annhig

‘You want me to go up THAT!?!’ C exclaimed with more than a little exasperation. I was intentionally staring at the staircase leading up to the Ara Coeli. ‘No, we have already been up there and once in a lifetime is enough.’ Of course, that strategy made the stairs going up to the Campidoglio a lot less daunting.>>

This reminded of the scene that we observed when we were coming down those steps at the same time that a bride was going up, presumably to be married in the church at the top. When we saw her she was stood stock still about half way up, berating some poor person on her "telefonino"; though I couldn't hear exactly what she was saying, it looked for all the world as if she was telling the person who had come up with the idea that she get married there and therefore that she would have to walk up all those steps in her bridal gown exactly what she thought of them. And it wasn't pretty.

we enjoyed that Capitoline museums too - though i never spotted that bit about the statues of Romulus and Remus being added later - I wonder what else we missed???

marigross

<b>Wednesday, April 26th

Dinner and A Night Stroll</b>


The time in Rome is coming soon to an end, and we will have a few pretty intense days in Naples; I decided to spend just 3 nights in Naples before I found out about all the things that we should go see. You should see THAT Spreadsheet.

So we basically did not do a thing the entire day except laundry and writing for me and web surfing for C. We had for lunch the leftovers for dinner, so yeah, we did not go out at all until the evening.

We had an 8:00pm reservation at restaurant Sora Margherita. This place used to be a socialist community kitchen, and years afterwards, a private dinning club. Not everyone could get in. And lots of people still can’t…

<b>To Continue Reading:</b> http://wp.me/p7rOvK-oA

heart2travel

I am following along with such glee. I cant wait to plan a return trip to Rome as you have brought it all back to light for me. I am killing time between your posts reading your Portugal trip reports from last year. My DH and I are spending a couple weeks there in the fall.
Let me know when you start writing travel guides or a really juicy travel based novel! I will be your first customer!!!!!
Thanks for the magic,
Kim

marigross

Thank you all for keeping me company as I shared my rambling thoughts. Though there is not much more to share, I'm writing this from Napoli, a first for us, so there is not as much time to post.

ann, yes my sister has seen the facebook pictures and she was very moved my them.

cathies, I am NOT a fancy knitter, I just dabble. And for trips I just take along something simple to keep me occupied and that can be 'frogged' if it does not turn out nice.

heart2travel, thank you! I never wrote Trip Reports for the Galicia, Ribera del Douro, and Porto to Lisbon parts of that trip (Sintra was AWESOME). And I left my Extremadura TR unfished (we LOVED it!) I still have the notes and pictures so I just need to sit down and type it.

annhig

marigross - that's lovely about you sister.

i hope you are enjoying Naples.

heart2travel

Enjoy your time in Napoli! Would love to hear about your time in Porto and Extremadura. There is so little published on that area and I am intrigued....
K

progol

<<I flipped flopped about going to the Capitoline Museum even when I was compiling The Spreadsheet. Somehow, it was not appealing to me. I had read mixed reviews about it in the past, though lately I had encountered lots of positive feedback, so it had made it into the final itinerary cut.>>

We were also ambivalent about going to the Capitoline Museum for much the same reasons! It seems so daunting, yet turns out to be much more accessible than it appears on first approach. I was glad we ended up going there, too!

marigross - wonderful TR! I would like to return to Rome now and eat at some of the places you found -- your photos are so deliciously mouth-watering and tempting! Love your writing, too!

And the story about you're sister is so very poignant.

Now to read about Naples - that's a place we haven't visited yet, so I look forward to your visit there!

EYWandBTV

OMG, I just looked at the pic of your spreadsheet on your blog. You really DID have a spreadsheet, in different colors! And I thought I was a bad case of obsessive compulsive travel planning...

Wonderful TR. Eagerly awaiting your experiences in Naples.

marigross

Yeeeeahhhh..... <i>The Spredsheet</i>; red for Holidays, yellow for places to eat according to where we 'should' be, light purple for things requiring reservations, dark purple for confirmed reservations, italics for the 'if we have time'.... My name is Mari and I'm a recovering Trip Dictator. (sort of)

I take the trip planning as if it would be curling (the winter sport), you aim well, after you launch you can still make some adjustments, and then you just hope for the best. I also find that applicable to the parenting of teens.

I'm writing this as I look over the (pitch black) bay of Naples in Capri. But I'll give you a preview from Naples: I loved it. We even used public transport without getting robbed, lol. I know... shocking!

3 nights in Naples was not even nearly enough to see everything we (I) wanted. Another day would have just been perfect.

Another preview: very much to my surprise, Capri is NOT overrated.

marigross

<b>Thursday, April 27th

Our Last Roman Roaming</b>


Our last day to roam around in Rome was gray and rainy. But we were still in Rome, and that still beats rainy at home. We lazied around until C had read all his Swiss newspapers online and thought it was time to go out.

We set out with the intention of going to Piazza Navona but a one-street detour took us way out our way and unexpectedly into the Chiesa Nuova. This was nowhere in my radar, so I was reminded once again that this city is filled over the brim with wondrous sights that can go entirely ignored but would be considered headliner attractions anywhere else.

<b>To Continue Reading: </b> http://wp.me/p7rOvK-pr



<b><i><blue>Again, thank you all for coming along and keeping me company as I wrote this travel journal!

maitaitom

"OMG, I just looked at the pic of your spreadsheet on your blog. You really DID have a spreadsheet, in different colors! And I thought I was a bad case of obsessive compulsive travel planning..."

Spreadsheets rule! A little OCD is good for trip planning. Plus, I'm stealing the way you did this TR. Cutting and pasting entire trip reports are a thing of the past for me now. Thanks for a great report and a ton of ideas for our 2018 trip.

EYWandBTV

re "curling" ...

Funny, you don't sound Canadian....

marigross

I'm definitely not Canadian, lol. C likes to watch it though. I don't even know what I 'sound' like. English is not my first language.

Tom, I gave it a try and really thought that it was better this way. Particularly to fix mistakes. Though it occurred to me a little late that I should have added keywords in the Fodor's text so that they are searcheable.

Leely2

Looking forward to reading your impressions of Napoli. I also visited for the first time last year and really loved it--crazy city, but loads of fun!

OReilly

What a wonderful report! Makes me want to go back to Rome again soon.

I hope you will be reporting in from Napoli and Capri. I loved both

Regards Ger

europeannovice

Wonderful trip report! Please do report on Naples and Capri.

marigross

Hi all! I'm back home and ready to report about the rest of our trip:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ing-amalfi.cfm

In the blog with a few introductory pictures:

http://wp.me/p7rOvK-qC

marigross

This is the link to the last part of the trip:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-le-marche.cfm