Rome
SATURDAY, 7/17/04: 8:38PM: WHAT A DAY THIS HAS BEEN! But to go back to yesterday: car at 4:01, airport at 4:40. The dispatcher told him to go to 14th and 7th in BROOKLYN and got to Ken's at 3:45. But he made great speed after that! To Alitalia desk at 5:03 to find I have no window seat, so I hassle and get 38L---WAY in back. Wait with Ken to try for RETURN flight seat-reservation, they say they can't do that. We go to the Brooklyn Beer Garden and he has two Cosmos after his Long Island Iced Tea tastes too much like Cock (HAVE to leave that typo: Coke), and I get a Peach-A-Low which is tasty and gives a nice buzz, and I order a kielbasa and chips "and a Great Pickle" which means I don't have to have dinner on the plane and can get some sleep. To gate 10 at 6:25, which is after midnight in Roma, only 9 hours to go, seemingly a clear sky but the clouds come in after we take off. Load at 6:35 and I do the USA Today puzzle and stare listlessly out the window while the black couple to my left talk lovingly, and take off at 7:37, flight time announcd on the map as 7:23. Bumpy! Take all 11 pills at 8:27. Have orange juice and tonic and fruit and pee at 9:35 when I can't sleep, hoping for sleep, but no sleep.
SUNDAY, 7/18/04: At 10:54PM change my watch to 4:54AM. 3:52 to destination, almost half at 5:06AM. Two bright pairs of red-white flashing lights below at 5:20, too SLOW for planes, probably SHIPS, but with HUGE outriggers for lights, so bright, and TWO of them. 7:19 French farmland visible through thick clouds at last. I think they NEVER put "seat belt" sign off! ALL clouds below. SAD! Saw; only a tiny bit of Brest. 7:52 at LAST a view, and of COURSE they then serve breakfast, awful chesse and ham quarter-sandwich and a jelly croissant, with orange juice and water. Seacoast towns WEST of Nice, and then clear Ligurian sea and Roll 1: #1 of a town north of Ostia at 8:43AM. #2 pines and plane-shadow at 8:51, and land at 8:52AM. 26°C = 78°F. Stop at 8:57 and off at 9:06. Peeing in plane. Meet Arliss from Beard on the passport-check line and she tells of good cheap Abruzzi de Montalcino, manufactured by Dario D'Angelo, for $6.95 a magnum. To bus with charming Danielle who sees Ken's Go Ahead tag on his carryon at 9:35, and drive a long way to TINY room in Villa Patrizi at 10:15, and we'll have a drink in the breakfast room at 1:30. Unpack, room actually working, to 10:55 and wander looking for a bar that's not there, and then at 11:13 Ken returns to sidewalk to say maid will bring him coffee and me a lemonade to the table outside. We talk about the plans for the trip, I spill my drink a bit, he gets a lemonade too, and we leave at 11:52 to St. Mary of Angels after Terminal lunch (me tuna and fresh quarter-pineapple and back at 1:29 after confusing "see and price and pay and ask and get" schedule at Terminal Cafe. To video church, back in heat to 1:29 when Ken stays in john so I'm down and drink juice and water and have a croissant while no one will sit at our table and she talks about plans (forgot my "I'm an American" getting me a Cafe Americano from the poor cashier at the Terminal, but Ken can trade it in for an iced tea, OK). Talk: 654 Vatican stamps for postcards, breakfast 7-10, and 10-12% restaurant tip. Local guide gets E1-2. Meeting 1:45-2:30, Ken schedules us a Tivoli tour, he tries to find out about concerts, and I shit and wash to 2:48, TIRED! Debate taking a nap, but decide that just wouldn't work. Leave at 3:04, walk to pass Africa cafe which we take a card for dinner from, then to the Museum in the Massimo Castel after getting confused with the baths and the National Museum Romano. At 4:16 I take pictures 6-12 of Augustus's second wife, Livia's, garden room. 1st Century BC, discovered in 1980s. Take through #21 to 5:13, seeing some good some poor stuff in new museum, good guide for mosaics on the third floor, which is FOUR flghts after basement, ground, 0, and 1 and 2, then buy a book of the museum for 9.5E and a book about Rome for 9.5E and to Africa for dinner until 8, too early to sleep, and ask for a bar, and get down the OTHER way and walk til we see a cute guy talking with his gal in a pergola outside, and in to see a dynamite-cute waiter where I have an Amaro Montenegro and Ken a Proseco, and we talk drunkenly, he has a second, and then back to hotel at 8:30 and he chats with guests and with hotel clerk, and I get to room and get this and take it outside in the waning light, starting at 8:38 and ending now at 9:10PM, tired enough to HOPEFULLY get about 10 hours sleep and get up at 7AM for breakfast and ready for our first REAL day in Rome! Lots of planes, dogs barking, and mosquitos, and my feet DO stink: THANK GOODNESS I brought FOUR extra pairs of socks! Teeth really FOUL, and I'm drinking WATER like there's no sating my thirst. Bed 9:25 and seem to get IMMEDIATELY to sleep.
