Tennessee Trio of Terror do Europe: Part 1 -Rome
Apr 4th, 2005, 01:22 PM
#22
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Sharon,
Great trip report! Good shoes are SUCH a MUST in Italy. We walked over 20 miles our first day in Rome on our honeymoon, and even though my body could handle it my feet hurt could not! Your report made me remember how I was sooooo tempted to hop up onto the side of one of the fountains and dip my feet into the cool water. Fortunately, good sense prevailed
Thanks for posting, keep it coming!
Great trip report! Good shoes are SUCH a MUST in Italy. We walked over 20 miles our first day in Rome on our honeymoon, and even though my body could handle it my feet hurt could not! Your report made me remember how I was sooooo tempted to hop up onto the side of one of the fountains and dip my feet into the cool water. Fortunately, good sense prevailed
Thanks for posting, keep it coming!
Apr 4th, 2005, 01:26 PM
#23
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Sharon,
What a fun report. I'm laughing and remembering trips with less than perfect travel companions - a lot less! It's funny now but it wasn't then.
Can't wait to read more. Thanks for sharing.
Judy
What a fun report. I'm laughing and remembering trips with less than perfect travel companions - a lot less! It's funny now but it wasn't then.
Can't wait to read more. Thanks for sharing.
Judy
Apr 4th, 2005, 01:31 PM
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Sharon this is hysterical! I've snorted and chuckled at the desk too and gotten funny looks. A fellow Tennessean (I born there), I'm heading to Italy with my Mom this summer. Thank goodness she loves me because I'm the trip nazi this time around.
Apr 4th, 2005, 02:27 PM
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Thanks for this hysterically funny report. I'm off to Rome again in May and I'm beginning to wonder if I have trip-Nazi potential. After all I remember staring at a friend in disbelief once when she wanted to take a taxi.
A taxi in Rome???
A taxi in Rome???
Apr 4th, 2005, 02:34 PM
#29
You, girl, have talent! And you sound like a maniac to boot. Just the kind of person I like. My friends and I called our travels the "Shovel it in Tour" I am going to Italy in a few weeks so I am really paing attention. Thanks for this
Apr 4th, 2005, 04:24 PM
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I have a vision of Sharon wearing the shoe boxes. Too funny for words! Keep up the good work...! Laughing like mad in Seattle...of course I have been in Italy on several trips - both with groups and on my own - and can relate to your pain and suffering and your acerbic wit. Hilarious! I'd travel with you in a minute~! My husband and I are howling at your gift of gab. And I am a published author - so I don't throw compliments around lightly 
Apr 5th, 2005, 04:47 AM
#34
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Thanks for the kind words. I'm not a professional writer except for reports. Believe it or not, I'm a psychologist and do research on the outcomes of critical illness.
Anyway, here's our last day in Rome on March 15. We decided to devote it to wandering around and just enjoying Rome. Make that Saundra and I decided that but Amy had other plans.
She did allow us our last breakfast so Saundra and I scarfed down our last 3 platefuls and we all headed out the door. Into the Valley of Death marched the ... well you can imagine the rest.
First thing we encounter are a bunch of punks on the bridge with about a million stinky dogs. My NYC upbringing came right into the fore and I told the girls "grab your purses, march straight ahead and make no eye contact". Worked great. The poor woman in front of us (had to be American - she was wearing the always enchanting warm-up outfit in pink) was not so lucky. They kept asking her for money and when she refused she, and her dead mother, were wished well! Oh, and they wanted to make love to her too. At least I think that's what they were saying.
So we went in quick step time to Campo de Fiori to the market and then to Piazza Navona (you know I'm terrible both with names and spelling) and then once again to Trevi. Too bad for me, no Rossano Brazzi or Louis Jourdan appeared to rescue me from the chain gang I was on.
