There Will Be Blood

6, September

We got up really early, tried to get some of the tour groups’ breakfast and then Uncle Jim drove us to the train station to catch the Nettuno-Rome train. He warned us several times not to miss the last train home for Nettuno, which leaves Rome at 9:44, or we would have to just spend the night in a flop house near the station…. Jim had mapped out the tour for the day and we headed off. We started at the Trevi fountain, threw our coins in (without incident this time…all Roman‘s were unharmed by errant coins!!) and did a little shopping. We were not in Rome for even an hour when Pam, Sheila, Jan and Bill turned up missing … Jan had started a rumor that they had ½ hour to kill while we attended to some train ticket purchasing business, when in fact we were just buying a shirt…5 minutes!. They were finally located and the tour resumed (no train ticket were purchased yet…) On to the Pantheon. We missed Uncle Jim’s careful explanation of the sights, but still enjoyed the view. Where to now Jim…to the Piazza Navona (you might remember it from the movie “Return to Me”) and the view of the newly refurbished Four Rivers fountain. It was really worth the walk. After lunch we now head back to the Spanish Steps, to actually buy the rumored train tickets. We left the rest of the group to check out the first Italian McDonalds and to climb the steps….Jan was really looking forward to that! We then took the underground passage to the Villa Bourgese and the Via Veneto. There we did some shopping at the Hard Rock, Rome, viewed the Cappucin monks and finished the tour with a beer and an aperol spritz before heading back to the Spanish Steps for dinner. We decided to have dinner at Il Gabriello, a restaurant we had eaten in when we came to Rome in 2008. We were barely even seated when a young waiter dropped an arm load of plates on the floor near our table. Pam was hit by flying plate shrapnel and blood flowed. The waiter felt terrible and offered to cut his own arm in a show of penance. Pam didn’t think that was necessary, a bandage would do. After dinner we caught an early (remember, we are with Jim…no flop houses allowed) train home, and ended the day with, yes, a gelato.



7, September

We are still trying to figure out why we don’t get the bread and cheese with our breakfast and the Polish tour does…

Today Uncle Jim took us on a tour of Anzio’s port, the beach (can you say sea glass!!) and the ruins of Nerone’s (Nero to you Americans) villa. We ate a wonderful lunch at a tiny restaurant in Anzio. Jim ate calamarette fritto, whole baby calamari…that includes the tentacles….remember, we’re talking about Jim here!! We finished the afternoon with a visit to the American cemetery in Nettuno and dinner at La Lanterna again. We went to Uncle Jim’s apartment for desert watermelon and to bed early, because tomorrow is Rome-part two!