MONDAY, 7/19/04: 2:18AM: Wake from a dream (see DREAMS-61) at 2:05 ABSOLUTELY FREEZING, shivering, cold shoulders, and shudder under a pulled-up overquilt until it's clear I need to pee, so I go into the john, put a towel around my shoulders, and have the remarkable-that-it-took-so-long revelation that it would be best to record ALL dreams in File 8, so that I wouldn't have to print them TWICE when I transcribe this! Start the dream at 2:20AM, finishing at 2:27, having gotten Ken to agree to turn the intensity from III to II, leaving the fine-tuning knob on highest. He insists he's not under two blankets, that he's actually comfortable, just using one blanket between his legs to help his back as the doctor has recommended, but he agrees to let me put it down because I'm just too cold. Let's hope it's still OK with him. Also fear that I'm on some ill-conceived inner time (it's 8:30PM New York time, so maybe I don't feel like going to sleep yet?) that won't let me GET back to sleep. Got to try. 3:58AM: Tried to start Actualism two or even three times to get to sleep, but after about an hour and a half of trying, and SO many thoughts going through my head, I told myself "If it's before 4AM, I'll get up and write about my "Light Night (as opposed to Dark Night) of the Soul," and looked at my watch at 3:55AM, obviously a skin-of-the-teeth good omen. How MANY thoughts participated: 1) With the pink, I thought of my relative lovelessness, heightened by my fear-of-flying obsessions just before this trip, and resolved to take many actions: a) phone Vicki after, say, a month if she doesn't phone me, to renew our friendship; b) express more interest in Carolyn to renew OUR loving relationship; c) probably join Ken on his excursion to Pompeii rather than tackling the city on my own, and it WOULD be interesting to be with our group at least ONCE; d) buy Rome gifts for Spartacus and Bob Lambiase for their help with the Times and mail while I'm away, e) sift through John and we seem to be OK: he waters me, I water him, he seems content with us. 2) Write a letter to Bill Hyde's caretaker (maybe phoning Ray Reyes to find out about him/her), saying that I'd be a willing purchaser of his stamp collection if it hasn't already vanished, since I'm concerned about the final disposition of MINE---and connected with that renew my resolution to get MY collection appraised. 3) Get a more comfortable relation with the Internet, even if it means a monthly fee to Juno for no pop-up ads and a greater feeling of freedom and competence when I DO go on-line---also connected with a renewed thought, right now at 4:05AM as I sit on the throne in Rome and type, that I really have to register, or whatever, my Dell, get rid of the virus-check as long as I have no chances of viruses (though I guess I should keep it, since I MAY be transferring di(yeah, dikettes, little dykes)skettes from my PC to my Dell. 4) Total my Keogh/Ira/CD/investment moneys toward making a new, official, will. 5) Maybe buy new Odor-Eaters to assuage Ken's assaulted sense of smell that I may be losing. 6) Open discussions with Shelley about aging, Alzheimer's, and my obsessions before trips. 7) Reorganize my shelves, ala Sherryl (who'll always remain the pain she is without my doing anything about it), to feature my wonderful BOOKS from foreign places and do away with the faceless "files" that don't "colorify" my apartment. 8) Follow up my investigation of my possible growing Alzheimer's. 9) Make a dental appointment. 10) Continue to have John transcribe old science articles from my filing cabinet. 11) Continue to organize my materials for an eventual web-site. 12) Exercise more delightful freedom in NYC with museums, shopping at Strand and for a GameBoy, gardens, Audience Extras---and WHAT was that newer more-Broadway play-offering program that someone had? 13) Even thoughts of Jean-Pierre came back: I remain the tough-love lover: if HE comes to ME, I can take care of him IF it would work to our mutual advantage, but nothing more than that, though he can remain a pleasant possible-future fantasy-companion if he DOES make a credible advance beyond mere Internet messages. 