You've Come to the Right Place

Nov 30

Well, here we are at the end.  This morning we finished cleaning up a bit, took out the trash, and went on our way.  It was raining again, and incredibly cold.  Our train was delayed by 30 mins and we got there an hour early, so we had to wait in the cold (but fortunately covered from rain) for an hour and a half.  We passed the time by thinking of creepy things we could do or say to make the gypsies leave us alone.  We watched a couple of them have a brief turf war, it was kind of funny.

Anyway, finally we got on the train.  We were going about 150mph, so we made good time.  On the way, Sam worked on sorting some analysis for his groundstone project and I caught up some on my London journal (oh, don't judge, at least I'm still writing it, and I'm doing a whole lot better on this trip).  Eventually, we got in to Tiburtina.

We walked around until we got to our hotel.  We had to cross under a freeway and got a little turned around (streets here often change names in the middle of a road and things like that, so it can get pretty confusing).  Eventually, we got to the hotel.

After twiddling our thumbs a bit, we set out to bide our time until an appropriate dinner hour (it was only about a little before 3pm).  We walked up to a metro stop and hopped on until the Circo Massimo.

Sunset in Rome

The last dorky Italian self-portrait of the trip, don't worry

Then we walked past all the ruins until we came to a church where the Bocca della Verita is.  I mostly wanted to see it because of Roman Holiday and Only You, but I didn't feel an urge to really stick my hand in it (I know I'm a liar, and I want to keep my hand thank-you-very-much), which was a good thing, because there was an enormous line, PLUS you have to pay a euro to go up and put your hand in.  So we took pictures of other people doing it instead.

CHOMP

We then walked out to the Piazza Navona and ate at the Navona restaurant again.  I got lasagna again, because it just sounded so tasty and I was starving.  Also I'm boring.  Sam got canolini.  We then got gelato at the same place as the first gelato I had, and it paled in comparison to the other gelatos in Florence!  In fact, it was almost like soft serve when I thought about it.

The fabled lasagne

Neither of us could actually finish ours anyway, because it was about 38 degrees (or so).  The Piazza was filled with Christmas goods stands, brightly lit and welcoming.  We wanted to get an ornament for our tree, you know, this being our honeymoon and our first trip together and all that.  But the only ones that weren't bizarre or tacky were too fragile to take back with us.  I'm a little bit sad.  But I want to know: what on earth do witches and broomsticks have to do with Christmas???  They were everywhere!  I'll add that to the list of things I have to look up, along with who Vittorio Emmanuele II is, he's also everywhere.

Piazza Navona Christmas Market

teh Qt

Anyway, we've repacked and are off to bed.  There is a continental breakfast and then we head to the airport.  Our flight leaves around 11:30 but we will get there early.  We will arrive in Philadelphia around 4pm local time (EST), then we have a layover in Charlotte, NC, then it's back to Utah, where we get in around 11pm.  Because of the trouble with the car, we're scrambling to find a ride last minute.  I've asked Adrien, but she may be busy with her thesis.  Wish us luck with that.