MILWAUKEE NYC-ITALY-GREECE AND A DAY IN LONDON BLOG POST TWO/PART ONE

A 24 HOUR SPRINT THROUGH ROME
THE SITE SEEING PART AND AN AMAZING TRIP THROUGH THE GALLERIA BORGHESE

SITE SEEING

We arrived in Rome in the early evening of the thirteenth. For me having the ability of sleeping almost anywhere included the confined seating on two airlines in the economy section with seats that virtually pushed your knees up into your chest was a task I was well up to. I accomplished this despite two crying babies and three middle-aged women having each downed three mini bottles of champagne and then proceeded to include all of us passengers in a continuous giggle fest all the way from Heathrow to Fiumicino. I slept through it, for Rick and Emmy not so much.

I had my travel goggles on the minute our driver left us off at our hotel. Rick and Emmy had their sleep masks on and it was all I could do to drag them to dinner.

The fourteenth turned out to be much better, so much better that I have to break our 24 hours in Rome into two posts rather than one. As much as we no longer need to see the standard tourist traps we seemed to wonder by some of them involuntarily.

Chronology is not going to play a part in the plot line of our journey here but once we were situated in our hotel

it was out into the heart of our Rome, the shopping district and its port of entry, the Spanish steps where you can see a good deal of Rome spread out before you.

On that evening of the thirteenth tired and bleary-eyed we got as far as two blocks down the Via Condotti before our weary legs gave out and we crawled back into a taxi and then into our beds.

Our neighborhood of choice for our Roman holidays has always centered around the Via Veneto with its infamous hotels and its anchor point of the old celebrity watering hole of fame, Harry's Bar. Even though it is now very passé you can still see the exquisitely fashionably dressed pretenders sitting outside in suits and Dior sipping cocktails in the ninety degree heat without producing a bead of sweat.

Of course we couldn't avoid the Trevi Fountain, it was too close to our choice for dinner that night. Even at the witching hour the area around the fountain was more packed than Times Square on New Year's Eve.

And since all paths, at least the ones we take, always go through the Piazza Navona our trip this time would once again pull us through that notorious tourist trap where street vendors with dancing light balloons and fake portrait artists try to pry you from your Euros and your dignity making many an American tourist walk around for the rest of the evening with a ridiculous lit balloon on a stick.

Still, the piazza is one of the surest places in Rome where we know we can find a taxi stand. Unlike New York where you can stand on any corner and hail a cab Rome is different. You can stand forever with your hand in the air but a cab isn't going to stop to pick you up.

On the night of the fourteenth by the time we returned to our hotel we realized for the first time the true character of our hotel's surroundings. Cica Cica Boom Boom, oh what a night!




















THE GALLERIA BORGHESE

The Galleria Borghese was my idea. We always find time to go into the park at the Villa Borghese every time we're in Rome but we've never made it into the Galleria. The Galleria requires a timed ticket and you  have to have made reservations far in advance to get your tickets. I took it upon myself to garner those tickets well in advance of our arrival in Rome. What I didn't consider was my museum partners deciding shopping might be more enjoyable than a two-hour tour of the museum. I wasn't eager for a tour either but I figured once inside I could slip away and do my own investigating. So with three tickets one for me and the other two unclaimed by Rick and Emmy, I went on my own. I tried to give away the two extra tickets to an elderly couple that had come to the ticket counter looking for tickets and were disappointed that the 1pm time slot had been sold out and there'd be no other tickets available for any time that day but when I approached them with my two extra tickets the guy behind the counter said he'd have me arrested if I handed out the tickets inside the museum. So much for a good deed going unpunished.

Despite my almost acquisition of a criminal record and a ticket to wage my own fight with the lions in the gladiator ring of the Coliseum I went unopposed into the galleria and I was glad I did. It's impossible to annotate the entire experience.

So I'm going to let my photos do my talking about the architecture, the frescos, the paintings of Caravaggio and the amazing sculptures of Bernini and Canova.

Despite the unhelpful people behind the desk, get your tickets if in Rome and go to the Galleria Borghese. You'll then know why tickets are in such demand.