14) There must have been others, but I search my mental files (having at last come up with the forgotten "carpaccio" for raw beef, missing since dinner last night) and had NOT included Mildred in my reinstatement plans, and will leave Charles to his own devices with Bill. NOW maybe, at 4:15AM, I can try to get back to sleep? Pee for a third time tonight (twice, once before and once after the previous dream typing) and remind myself of the Chin appointment next week to finalize THAT set of tests and queries about my sexuality, having concluded earlier this evening that the love of SUPPORTIVE WOMEN may become even as important as any new or renewed-old sexual relationship with men. To bed!! 6:19AM: Simply can't RESIST: Wake at 6:11AM with a SECOND dream (see File 8), after remembering two things I'd FORGOTTEN from previous list: 15) Another set of self-aggrandizing thoughts: open myself MORE AND MORE to outside "appreciation" by "letting" more and more flow into my mind, "coming more fully into contact with those aliens who have tuned into my mind for more KNOWLEDGE of our world, with NO malice intended," and I even use the White Light to reveal essentially NO evil forces about my feeling of communicating and expanding MYSELF by being more open. Then 16) the thoughts of being SAFER in Rome by a) leaving my wallet in the safe and taking only two credit cards and money, and b) leaving my A&K bag home and draping my two cameras around my neck (at my heart, in front, best guarded where my cash is also in my breast pocket, leaving only spare film and tape in my pockets for possible picking. THEN do more Actualism, despairing EVER sleeping, then waking with DREAM. Finish that at 6:30AM and feel good to have gotten THESE off my mind, ready for bed (now that it's light enough outside to leave the bathroom light off; Ken had been in AGAIN, leaving door much more open than I'd left it earlier, and I finish this now at 6:32 and return to bed, not tired NOW but fearing I'll be dead by the time we have our restaurant-dinner tonight, having debated suggesting to Ken (which I still might do) that we take the "historical tour" of Rome with the group and let the afternoon take care of the Vatican WITH the group, but think he's not going to agree. 9:48AM: Wake from another dream and Ken is looking at his watch and getting up, and I find it's 9:48AM and can hardly believe it! Type to that WORD and down to breakfast at 9:55 to 10:15, raw-tasting luncheon meat, cheese, yogurt, good thick hot chocolate, and cherry-jam infused yogurt, with a glass of water for my pills. Feel just AWFUL: unfunctional, tired, unthinking. Debate lying back down when we get back to room, but then pick this up and transcribe dream 3. Ken shits and blows his nose in the bathroom as I come up to date at 10:23AM, undressing for a shower. 10:37AM: Get two cards and cash out of wallet and put wallet in safe. Change socks, pee while Ken showers, and put two cameras and binox into bag that I reluctantly have to take anyway, but will carry close to my chest throughout. Blood on pillow from my head? Undress to shower when he gets out and I finish this at 10:40AM, still groggy from an ill-timed wakeup after roughly possibly as much as NINE hours sleep. Start shower at 10:44AM. Leave hotel at 11AM and search streets for a tobacconist from which to buy six tram tickets each for 12 euros, then back to the hotel for Ken to verify that we catch the tram to the end to Risorgimento, rather than Vatican, which they'd led him to expect the tram-stop to be, another "slip" for which the Italians are becoming noted, like the clerk later saying he'll phone for a taxi, but not phoning until I ask if it would drive into the courtyard, and the same guy saying he'd open our room to get the key that Ken locked inside, but that wasn't done until we returned and some other clerk had to open the door for us. Onto tram at 11:20 and long ride through a palatial part of the city, with enormous residences, consulates, and lots of re-being-done buildings, like for the Saudi Arabian Consulate. Ken reads that the Vatican Museums close at 3:30, but when the sign says that ENTRANCE is accepted until 3:20, it must close later, and it does at 4:45. Bus arrives at Risorgimento at 11:55 and I walk to HEAD of line to see HUGE crowds, but it goes fast and the second half is in the shade and I join Ken at 12:04 and take notes, and to TICKET line at 12:22 and in at 12:25. #23 Carlo Crivelli at 12:56. #24 St. Sebastian at 1:16, enormous views, starting in Pinacoteca, #26 Pierino da Vinci at 1:36, end of Pinocoteca and Roll 1 of film to #37 in Octagonal Court at 2:02PM, and put in roll 2. Lots of videos, too, the