Another one for my Parisians project. A café "La Contrescarpe"
manager stares into the night. Un gérant du café "La contrescarpe" le
regard fixé vers la nuit.
Return to Rome - Part 2
"but it is the Yankees!" is what google translate says
Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City. We heard from friends that they really enjoyed the guided tour of the Basilica and they learned a lot so we decided to try it out and now I can say that I am down with guided tours and don't think it's for lame-o's and old people. Or maybe I am old people now. Did I also mention Vatican Museums to see the Sistine Chapel etc fail again? AGAIN! Entrance to the museum closes so early! and doesn't even happen on Sundays.
Michelangelo's Pietà. Legend has it that he snuck in one night and carve in his signature since artist's weren't allowed to sign their stuff for the Vatican. He was actually a huge badass, painting giant buttocks on the Sistine Chapel as a middle finger to the Pope who was commissioning it and wanted him to hurry up, and painting one of his negative critics going to the depths of hell in a prominent place where everyone could see it. I'm sure there are many more tales of Michelangelo's badassness.
look at those elephant eyes
oh what a lucky coincidence. just as I snapped this photo a turtle popped in for a drink in the background.
We saw a bunch of females in a coral that were denied entry to the Vatican City because they were showing too much leg or their shoulders weren't covered. I think eventually they are able to buy these cheap shawls to cover up with. There are tons of females walking around the Vatican city covering up their goods. I even saw old women who had to do this. I think anything showing above the knee is a no no.
Back in the Piazza Navona area of old Rome.
they had frizzante wine here on tap
Dinner at Al Bric once again. It was awesome again, although Jen said the Cacio e Pepe at Roma Sparita was better. I beg to differ especially since the one we ate at Al Bric this time around was made with Bucatini noodles instead of spaghetti like it is supposed to be like when I had it with Bob.
I forget what was going on here but it was awesomeness. I remember at some wine bar we had this cheese that tasted like gorgonzola but was hard instead of soft and i was in love. I think that one blue cheese over there has a blueberry topping
this was awesome. looks like some kind of mushrooms, zucchini flowers, some kind of extra special pasta.
Calisto 6 Bed and Breakfast
A highlight of everyday was a cafe latte and croissant downstairs at the cafe below the bed and breakfast. Amazing coffee, those italians (croissants are better in France of course, but I think the Italians have the coffee title).
Our flight back to Paris was at 12:35 pm. The Vatican Museum opens 9am so we said F it lets do it, I was going to miss out on my chance to see the Sistine Chapel twice and Jen was going to miss it for the first time. Neither one of us intended to come back to Rome ever again so we said this is our one and only chance and woke up at the crack of dawn to be at the Vatican Museum entrance before it opened. We got there 30 minutes early and there was already a line to forever. Our hearts sank and it started to sprinkle. We got in line and ended up waiting for 2 hours to get in, with frowns on our face. Our time inside had dwindled to nothing because we had to make it to the airport. We still went in, paid a bunch of money. The Sistine chapel is far from the entrance and a labyrinth packed to the gills with tourists awaited us. There is a scene in Jean Luc Goddard's "Bande à Part" where they try to beat some American's record of visiting the Louvre in 9 minutes and 45 seconds and you see them running through the museum. We literally had to do that. We ran past everything in every art history book crying straight to the Sistine Chapel, it was so crowded it took almost 20 minutes. This mean we had 3 minutes to look up at the Sistine Chapel ceiling before we had to run back through the gauntlet to the entrance, claim our luggage, and try to find a taxi to the airport. All this was actually accomplished in the nick of time. We were waiting in the EasyJet line to check our suitcases. When we got up to the counter they said we were 5 minutes too late for check-in. What a punch in the balls. We said we've been waiting in line for 5 minutes and if we knew that policy we would have come up to the front!!! They had no sympathy. Anger, and other emotions washed over us as we slinked over to the ticket counter where we had to pay like $215 each to change our ticket to a flight 6 hours later. We ate and drank some wine and then went over to our gate and drank more wine at a wine bar literally 50 feet from our gate. We got over to the gate and they said sorry you're 4 minutes too late to board the plane, we were calling your names so many times. We couldn't believe it. The ultimate punch in the balls. How did this happen? was it really the wine? maybe, it's totally our fault both times too. Jen has never missed a flight in her life, and today she missed 2 in 1 day. This really stings for someone that is kind of anal. hahahahaha. At this point Jen had reached her limit and she claims she had a mega melt down but it was like 3 tears, which is not a meltdown by any definition. We dragged our knuckles down to wherever they throw luggage from passengers that checked in but somehow never made it onto the actual aircraft. After waiting a long while we got the luggage and dragged our knuckles back up to the ticket office in shame and paid $215 more dollars each to change our tickets, on top of the insult that there were no more flights back to Paris that day so we would have to stay at a hotel near the airport and fly the next morning. I'm sure Jen was thinking this is what I get for hanging out with Jason Raish. I'm sure this is what many have said, including my mom and bob.
We left the airport to get a taxi. A taxi driver was like come on, but then we told him the hotel we were going to and he said oh you have to ask those guys over there, but we were like it's seriously next to the airport and he said ok fine let's go. We ended up driving around for a while as he asked us in Italian where it was and how to get there because he didn't know the address and it wasn't in the gps. We had no idea, just an address. We had the map partially loaded on googlemaps but he just wouldn't look at it. Finally we convinced him to actually stop on the side of the road to look at the map. He finally figured it out and wasn't very happy with us. He was saying that we were supposed to take the other taxis for this area and not him because he is a city of Rome driver and doesn't know the countryside. Finally we arrived at Agrisesto Bed and Breakfast. They have a restaurant that was awesome. We were so strung out from waking up at the crack of dawn to run through the Vatican Museums, missing 2 flights, and this awesomely bad taxi ride that we were laughing at everything and had probably the best time of the whole trip at this random bed and breakfast somewhere outside Rome. Bonus, they have horses.
wild or stray dogs
We finally did make it back to Paris.
Amazing stuff here but today's star is the Truffle gouda. It is absolutely amazing. I even brought some back from Paris. The 3 fish terrine was not that great, although maybe it's just because of the pairing. All this is from Le Bon Marche Epicerie. If you want to be swept off your feet seek out truffle gouda wherever you are
Jen finds these photos with this small cloud above my head super amusing for some reason.
Well we had quite a trip. Thanks for being such a good sport and my final visitor in Paris Jen. See you super soon in New York!
#VIRGANDCHRIS
This is why we came to Rome, for Virginia and Chris's wedding. They got the top penthouse of the Hassler hotel at the top of the Spanish steps, the cream of the crop of Rome. #VIRGANDCHRIS
after the rehearsal dinner it was up to the penthouse terrace, which was huge and all theirs.
Wandering back home
There was lots of alcohol involved of course
The Trevi fountain at night is much more tolerable. There were still about 15 people around it even at 3am but it beats 500 people in the day
Virginia and Chris
They place they had their ceremony at had a packed schedule so there were people from other wedding parties waiting around, like this little street urchin who was just hanging around Virginia for no reason.
Looking like movie stars. Congrats you two. Chris's family is Italian. His Dad once sat in the Pope's chair in the Vatican.
The view from the top of the Hassler was amazing of course
The sun finally went down so it wasn't such a sweaty time. What a reception.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)