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| Italy: Spring 2003: Wednesday, April 25: Day 1: Tivoli | ||||
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| Tivoli, Lazio April 25, 2003 Day 1 The flight arrives on time in Rome from Amsterdam; the trip on Northwest/KLM is painless as such trips go, but both planes are full to the brim. The sun is shining in Rome. After some wait for our luggage, we pile it all on two carts and make our way to the car rental office. We ask for the car with the largest trunk capacity; the rental agent smiles and gives us a station wagon. Even with our Lancia Lybra, it is a tight fit for the three Americans with all their paraphernalia. Jonathan drives, I navigate and Diana sits in the back as we head off for Tivoli, just to the east of Rome. I have to get used to the new role of navigator and we miss our first turnoff-the ring road around Rome. We double back and get on the right road, which takes around the southern flank of Rome--lots of industry, large apartment blocks and commercial development. Exiting at the Via Tiburtina, we get more of the same for most of the 30 kilometers to Tivoli, except the road is only two lanes and there are traffic lights. Suddenly we are out of the sprawl and we see several hill towns scattered around the countryside. Tivoli is the largest, directly in front of us and we start to climb the steep grade. Even the gas stations have panoramic views up here; one we pass is set right on the edge of the hill and you can get a great view while filling up. No hotel signs are apparent as we approach the centro, but we forge ahead and manage to circle the town twice before getting our bearings. Of course the information office is closed (for lunch) and everyone we ask for directions are tourists. We finally pass the hotel but only realize it when we are across the bridge past it and we are not sure that we can turn around, so we circle the town again and finally arrive around 2 pm. The hotel--the Sirene--has a spectacular location on the edge of the river gorge, across from two Roman temples, with a view of the valley and green mountains beyond. The rooms are pleasant if a bit small, but one has one of the largest bathrooms we have seen in Italy. One of our rooms does have a large terrace where we can almost reach out and touch the temples. After resting, showering, and trying to get our computers up and running, we head out to see the town and to get something to eat. We stop at a bar/restaurant on the square in front of the hotel and ask for sandwiches. The proprietor, who it turns out had worked in his brother's restaurant in Toronto 40 years ago, suggests an antipasto plate and some wine...which in fact was perfect. We were hungry but we wanted to be able to eat dinner at a regular time so we can quickly adjust to Italian time. The antipasto is good, the wine is refreshing and we enjoy our "snack" sitting at an outdoor table in Tivoli. We are mildly shocked at bill....41 Euros (about $44 US); it shows how inflation and the weak dollar is affecting tourists in Italy. Our walk through town has an agenda...we want to end up at cellular phone store on the other side of town in the hopes that they can help me get my new cellular phone working as a wireless modem. We walk through the old medieval quarter, past the Duomo (we do pop in for a peek, but just a quick one) and on past the Villa d'Este, famous for its gardens and fountains. That part of Tivoli seems a little run down and austere, but once we pass the Villa d'Este, the town goes a bit upscale with freshly painted houses and more attractive streets. We stop for our first gelato (strawberry and panna cotta for me, and a sour cherry concoction for Diana) and feel that we have really arrived. We are now walking through the same areas that we had driven through (several times) en route to the hotel.....and feel like we are getting to know it a little. The TIM store is of little help....we will have to find another way to get some technical help. We walk back through the center of town which is beginning to fill up; the evening passegiata is underway and Tivoli residents are out in force, strolling back and forth through town. We stop to buy some strawberries from the back of a truck...they are fresh from Campania (near Naples). We think we are buying two little baskets but it turns out we buy a flat (about nine baskets) for the equivalent of $3.00...they look beautiful and taste better. Back at the hotel, we sit out on the terrace for a while, reading and eating strawberries. We watch over the hills to the east as the sky darkens and thunderclouds begin coming our way. Soon it is cool and windy, so we retreat inside for naps, computer wrangling and letter writing. It never actually does rain, but it was quite a spectacular threat. As dinner time approaches, we are getting pretty tired. The restaurant that I had chosen from guidebooks was closed on Wednesdays so we just walk across the bridge to a small pizzeria/restaurant called Il Grottino. The place is empty but the proprietor is quite charming so we sit down. We don't want anything too extensive since the jet lag is closing in, so Diana has an antipasto (very good) and a local specialty, pasta with trout bottarga (fish roe); Jonathan has a calzone which he pronounces unremarkable, and I have the a plate of delicious bruschetta and one of the house specialties, a mixed platter of four different homemade pastas....fettucine with mushrooms, a big raviolo with a tomato sauce, some bucatini all'Amatriciana, and a terrific cannelloni; the dish is actually a wooden tray. They do have panna cotta so I order it....it is very good but it is topped with an overabundance of chocolate sauce (good chocolate sauce, but unmanageable.) With a mediocre bottle of house red and two bottles of water, the check came to about 40 Euros--less than our late lunch antipasti. It is a short walk back to the hotel...where Jonathan and I spend some time trying to adjust his computer settings to make it work in Italy and sending some e-mails. Tomorrow we head for Hadrian's Villa. |
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