total being 26 minutes by the end of the day, so I'm glad I brought a second reel, new battery holding up very well. CROWDS and heat and tours and kids. Belvedere torso at 2:20. LONG walk to Sistine Chapel, through ALL the galleries still at 2:55. Pee and take THIRTY-SIX gulps of water at 3:11 with great relief, thankfully awake after the horrible breakfast funk, and still reasonably energetic. Long balcony-walk at 2:55. Then Borgia apartments with modern art down lots of stairs, Sistine Chapel 3:25-3:45 with couple from tour and then Vatican Library and ceilings and rooms and vaults, #15 of mosaic table at 3:59. #16 Ken at end of hall at 4:01. We stop at gelateria across the street from exit for lovely lemon ice and good fruit for 8E for which I pay 19 in all, from 4:20-4:50. Onto LINE for St. Peters at 5:02, SECOND line opens at 5:13 and lets us in. Gape at everything and pay 5E for Treasury at 5:45, copes and chalices and candlesticks and an enormous bronze tomb-top with stairs going up for an overview. This is to 6PM, out at 6:05, church open til 7, to tram stop at 6:15, on tram at 6:30, sit til 6:37 and back to hotel at 7:20. Ask for cab but nothing happens til I ask him and he calls at 7:28, when it comes at 7:32. To Agata and Romeo at 7:38, still essentially first, to silk tablecloth and napkins and a 135E tasting with wines, endlessly poured, getting very soused: gazpacho, tomato puree with jelly, tomato with anchovy, tomato foam, great frozen tomato ice, white Muller-Thurgau, potato/caviar soup, guinea hen breast with paté, cheese and dessert, and Romeo is wine steward and gives us a book when I ask about his medal. Leave 10:55, cheap ride back for 12, Ken goes to talk with folks, I take notes to 11:12, TOTALLY plotzed, and undress and to bed at 11:20.
TUESDAY, 7/20/04: Wake 2:30, then at 4AM and pee, hung over and take two aspirin and melitonon and get right back to sleep, STILL sleepy on waking at 8:11 and lying until noted on DREAMS-62. Shower, type to 9:17, and dress for breakfast to 9:48AM. Type this after breakfast to 9:54 and leave for walk to Villa Giulia. Out at 10:05, deciding to take tram at 10:10-10:25, walk more to 10:32, and see Etruscan pottery and jewelry, some great modern and Renaissance jewelry, and more pots than I'd care to look at. This is all on the top floor to 12, then down to all the 6-4th Century BC towns with even more inferior crafts, and I'm beginning to think yesterday was ridiculous with our passing dozens of masterpieces on the way to the Sistine Chapel, and here I'm trying to concentrate on vastly inferior objets. Then find the restored Apollo of Veia and the Etruscan couple on their tomb to 1:10, then to cafeteria for tomato-cheese heated half-sandwich and Ken's ham and cheese and my peach Nestea and his porter for a ridiculous 15.5E because we're being served at a TABLE, and I'm in for an apple tart for 1.3E that I eat in the garden. Then KEN gets his dessert and eats it outside when I wait at 1:37. Leave Villa Giulia at 1:49. Sit at computer at the Villa Borghese because they won't change our 3PM reservation to 2:30 from 2:10-2:35, buy 13E guide, wait for 3PM entry which goes through incredibly decorated rooms as well as SIX Carravagios in a room, a good lot of Bernini sculptures, a ceiling loaded with nude men caressing their ceilings up, one screaming baby, some cute guys, and incredible room after room, impossible to think of living there. Finish at 4:41, leave at 4:54, and take #22 of Temple of Esclapius at 5:13 in our walk across the park to the Museum of Modern Art. Get there at 5:21, it's 17E for the two of us, and there's Van Gogh's "Arlesienne" and Klimt and De Chirico and lots and lots of Italians, even with half the place closed. Leave at 6:35, exhausted, tram at 6:55, off at 7:15 at Il Mondo for mediocre Chinese food and lots of beer and walk back to hotel at 8:20, when Ken can't find his prescription antibiotics. They told Daniela I wanted to talk to her (rather than tell her I wanted the Pompeii trip, as I'd asked) so I dial on THEIR phone when I can't get mine to work, and I'm through with that at 8:25, having drunk lots of water, taken my pills, and get to type this by 8:55, almost dark enough to get to sleep and hope to catch up on my rest at last. Bed at 9:05, Ken still up, but even with the light on I go to sleep almost immediately, though I seem to remember the lights being put out soon after that.
