Day 3 - Rome cont.

After renting the boat for 20 minutes, we made our way back to the bike rental place to return the Thing.

Now we wanted to make our way back to the Spanish Steps. This required a walk across the massive park. Just before the Spanish Steps, and right outside the park, we stopped at a small restaurant that sat on the side of the hill looking down onto Rome. It was very nice and quiet. In the center of the seating area, they had a 10 by 2 ft pool that was filled with water, rocks and turtles. Jacob thought it was really neat and it took all he had to keep from keeping his fingers out of it. We ordered a bottle of red wine and an appetizer plate. There were shrimp, grilled peppers, mushrooms, sliced oranges, tomatoes, and a variety of other vegetables. It was probably the best snack we have had so far. There was a couple two tables away that just couldn't keep their hands off of each other. Too bad it was behind me. Ed and Amy had the best view and they kept saying, "Ohh, look at that, hot stuff". Ed though that it might be someone having an affair, because it was an older man and a younger woman.

After about an hour or so of relaxing, Jacob and Ed both made phone calls back to the US, and we then made our way back to the Spanish Steps. From there, we walked down the most fashionable street in Rome, the Via del Corso. There were lots of people window shopping and just walking about. Ed bought a bow tie at one of the most fashionable tie shops.

One thing I noticed about about Rome on this day was that there were a lot of Clement's written on many of the buildings and monuments. We guessed that they must of been built during the time when a Pope was a Clement. Half way up the Spanish Steps, there is a very large plaque with Clemente written on it (as well as some other italian words that I didn't know). My last name is practically written all over the city. Even in the Borgese gallery there was a bust of a Pope Clement. Pretty cool eh?

Anyway, back to day 3....

I just remembered about this. On our way to the park and the Borgese Gallery, someone waved us down, mainly Ed. The guy apparently wanted directions. An italian couple was passing by exactly as this was happening and laughed, asking if we were american. They thought it was funny that anyone would be would be asking an american for directions. The guy waved Ed almost into the car. We were not exactly sure what was going on. The guy was apparently french, and also asked for some money as well as directions. Ed pointed the guy in the direction of the French Embassy and said that they would be able to help him. The frenchman then motioned for Anne to come over to the car. He also waved her almost into the automobile. It looked as though the guy was going to give Ed and Anne something for helping him, but he started selling some 900 euro jacket for 40-50 euro. Right when that started Ed and Anne backed away from the car and the guy sped off. Thinking about it later, some tourist keep their money and passports hanging around their neck. I believe that the frenchman expected one of these two americans to have their money hanging around the neck and was wanting to take off with it. Scary if you think about it.


We then walked thru the Pantheon area and checked out a few more tie shops.... And then we walked some more, big surprise huh? We ended up in the Piazza Navoa for dinner. There was quite a showing going on in the square. Armani was putting on a fashion show and had half the square closed off with a stage and several hundred chairs. There were security guards everywhere. We couldn't really see the stage from where we were, but we could see all of the behind the scenes work going on. We could easily point out who had tickets for the show. Every so often, a couple would walk by dressed in their finest. At first we thought that they might be the models, but after dinner, we saw that most every one we saw was sitting in the audience. Amy almost got into a fist fight with the waiter because he said that service was not included. After checking with the cashier, we found out that he was lying. It was kind of reminiscent of our movie experience (Christine knows what we are talking about, except with no police!).

Oh yeah, we got Gelato... Jacob gets at least 3 cones a day..

After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel for a deserved nights sleep.

SPQR