Three Coins in A Fountain, January 26, 2009

The Trevi Fountain was the first stop on our tour of Rome at night. It was beautiful! I'd seen it during the day on my last trip and was in awe, and at night it is as spectacular, in a different way. There were many more people than my first visit, and it was a cold night. I threw the coins in the fountain, César didn't. Maybe I'll be back one day, one can never see everything there is to see in Rome. I could happily see the fountain again and again, marveling in the amazing sculptures that create it. The immensity amazes! We spent time there taking pictures and looking at it and had time to try gelato at one of the many places located near there. We saw several other sights but only got out of the bus one more time and I was disappointed not to get pictures of the colosseum lit up at night, it was magnificent. We did see and learn about the fountains in the Piazza de Navona, the place we had had dinner the night before. They were also gorgeous fountains! The tour was beautiful, but we had a quite arrogant and not kind young man for the tour guide. At the end of the tour, the part where they drop you at your hotel, the bus was not going to the hotels, but stopping a block or two away and the people had to walk, in a strange city late at night. Once they stopped on a street that was jet black and one young girl told the guide that the 2 of them were afraid to get out there and didn't know where they were and they were met with a sarcastic response that it was Rome, they were safe at night and it was just a couple of blocks away. I was quite disgusted with the tour at that point, and felt this was unacceptable. I told César that I would not get out unless they were right in front of our hotel. The tour guide and driver continually talked in Italian to each other and at one point César made a noise and the tour guide jumped. We were sitting right behind him. In Italian he asked César if he understood and he responded that he did, in Italian. Well you could see the visible anguish on the man's face as he realized that someone knew the unkind things they had been saying about people. To be honest, that is one of the many things I enjoy about traveling with César, his ability to speak and understand a variety of languages. Even though he is not that familiar with Italian, languages come to him so easily that he seemed quite proficient in a very short time. Well, the tour guide continued to discuss things with him in foreign languages, I think he tried some others to test César. He was quite curious about our relationship, living so far apart, but neither of us shared much about that. AND surprisingly, or maybe not, we were taken to the front of our hotel! I will be sure that no one I know ever takes a tour from that company again and we thought about calling the management about the problems, but decided that they wouldn't care with the attitudes we had picked up so far. So when you head to Rome check with me on which tour company NOT to use!

After the tour we had a delightful picnic in our lavish room! At lunch we had ordered a bruchetta with olive cream on it. In Paris we had a bruchetta and it was 1/4 of a large loaf of bread with toppings and toasted, so we expected something similar. Well, we were quite surprised when our 4.5euro appetizer arrived and was one regular piece of bread with a spread on it. So small for such an expense but the taste was divine! It was crushed olives and the combination of the toast and spread was something that we could not just have a taste of. The pasta was delicious too, as it was each place we went. I asked the server where there was a grocery store so we could purchase some of the 'olive cream' and it was a few blocks from our hotel. So the olive 'pate' was the highlight of the dinner. We had an assortment of things Italian and enjoyed our feast. Another late night in Rome which meant that we would not be up early for our trip to the Vatican the next day. A wonderful first full day in Rome!