Day 1: Rome
We are back in Italy again......and feeling pretty good. We will be here for most of a month....here is our itinerary.
After three days in Rome, we'll drive to San Quirico d'Orcia in southern Tuscany where we stay for ten days in an apartment in the village. This is followed by one night in Florence and four nights in the northwestern Tuscan town of Pietrasanta. We then drive to Sesto Calende (near Milan) and stay for one night before flying to Copenhagen to visit friends in Lund, in southern Sweden. Back to Sesto Calende for a night amd then three days in Lerici staying at one of our favorite hotels, the Doria Park. The last night will be in or near Rome and we fly back to Washington on May 14.
Our flight over from Philadelphia was long and tiring but unventful. We were anxious about getting there because the bad weather on Wednesday over the northeast U.S. hit Philadelphia Airport pretty hard with long flight delays and some cancellations. Luckily I had persuaded the airline to change our connecting flight from National Airport to 2 pm instead of 4 pm which gave us an additional two hours margin of error. (NOTE: No more one hour connections on international flights).
And it still looked dicey as Philadelphia flight delays increased. Our 1:59 departure slipped to 2:25 pm and then, just before we boarded, the gate staff told us the flight may not get off the ground until 4 pm but that we should have no problem making our 6:05 pm flight to Rome. Alls well that ends well...they boarded us at 2:15 pm in case an earlier takeoff became possible and we got to Philadelphia at 4 pm...breathing a sigh of relief.
In Rome our baggage arrived pretty quickly and the driver was there to meet us without a hitch. But the traffic into Rome was almost gridlocked so he got off the main road to town and looked for an alternate route down the Via Cassia entering Rome behind the Vatican. The trip took over an hour instead of the usual 35 minutes but we made it to the Hotel Teatro di Pompeo, unloaded, were greeted by our friend Americo, the hotel desk clerk, and went up to our room.
Arriving in the morning presents a challenge to our usual anti-jet lag procedure of staying up, walking around and going to bed as close to a normal time as possible. This works well with afternoon arrivals but not with morning ones. Diana had not slept on the plane and took a nap immediately and I spent a little time on the computer and went for a short walk around the neighborhood, but by noon, I also fell into bed.
We emerged around 3 pm and went to the Campo de' Fiori for a porchetta sandwich at the Aristocampo sandwich shop...it was delicious. Then back to the hotel for some work (I picked up a few new clients in the last week or so and I have to complete their arrangements while in Italy). After another somewhat longer walk--the weather has ranged from sunny and warm to breezy and chilly and back again (but when it is nice, it is really nice)--we stop at the Feltrinelli book store to look for some new maps then pay our respects to the Pantheon and go for an early dinner. Our first try is at Armando al Pantheon but at 7:30 we are turned away because we have no reservations.
We eat dinner at the Trattoria Moderna, a stylish, somewhat creative restaurant just around the corner from the hotel. Since we're eating early, most of the customers are non-Italian. The pasta dishes are very good....rigatoni with sausage and broccoli and pecorino cheese for me and fettucine with ricotta and artichokes for Diana. She has filets of spigola which was okay and I have a plate of roast potatoes and artichokes alla Giudea and an order of cicoria. We finish a half-liter of the house red which is very pleasant. The bill comes to Euro 62.00 (about $80.00 US), sort of moderate for these times.
We stroll over to the Campo for some gelato.....I am disappointed that they don't have my favorite peanut flavor but our first gelato of the trip is very good--pistachio and straciatella for Diana and fragola and fior di latte for me. And then to bed and to sleep....very quickly.
Jim and Diana
After three days in Rome, we'll drive to San Quirico d'Orcia in southern Tuscany where we stay for ten days in an apartment in the village. This is followed by one night in Florence and four nights in the northwestern Tuscan town of Pietrasanta. We then drive to Sesto Calende (near Milan) and stay for one night before flying to Copenhagen to visit friends in Lund, in southern Sweden. Back to Sesto Calende for a night amd then three days in Lerici staying at one of our favorite hotels, the Doria Park. The last night will be in or near Rome and we fly back to Washington on May 14.
Our flight over from Philadelphia was long and tiring but unventful. We were anxious about getting there because the bad weather on Wednesday over the northeast U.S. hit Philadelphia Airport pretty hard with long flight delays and some cancellations. Luckily I had persuaded the airline to change our connecting flight from National Airport to 2 pm instead of 4 pm which gave us an additional two hours margin of error. (NOTE: No more one hour connections on international flights).
And it still looked dicey as Philadelphia flight delays increased. Our 1:59 departure slipped to 2:25 pm and then, just before we boarded, the gate staff told us the flight may not get off the ground until 4 pm but that we should have no problem making our 6:05 pm flight to Rome. Alls well that ends well...they boarded us at 2:15 pm in case an earlier takeoff became possible and we got to Philadelphia at 4 pm...breathing a sigh of relief.
In Rome our baggage arrived pretty quickly and the driver was there to meet us without a hitch. But the traffic into Rome was almost gridlocked so he got off the main road to town and looked for an alternate route down the Via Cassia entering Rome behind the Vatican. The trip took over an hour instead of the usual 35 minutes but we made it to the Hotel Teatro di Pompeo, unloaded, were greeted by our friend Americo, the hotel desk clerk, and went up to our room.
Arriving in the morning presents a challenge to our usual anti-jet lag procedure of staying up, walking around and going to bed as close to a normal time as possible. This works well with afternoon arrivals but not with morning ones. Diana had not slept on the plane and took a nap immediately and I spent a little time on the computer and went for a short walk around the neighborhood, but by noon, I also fell into bed.
We emerged around 3 pm and went to the Campo de' Fiori for a porchetta sandwich at the Aristocampo sandwich shop...it was delicious. Then back to the hotel for some work (I picked up a few new clients in the last week or so and I have to complete their arrangements while in Italy). After another somewhat longer walk--the weather has ranged from sunny and warm to breezy and chilly and back again (but when it is nice, it is really nice)--we stop at the Feltrinelli book store to look for some new maps then pay our respects to the Pantheon and go for an early dinner. Our first try is at Armando al Pantheon but at 7:30 we are turned away because we have no reservations.
We eat dinner at the Trattoria Moderna, a stylish, somewhat creative restaurant just around the corner from the hotel. Since we're eating early, most of the customers are non-Italian. The pasta dishes are very good....rigatoni with sausage and broccoli and pecorino cheese for me and fettucine with ricotta and artichokes for Diana. She has filets of spigola which was okay and I have a plate of roast potatoes and artichokes alla Giudea and an order of cicoria. We finish a half-liter of the house red which is very pleasant. The bill comes to Euro 62.00 (about $80.00 US), sort of moderate for these times.
We stroll over to the Campo for some gelato.....I am disappointed that they don't have my favorite peanut flavor but our first gelato of the trip is very good--pistachio and straciatella for Diana and fragola and fior di latte for me. And then to bed and to sleep....very quickly.
Jim and Diana
posted by Jim Zurer at 9:56 AM
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