Croque_Madame

PLMN: A trip to Italy? Happens every day. A trip report like this one? Priceless!

Your descriptions are so good that, as I read, I'm visualizing the cartoon version as drawn by "New Yorker" cartoonist Roz Chast. Or maybe George Booth for the father.

Don't stop, don't stop!

john44

PLMN

Have you ever considered writing a book or a play, fiction but humerous you would do well

bobthenavigator

Thats it ! Great idea John.
Phoebe, why don't you go back and capture all of your posts, starting with the slowtrav.com ones, and compile it all into a book. Hollywood would snap it up for the film rights. They could hype it as a sequel to the Chevy Chase movies---a good title might be " European Vacation with Elderly Parents", with a sub-title of " how I earned my place in heaven". Let me think about the casting and get back to you. I am picturing a Fran Dreschler type to play you. What do you think? It has the potential to be a blockbuster. I think we can get Adam Sandler to play some role--he will guarantee a good box ofice. Maybe Jim Carrey. We can all help with the final script--think about it.

Treesa

PLMN: May I be added to your extensive fan list? Your report is hysterical.

LoveItaly

I told you PLMN, your report is too funny. No, not too funny, funny beyond belief. The movie idea, you would make millions, honest! Keep writing, we are all waiting.

Scarlett

This is just SO entertaining and so great!
I know the feeling PLMN, of open mouthed wonder. All these years of going to Paris and I still walk the streets with a silly grin on my face
LOL, I can imagine that look at the ATM machine
Can't wait for more~~

nanb

Love your report and all the details !!

As much as i love George Booth cartoons, I think the report would be better illustrated in New Yorker mode

Beleive me, you would nver have heard it here that Continental was roomy, or even that they had pleasant, friendly attendants
I used the twice, and have since switched over to B.A, who seems to bend over backwards to be pleasnat, if not any roomier.

You got 4 people AND luggage into an elevator!! That is considered ROOMY for Italy from what I have found

Dad called you matronly ?!?!?!?!?

It sounds to me as if you have fallen in love with Rome , and if so, now that it is in your blood ,watch out .

I know exactly what you mean about feeling a sense of peace in the streets , even though they are some of the busiest streets I have ever been on (and I went to H.S in NYC)

I look forward to the rest,with as many details as you can remember!
But, I do hope you find your notes.

PLMN

Thank you everyone for the lovely comments.

bob, I always thought Fran was quite pretty. Sure beats Bette Midler.

Now on to the report-

My mother ordered an Asti wine and fell in love with it. For the remainder of the trip she would try different Asti wines which was okay by me except I like Chianti wine better. So I always ordered Chinati hoping to find another I liked as well as the one I had at the restaurant across from the Cesari. It wasn't thin and it is difficult for me to find them since I don't know how to properly choose wine. I'm sorry I don't remember what the wines were called. (If anyone knows the proper terms for ordering a Chianti that isn't thin like water I would love to know.) At some point I started to remove labels and now I don't know where they are. Dad is on various medications and did not want to mix a bunch of alcohol with them so he didn't really partake.

Speaking of dad and medications...his doctor told him years ago lay off the greens because the vitamins will interfere with his medication. Dad did not listen and had a recent episode brought on by too much vitamin K. So now he goes to great lengths to avoid greens and this includes spinach one of his favorites. This caused him some distress because every restaurant we went too mixed spinach in with the cheese in the ravioli and the poor man really wanted this dish. He would look pitifully at the waiters and ask if it was possible to prepare the dish without the spinach, no such luck. I felt very sorry for him.

But this did not stop him, nor mom and I from enjoying all the other foods we ordered. After downing a good bit of the Asti the waiter came to take the rest of our order. My family MO is to have everyone order a different dish and share. Very natural process for us and if anyone else is into this it would be a good idea to learn how to say in Italian "One order of abc, one order of hij, and one order of xyz and please bring 3 empty plates so we may share." We spent a bit too much time trying to explain this at various restaurants.

Now let me see if I can remember what we had that first night...darn, I can't pull it out of my head. I think there was a veal dish that my folks were quite pleased with. When the food was brought to us I pondered the small portion sizes. It was then that I recalled something here on Fodors about the meals being a bit smaller in Italy than here in the US. I probably ate more bread because of this than I normally would here at home.

By the way, the bread in Italy is GREAT. I usually like my bread served warm though and I think this only happened once during the entire 2 weeks. I suppose I could have asked them to heat it up but I didn't bother. My dad did quickly learn the word for butter however. It seems the man just can't eat bread without it. (The word is "burro" by the way.) Also, beware if you don't know it many places charge for the bread even though they just place it on your table without you asking.)

