Eat, Pray, Lounge

It was late, we had walked many miles, we ended the day by sitting down to dinner.
“Where are you from?”
“The States.”
“Yes, yes, I know….but which state?”
“Ohio.”
“Ohio! Ohio! I geeve you a free dinner if you can name my favorite sports team!
“Fener Bachi!”
“Fener Bachi? What’s that?!
“It’s the best soccer team in Istanbul!”
“No, no, no. I geeve you a hint. An Ohio team cheated my favorite team for the championship!”I am now thinking that this guy could get lethal if I choose wrong, seeing as how here I sit in Rome just trying to have some spaghetti Bolognese and the he is angry at some Ohio team for cheating his favorite team out of a championship.
“Miami! I shout.
“Yes, you are RIGHT! So you agree! Miami was cheated out of the touchdown.!”
“I’ll agree with anything you say. Where's the House Red?"

 

The Pantheon...I always knew I would make it.
 

Travel can be so exhilarating when you are seeing so many new sights and experiencing so many new things. Travel can also wear one down with the roadblock of the seemingly simplest of things. Yet, sometimes it takes so little to feel a triumph.

Case in point. We needed a train ticket for Florence, Italy on Tuesday. We wanted to scope out the train station (which we came through last week upon entering Rome from Bari) and see the times and cost for the train and not be pressured while holding luggage or to avoid sitting in the station for hours. So we walked over to the station which was relatively close (“relatively,” is the operative word here). It was Sunday, no huge crowds though one must remember, this is a train-traveling society. The lines for Trenitalia (which my razor-sharp mind has deciphered as “Italian Trains”) are so-so, but over there are some “Fast Ticket” machines (which, once again, due to my carefully honed instincts of all-things-international no doubt means one can purchase a ticket quickly at the machine using a credit card.) I pull out my Fairfield National Bank credit card, insert, search for Florence on the ticket and realize the train does not go there. Makaila then informs me that it is probably “Firenza” and I wonder why these Italians don’t just call their cities what we Americans call their cities. It would be so much easier if they would just reason with us.

Done…and done Two tickets for Firenza on Tuesday the 15^th. I am hoping that Firenza is somewhere close to Florence. But, we feel pretty good for avoiding the “Trenitalia” lines. Things are going our way for the moment.

Our plan for the rest of the day is to follow Makaila’s travel plan and “Bebop.” Just bebop…i.e…..have no destination and just look at the map and go to places. Here is another travel tip. Leave the $14.95 maps of Rome in your pocket. Don’t pay any attention to the maps on page 125 or your $37 travel guide. Just tear off a free map from the hotel lobby, one which is for tourists and is paid for by the Chamber of Commerce or some travel agency. Ask the hotel manager to circle some places. He circles this and that. Go. And we did.

This being Sunday, we stopped in to every church and marveled at the architecture. We didn’t come across any actual worship services on this Sunday morning, (though we did spot an actual priest reading the Bible or prayer book as he walked the Stations of the Cross) but we were amazed at the beauty and the closeness of church after church, cathedral after cathedral. Also, we were startled by the facades of most of the churches. They were huge, gray and wedged into what appeared to be alleys and back streets. Yet… walk inside and here is this magnificent cathedral. It makes you want to rush out to the steps of the cathedral and shout to the gelato-eating tourists (both Roman and foreign)… “Hey, you gotta SEE this place!”

(By the way…fashion tip for men….”Men…European fashion is all about the scarves….draped dramatically over the shoulder and worn in a sort of knot….worn with your sport coat or top coat or over any shirt. It’s definitely all about the scarf! Nobody cares about the pants….jean, painters pants…nobody notices, though they do prefer if you wear pants. It begins and ends with the scarf.)

Time after time we wandered down winding passages that looked like they were some Hollywood directors image of Rome, Italy and came upon a piazza filled with Romans sitting in the outdoor cafes. In the piazza was a grand cathedral, which only the tourists were walking into. Artists and trinket sellers lined the piazza.

My Italian is expanding exponentially (along with realizing that Firenza is Florence.) I now have command of at least three words which will get you through.

Gelato…all you need to eat.

Piazza….wander to any piazza to experience Rome and its people (and tourists)

Salido…..every store in Rome is having a salido. Not just any salido, but a BIG salido…STOREWIDE salido!

Near the end of the day, we spotted a Greek Orthodox Church in Rome, which is rather like spotting a Michigan football rally on High Street the week of the Big Game. So we slipped into the church. Small. Ornate. Filled with actual worshippers. An actual Greek Orthodox Priest too. By my estimation, the only ones worshipping in Rome, yesterday on Sunday were the Greeks.

“OK, you didn’t get that answer correct (corrrrreccct) without a hint, so no free dinner.
Why was I not surprised?
“I geeve you a free dinner if you can guess my favorite Ohio sports star! I’ll be back!”

Hmmmm. Makaila exhausts her famous Ohio sports stars after…Archie Griffin….and I surprise her with the fact that Archie is about my age. I am thinking, Lebron, Pete Rose who else?….gotta be soccer (we have no famous Ohio soccer stars) or basketball which is pretty international. Our waiter returns.
“Lebron!” I reply.
"I geeve you a hint!"  He pulls a golf ball out of his pocket.
“Jack Nicklaus.”  I shout.
“Yes! Jack Neeeklaus! He even owns a golf course in Ohio. Muirfield. Do you play there? He asks.
“No, everybody plays there" I tell him.. "When I play golf in Dublin, I much prefer Tartan Fields".

Peace, Bob