11.25.16 - My booty is sensitive

11.25.16

“My booty is sensitive.”

Our last day in Rome and not a single thing planned.  

I was woken up by H1 who shook me awake to tell me that it was raining really hard.  By the time I was out of bed, it had already stopped.  

We thought about breaking our routine and going to the bar that S and I went to 8 years ago, but the girls vetoed that idea because they thought that it meant they couldn’t run around outside and play.  

Our favorite barkeeps were all in attendance and knew our order.  I am currently made of flour from nothing but pasta, pizza, and cornettis since arriving in Rome.  Oh, I may have a slight part of me made of gelato as well.  All of this means that this morning, we got down on warm strawberry cornetti and a pistachio cream cornetti.  

The girls had…

ICE CREAM #1

We have to leave for the airport at 6:30am tomorrow, so S asked what time they open tomorrow - half past five!  We might be getting one last coffee and pastry in Rome tomorrow morning after all.  The girls gave the wonderful server a hug and the cashier who always gave them treats a high five.  

The girls are most into places that let them run, leap, and climb, so today we decided to go to Castel Sant’ Angelo - once Hadrian’s mausoleum, then the Pope’s last ditch fortress when invader’s sacked Rome.  

It stands almost uniquely medieval looking in this city that has a little bit of every architectural style in its major sites.  A huge drum surrounded by an almost star shaped outer wall, it commands an insane view of the city on both sides of the Tiber.  

One direction, St. Peter’s and its square, the other, the Pantheon all the way to the Palatine.  

We of course had to do every set of stairs in the place, pick up cannonballs, run up the circular ancient pathway, and then run down it all at the end of the day.  I am pretty sure we covered the entire castle from top to bottom, maybe missing one boring room with some old furniture in it.  

With the rain, we even got the honor of witnessing a rainbow above Rome, but the girls were way more excited to see the seagull that sat patiently while everyone took a picture of him.  

Big balls.

I spotted a playground in the park that now fills the moat, so we made great haste to get some playtime in.  The playground was pretty small, but the girls managed to come running over to us with an injury at least 7 times within the span of 40 minutes.  I read somewhere that the less a playground has to do the crazier kids get on it, and I would say that it must be a fairly accurate statement.  

Fading a little from all the climbing, we headed out to find a taxi stand.  Waiting across from the Nation Court, taxis were in short supply.  There were 3 of us waiting, and being tourists, we already knew we were at the bottom of the heap.  But when a taxi pulled up and a lady jumped the queue, I thought we were going to get an Italian showdown.  They started going at it, but S diplomatically pointed to the taxi that just pulled up and defused the situation.  Kindly, the lady that had been waiting the longest even said sorry.  Of course one pulled up 1 minute later and we were good to go without fighting anyone.  

Fall actually happens here!

We learned on this trip that we had been ripped off a little bit the other night on the way to Bonci.  The dude said it would be 18e to take us around the Vatican, and today, the guy just ran the meter and it was 8e.  Whoops!

Back to Bonci.  

So worth it.  

We ordered what seemed to them a ridiculous amount of pizza, but they were so stinkin’ nice about it.  This time, we got the spaghetti suppli (normally a fritter stuffed with rice and mozzarella - this one had spaghetti!).  

Damn.

H2 wasn’t into the ‘za today, but she tore into that suppli with gusto.  In surprise she said I didn’t even know they made these!

Worth the pilgrimage.

Everyone had to pee super bad at this point, so we ate rapidly, then S took H1 who was holding her pee in with her hand, to the Metro station to go pee pee.  I cleaned up all the leftover pizza like a human vacuum and then H2 and I followed.  

But we weren’t done.  

We came back for round two.  

S made me order this time because it was too embarrassing to get so much pizza.  You think it’s easy for a giant man who everyone already thinks eats a lot to order another 5kg of pizza?  I will tell you from experience it is not!

We ordered three more spaghetti suppli in addition, but when my pizza was handed to me by a tiny lady with the words of love, here you go big boy! there were no suppli to be found.  We headed back to the counter and the guy who helped us earlier grabbed us three from the case, then went to the back and got us three more.  We were confused and told him we only ordered and paid for three, but he said they are too good with a smile and packed them up for us.  

Consistently in Italy, we have been greeted with kindness.  It has been an overall warm experience for not only the girls, but for us too.  Even the guy who got me for 10e on a cab fare did it with laughs and a smile.  

A cab back to the apartment with an arm load of Bonci and then a few hours of quiet as we got our stuff together and let H2 nap.  H1 has not stopped bouncing around the apartment and talking since we got home over 2 hours ago.  This kid has some serious spunk.  

Currently, we are waiting for our rental contact to come see if we broke this place and give us back our security deposit.  Then it is back to Da Teo for our last dinner in Italy.  

Oh Bonchi!  You made this kid so happy

...

Well, sometimes things don’t go as planned.  

Our apartment contact was supposed to come in the late afternoon.  I think in any country, 7:30pm is the evening.  

I have our security deposit in my hand, so that is all that matters.  

At Da Teo, there were open tables but many reservations, and it seems like if you reserve a table here, it is yours all night.  So if you have a reservation at 10pm, they hold that thing from 8pm when they open.  Maybe not the most profitable system, but a system that allows people to sit and enjoy their meal for as long as they’d like.  Most dinners have been pushing 1.5-2 hours here, so I guess it works.  

The girls were running around going bonkers in the little piazza, and when H1 found out we weren’t going to get to eat there, she was crushed.  She had been telling me she was getting the lamb and the boar and the regular (cacio e pepe) pasta.  She said I could share with her.  

We had passed a place walking in that had a duck sitting on a swing as its logo, so we figured that was the one.  It was on a really quiet street with not much tourist traffic and it didn’t have a picture menu or a set tourist plate.  

Turned out our intuition was solid and the place was good.  H1 took down a massive amount of bread and foccacia, as well as salami, then she took down a big serving of rigatoni al carbonara.  H2 got down on some amatriciana.  

It was a nice end to the trip with no cajoling children to eat and no tears over the food looking weird.  The girls were giggling up a storm, especially when…

KEY MOMENT: H1 said: I have to go to the bathroom (she just went). My booty is sensitive.  I have to scoot to the edge of my chair to plug it.  

This set off an explosion of laughter as H1 writhed in her seat with her variation on the pee pee dance.  

The only downside of the night was that by the time we got back to our apartment, the gelateria was closed.  I can’t figure out why because the street was wild with bar and restaurant traffic, but I guess money can’t beat an early bedtime - a sentiment I fully support.  

I’m wrapping this up right before we catch our ride to the airport.  We’ve got about 15 or so hours of travel today.  I learned a little bit from last trip, and this time our connection is on the front end of our journey.  That way after the long flight, we are home and not just close enough to home to debate if we are going to rent a car and drive because we are so tired of waiting and flying.  

Arrivederci!

Rocking that high waisted style "like grandma"