We enjoyed a leisurely meal. I told my parents how in Italy you must tell the waiter when you want your check or you may sit there forever. (Learned that on Fodors too!! )

After the main courses, before desert and coffee I excused myself from the table to have a cig. Since we were seated outside I just walked out into the street. It was a beautiful night, the restaurant had little lights strung on the building and in the little trees. There were people milling about and having a great time. I walked around the corner of the restaurant and found some street vendors selling rings and things in silver and other materials. These were very neat pieces and I quickly spotted three rings that appealed to me. Maybe too quickly, looking back on it I had HAD LOTS of wine. A whole glass! I may have mentioned in previous posts that I am a light weight.

I wanted to give one of the rings to my mom, it was perfect for her. It had little wires jutting out with red coral attached. It would match an antique red coral necklace she has. The other was a thin silver disc that was way cool and the third one was a blue stone surround by loose wire that was defintely nicer under the blush of the wine. Somehow I got the vendor to understand that I wanted to know how much for all three at once and she gave me a 5 EURO price break. When I returned to the table my parents wanted to know what was up. I sung "you'll see!" I went and paid for the rings and giggled my way back to the table. Excitedly I removed hers from the little envelope and gave it to her. She was very pleased. The other two I placed on my hands and they made me feel quite "vacationy ?" for some reason. They were so different from what I would usually buy, I don't know they just made me feel Italyish.

We proceeded to order cappucino (sp?), mom without foam, (more on that later,)and we may have had desert but I don't remember. We then asked for the bill, settled up and were on our way. We had a pleasant walk back to the hotel and promptly went to bed.

More tomorrow.

P_M

PLMN, what a great report. My mother has one thing in common with yours--her face lights up and she gets this glow when she's playing a nickel machine. It's kinda scary, she almost looks possessed....

I have also been chastized for attempting to use the business class bathroom, and it's a pretty low feeling. However, it's quite a rush when you can sneak past that curtain when nobody is looking and you get away with it. Not that I've ever done that, of course, but that's what I am told. ;-)

PLMN

"she almost looks possessed"


That's what it looked like!!!

(Glad you are enjoying )

Scarlett

Drinking wine and shopping for jewelry can be a dangerous thing!
But I do know that feeling of it making you feel Italy-ish or Paris-ish..
PLMN, I hate for these to end~

PLMN

I do believe we have arrived at day 2.

We made our way down to the breakfast room. As warned by fellow Fodorites it is indeed small. We were never in there when all the tables were full at once so it wasn't too bad. It was a pleasant looking room with a comfortable feel.

As you enter, on the right hand wall is a shelved section with your breakfast choices. Fresh fruit, hard boiled eggs, the most delicious salami ? meat I have ever had. You could have thin fresh cut slices of cheese as well. There were breads and fabulous torte type pies. One had a raspberry fruit filling and I LOVE raspberry. (These baked goods were among the best I had on the entire trip!) For those that want cereal there is also cereal.

Various beverages, including fruit juice were available and as suggested here on Fodors we were able to ask the nice waitress to make cappuccino (sp?) for us. My mother always wanted hers WITHOUT foam and the waitress lady tried to explain to my mom how to ask for this. I believe you are supposed to say "no scomo" or something like that.

Since breakfast was included in the price of the hotel all we had to do was sign a check with our name to show we had attended. I wanted to leave a tip but my father said you do that when you dine on your last day. I hoped he was right.

After breakfast we went back to the room to get our selves together for our first real outing...the Sistine Chapel.

First we stopped at the front desk and asked the desk clerk if he know which bus we would need to take. He kindly wrote down which buses we would need. (By the way, I also quickly discovered that my DK Eyewitness books actually list bus stop routes under a section called Visitor's Checklist that is associated with each site.) Then we made our way to the little tobacconist store next to the hotel. We indicated we needed to purchase bus tickets and after some confusion as to how many we wanted and how much they should cost we left with 6 tickets at one Euro each in our hands.

These particular tickets allow you to get on and off as many buses and trams as you want within 75 minutes. I'm still unclear as to if the 75 minutes starts when you buy the ticket or from the first validation on the first ride.

We easily found the bus stop, take a right onto the Via del Corso from the Via di Pietra, and walk until you see the signs that list all the different bus numbers and routes. (After all is said in done, taking the bus in Rome, except for one incident, was the easiest form of travel, as long as the person telling you which bus to take know what they are talking about. )

Being a workday morning in a large city the traffic, vehicular and pedestrian was heavy. Although I have not lived in a large hustle and bustle city for years, I guess it never goes out of your blood. It might be overwhelming for someone who has not experienced it. Personally, the excitement and drama of it all was quite invigorating.

There were about 6 different tall posts with printed signs indicating bus numbers and under the numbers the names of street stops. Much more clearly written than other bus stop info I have encountered in the past. (I did come to note that this particular stop was better signed than some others we encountered.) What was helpful was that you could easily see how many stops were between where you get on and where you want to get off. At least that is how we assumed it would work. We were not sure why some bus numbers were in blue and some in red. We had various theories on this but are still not sure of the correct explanation.

