On the road shortly after 11. We had a three hour drive south to outside of Rome. We took the SS1 which by any standards is in pretty rough shape. Another contrast to Germany, who has amazingly well kept roads and is constantly repeating them. It was a nice little drive though. Occasionally there would be an old walled village on the a surrounding hill reminding us that this country (and Rome specially) was the cradle of modern western culture. We passed Cevitaveccia, a port my ship stopped at in 2012. It's a big cruise ship port about an hour train ride from Rome. Saw a couple big johnnys docked up and wondered briefly if I would ever have that cruise ship experience again.
We got about 20 minutes from our hotel and started to see women on the side of the road, which is a pretty busy two lane highway. I guess prostitution is legal here. Reminded me of the Czech Republic. We decided that they shouldn't be called "women of the night." That's not fair or accurate... They should be called "women of the late afternoon."
Our hotel is probably where these "women of the late afternoon" take office hours... Oh well, we are only here to sleep, right? Quick 30 min power down and we decided to make the trek into Rome. Hopped in the car, drove to Cesano, the next town over, and walked onto the train headed SE. Took about 45 minutes and we were at St Pietro station, that's Saint Petersburg for all you layman. This was our first glimpse...
Peter had an agenda to fulfill some recommendations for food and drinks, so we walked due east over the bridge and into a cool neighborhood. Not sure the name, or if it even has one, but it was a vibey old spaghetti maze of streets and bars and restaurants. We first stopped at Boticelli's for a beer (the first recommendation) and was surprised by the quality of an Italian IPA. It was really good and the bar was vibey. Peter has a friend who knows the owner Giovanni so we introduced ourselves and told him about the tour. One thing leads to another and the next instant he's streaming Dance With Me in the bar. Didn't catch the name of the IPA... Guess I'll have to go back, you know, for the blog.
Afterwards we went around the corner To a great little restaurant called ...
We shared a bottle of Chianti Classico, some caprese, and I had the fettuccini with bacon and truffles and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. The caprese was good. The tomatoes were a little young but tasty but the mozzarella was on point. Holy cow. And the olive oil was slamming. Those are technical terms by the way....
It was all outrageously good. Maybe we were just hungry, and maybe for Roman standards it was adequate but we devoured everything. I mean at one point, Peter licked the table cloth. For real. After a round of limoncello we went back to the bar to thank them for the food recommendation and then hauled ass back to the train station to catch the 10:25 train back north to Cesano and our hotel, motel, holiday iiiiiiiin.
We were waiting on the platform for our train when we heard a chorus of French kids singing church songs... Peter, the gregarious little dude that he is, approached them and asked if we could sing them a song. We sang them Bid You and from then on, we were American rock stars..photos, videos, autographs... It was hilarious. "Are you famous?" one 12 year old asked. "Why yes, yes I am, little one." We basically held court the entire train ride while every one of these French kids told us about every family member that has set foot in the States. Curious little guys! And peter was in one of his true, natural elements; rattling off French and patiently and considerately answering all their questions...if you know Peter, can't you just envision it?! They LOVED the fact that Peter spoke French and he was just happy as can be. Oh man, we were laughing the rest of the way home.
A great, fun night off. We should do that more often!
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