Comedia del Roma...

Okay there have been some funny moments in the last two days. I think it best to start with the current and work our way backwards as our brains are fried. What day is this??? is the question of the day.

So on the train, we are talking with the younger brainy hunk that was helping us make our plans and comparing the age and architecture of Italy vs. US. HE notes that his dad chuckled when they were in Maryland once and someone pointed out an "OLD" house and it was only 200 years old. Since they live in a place that has history before Christ this is almost obsurd to them. So Anne notes "yes, our country is a baby." and Andrea then states "but a BIG baby." So we told him we MUST quote him on this as it is applicable in many other areas than architecture.

Next, we finally found out about the blasted birds from the night clerk at the Mimosa hotel. He has limited English and it was late but given that he quickly insisted that we were listening to Garbinos, which are a sea bird. He was sure of this after Anne, yet again, squawked like something between a mcaw and a howler monkey. We also noted that these birds have many renditions to their night noises, all of which require sleeping aids to ignore.

There is a mystery water flow from the roof above our room at the Mimosa. It starts at sun down and goes away at daylight. This is not a sound Anne knows apparently, because she wasn't as quick to ask about this one. So for now, we are just hoping it was someone doing their laundry??? but again, required some sleep aids.

Ledian the desk clerk is sure to need a chiropractor tomorrow as he has now hauled our very big, very American luggage once up and once down the stairs as we left. I am sure these bags, the big bags over our shoulders with multiple pouches and map in hand (probably our very bad italian too) is a dead ringer for "tourista Americano."
We did decide to ask a lovely group of waitstaff at a "takeaway" eating place why they immediately talked to us in English? Anne asked the lady at the cash register "Do we really just LOOK American?" and the lady almost broke her neck and her eyebrows almost flew off of her head as she nodded yes and raised her brows vehemently. Nuff said...we're total Gringos here.

So today after the Vatican (which by the way deserves its own blog but we are hungry and are trying to wrap this up to go eat) we go to eat at a tourist trap right outside, we sat to eat a bite and rest our feet. The waiter asked us where we were from in decent English. Anne says "Houston" and he very tenderly said "I love Houston. It gave me back my life" and then he pointed to the scar on his head where he had cancer removed. IT was very sweet to hear this as until now we had been accused of having slot machines and being cowboys and of course home of our President. Since none of those items give us the fuzzies, this guy really was a treat.

Enough side bar chat for now. We have to fill our stomachs and venture out a bit from the hotel before calling it a day. (Lisa)