Eventually we saw our bus approach. I made sure everyone had their tickets ready and their personal effects secure. Many people got on in the middle and some at the front. When we entered I quickly looked for the validation machine. Let me tell you, when these buses are packed, which is often, it is not easy to get to the machine. If my mom and dad had their way they probably wouldn't have even tried to get to it. Me, I didn't want to be fined our put in jail if we happened to be one of the people whose tickets were examined. So I just used the Italian words for excuse me an awful lot as I inched my way to the machine and my arm twisted in some crazy shape managed to insert the ticket. Sometimes it took a few times to put the thing in the right direction.

All the seats were normally taken but most passengers were polite and would offer their seats to those that looked like they needed them more. Like my dad! He always seemed to have a seat. Generally, due to the masses of people on the bus the three of us would not always be grouped together. I was almost always the one responsible for getting off at the right stop. Mom and dad always seemed to be on the verge of let us just say "major concern" regarding where to get off. People all around us always knew, (more on that later) that we were "LOST TOURISTS" and in need of help.

On this particular journey a little elderly man with a bulging briefcase was seated nearby. He obviously overheard us discussing which stop we would need and engaged us in conversation. He was very pleasant, spoke some English fairly well and turned out to be a wholesale wine salesman. He and my mother discussed the differences between Italian wines and CA wines. He gave us his business card so that we could order cases of wine from him. He insisted cases though, too expensive to ship smaller orders He was then kind enough to let us know when our stop was approaching.

Usually though, we would say the name of the stop we needed so often, others would alert us as to if our stop was approaching. This seemed to work a little better than expecting the bus driver to help. I figure he has such a stressful job driving that behemoth in the streets of Italy that he needs to concentrate on getting people to their destinations alive and not worry about some silly lost tourists who should have bothered to learn more Italian. The reason we didn't rely on just watching the street signs is that it was difficult to see them due to size or the bus being so crowded you could not see out the window.

On this first trip we had no trouble finding our stop. We got off the bus and proceeded to the Sistine Chapel/Vatican area which was just a few minute walk away.

There was a short line and admission charge. Little did we know how much walking would be involved. This became a problem at the end and if we had known before we might have made other arrangements as to how we were going to accomplish this visit. Let me just say, a wheelchair might be required for some and special routes associated with such.

Next section will have the "Lost in the Sistine Chapel" story.

Bye for now!

ira

Lovely, PLMN

>I'm still unclear as to if the 75 minutes starts when you buy the ticket or from the first validation on the first ride.<

From the time it is stamped.

Margie

<...on the verge of let us just say "major concern" > that is GREAT, as the person who is usually the "group leader" I can relate to that one! Your trip report is fantastic, I'm really enjoying it.

PLMN

Quick note: If anyone is wondering what happened to the reservations I told you I made for the Borghese Gallery, (in pre trip posts,) that went out the window. Good thing they didn't need the credit card number to reserve the tickets.

My mother knew in plenty of time that I had done this, she never told me she did not want to go yet she didn't have the courtesy to tell me not to bother. It wasn't til that morning that she indicated she didn't feel the need to see the Borghese Gallery.

Later in the story I'll tell you how we saw the OUTSIDE though

jdraper

PLMN - I am loving this trip report, please carry on. Leaving us hanging on the "Lost in the Sistine Chapel" is a cliffhanger that I am waiting anxiously for. I love all of the detail.
I have been feeling guilty since we returned from Italy last April for not getting a trip report done after getting a lot of great advice on this board. Unfortunately, that trip was followed two days later by the death of my father and two separate trips to the west coast, my DIL, who was expecting during our trip, had complications and lost the baby two days later and then one son ended up in the hostpital for two separate emergency surguries the day after that funeral. When it was all over the last thing I thought about was a trip report but the guilt still hangs on. I kept extensive notes during the trip for a report like this one but am just amazed that you are remembering all of these details without notes. Keep it up as we are all waiting. Take Care Jackie

ira

Hi jd,

Your excuse is acceptable.

However, if you have not entered your trip report by Dec 1, a signal will be sent to your computer that will destroy your motherboard.

PLMN

Dear Jackie:

I am so sorry to hear of your losses. I hope things are working out for you and your family.

As to the trip report I wondered if anyone would be interested in the details and the response has been heartwarming. (Except for a little episode with Howard that scared me )

As to the cliff hanger, It will take a little time to write so I will attempt to post it late tonight. I won't even be home from work until close to 10PM.

Ciao!!

Londonholly

More, more, more
soon, soon, soon!

jdraper

Ira - Oh goodie, now I can have a new computer for Christmas. Seriously, I will try to get my report done soon.
PLMN - Thanks for the good wishes. Everything is calm now and we are planning the next trip. Still waiting anxiously for the continuation of your trip report and the Sistine Chapel adventure. Keep up the details, that is what makes a trip report breath. Those that don't like it can simply move on.