Monday, October 22nd, 2007
Katie and her Mum arrived around noon, after parting ways from our dear cooking school friends. We met up with Muriel and Eric, the Barnett’s old friends from Paris, France. We toured Rome for two days together, and Muriel and Eric were our tour guides through the French Embassy and the numerous ruins of Rome.
On day 71, Dermot realized his flight to Rome was at 12:35, not 2:35. After high tailing to the airport, he had plenty of time and anxiously waited to board his flight to Italy. After 2.5 hours with a crying baby behind him and 1.5 hours to get a bus into Rome. And after 240 hours of exile, Katie and Dermot (or as the cooking school gang called him “Dermotino”) arrived, we all went to dinner at local restaurant recommended by our restaurant, where after 25 minutes of waiting, we got service. They made up for it by giving the ladies roses and men shots of grappa.
We woke up on 10/23 to no hot water (got to love 4 star hotels), so we ironically went to roman baths, and received a fantastic tour of many Roman gardens, Coliseum, Pantheon, fountains, and other ‘not finished’ sites as Eric would say, with Muriel and Eric. We went to “Bud” recommended restaurant (Mom’s friend who used to live in Rome), Ristorante Vecchia Roma, where we had a delicious lunch, expected a tip, but where they do not substitute sauces.
However the highlight was accidentally being at the right place at the right time… where this gentleman (pictured) arrived with about 10 body guards, and Katie asked a local ‘carbonaria’ who it was, she said something quick in Italian… then in English said “White House of Italy.”
After Muriel and Eric had to catch their flight, Mom, Dermot and Katie hung out in our hotel room, had a few wedding chats (!!) Katie and Dermot went out for a European dinner at 10:30pm to Trattoria “al Venezia” for pizza and wine. Then we went to make a wish at Trevi Fountain, since Katie’s wish to return with the love of her life was granted when she visited in 2001.
We woke up early Wednesday, 10/24 to visit the Villa Borghese (via the Metro). Since Muriel was gone, Katie took over tour guide responsibilities and lead us around Rome for the day. While the Villa Borghese was incredible, Mom and Katie felt bad that this was the 1,450 villa we had seen, and we heard the story about Katie’s parents who visited Rome on their 1st wedding anniversary…where Mr. Barnett said “I don’t want to see one more beautiful thing.” So, needless to say, we cruised through the 3 floors of the huge Villa Borghese and made a direct route to the Vadican.
Luckily, we opted out of the tour and went to St. Peter’s Basilica, where we got to see and be blessed by the pope! We felt very lucky and like good Catholics, as the Pope welcomed the thousands of people in the crowd. After this holiest of activities, we decided to do a ‘quick’ 3 hours tour of the Pope’s crib, the Vadican. As it was Dermot’s first visit, Mom and Katie had to nudge him along, as you could spend days and days looking at all of the incredible artifacts, art work and history of this independent state. (which counts as another country, thank you very much BK!) With perfect timing, we had just enough time to visit the Sistine Chapel to see Michaelangelo’s most famous fresco and to learn the history of this infamous chapel.After our whirlwind visit to Rome, Mom, Dermot and Katie caught a flight on Croatian Airlines to Dubrovnik, Croatia. We were happy to have an international flight where they still served food and drinks (unlike many US airlines).
After our quick one hour jump across the Adriatic Sea, we arrived into Dubrovnik and took the local bus to the Hilton Imperial. Not to mention the plesant change from the euro, the kuna is much stronger against the dollar, and Katie and Dermot’s Gold Hilton Status gave us a bigger room and access to unlimited snacks and drinks in the executive lounge. Now this is what we call 5 star! Dermot was our Dubrovnik tour guide and we went to have a lovely light dinner in the old city walls at Proto.