Donald and Mimi in Italia, 2001



Our visit in Rome was wonderful. My cousin Teresa was on a mission to show us all the different ways she could prepare Melanzana. YUM. my favorite was soaked in water, then dried, then baked plain and set in olive oil and a little aceto. We brought her some smoked salmon in a fancy box as a gift for her (we live in Seattle) and one day we came home and she’d made pasta with salmon. OUR SALMON! but it was delicious!!! She also cooked up some really nice octopus or large squid (not certain) She was also intent on making us special treats. One was Latte di Mandorla. It's ALMOND MILK and is nothing like the insipid milk-substitute stuff we have here. It has essense of the bitter almond. to die for. SHe also tried to make an iced desert with some frozen Latte di Mandorla, but I think her daughter ate it before she could finish shaving the ice. Every morning Teresa made "cafe crema" for my husband, that is an espresso hand whipped with sugar. He loved it. what a way to get your morning jolt. I was most impressed with her dedication. It took about 10 minutes of stirring to make this drink.
We took the tram “in centro” every day, and found all the wonderful things that Rome is famous for. I live in Seattle and am white as paper (we don’t get much sun around here), and my cousin thought I should wear shorts to get some sun, but every day we were going into churches, so i was unable to get much sun on my poor legs. (No shorts allowed in church) On the other hand, the ROMAN FORUM is INCREDIBLE.
Temple of Saturn, Roman Forum
Here's a photo of one ruin, the Temple of Saturn. Truly awesome.

I had no idea. I had seen photos, but I didn’t realize HOW BIG it was!!!! how MUCH stuff is there. Imagine having ruins that big in the middle of Seattle or Chicago, and well-protected at that.
We went through the Villa Borghese Gardens , a giant park in the middle of Roma. We rode a sort of a bike, which sat us side by side while we pedaled through the park. The park was filled with statues.
Donald was heartbroken about all the statues with their noses broken off. Encouraging were the omnipresent young scientists restoring things everywhere.

A beautiful view of the trees as we approached
the Villa Borghese

this large nose, however, has been repaired



I love cats and was delighted to discover on my first day there the Largho Torre Argentina, a much smaller ruin, still being uncovered, but it is a sanctuary for homeless cats. They are fed, neutered, doctored, and even adopted out (those that can be) they were beautiful jewels among the ruins. They even have their own website Roman Cats There are cats all over Italy of course, but in Rome, they seemed pretty comfortable

I really recommend September as a time to visit Italia. The crowds are so much smaller. We went to see Michelangelo’s David in Firenze, after standing in line for about 10 minutes. The lines to the Colliseo in Roma were too long for me, but it WAS Saturday. (those were the only lines I saw!) We are not used to the heat that is common in Italia, but fortunately for us, it had diminished. Everyone promised us the heat would let up in September, and it did! Rarely were we TOO hot. and everywhere, it cooled down nicely in the evenings. The most unpleasant thing about Roma AND Firenze were the scooters!! Loud, obnoxious, omnipresent. ALL NIGHT LONG!! I used earplugs every night in Roma. There are no licensing requirements for these nasty scooters, so many of them are driven by adolescents. argh… And they just finally passed a helmet law, but it was still very common to see these children buzzing down the streets with nice helmets worn on their left elbows!
Torre Argentina


Firenze was a lot more touristy than Roma. And that’s what I liked better about Roma, we were surrounded by Romans instead of tourists. My husband and I were in a mercato, and asked to try some olives. After eating his, my husband exclaimed “BUONO!!” and the proprietor said; “No, you're in Roma.. say BONO” so from then on my husband was exclaiming BONO! and NOVA! etc..
Mercato near Teresa's house

This shot shows the light that we were so thrilled with, in buildings and alleys all over Rome. This photo was taken in some sort of French school.
For the first time in my life, I really felt Italian, because people came up and spoke to me in Italian, thinking I was (I guess I sort of look Italian, after all) A small triumph for me occurred in the aeroporto of Roma. We were asking a clerk something, and when he realized I was american, he switched to English, only to switch back to Italian, since my Italian was better than his English!!
After studying for two years recently, I found that my Italian was pretty good for routine transactions, but not good enough for in depth conversation with relatives. It was always heartbreaking, when after an exchange with some old cousin or friend, they’d look at each other and say “they can’t understand”
Say it again slower!! I’d beg, and of course, if I got the least bit tense, my accent got worse, and they’d look at me with total incomprehension and say to each other "non capisce niente".



this is a cat that lives in the Colliseo

The train station experience in Rome was pretty rough for us. It was easy to buy a ticket. no problem at all. But FINDING YOUR TRAIN???? There were no obvious clues on the ticket, which seemed strange, because the ticket is filled with pertinent information, but no "binario" we finally found the right “binario” by going to each one, and reading the schedule posted there (there's about a dozen different binario's) and were standing there, thinking, sheesh, the train should be here, it’s scheduled to leave in less than 10 minutes. Some guy drove over in some sort of maintenance vehicle, and the lady standing near me asked him where the train was coming in. He told her, over there, binario #4, it was changed at the last minute; and fortunately, I overheard, and we ran over there. Someone else had told us that since we were in the last car, it would be way down at the end, so we ran and ran. Almost to the end, we realized that in fact, car #13 was the FIRST into the station, not the last, so we had to go all the way back.
The station in Firenze was not so bad, because there was a tv monitor that said which trains would be where. even so, it was disconcerting to see an entire schedule (orario) with all the train’s binario numbers listed except YOURS, including both earlier and later trains. again, moments before the train came in, the number appeared on the monitor. This time we knew how to find the right car, so it wasn’t so bad.

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