A EUROPEAN HOLIDAY 2017-18 VOL. 4

FOOD, FUR, THE FOUNTAIN AND HOTEL FACADES

Each morning we've been trying to make it down for the hotel's breakfast. It starts at 7:30 and ends at 10:30, not an easy task for us late risers. We need a bit more beauty rest and the make-up and grooming necessary to maintain these matinee idol and young starlet facades takes more time than you'd think. We don't just run through the wash on a rinse cycle.

There are hours spent in the planning out our wardrobes, hair and makeup. But when we do make the 10:30 cut off the hotel does an amazing job of laying out a breakfast you'd be hard pressed to find at a Holiday Inn Express in America.

One thing the Romans aren't very PC about is their affection for dead animals. Where in New York the whole fur industry has either disappeared or burrowed underground. In Rome it's out on the street and flaunted. It's definitely high fashion and strutted through the streets on the most glamorous women and some men.

You can find it displayed in shops with recognizable names in shaggy or sheered, natural colors or outrageous dyes and as little as trim or as full as head-to-toe, hat-to-boot. I've yet to see any protestors out with their buckets of paint ready to trash the women who find fashion at the expense of cute little rabbits or wily red foxes.

After our breakfast we headed out in search of a few things we were still hankering for. Rome like many European cities have the precursor to our ubiquitous shopping malls. They call them gallerias but don't fool yourself they're still a collection of shops sheltered in an indoor arcade. The difference is in the beauty and history of the architecture. And this one had it in spades.

This galleria also just happened to be a coins throw from the famous Trevi Fountain and since we were so close I made Rick and Emmy take the undignified trip for such seasoned travelers as us to the fountain to throw a coin in supposedly assuring our return.

The only problem was once we got close enough we finally discovered where all the other tourists had been hiding. We had almost been pick-pocketed there once before, once bitten twice shy.

Still I made the two of them stop for the obligatory photo. At least it wasn't done with a selfie stick!

Once again lunch was on the late side and being so close to a tourist trap we knew we had to branch a little farther out before we settled on a place to eat. We used our internal restaurant seeking divining rod and only considered places that didn't try to grab us by the arm and drag us in. That's how we came up with another killer find, Nana Vini e Cucina a restaurant specializing in fish and populated by a crowd dressed in business attire. We felt we were pretty secure we'd entered the right place.

We started out with two plates to share: one the traditional salad caprese and the other a plate of fresh buffalo mozzarella smothered in aged prosciutto. We could have stopped there but we didn't.

The main course was spectacular in its presentation. Rick ordered sea bass baked in a bed salt then brought out for our inspection before it was filleted and deboned at the counter.

It was rich in juice and splattered with lemon and olive oil. Obviously, we all had to have a bite.

Emmy and I had pastas, hers a traditional spaghetti al pomodoro e basilico while I had some of the best gnocchi I've ever tasted.

Vacations are meant to have the luxury of sitting without having to worry about getting back to work or off to another task. It is to be an exercise in relearning the art of relaxation and remembering its importance to your mental and physical health.

Later that evening while Rick and Emmy napped I went out for a walk through our neighborhood of elegant hotels along the Via Veneto.

Each hotel was festooned with a galaxy of white lights.

Each hotel trying to outdo the one next to it as limos waited outside to transport its clientle to some holiday soiree.

For those still out shopping there was the quintessential Roman holiday snack, roasted chestnuts, with vendors stationed at almost every street corner

Back at the hotel we all decided we were too tired to venture out again for dinner so we settled on a lite meal at the hotel proceeded by holiday Mojitos designed and presented by our favorite evening host, Alessandro.

What better way to cap an evening in Rome.