Rain Man (Oh, Man!)

8, September

We woke up to black clouds and a forecast of rain over the entire country of Italy, and still no cheese with breakfast. Confident that we could purchase our own train tickets into Rome, Uncle Jim just dumped us off at the train station and heads back home for a day off from tour-guide duty. Everything was perfect…well accept the ticket office is closed! Now what? Have no fear the magazine store is open! Tickets and rain gear in hand we are on our way. The first stop is the coliseum, which we learned from Vito (seriously Vito) is really the Flavian Amphitheater. The tour was interesting although Vito’s English dialect was difficult to follow. From the coliseum we walked through the historic section of Rome, stopping at the Vittoriano for a view of the city. We then headed to Largo Argentina, where we saw the cat sanctuary and the sight of Julius Caeser’s assassination. We met Alice, Debi’s friend from Ravelry, for lunch at Rossopomodoro. The company and the lunch were wonderful. Still no sign of rain. After lunch Alice showed us a LYS (sadly it was closed) we took in the Campo di Fiori and then headed off to the Castelo St. Angelo. The Castello, featured in the recent movie, Angels and Demons, was interesting and the view from the roof rivaled the view from the cupola without the horrible climb. We exited the Castello and set off for the Vatican for our last sight seeing stop. As we approached the square the rains came, but have no fear we had our rain gear and covered up. Not sure if the rain was seasonal or if it was caused by Bill Lightening and Jim Thunder being so near Saint Peter’s church at the same time. We boarded the metro back to the Spanish Steps for dinner, but we were still full from lunch. Not so full that we couldn’t sample the viagra gelato (tastes like brownie mix…not that any of us eat uncooked brownies!!). The young, attractive Italian girl at the gelatoria gave us all samples. Jim got a huge sample, we were not sure if she thought he was cute or just needed it the most…Jim is choosing the former. We decide to say good bye to Rome and head back to Nettuno on the REALLY early, 7:27 train (no flop houses in our future). Unfortunately the train got stuck in Padiglione and we don’t arrive home until two hours later - 48 minutes late..nothing in Italian time! We are all sad since we think that La Lanterna will be closed and we won’t be able to eat there (for the third time), but they are open and we eat there, again . A gelato and we call it a day.