MILWAUKEE NYC-ITALY-GREECE AND A DAY IN LONDON BLOG POST TWO/PART TWO

A 24 HOUR SPRINT THROUGH ROME
THE SHOPPING AND EATING EDITION
SHOPPING

Shopping in Rome is for us a contact sport. It is not a frivolous activity. It requires extreme stamina and years of skill development. We are masters. Emmy is still an apprentice in training but one with exceptional talent and potential. She may be a little green around the edges but she will soon have earned her degree with marks equivalent to a Magnum Cum Laude in shopping.

For the uninitiated Rome is not for the unschooled. It is rich with high fashion and the Romans know how to flaunt it. You can spot the non-contenders a mile away dressed in jean cutoffs and t-shirts with sayings like "I'm with stupid" and an arrow pointing down to their crotch.

The real Roman men are decked out in starched white shirts either with silk ties or unbuttoned to the point just above where any lower and it would be too gangsterish rather than sexy at sixty.

The women wear linen and heels and genuine leather bags that can be differentiated from the knock-offs by the professional shoppers with a degree in shopping fraud detection.

Now real shopping schooling doesn't always require a huge bankroll. It helps but when you're trying to school someone on how to develop an eye for bargains you want them to learn in places where they have to hone their sleuthing ability of separating the fashion wheat from the chaff. Emmy's training ground has been through high-end window shopping in the prestigious shopping meccas of the world and then applying that knowledge in thrift and vintage stores where the finding tests her knowledge and fortitude toward real bargain fluency.

This can be seen in this Christian Dior coat she snagged at an antique mall for an amazing $36.

In Rome she did her research and found a street crowded with vintage stores not frequented by many tourists and kept close to the chest by most Roman fashion trendsetters.

Hunting through stores so cramped with merchandise she immediately sniffed out the best of the best walking away with a Gucci belt, Trussardi handbag and an amazing red velvet jacket from the fashion house of Roberta di Camerino. We were so proud.

Rick was on top of his game sorting through the new trends in fall fashion from some of the higher-end shops and coming up with a whole new look for the fall in patterns that will make New York stand up and take notice.

He also decided that since my birthday was coming up the following day he wouldn't forget me. I'd never been into jewelry in a big way. Never bought much more than a ring or two. Never wanted a gold tooth or a grill, but I recently bought an inexpensive chain bracelet to go with the watch I'm never without. I'm old-fashioned.

My watches are never digital but radial. I was hoping to find a sterling bracelet to go with my watch and the chain bracelet I already had. I was a little weary of parting with the kind of Euros I knew I'd have to spend for what I wanted, but Rick came through with exactly what I was looking for. He knew sterling from the imposters and boy did I luck out.

My shopping came in the form of a little antique shop I only happened to stumble upon selling these small rolling pins and ink jars form India. I couldn't pass them up. I'm a sucker for high design.

Not a bad haul for a day that included a trip to the Galleria Borghese, breakfast at the hotel and two meals at two different restaurants and topped off by gelato to boot.




















EATING

When an American hotel tells you breakfast is included the best you can expect is a coffee dispenser and a selection of packaged sweet rolls. Not so in Europe. At the hotel La Residenza breakfast was a meal well worth getting up for and one that would sustain you all the way to dinner. Scrambled eggs and bacon, prosciutto and sausages, muesli and granola, a selection of exotic fruits, chocolate croissants, cheeses and the list goes on. Our hostess, who remembered us from our last visit, also remembered who took what beverage with his or her meal. As soon as she saw us she was there with Emmy's cappuccino, Rick's juice and my hot chocolate. Bless her heart.

We were so full from breakfast we didn't want to do anything major for lunch.

Around three in the afternoon while visiting the vintage area on the other side of the Piazza Navona we decided on making a stop at an old friend, Etabli.

It's one of those cafes that serve an ingenious menu in a room that feels like a warm worn shearling coat,

not too fancy but exuding comfortable style.

Everyone feels welcome in Etabli including children and dogs.