WEDNESDAY, 7/21/04: Wake to look at my watch at 12:48AM, but don't get up to record a brief dream (see DREAMS-62). Then wake at 4:15 with my science-fiction-series dream (see DREAMS-62), and take the laptop to the john and pee, feeling quite good: not over-tired, not drunk, just wanting some few more hours sleep, finishing typing at 4:33AM. Want a drink of water and again experience (as in every shower so far) the awful "delay in getting to the right temperature" of the water from these pipes, as if there's an ENORMOUS storage tank somewhere that instantly attains the wrong temperature of water that takes an AGE to run out: as the cold-water tap seemed to run slowly HOTTER as the warm reservoir was slowly exhausted to permit even a BIT of the deliciously cold water which has at times come from the cold-water tap---eventually. THAT took to 4:37AM, now hoping to expand my current 7-hour sleep to at LEAST 8 or 9 hours. 7:25AM: Lay comfortably for at least an hour, thinking about the trip and what I'll do when I get back home, but then decide I've GOT to go back to sleep so I start a LONG, HARD, INTENSE Actualism session and after a LONG time get back to sleep and wake at 7:21AM with an INCREDIBLY NONSENSICAL dream (see File 8). Finish typing at 7:34AM and now try to shit and take a shower and RELAX, looking at the Rome book to see what we're NOT seeing, and have an early brekfast for a change. Brush teeth and bring out tooth stuff for TV when Ken's in the john showering at 7:57AM. Brush teeth THOROUGHLY (rubber tip keeps coming off!) to 8:19AM, watching CNN with UN saying Israel take down wall, Botox OK for excessive underarm perspiration, and Nader's running might HURT Bush by getting disgruntled REPUBLICAN votes if Democrats can avoid voting for Nader, and P. Diddy is starting a voting-registration campaign, and Berger's "holding back 9/11 data" comes only to hurt election of Kerry---all politics as usual. Ken still in bathroom at 8:21. Breakfast 8:35-9:03: Half-banana, muesli and corn flakes, two glasses of orange juice, three slices of cheese (and one in my pocket because I took too much), and a too-doughy donut, with the same hot chocolate. Ken's allergic sinusitis, as he calls it, is operating full blast---he thinks it's because of age, had thought it was only New York, and I resist saying it's all in his head. Haha. Ready to leave at 9:05. [Typing at 7:18AM Thursday:] Leave 9:13. To metro 9:20, on at 9:28, crowded. Four stops, only fans, crowded, though Ken manages to push for a seat, which no one lets go graciously. Announcements in ENGLISH and Italian. Off at 9:32. To St. Peters in Chains after trying various wrong ways and finally asking a guide, #21 Moses at 9:48. Video to 10:08. Wander, lost, lots of park, and FINALLY find entry to Domus Aurea at 10:28. They won't let us in before, so I look through a guidebook until 11AM and #22 plan of enormous palace, the octagonal room the CENTER of four equal quadrants, so they've uncovered only 1/4 of it. It was to be 400 meters on a side, though no one knows how much of it was actually completed. Though much was painted, which would have been the last thing done. Filled in for the baths built on top, then someone FELL THROUGH and Renaissance painters would lower themselves on ropes with candles to look at the "Grotesque" (meaning like a grotto) paintings. #23 found on site at 11:34. #26 9th Century well in Laterano---having been to St. Clemente 12:05-12:30, Ken saying we have to get in before the 12th Century, meaning 12:30. Down to the Mithra temple for a photo, and look at them restoring old frescoes. Leave Laterano at 1:28. Try going to a hotel for lunch in air conditioning, but they don't have a restaurant and SEEM to recommend a place where Ken does NOT go, but after walking two excruciating blocks in blazing heat with no chance of shade, we come across Le Tempio d'Iside and go inside for an expensive menu, and when they don't have the smoked swordfish I end up with (a word that took me two days to think of) seviche, which is VERY good, while Ken has a Prosecco and a Mixed Salad and I order the Fruit Bosco but they only have a strange bunch of tiny grapes and she suggests the peach-ice-stuffed peaches, and I'm sorry when I said I wanted ONLY peaches when she comes over with FOUR halves of it. Have TWO bottles of tasty sparkling Nepi water and get out at 2:40 and down those awful blocks again to go practically around the Colisseum to get to a side entrance to the Palatino at 3:20 which our card gets us in for FREE, rather than 10E. Walk up the steep hill, see brick-walled ruins and