Day Seven - In Rome

Leisurely get up (notice a trend? LOL) and we were out and about to do some walking/sight-seeing. The bus dropped us off at the “Boca Della Veritas” (Mouth of Truth) stop… except only half of us got off, b/c the other half of us didn’t realize it was our stop. The bus driver DID re-open the front door of the bus, but as we were in the very back of a crowded bus… we couldn’t get off. We got off at the next stop and walked back pondering the notion of “Perhaps the group should stay together on the bus” and met up with the other half at “The Boca”. If you’ve ever seen Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn & Gregory Peck you can imagine the scene that ensued. Grandpa Bob pretended to lose his hand… and Doodlebug was then VERY cautious about sticking anything in the mouth, truth or not –LOL! Either way, it’s impressive to see and we journeyed inside yet another very old chapel.

To balance the scene, we crossed the street in another game of “Dodge Car” and saw the two oldest temples in Rome, one to Vesta and the other to some other pagan whozit. VERY old, semi-preserved… just sitting by the side of the road like so many other ruins in town.

It was then lunchtime and we walked on up the hill towards “The Wedding Cake” (Vittorio Emmanuel Monument) and against everyone’s better judgment my MIL opted for lunch in a café’… or at least outside the café’ right around the corner. For those that haven’t journeyed to Italy where there are open table café’s, let me explain that you pay extra to sit at the table, so there are “walk away” prices and “con tavolo” prices. We walked by this sandwich shop and my MIL starts requesting various sandwiches for the 8 of us… and then 3 canned drinks… and at the price, my Italian was good enough to follow the conversation that ensued when my MIL requested the price and the storekeeper (who spoke no English) said, “E68.” I thought I’d have to pick my MIL up off the tile floor when she said, “No No No, it’s too much” and he began gesticulating in a truly Italian fashion to say that no, 68 Euro was in fact the price” and then she said, “No, we’re not going to stay at the table” and then told him we only wanted the sandwiches (though I think at this point if the others hadn’t already been consuming the sandwiches she would have given those back and called it quits) and so that was “only” 36 Euro… but then that didn’t include the drinks… and, get this… the 3 cans of drink were 4 Euro each… which translates to about $15 for 3 cans of iced tea. The shopkeeper then “miscounted” (eyeroll) the change and my MIL told him with these shenanigans she was going to get the police at which point he said it was “only a mistake” and corrected the change back to her… and we promptly left. Sigh. NEVER EVER EVER eat near a “famous” anything … especially when you travel, and especially when it’ll cost an extra 20 Euro to sit at an itty bitty table on the sidewalk.

We DID eat at “The Wedding Cake” and then walked again to another bus to take us over to the Castle of San Angelo… which resulted in a small tragedy. Sweetie, at some point on the bus, requested her souvenir doll/pen that she’d purchased at the Boca della Veritas… and somewhere between ON the bus at AT the castle… it disappeared. FIL did take an opportunity to go back and look for it… but to no avail. Upon discovering that entering the Castle would’ve been 70 Euro… we had to figure that lunch had been our “Shore excursion” for the day and just decided to wander around the Castle taking pictures from various vantage points. In our search for a restroom we happened upon a small park (complete with pigeons) and the kids were allowed to break free from a grown-ups hand for the first time in what must’ve seemed like ages and go down the slides and on the swings.

FIL walked over to the Vatican to pick up our tickets for Wednesday, and the rest of us journeyed to the main bus terminal towards home. DH left us at the main terminal to TRY and figure out what happened with his phone connection (there was a major transaction that depleted all his funds which is why there have been no updates) and MIL & I completed the route home. She left me at the front door with the keys and went around the street to the Supermarket and after we get in the gate I realize that “I” have the keys, which means she has no way to get into the courtyard (and dh neither b/c FIL has the other set of keys) so we lean the gate “just so” and come upstairs to collapse – LOL!

DH is actually the first to arrive home, walks in through the gate we’d left “open” and realizes his mother is out alone with no keys and going to be lugging home groceries by herself, so he goes out after her… both return LONG before FIL who apparently got stuck across town behind some sort of accident where his bus driver had to actually exit the bus to direct traffic for a small eternity. Thankfully he DID return safely AND with the tickets in hand.