European Journal July 11, 2010

We overslept again this morning. Thank God for Chiara's mandatory wake up call at 6:15am! It was just enough time to get ready and have our luggage out at 6:45am. Breakfast was a cold buffet, with cereal, yogurt, whole fruit, hard bread, cold cuts, juice, and coffee. It's very strange to us, but in Europe, all breakfasts we've had have offered cold cuts!

We boarded our bus at 7:30am and embarked on our journey to Rome! The view from our bus was reminiscent of a drive through rural Indiana.. there were many rows of corn and other crops. The Po Plain area we were driving through is a very important agricultural area in Italy We stopped once for a restroom stop, and the women's restrooms had squatting toilets, that were shallow tubs in the ground. We stopped a couple of hours later for lunch at a small town sandwich shop. We had cold ham/salami sandwiches and cokes. The two ladies at the shop were very friendly, and a little neighborhood dog waddled down to snack. She was a pudgy little chihuahua, who Chiara says comes down whenever she sees a tour bus stop for lunch! After lunch, we drove for a couple of hours to Assisi. We had a little over an hour to visit St. Francis Basilica, which was beautiful.

The view from the second level of the basilica looked down over Assisi.

We had some gelato (pistachio and tiramisu) on our way back down. It was a beautiful day... sunny and VERY HOT! 39 degrees Celsius! (96F)

After Assisi, we were back on the bus for a few more hours to arrive at the Hotel Dei Massimi, in Rome.

We were all very excited to be at this hotel for two nights. We arrived at 6pm, and were going to leave at 6:40pm for an excursion called, "Treasures of Rome by Night." We started a "load" of laundry soaking in our bathtub, and headed down to our bus. We took a drive through Rome to the Trevi Fountain, a popular place for tourists... and gypsies!

We had some free time at the Fountain, so we tried some more gelato; stracciatella flavor this time. It was vanilla with chocolate flakes.

After the Trevi Fountain, we walked to the Spanish Steps, another popular landmark in Rome. It was located near the Spanish Embassy. We had a bit of free time at the steps, before walking back to our bus.

We took a short bus ride to Ristorante Mangrovia for dinner. It was a very nice Italian restaurant. Our group sat in a reserved room.

There was unlimited red and white wine (or other drinks), and we had a five course meal! The first course was prosciutto ham, cantaloupe, and bruschetta. The second was a pasta dish with a large penne pasta with creamy mushroom sauce. The third was a lasagna. The fourth was two slices of beef with potatoes and salad, and the fifth was gelato with berries. Everything was absolutely delicious, but there was no way we could eat it all! It was SO much food!

There was also a flutist and guitar player who played for us (for tips, of course!).

The servers were hilarious, and very entertaining. At the end, the waiter gave all of the women a rose and a kiss on the cheek. He had a lot of fun with this, and called one of our Chinese group members "Casanova" because he was sitting with 5 women! Ha!

We left the restaurant and returned to our hotel at 11:30pm! By the time laundry was finished and hung, it was 12:30am! (It looked like a Chinese laundry in our room with our socks and undies hanging everywhere!)