Bought some lovely 18K gold earrings that were kind of ruffly like pasta (85euros) and Saundra tried to eat then so I figured we needed to have lunch. (Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look - maybe not so lean but definitely hungry). Amy consulted her spread sheet and said that we could. Praise the Lord. But we got sidetracked by seeing the President of Italy and the President of the Congo after some meeting. Just call me Miss Informed.
By this time, my middle-aged bladder is calling and needs to be answered. So I opened the first door to a restaurant that looked promising and what a find! It was called Piccola Roma and seemed to be some kind of power lunch place. The only people there were Italian men who looked like politicians and us. Or maybe we just wandered into a seminary? Anyway, I asked the waiter where the bathroom was and he replied in his broken English "you show me". I had my pants down around my knees when I realized he was staring at me and really meant that HE WOULD SHOW ME. Oh the wonders of pronouns and grammar. Had a moment of panic when I couldn't figure out how to get out of the bathroom. After a few quick hymns and promises of future novenas, the door worked and it was on to lunch.
Here's what we ate (my favorite part): they had a big antipasti table full of stuffed vegies, grilled vegies, frittata, etc. Groaning with food. Then we had two orders of ravioli and I had linguine with lobster. House red and a bottle of water and it came to 61 euros.
Saundra and I had figured out that we could bribe Amy into letting up on us by promising her gifts. 3 goats and a gold bracelet was my offer. In a moment of pity she led us to Tre Scalini for tartuffo. When I came out of the sugar coma (where's Klaus Von Buelow when you need him?) we were back at the hotel. The punks on the bridge were all asleep so we tiptoed past them (as best I could - my feet now resembled those of a Chinese woman with bound feet - oh yes my lovely lotus flower).
That evening was eventful in that 1. we couldn't eat anymore!!!! and 2. Saundra got pinched by an elderly man walking hand in hand with his wife. She'll dine out on that story for a long time. Had our final bottle of wine courtesy of Chiara at the hotel and went to bed early since we had to be up at 3AM to catch our flight to Paris!
The story will have to end for awhile here since my travel journal is not up to date with Paris because I came down with a cold. I have to wait till I meet with Amy again. I have an audience with Her Holiness in a week or two so I will petition her to help me fill in the gaps. Some of you old-time Fodors people may recall that 5 years ago on a trip to Paris with my sister, her nose was broken in a Paris Shuttle accident so I was expecting some other mishap. I'm sure that in some past life I was the head guillotine (spelling?) person and now I'm paying for it everytime I go back to the scene of the crime.
General comments on Italy: Loved it! The combination of my opera Italian (where I tend to say lots of things like "your tiny hand is frozen"
and the book Fast Talk Italian, plus lots of hand waving and the occasional "basta" and "facia bruta" with the malocchio (is that right? I mean the evil eye) thrown in and we did just fine. I was raised on Staten Island at the time they built the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge and the Cosa Nostra briefly made it their family living quarters. Went to school with lots of children of same ("gee Julie, why are the windows painted shut and the shades drawn all the time?" So I know a few crucial moves. Needed them to cross the street which resembles the old Frogger game. People were wonderful to us and THERE IS NO BAD FOOD IN ITALY.
Anyway, here's our last day in Rome on March 15. We decided to devote it to wandering around and just enjoying Rome. Make that Saundra and I decided that but Amy had other plans.
She did allow us our last breakfast so Saundra and I scarfed down our last 3 platefuls and we all headed out the door. Into the Valley of Death marched the ... well you can imagine the rest.
First thing we encounter are a bunch of punks on the bridge with about a million stinky dogs. My NYC upbringing came right into the fore and I told the girls "grab your purses, march straight ahead and make no eye contact". Worked great. The poor woman in front of us (had to be American - she was wearing the always enchanting warm-up outfit in pink) was not so lucky. They kept asking her for money and when she refused she, and her dead mother, were wished well! Oh, and they wanted to make love to her too. At least I think that's what they were saying.
So we went in quick step time to Campo de Fiori to the market and then to Piazza Navona (you know I'm terrible both with names and spelling) and then once again to Trevi. Too bad for me, no Rossano Brazzi or Louis Jourdan appeared to rescue me from the chain gang I was on.
