Yesterday we said goodbye to our 17th century apartment building. Goodbye Hobbit stairs (as Ernie named them our first day), goodbye noisy street, goodbye late night revelers, goodbye boulangeries and baguettes, and goodbye scarves.
And we survived our night visit to the Eiffel tower. We arrived before sunset and sat on the lawn and waited for dark sipping a little wine. Much to his disappointment, Ernie left the battery for the camera charging in the apt. so couldn't take pictures. Although I would love to have a picture to post, it was especially nice to have him completely there to just watch it with me and focus on the moment. It was a beautiful sight and I actually think you get a better view of the design elements when it's lit.
Relieved with an uneventful train ride to the airport the following morning (we have learned how to go through the turnstyles without losing a suitcase), we enountered the infamous French incompetence. McDonald's kitchen runs smoother than the airport security at Orly. There was one line open, one person looking at the monitor, 10 standing around -- if they had to search a bag the whole line waited while they examined every inch of the bag. People took off every ounce of metal and costume jewelry that looked like metal and stood on the other side of the metal dectector putting it all back on holding up the entire line. There was a line at the gate for boarding when we got there so we got in at the end of the line as all good Americans should. Airplane seats were not pre-assigned so people needed to vye for the seat they wanted. As soon as it was time to board, people went over to the gate and started their own line so they were at the front. Also typically French. That created line mayhen, so we just did an about-face and were on board about 100 people quicker than we would have been.
We listened to a Rick Steve's pod-cast on the plane and he said the taxi to the center of Rome should only cost 40 euros and to expect the drivers to try to charge more. We loaded up with a taxi and then asked the driver how much. He said 55 euros. For once I was grateful for Ernie's Italian genes because he got into it throwing out numbers back and forth with the driver in Italian and using the innate hand motions. We settled on 45 euros. The driver was none too happy. Or maybe he really liked us because he gave us a thrilling theme-park type ride that required me to close my eyes a few times. We dodged cars, passed busses on one lane roads, took curves at high speeds, stopped within inches of the car ahead of us -- all for no extra charge. It was much longer than King's Island rides -- it lasted about 30 minutes.
For some reason I was a little queasy when he dropped us and our luggage off in front of the apt. Except Ernie didn't think it was the front of the apt where an agent was supposed to meet us to let us in, so he explored the neighborhood. I suggested he look again at the paperwork and that was when our period of panic set in. Ernie discovered he had left all of our important paperwork on the taxi. I didn't realize that he had brought photocopies of all of our credit cards in case ours were stolen and all of our computer passwords to on-line accounts. Everything. Access to our bank accounts, line of credit, retirement investments. Everything. Plus our contact for the apartment -- but fortunately we figured out where it was and the agent let us in. Ernie got the internet up and running (yeah, we have wifi) and starting using Skype to call banks, credit card companies, etc. We couldn't cancel all of the cards because we needed some here. We changed passwords. We resigned ourselves to checking on-line regularly to see if the cards we kept were being used. For a couple of hours I was able to call Ernie an idiot without him yelling back. He was beating himself up more than I would have so I most just stood out of the way. Then, the door buzzer sounded. It was another angel -- this time in the form of the taxi driver. He came back with our papers!!!! It had been several hours by now and we never expected him to return and there was no central office to contact about lost and found. He said he thought it looked like important papers. This time Ernie had different words for him and I thought he just might kiss him. Needless to say, he gave him a lot of euros for a tip. Total relief. After listening to the podcast warning us of all the thieves and users, it was a good welcome to Rome to find such an honest person who went out of their way to help. Whew.
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| Resting on the enormous couch in Rome |
This apt is in a historically preserved building and is nicer than the last. Larger and lighter and newer. It's on a small street but still very noisy but it has a/c so we can keep the windows closed. Guess what I ate last night -- yes -- pizza. The fix price menu was bruchetta and pizza. I thought that was an odd combo (bread and more bread). I think I am getting over-doughed after all those baguettes. And it definitely is starting to show.
We stopped for pastries and capuchino this morning (I'm not tired of pastries) on our way to find a grocery store to get the basics. There is a wonderful open air market in the square where we bought some cheese, pasta, salami, olives, oil and balsamic. We will be back there tomorrow for more.
Dinner at home tonight of pasta. What else. Ernie is cooking up some sausage as we speak and I picked up some pesto for my pasta. All smells good. Ernie discovered arugala in his salad last night and is now a fan so we are making a salad including arugula. Yeah! He is usually an ice berg kind of guy.
Tomorrow we visit the Vatican. We bought tickets on-line before we left and that is supposed to keep us from standing in long lines tomorrow. We'll see.
Maryl
Did the cabby angel have enough time to make a couple photocopies?
ReplyDeleteHurray for arugula!
ReplyDelete