The menu was extremely tempting but knowing we were going out to dinner we settled on an appetizer plate with a selection of salumi and cheeses along with an olive tapenade and bowl of sweet honey.

That evening we decided to go back to another old favorite, Nana. They specialize in seafood and did not disappoint.

Emmy and Rick are much more adventuresome seafood eaters than am I . Anything that stares back at me before I have to eat it is going to automatically turn me off. Besides I have an aversion to those needle-like little bones that I fear are going to puncture my throat or lodge permanently in the lining of my stomach converting it into an inverted porcupine.

I must admit that the sea bass didn't look quite so scary once it had been prepared for baking and presented in a blanket of sea salt.

Then once the filets had been plated with the heads missing and the filets boned I could sort of see the appeal.

I, on the other hand, went for these boneless crustaceans in the form of some Mediterranean langoustines served on a bed of linguini with sundried tomatoes, pepper and virgin olive oil. Clearly my plate looked much better than theirs.

At the very end of the evening Alessandro, our hotel maître d' and mixologist supreme, sent us off with a nightcap making sure we'd sleep well and be prepared for the next days journey.

MILWAUKEE NYC-ITALY-GREECE AND A DAY IN LONDON BLOG POST ONE

GETTING READY

One of the most under-rated aspects of travel is the anticipation and the planning. Hours are spent pouring over books and online sites researching locations, places to stay, and how to get there. This is when we get those ah-ha moments when one of us discovers something unique and shares it, waiting for a thumbs up or down. It's a giddy time of looking forward to new experiences of exotic cuisine, museum marvels and on this trip beaches and pools filled with sun and warm weather as a means for extending the summer well beyond the season of our Madison and New York homes.
I've been known to be a bit superstitious about many things; travel being one of them and this trip started out no differently. The night before Emmy and I were to leave Madison for New York to meet up with Rick and begin our vacation was also the first night of the NFL Sunday night football game pairing my beloved Green Bay Packers against those pesky lowly Bears. I'd invited my best friend, Jim, over to watch the game on our pretentiously oversized big screen TV. As anyone in Wisconsin will remember the first half of that game was anything but a Packer's dream scenario. It was so bad I couldn't take it. I told Jim to throw in the towel and go home and I went upstairs and watched the end of the Miss America pageant instead of the second half of the game. That only points out how hopelessly low I had gone. I pouted all night and fretted this might portend something awful about our impending trip. For a good part of the next morning I avoided all contact with any form of news thinking it could only be bad and I mean bad with a huge "B". Miracle of miracles I stopped in my tracks when I inadvertently hit the MSN button on my computer and almost had an involuntary bowel movement. The Packers and Aaron Rogers had pulled off the impossible and our trip was going to be saved. I could continue with my obsessive planning knowing that everything in the world was going to be all right.                                                                                                          

I'm, unfortunately, a little anal about this pre-trip preparation compiling lists and writing out schedules of when we need to be where, how we intend to get there and where we can get any advantage to better seats or the coveted golden ticket to the front of the entry line. The job of head scheduler that has been bestowed on me by my partner and our daughter is a job whose mantle I wear more by default than as an honorarium. Rick and Emmy would gladly let me be the travel agent relieving them of the responsibility and also giving them the enviable positions of critics at large should anything go astray. On this trip I've managed to keep things pretty tidy with one brilliant exception. I spelled Rick's name on all of our major flights. I somehow left the "h" out of Richard. With our Virgin Atlantic and British Airways flights between Newark to Heathrow to Rome and back again you're allowed to check-in 24 hours prior to your flight. Stickler to detail that I am I had set my alarm for the exact time to the minute for checking in and sat patiently by my computer waiting to hit the entry button and begin the process. When it came to entering Rick's passport information I kept getting an error window and couldn't figure out why. That's when that damn "h" showed its hateful head and began the mad scramble of last minute phone calls to a half dozen entities to get it straightened out. Finally with the "h" added to "Ricard" changing it to "Richard" the last hurdle had been vaulted and the ticketing got done.

So here we are now on the plane from Newark and on our way to another amazing journey.