Rome and Rain!

7 Ottobre
Ciao a tutti. I made a whirlwind trip to Rome to visit the Sullivans who arrived from KC. What a 24 hours! I left Nascondiglio di Bacco at 6:50, stopped at 2 bancomats to find one working and hightailed it to the eternal city. I arrived at the city limits in 2 hours and then fought an hour of traffic to reach my hotel "Degli Aranci" which I highly recommend. I then tried to find Brad and Sandy's hotel which took 2 hours-30 minutes in a tram and 90 minutes on foot. Their hotel was off my map and the 10 people I asked along the way had never heard of the Hotel Princess or the street on which it was located. Finally, I called Raffaele back at the B&B who used google to give me directions and I arrived hot and sweaty (it was 80 degrees and 75% humidity) and convinced that maybe I WAS still in pretty good shape. Brad, Sandy and Mary having benefited by my experience which taught me where the metro stops were, followed their tour guide, me, to the Trevi Fountain, lunch at Pisciapiano, the Pantheon, gelato at San Crispino which was good but not worth the price and coffee at San Eustachio (worth the price). Then we went on to the Forums and saw the Colliseum from the outside, and the church called Santa Maria Maggiore before taking a break and meeting again for dinner at La Carbonara whcih my friend Jasper had remembered visiting with his father. On that leg of our tour, we saw the Spanish Steps and all the hot shopping spots, Piazza Novana and the into Campo dei Fiori.
On the way home I got stopped for the 1st time by the caribinieri or local police for failing to have a license plate on the front of the z4. I smiled and explained I was american and my state of KS didn't require one, so they smiled and waved me on my way. That slowed my return to Offida a bit so that the return trip took 2 hrs and 50 minutes, but all the way with the top down.
When i returned to N. di Bacco I found we had 2 rooms of US newlyweds, so I really had fun practicing my English. I had a tasting of Pecorino cheeses and wines for one couple and spent a lot of time with both couples at breakfast.
An amazing thing occurred last night in that it actually rained a bunch and I mean 2.5 inches and not our normal sprinkle. That was our 1st really good rain since May in what is the driest year on record for this region. Of course as Murphy's Law would dictate, it is not a great time for us as the deep plowing was not finished and will have to be postponed perhaps until next year..... but... the rain is really more important! I took a couple of fotos of our wet field partially plowed or ploughed for my friends in England and a bucket showing our rainfall amounts thus far. The other pix are of the Pantheon and inside you see Sandy, Mary and Brad.
Quite exciting stuff! More excitement tomorrow, however when the puppy will arrive! Stay tuned.
dds