>We got up early Friday and checked out of our hotel by 7:30am. We left our luggage behind the reception desk and set out for the day. First stop, Villa Borghese.<BR><BR>Laura, R's friend, is a tour guide at Museo Borghese. She met us at the tour desk. We joined in with the group she was leading and learned a bit about the history of the building and the collection. It was facsinating.<BR><BR>The museum houses some beautiful sculptures and paintings. If I had my museum book with me I could tell you what they are, but at the moment, they remain nameless beauties in my head.<BR><BR>After the tour we bid Laura farewell and set off on a long walk across town back to our hotel. We didn't need to leave for the train station until 5pm.<BR><BR>We walked through a park adjacent to the Borghese and eventually came to the Spanish Steps. We strolled and window shopped. At some point we came upon the Trevi Fountain.<BR><BR>We stopped for lunch at a tearoom called Cafe Grecco. Service was miserable and the food forgettable, but oh well, we were in Rome. In the middle of our lunch a Japanese VIP came in and the restaurant was filled with his entourage, including menacing looking bodyguards. That was interesting.<BR><BR>After lunch we did more walking and window shopping, eventually making our way back to the hotel after getting lost along the way. At the hotel we sat on the patio and had refreshments.<BR><BR>Then R and I went back down the hill to our little grocery store and bought picnic supplies for our train ride. We picked up cheeses, bread, a variety of wonderful olives, chocolate biscuits for dessert, and a bottle of Italian wine. Then back to the hotel to call a taxi.

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We arrived at the Rome train station in good order after winding our way through heavy Roman traffic. An observation about traffic in European cities. This is just my opinion, but it seems to me that drivers in European cities are much more cooperative than in US cities and not nearly as competitive and that this difference is what makes traffic flow smoothly in the cities we visited. I did not see any traffic accidents. I did not hear an inordinate amount of horn blowing, cursing, shouting or anything else. No signs of road rage. I found it quite interesting. Others may of course have a different experience.<BR><BR>We arrived at the train station in plenty of time, found our train, stamped our tickets and boarded with much less difficulty than last time. This was the overnight train from Rome to Paris. Once in Paris we would be connecting to the Eurostar to London.<BR><BR>This train was much nicer than the train from Paris to Florence. There were pretty little lights in the ceiling in the corridor, one of my favorite touches. They looked like stars. Each compartment had its own bathroom with shower, sink and toilet. The beds were bunk style and folded out of the wall.<BR><BR>After we all got our luggage stowed and got settled in (I stowed one suitcase in the shower and the other under the window) we gathered in our compartment to have some dinner. There was a fold down table in the center of the bench and C and D sat on each side of the table. R sat on the suitcase under the window and I sat on the loo. Dinner was prepared on the little fold down table (we got cups from our porter).<BR><BR>The porter for our car was a great guy named Alessandro. He was from Rome. We invited him to share our dinner, but he declined. He did try our Montepulciano (sp?) wine and declared it inferior. Told us you can't get good wine for 15 Euro in a grocery store. He brought us a second glass of the Prosseco he was serving all the passengers. It was really good.<BR><BR>After dinner Alessandro and D shared a forbidden cigarette, blowing smoke out an open window. We watched the Italian coast roll by (I didn't even know we were going to be traveling along the coast) and enjoyed our wine. It was truly lovely.<BR><BR>At bedtime, Alessandro helped us lower our bunks and set up the ladder. The top bunk was suspended from the ceiling by a leather strap. I had a good night's sleep, but C kept dreaming about stray dogs. Go figure.<BR><BR>In the morning C and I were up and dressed by 8am. We sat in the seating area at the back of our car where Alessandro was preparing breakfast. He had a tiny espresso machine and was making cappuccinos (I had two which is probably a no no). Eventually R and C joined us. R had even taken a shower in the micro-shower.<BR><BR>Our train arrived in Paris about 20 minutes late due to some re-routing necessitated by something we never figured out. Alessandro helped us out of the train and we bid him a fond farewell. We queued up for a taxi and found one large enough to accommodate all of us. Our train had arrived at Gare de Bercy and we were departing from Gare du Nord.<BR><BR>When we arrived at Gare du Nord we got in a fast moving line upstairs to the Eurostar platform. We went through security (where I very nearly left my camera) and made our way into a waiting lounge. D found us four seats together to wait for the train. (Our arrival and departure was separated by two hours and this turned out to be plenty of time.) We took turns looking in the duty-free shops.<BR><BR>After a bit we boarded our train. We had some difficulty getting our luggage stowed in the luggage racks as it was quite full, but we managed with R's hard work.<BR><BR>We watched the beautiful country side roll by, enjoying snacks from the snack bar and awaited our arrival in London. This was our last day and tomorrow we would return to Houston.

We arrived at Waterloo Station (at about 2:30pm) after being rerouted along the way. We rolled our bags outside only to find that the queue for taxis was inside. C went back in and stood in line while we waited on the sidewalk. When she got to the front of the line, we all piled in a London Black Cab and headed off for the London Elizabeth Hotel on Lancaster Gate.<BR><BR>It was a pleasant surprise to find that I had booked C and I in the Conservatory Suite (I had completely forgotten). It was a lovely room shaped in a semi-circle with windows all around and a stained glass ceiling. The bed and bath were in an elevated area and the sitting room sunken. Quite nice really with a balcony and a view.<BR><BR>R and C joined us in our suite and we ordered coffee for the room. We made some phone calls and then got dressed to go to the Ritz for tea, something C has wanted to do for years. Her grandmother and grandfather had often taken tea at the Ritz years ago.<BR><BR>We dressed up in our finest travel wear and off we went. We arrived just in time for our reservations. It was lovely. There was harp playing in the background and our table was near some lovely statuary along the wall.<BR><BR>We ordered a bottle of champange to celebrate and then proceeded to tea. Tea was lovely crustless sandwiches, croissants and desserts served with clotted cream and jam. The tea was extremely hot and delicious. After eating our tea, we were each presented with tiny individual creme brulee - delicious!!<BR><BR>On a practical note, we made reservations for tea at the Ritz six weeks in advance through their website. Our tea for four with champagne was about $200. Well worth it for us.<BR><BR>After tea, we walked up and down the street shopping for last minute souvenirs and mementos. It's a very nice area for that.<BR><BR>We then returned to the hotel and had drinks in the adorable little pub. The bartender remembered us from our first stay, a very nice touch. He sat and chatted with us a bit.<BR><BR>Then it was off to our rooms for packing and some rest before tomorrow's long trip home.

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Great report -- sounds like you had a wonderful time. We're planning a trip to London/Paris next year and were wondering if you could help explain how best to get Eurorail tickets? Did you buy ahead, or buy when you were in England? Any help would be greatly appreciated from such a well-seasoned traveler!

Jackie - Unfortunately I am not a well-seasoned traveler (yet). But I am happy to share my limited experience. We used a service at www.euraide.com for all our train travel arrangements. Their service was terrific and I highly recommend them.

Thanks for the report, it was wonderful

<BR>Belinda, this is the best trip report I've read on this site. Informative as well as very funny. I suggest you write travel books. It would be delightful to cross paths in our travels one day with you, C, R and D. Regards, T.

Toni - Thanks for the very kind words. I'd love to travel enough to write travel books (not to mention write well enough). Anybody out there want to support me while I tour the planet? Of course, you first have to pay for writing classes.

Belinda,<BR>I enjoyed your trip report as well. <BR><BR>Did you make all of the arrangements for the trains yourself or did a travel agent do it for you? Did you arrange before you left the States or once you were there? I may have missed this part in your report, so sorry if I did. Thanks.