few tourists, but finally at the top look over from the Domus Augustus to the Circus Maximus and rushing cars, and to a GREAT overlook, once for the Vatican and once for the Forum, and down lots of stairs to the regular place, looking at the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine. #27 the BAD side of the Colisseum at 3:26. #29 St. Peters at 3:37, and take to #34 from the Palatine hill down over the Roman Forum to 3:58. Roll 3 started with three architectures at 4:25. #4 top of Castor and Pollux temple-columns at 4:35. Hot and tired and go around side for Caesar's Forum, then see the steps to the top of the Altar of the Nation and coax Ken to go up with me to take pictures from the top until 5:01, last of Trajan's Column, which he refuses to go down to see, insisting on the Colisseum, and #9 legs on left of tree at 5:05. Onto Colosseum LINE at 5:14 until Ken decides we HAVE tickets and goes to entrance where we ARE admitted in at 5:23, and walk around to elevator, self-operated and glass-walled, to the top tier, where we look down at rather boring well-known views, first in sun then in shade, and then he goes to the bookshop and I go through drapes to a video show of improvements to the area, then farther for statues actually FOUND in the Forum, and see such good things that I go back to tell Ken to come see, but he refuses, so I'm filming the Hercules from the Naples Museum and the Farnese Horse when he joins me and we look at more of the statuary and decide to leave, but I feel like shitting, and leave out some farts in the unlockable john at 6:10 and we finally find exit and go across for his demanded iced tea with ICE, and I have beer to 6:25, still very hot, and to Metro at 6:38 for long hot crowded wait to get train and out at 6:56, to Hotel at 7:02, TIRED. Leave at 7:40 for Montebello but can't find the Ethiopian restaurant where I think it is, and not where KEN thinks it is, and he doesn't like the Kilimangiaro because it's not air conditioned, and we walk and the Poor Queen Pub has closed and I refuse to go back to Africa, won't sit with an accordian playing, and finally Le Vulpe de Molese satisfies both, until we sit at a sidewalk table and a passing horde of Chinese BOUNCES our table on the paving stone EACH STEP of theirs, and we move to the middle where the kid behind me starts HUMMING all through, and then when THEY leave ANOTHER kid comes up and stays reasonably quiet, until a THIRD mentally-disabled 3-year-old communicates only by banging on his stroller-table and making noises. The bottled water he forgets to charge us for, can't supply the nonbiologic Pinot Grigio but the regular is the same price, 9:40, and have actually decent pizzas, both having peppery salami and he has raw arugala which he likes, and I pay 26E for meal and we walk back, NOT finding the place we missed as I'd predicted. Back to hotel at 9:55PM, to bed at 10:12, just a minute after the time which would have allowed me 8 hours before our 6:10AM wakeup call tomorrow morning.
THURSDAY, 7/22/04: 12:41AM pee. 4:28AM wake with dream, debate not recording it, then take laptop to john and start this File 2 (to leave room to transcribe yesterday at the end of File 1) at 4:34AM. Dream on DREAMS-62. Finish typing and peeing at 4:43AM, feeling almost decent enough to start the day of the tour to Pompeii now, rather than when our phone rings at 6:10AM. Phone goes at 6:12, WAKING me, Ken's in bathroom and gets out at 6:24, not showering, and I get in and shower and out at 6:43, and down to breakfast from 6:50-7:20. Ken pulls the doorknob off. Bus is waiting at 7:30, and last fussy woman (who always is late or causing trouble) arrives and we leave at 7:37, about 20 of us. Stop in Liola at 8:57 ("for 15 minutes")-9:21 (24 minutes), not that great countryside save for the Monastery of Montecassino, and a cute sleeveless 6'5" guy with his pretty girlfriend, but not NEARLY as pretty as HE is. #14 Montecassino at 9:32. Cute Rich calls out "SHIT!" as he wakes from a dream, interrupting Daniela in the middle of a story, but everyone's still charmed by him, his youthful body, and his unstoppable smile. Stop in the cameo-making place, where Ken actually prices things from $250-$2500 but buys nothing, and I look and think the stop a disaser. Stop for lunch at 11:19 with the temperature momentarily reading 36°, though it settles back to 31° for subsequent viewing. Hotel Grillo Verde in Torre Annunciata provides gnocchi, a good moist breaded breast of chicken with a lettuce and oil salad that's also good, and then Sfogliatto (unfried) and Prolla (fried) desserts, and