Bought some lovely 18K gold earrings that were kind of ruffly like pasta (85euros) and Saundra tried to eat then so I figured we needed to have lunch. (Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look - maybe not so lean but definitely hungry). Amy consulted her spread sheet and said that we could. Praise the Lord. But we got sidetracked by seeing the President of Italy and the President of the Congo after some meeting. Just call me Miss Informed.
By this time, my middle-aged bladder is calling and needs to be answered. So I opened the first door to a restaurant that looked promising and what a find! It was called Piccola Roma and seemed to be some kind of power lunch place. The only people there were Italian men who looked like politicians and us. Or maybe we just wandered into a seminary? Anyway, I asked the waiter where the bathroom was and he replied in his broken English "you show me". I had my pants down around my knees when I realized he was staring at me and really meant that HE WOULD SHOW ME. Oh the wonders of pronouns and grammar. Had a moment of panic when I couldn't figure out how to get out of the bathroom. After a few quick hymns and promises of future novenas, the door worked and it was on to lunch.
Here's what we ate (my favorite part): they had a big antipasti table full of stuffed vegies, grilled vegies, frittata, etc. Groaning with food. Then we had two orders of ravioli and I had linguine with lobster. House red and a bottle of water and it came to 61 euros.
Saundra and I had figured out that we could bribe Amy into letting up on us by promising her gifts. 3 goats and a gold bracelet was my offer. In a moment of pity she led us to Tre Scalini for tartuffo. When I came out of the sugar coma (where's Klaus Von Buelow when you need him?) we were back at the hotel. The punks on the bridge were all asleep so we tiptoed past them (as best I could - my feet now resembled those of a Chinese woman with bound feet - oh yes my lovely lotus flower).
That evening was eventful in that 1. we couldn't eat anymore!!!! and 2. Saundra got pinched by an elderly man walking hand in hand with his wife. She'll dine out on that story for a long time. Had our final bottle of wine courtesy of Chiara at the hotel and went to bed early since we had to be up at 3AM to catch our flight to Paris!
The story will have to end for awhile here since my travel journal is not up to date with Paris because I came down with a cold. I have to wait till I meet with Amy again. I have an audience with Her Holiness in a week or two so I will petition her to help me fill in the gaps. Some of you old-time Fodors people may recall that 5 years ago on a trip to Paris with my sister, her nose was broken in a Paris Shuttle accident so I was expecting some other mishap. I'm sure that in some past life I was the head guillotine (spelling?) person and now I'm paying for it everytime I go back to the scene of the crime.
General comments on Italy: Loved it! The combination of my opera Italian (where I tend to say lots of things like "your tiny hand is frozen"
and the book Fast Talk Italian, plus lots of hand waving and the occasional "basta" and "facia bruta" with the malocchio (is that right? I mean the evil eye) thrown in and we did just fine. I was raised on Staten Island at the time they built the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge and the Cosa Nostra briefly made it their family living quarters. Went to school with lots of children of same ("gee Julie, why are the windows painted shut and the shades drawn all the time?" So I know a few crucial moves. Needed them to cross the street which resembles the old Frogger game. People were wonderful to us and THERE IS NO BAD FOOD IN ITALY.
Apr 5th, 2005, 05:29 AM
#37
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This is one of the best reports we've had! I'm saving it for some other friends to read!
I think you were at Porto Portese , the sunday flea mkt..and it is a long walk ..I've done it from Pza de Popolo so maybe I should hook up with Amy!!
I think you were at Porto Portese , the sunday flea mkt..and it is a long walk ..I've done it from Pza de Popolo so maybe I should hook up with Amy!!
Apr 5th, 2005, 06:20 AM
#39
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Hey, I remember when you wrote about your sister's nose being broken on the shuttle in Paris! Didn't connect your current post with that event. Hope your most recent trip to Paris wasn't similarly eventful. Can't wait to read about it.
