Our last morning at Ercole was a chance to talk with Valentina, MariaGrazia, Nonna and Lelo one more time. Pictures were taken and Nonna instructed which lemons should picked from the tree to give to Bonnie as a parting gift.
Also Lelo had instructed the girls to give Bonnie three ceramic tiles that had been rescued from a historic building in their village. She was quite a hit with this Amalfi family. We had a return trip to Naples with race car driver Luigi. Bonnie was much calmer this trip. No excitement at the train station and a 45 minute train ride, the train hit 300 KPH for most of the trip, we were in Rome.
Our VRBO was a two bedroom, two bath apartment in city center. Less than two miles from most of the tourist sites. We dropped the bags, after carrying them up three flights of stairs to our first floor apartment, and headed out to get some lunch and see us some sites.
Piazza Navonna, Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon check. By dinner time we had seen them all. We were a little tired and just grabbed some takeout for dinner.
Next day we were able to sleep in a little take it slowly. Our only tour was of the Borghese Gallery at 2:30. We wandered around, taking the scenic route by way of the Spanish Steps and through the park that surrounds the Gallery. An excellent tour with incredible art and a shorter walk back to the apartment.
We had reservations at a fancy Roman seafood place that evening and once we got there, looked at the menu, we called an audible. Nothing whetted our appetite, so Joel got to have the potentially awkward talk with the Maitre d’ and let him know we had changed our minds. Cool guy, not his first rodeo handled it with pure class. Out we went, first outdoor cafe we found we ordered pasta and meatballs. Much better, but no food porn.
Next morning was earlier than our last Manarola morning. We had booked a tour of the Sistine Chapel (thanks for the recommendation Angela) that called for us to meet up at 7:15 near the Vatican. We had also booked a VIP underground tour of the Coliseum at 1:00 but didn’t make that because our Vatican tour ran long due to the crowds. We managed to miss some of the crowds, especially in the Sistine Chapel thanks to our early start. Incredible day.
Where I lost Bonnie last time we were in Rome
After being on the road since May 1 we were finally tired of eating out. We grabbed a couple of paninis and ate in. Packed and relaxed ahead of the long ride home the next day.
Ciao Italy