Ken and I have a bottle of wine and I get two tastes of Limoncello when Marg (or whatever the unattractive, unmarried daughter's name was) gives me hers, though Rich won't, who's endearingly charming, and his wife Gina is nice and communicative too, living in Macedonia, Ohio; he just built their house, is currently unemployed but hopes for better. Go to john again and we leave at 12:30 for Pompeii. Get off at 12:52 and #15 Pompeii number 1 at 12:59. #16 Apollo Temple (and Vesuvius) at 1:11. Mountain is now 3000 feet high and has TWO peaks, but then it was 9000 feet high, and blew its top. #18 public baths at 2:02. Gino walks fast, I record our passage on map, and we go VERY few places, though we do go INSIDE many places I never got into, including the porno-nice Lupinore, which I video at 2:12, taking #20 of a usual closed street at 2:20. BRUSH against stupes STANDING at GATE reading: and of course they curse ME for bothering to indicate they're standing in the wrong spot. 2:25 END of tour! #21 LAST view at 2:27. Decide to go back to ATM to get cash afer spending my last 10E on "Forbidden Pompeii," and it's back to ENTRANCE, but I get $160, which is perfect because I wanted more than $100 and less than $200, but I didn't get a printed receipt. Back at 2:50 for GREAT iced lemonade for 2.5E and chat with couple at 3:08. Bus goes at 3:13, and I nod during ride. Give Daniela good marks and the trip bad marks on the evaluation form, and doze a bit while we go back quickly, stopping again in Liola and leaving at 4:56, which means that what I THOUGHT we could do in Rome after we got back at 6PM was cancelled because we return at 6:18. Ken finds, talking over many itineraries with Daniela, that the 3-star Santa Cecilia Transfiguration is open ONLY Tuesday and Thursday AMs. Lie down to relax, washing face and getting evening pills, and she's suggested that the group likes La Mimosa on Bari, beyond Reina Margerita, though some say the service is poor, and we leave at 6:54, me coaxing Ken into changing out of his awful shorts, though he wears his fluorescent Keds, and get there just past 7 to find they don't start serving until 8PM, don't even OPEN til 7:30, but then I convince him to order a BOTTLE of Prosecco, good for 15E, and we drink it and chat about people and insist on moving inside when the women start smoking OUTSIDE, and the shared shrimp and mushroom farfalla is good, my veal scallopine with peas and "milk cream" tender and good, and his shrimp and octopus OK, but the wine goes well and fast, the water, Nepi is now his choice, is good, and the little "Roman" waiter is cute for me and the place starts filling up and Ken observes that it's really a neighborhood place. Finally get the check and he pays the 63E, including tip by WRITING IT on the bill, which the waiter likes, and THAT'S the way to do it. VERY tired back to hotel at 9:10, but decide I've GOT to get caught up with the last TWO days on this, and JUST after Ken complains "Will you be finished soon?" I can truthfully answer "In just a few minutes," and finally finish at 9:57PM, looking forward to ANOTHER night of good sleep before tomorrow's 2PM departure for Tivoli. Bed at 10:07PM.
FRIDAY, 7/23/04: 1:28AM: Wake at 1:25AM with THE MOST Extraordinary Dream! See DREAMS-63. Finish typing at 1:48AM, glad I'd managed to record so many of the details, and flushed the toilet and got back into bed, hoping to add lots to my 3:15 of sleep so far this morning. Wake at 6:20, adding 4:20 for a total of 7:35, not bad, and go to john at 6:45AM to shit somewhat small-ly and loosely until 6:55, when I type some dream-memory. Type to 6:59, brief as it is, but got out of bed mainly so I'll stop obsessing about the only three days left of the trip, feeling so tired that I'm tempted to say "Let's just stay in bed and let the time pass; I'm too tired to exert myself more in this hot, busy, expensive city." But now at 7AM I start my shower and day. Finish shower at 7:15 and in combing my hair and deodoranting I find that my Cipro prescription says to take TWO per day for five days, so with my ten capsules I only have ONE prescription left, so I tell Ken that and he asks if he can have the last five and I say yes, then asks if it's time to get up and I say yes, but then he says it's only 7:18AM, but by the time we eat and get anyplace it'll be 8:30, which is when many of these places open. Keep thinking "only two showers left after this one, only three days left, only seven cycles of 6 hours left," and the trip back has begun! Ken goes through his ghastly choking and coughing and hacking as he