All Roads ...

Headed to Rome today: packed up then went back to the pasticceria for coffee and pastries one more time before checking out and heading to the train station. A smooth trip this time, and an easy time finding our Rome hotel too: 1 block from the Roma Termini station. But it's 5 flights of stairs up, the owners don't speak more than about 3 words of English, and there isn't internet (or at least we can't ask them! or find the signal). So this post is coming a few days late, and may sound a little more like a summary. Which it is. We checked in, then returned to the train station and went up to the airport to inquire about our luggage ...

And they had it! So relieved to have it back and not have to worry about getting it shipped back to the US, or found, or whatever. The woman at the counter was trying to preemptively make excuses for my expected complaints about why they didn't get it to us, but at that point I didn't care and just wanted the bags (apparently they tried calling my US cell number ...). But we have them! I'm wearing contacts, our clothes weren't handwashed in the sink, and we used our usual shampoos and everything. So we got them to the hotel and spent some time reacquainting ourselves with having stuff, then went for a walk up to the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps, where we had dinner. Our meals are becoming slightly habitual, but just because it's so good: bruschetta, pasta (often ravioli), with wine and water, and sometimes a tiramisu.

Walking up the Spanish Steps, I tripped twice! The marble they use for a lot of the monuments and the museum floors is very slippery, even when dry ... but no, I just caught my foot on the edge both times! Fortunately there's no luck thing associated with the Steps. At the base of the Steps there's a fountain modeled to look like a sinking ship, but the Trevi Fountain is just magnificent, and fed by the aqueducts. Throughout the city - in Pisa too, actually - there are public faucets/fountains where people can drink, wash, or fill water bottles. But they aren't drinking fountains the way we know (those are nowhere to be found), they're often made of stone, with a faucet. Rome has always been known for its fresh water supply, building aqueducts to bring clean water in, and this ability to provide clean water for sanitation contributed to Rome becoming the advanced civilization it did. Very cool to see this still in practice!