Rome 2011

We start our trip to Rome thinking ‘Lady Luck’ must surely be on our side this time. We had excellent transit connections to the airport and check-in went smoothly. There was plenty of time for a nice leisurely breakfast before our flight. Then we were upgraded to business class and enjoyed comfort and more food on the way to Toronto. What could go wrong, you ask?

Well, Air Canada, true to its motto (according to Gilbert) ‘We’re not happy until you’re unhappy’ came through once again. Our flight to Rome was delayed an hour and a half. I just knew when we saw the flight crew in the waiting area that something was amiss. So how does this work anyway? Air Canada had moved the scheduled flight time up by about 2 hours, at least a month ago. We had to change our flight to Toronto to make the connection and now the plane was leaving for Rome at the time it was originally scheduled for way back when. Air travel never ceases to amaze me – I probably could write volumes about it. The good news –We’re on the flight and arriving in Rome in about 2 hours.

What timing for a vacation in Rome – May 1st, the National Holiday and also the weekend for the first stage of the beatification of Pope John Paul II. We are staying about 5 blocks from the Vatican City so have been advised to steer clear of the area as there are just too many people. Given immense jet lag, we decide to sleep and then venture out. It is about 2 in the afternoon when we ‘wake-up ’at the local outdoor café and watch the droves of people leaving the Vatican.

Since so many people are leaving we decide to give the Vatican a try. It’s still packed but certainly and ideal situation to observe some interesting people. Case in point – a nun in serious need of a shave. I’m of the impression it’s a guy in a nun’s habit but Gilbert still claims it’s a female. What are the chances of seeing someone like this? One in 1.5 million since that is the estimated number of people who were here for the Beatification.

Leaving the crowds behind, we instead enjoy a relaxing evening, strolling the Tiber River and wandering the historic streets of the Centro Storico District. Without a coat of any sort, I might add, since we finally escaped the Canadian winter.

The next 2 days are filled with visiting a few must-see tourist haunts. I won’t bore anyone with details, just a quick list follows with a couple incidences of note.

The Colosseum, Palatino and Roman Forum – we are whisked back to the days of the early Roman Empire, letting our imagination fill in some of the blanks, certainly enough to conjure up a few gladiators on the loose.

II Vittoriano – We climb close to 100 hundred steps to reach the top for a wonderful view. Gilbert, his mind ever in action, begins estimating - just how many stops will people make on these steps as they climb to the top? For those in the ‘need to know category’, 3 to 4 (yours truly included).

The Pantheon – interesting construction but absolutely teeming with visitors when we were there.

Then it was an afternoon stop to rest our weary feet at an outdoor café (with an excellent people watching advantage) where Gilbert engaged in statistics once again. So what’s the probability that a person walking by us will be eating ice cream. After about an hour – the results - 10% were eating ice cream, 80% of those had sugar cones, 10% were regular cones and 10% were cups. Overall a relatively low % considering that we discovered the ice cream shop just around the corner as we left.

We had time to peruse through Piazza Navona taking time to admire the ornate fountains and then a walk to Trevi Fountain to toss in our coin, ensuring a return visit to Rome (which incidentally we will do at the end of our vacation).

We ended the evening with a leisurely walk back to our hotel, stopping off to enjoy a delicious meal at a nearby restaurant. The food literally melted in our mouth. Then a quick stop to the 24 hour bakery for a treat, obviously no lack of sweets here to keep our systems fueled. Somehow I think Gilbert had ‘visions of sugar plums dancing in his head’ throughout the night as the bakery was his first stop the next morning.

Day 2 and we decided on the Sistene Chapel – ‘not’. The line-up was just too long. We opted for St. Peter’s Basilica instead. We were taken in by the enormity of it all – the masterpieces, Michelangelo’s Pieta, the statues, the dome and other artworks.

Afterwards, we took a breather, finding a place to sit in the Piazza San Pietro. It was here that Gilbert had a ‘revelation from above’. Yes – a pigeon dropped ‘poop’ on his head, shirt and pants. Clearly, I would have been more impressed if it had been from a dove. So it was back to the hotel for a quick shower and change.

The weather being quite pleasant we opted for a day in the park at Villa Borghese. We grabbed a few sandwiches from the bakery and took them with us, finding a nice park bench to enjoy the afternoon. Gilbert was into statistics again, noting that almost 100% of the people in Rome seem to own a dog. It wasn’t until much later that a dog owner informed us we were sitting in the ‘dog walking area’ of the park (his results now totally skewed). How random was this - literally going to the dogs – in a park that is probably larger than Stanley Park!

As it was now approaching evening, we began making our way back to the hotel. Not without stopping for ‘Happy Hour’ – a glass of wine each with a lovely tray of appetizers for a reasonable price. And yes, we certainly felt happy (something about that that wine that packed a punch!) as we headed back.

So what’s the probability that we’ll make our flight to Tel Aviv the next morning. Let’s see - we woke up with plenty of time to get to the airport, loitering over a quick coffee and a bite to eat (I had suggested to Gilbert we should skip this and go straight to the airport, but he wasn’t having any of it). Well, we arrive at the airport with 1 hour and 4 minutes to spare, barely making check-in (that 4 minutes being our cushion). We were asked by the agent why we were so late – I told him ‘Don’t Ask’ and to my surprise he didn’t, even though we had to answer a barrage of questions as we were heading for Israel. Still, he eventually let us go through. To our surprise, one other gentleman arrived after us for the flight. We high-tailed it with him all the way and thankfully made it on board.