Magic Dinner and One Wish Granted

Dinner was wonderful! Tiff and Mary weren’t as impressed with their pasta as I was by my rabbit (the lil coney was cooked up in butter and garlic!), but we were all pretty pleased with our Tiramisu (and whatever that “Grandma cake” Mary ate was called). The place, which was something along the lines of Hostila Romanesca, was on a plaza off a plaza down the road from the plaza we got off the #40 or #64 bus on, which was also down from the Venecian Plaza. It took us quite a bit of wandering to find. I enjoyed the lively Italian streets with all the open stores and very open bars, but by the time we found the place we were all equally ready to sit down and eat.
No less than 5 street performers did their thing for us. There was an accordion player wandering around the plaza while we circled it in search of our restaurant, a saxophonist and a mime while we waited on our food (separate acts), a guitar player off in the distance while we ate, and the restaurant boss chased off a rather untalented accordion player as we began dessert. A Turkish man tried to sell roses and Polaroids, but he didn’t get past the first table (who did buy some). Our waiter was a nice man who looked disturbingly like Alex, a family friend frb
om back home. He was apparently older than he looked, he’d already worked at several restaurants and was apparently in charge here, but he had that youthful vigor you occasionally hear mentioned as belonging to a proper Italian. Personally, I think it’s something in the wine, but far be it from me to hope for the same effects in my thin American blood.
Anyway, our Alex-like waiter was very good, and when he found out it was Tiffany’s birthday (through Tiffany’s excessive pleas for us not to sing That Song to her), he announced that there was a little thing he used to do in one of his old jobs, and asked if she minded. Of course, we gave the go-ahead for her. He sang quite melodically the traditional “Happy Birthday,” first in English, then in Italian. By the end of it we couldn’t tell who was blushing more, him or Tiffany.
After dinner we planned on a little walk over to the Trevi fountain. When we got off the “Trevi” stop on the bus, we were across the road from the river. We wandered several directions and finally found what I at least thought were a couple of lost looking Italians. It turns out they were lost Belgians, also looking for the Trevi fountain. We tagged along with them since we were without maps and mostly without hope at that point. We crossed the Piazza Navona with it’s gorgeous fountains and many artisans a model for all the dozens upon dozens of fountains now, but it’s one of the more important ones. Then we wandered by the Pantheon, which Tiff hopes to actually get in to today, and finally we found our way down to the Trevi Fountain.
It’s not exactly an easy place to get to, but a couple of hundred people seem to have gathered there before us. At least 20 of the pushy men with flowers, cameras, and various glittery or sparkly things were busy assaulting the crowd. I bought Tiff 5 flowers because making it 5 was his way of making change and Mary got hotel information from our guides, who we had already profusely thanked. They had not only gotten us there, they’d provided pleasant conversation on the walk. Politics were touched on, because they always are, but only to mention that the election was coming up and the European Community was watching closely. Luckily we dodged the specifics. Halloween was a much safer topic, what with it’s current invasion on Europe. She shared the same opinion I’ve heard from many and come to believe for myself: it seems Europe’s getting all the worse parts of the holiday exported to them to serve no purpose other than greed.
Back to Trevi. The fountain was well lit in all its glory, just like I remembered it. Maybe it seemed a little smaller, but this trip has made everything seem smaller.
When I last stood at the Trevi Fountain I made a rather simple wish: That I could be there again not to make another wish someday. The Powers That Be brought me to that point, so I could be a little more ambitious with my second wish. Of course, you can’t know it yet. When it comes true, I’ll tell you.
There’s not too much left to tell. We took a little bit of a wavering path back to the train station, but we made it ok. It was about 12:30 by then, so I pulled pics off the camera and went to sleep.
Now we’re getting ready to line up for the Vatican, which is only going to be open from 8-12 today. The Sistine Chapel is first on Tiffany’s list, so we’re going at things a little backwards from what I’m used to. But it’s further up their priority list, so we’ll go see it first.
CNN’s showing more Iraqi hostages and bombs and Palestinians trying to find a post-Arafat path. I don’t think I’d missed this as much as I thought I had.