Rome: Sunday 11/28

I am writing this post while riding the train from Rome Termini to Foggia (where we will change trains to get back to Termoli).  As we were walking from our hotel across the park to the entrance to the Metro (in order to take the Metro to the train station), it started to hail briefly, as it did the other night while we were drinking our wine.  The train was a few minutes late, which I think is a first for us (I know everyone complains about Italian trains, but honestly I don’t think we’ve ever had a truly bad train experience as of yet).  But here we are, on board and settled; they’ve already come around with sparkling water and baiocchi (hazelnut or chocolate covered cookies named after an old Italian coin; I think the particular brand we were served is ultimately owned by Barilla, more known in the US for its pasta-related products).  Our CDC vaccination passes have been checked (we don’t have the Italian Green Passes yet).  We should get to Foggia around 13:30 (1:30 PM), and arrive back in Termoli around 15:20 (3:20 PM).  

Here’s hoping we don’t return to Termoli to find our car has been towed.  Figuring out how to work the machine to pay for parking proved extremely challenging, and I think we may have only paid  up through Saturday.  We weren’t sure what you were supposed to do with the ticket/receipt - so we just left it on the dashboard. 

Anyway…yesterday, we had tickets to visit Castel Sant’Angelo at 12 noon.  We walked around the structure when we were here three years ago, but didn’t go inside; Paolo really wanted to visit it on this trip.  The only problem was that the tickets, which were ordered online, weren’t actually e-tickets to be stored on the phone - they expected you to print them and bring them with you.  Unfortunately, we were unable to print them at the hotel (it seems that the problem was an issue with the ticketing website), so we decided to just go there early and try to explain to the box office about not being able to print.  The gentlemen running the ticket office weren’t very happy with us, and they said they couldn’t print them, either (although they could see I’d paid for them).  They tried to get us to just go away and leave them alone; but as I was insistent, they eventually relented and, for payment of another 2 euros, they…printed the tickets for us.  So it all worked out in the end, as things usually do.

This former tomb of Emperor Hadrian/Papal fortress is worth the visit, just for the breathtaking views from the top, if nothing else.  But the whole site is pretty interesting, if you have a chance to see it.  There’s even a little coffee/wine/snack bar up near the top where you can take a break and enjoy the view, which we did.   I’d been a little worried about crowds with Covid, so was a little nervous about choosing to see a pretty major attraction.  Surprisingly, it was not at all crowded (as it was during our visit in 2018).  I’m not sure whether that was because of the time of year, the fact that it was Sunday, or if perhaps they only sell a limited number of tickets per day - perhaps some combination of those things.

Afterward, we walked down toward the Vatican, which we also visited back in 2018.  Because of Covid concerns about the crowds, we chose not to go to inside the Vatican museums or the Basilica on this trip, though we did want to walk around the area of St. Peter's Square.  We decided to have lunch at a nearby outdoor sandwich/burger shop.

Nearby fountain

Just another fountain on a nearby street that I thought was neat

As we were walking toward St. Peter’s Square, we noticed a Leonardo da Vinci museum.  So after lunch, we decided to investigate that.  Surprisingly, there were more people in that rather small museum than I would have expected.  The collection consists mainly of replica models of his various machines, and copies of his paintings; there was an interactive guide with headphones so you could hear about each item as you viewed it.  As museums go, it was quite ho-hum, in my opinion; Paolo enjoyed it much more than I did.

We found many of the restaurants near our hotel to be closed on Sunday evenings.  However, Paolo did eventually manage to find one within easy walking distance that was open.  I made the mistake of ordering the bistecca alla griglia (grilled steak) for my main course - it was an awful cut of meat.  I can't begin to guess what part of the cow it was from, but as far as I'm concerned, it should have stayed attached to the cow.  I really just ordered it on a whim; I don’t normally eat much red meat, but I do like a good steak every now and then.  Sadly, I have yet to have a truly good one in Italy (even the steaks for sale in the grocery stores are not like anything I would purchase back in the US; they look like what you might use to make cheesesteaks).  My first/pasta course was very good, though (I didn’t think to take a photo of it until after I’d finished it).  The tiny chocolate soufflé I had for dessert was pretty tasty as well.

And thus ends our little sojourn in Roma; here’s hoping we have no further issues with muffa in the apartment - and here's hoping that our car is exactly where we left it last week.