moans through the bathroom with whatever he's doing since he showered last night, again CONSTANTLY clearing his throat. He also talked of his "skin's difficulty in healing, which you may have noticed," which had been improved since he took the first Cipro yesterday. Do his ailments and conditions have NO end? Now at 7:28 I have nothing better to do than ramble, waiting for him to be ready for breakfast and get into the day to take my mind off ME! Shortened my A&K bag strap yesterday, the clasp almost rusted into position at the longest-drape, but it feels better to have the bulk closer to my body, though there's been no real DANGER of pick-pocketing, it seems, though Rich and Gina told of guy complaining about the gypsy's hand in his pocket on the train to Ostia Antica, and the couple actually got back on the train for possible further depredations immediately afterward! Ken's now shaving at 7:35AM, so WHEN do we get to breakfast? I pack my stuff ahead of time. Breakfast 7:43-8:09AM, not eating much since we have a rooftop lunch in a grand hotel AND a 2-star dinner tonight, and I've been eating too much all along! Ken dawdles, saying the Barbarini Collection will take a long time, and I'm hoping not. Leave 8:18. Get lost, to Metro at 8:32. On train 8:36, transfer at Termini, JAMMED: wait for second train, off at 8:52. #23 Piazza Barberini Triton at 8:55. Barbarini open at 8:30! In at 9:07, no photos! Great Metsys, Rafael, lots of Caravaggios, Berninis, two El Grecos, HOT, GREAT salon ceiling, MODERN (1918-1966) collection. Try to find "Parche "filano" la vita del'uomo" to 10:15. No got, and go down in elevator. Bookshop to 10:30. To San Carlo of 4 Fountane at 10:37, and cloister, small, at 10:40, to St. Andre at 10:48, two stars, video of it. Santa Sussanah Church has 2-star facade, Mannerist interiors, at 11:03. Video St. Teresa in Ecstasy (IN Santa Maria della Vittorio) by Bernini at 11:20, finishing 4 churches and direct to Hotel Bernini-Bristol at 11:40, restaurant only open at 12:30! Quandary! Santa Maria Maggiore? Trevi? Spanish steps? But we stay, I find lobby BAR is open, Ken has prosecco mimosa, me a gin and tonic, for 22E, and lots of goodies and nuts and pistachios to 12:30, and I add a Bernini: vodka and red and white vermouth, rather tasteless, for 48E bill in total, which just isn't ready when we leave, so it's transferred upstairs. Up to EMPTY L'Olimpio, video the vista, and Ken gets a salad and a pasta, me duck brast for 18E. Finish at 1:27. Taxi from point, and FIND that Asmara Restaurant is on CERNAIA! Traffic. Back at 1:43PM, 7E fare, wash face, Monidos (?) by 2:01. AC OK! at 2:41. Off at 2:48. WAIT at Porta Maggiore for one MORE passenger at 3:02! Off at Tivoli at 3:42. #25 and 26 from villa to Tivoli, to 4:06. Roll 4 #1-3 by 4:37 in Villa D'Este fountains, and video, on bus at 5:07, leave at 5:13. Off bus at 5:23 at Villa Adriana. #10 Villa Adriana map at 5:27. 40°C equals 105°F! #11 and 12 plans. It was used for 500 years. #27 last shot? at 6:25PM. #28 LITTLE bath at 6:29. #29 Tivoli town at 6:30. Far theater, over statued pool, is Serapeon! Video Tivoli and sound of cicadas to 6:32. Bus goes at 6:46 after I video hang-gliding. Bus drops us FIRST at 7:17, to hotel at 7:19 and ask for 5-minute taxi. Out at 7:27. To Hilton WAY up hill at 7:45 for 12.75E on meter and she had NO change, so she had to settle for 12 without tip. Dinner is 524E, and BACK I pay 20 and Ken 2 tip, for $798 total, or JUST $400 each. Taxi from there at 11:45, hotel at 12:03, plotzed. Look at my FREE 21.5E 2004 Michelin Red Italy to 12:25 and bed at 12:27. VERY overpriced, but GLORIOUS view and pleasant service, but the wines weren't THAT great and the food merely comparable to Agata and Romeo. It was an experience, as I said to Ken, that I was glad we could share because we both knew what the risks wer. Ken went to sleep with glasses on.
SATURDAY, 7/24/05: 5AM wake, WARM, turn cooling up, sleep, wake at 8:15, Ken up, my pillow bloodied, shower and take two MORE aspirin (took 2 at 5AM), to stop hangover, and out at 8:40, and dress and to breakfast 8:50-9:15, chat and tip Daniela to 9:22. Bus #62 9:48-10:15, and take #32 of Pantheon at 10:30 (being redone inside, not looking great, size-impression lessened by construction inside, but video of seagull should be pretty good. Caravaggio in San Luigi dei Francese to 10:45, Ken putting in 504 for lights while I video. End of roll 4 to #37 of statues in Palazzo Altemps. Roll 5 #1 Ares at 11:20. Buy Hadrian book for 12E and Altemps for 11E (but ONE of these was 7.5, I think). Leave Altemps at 12:06. #6 Domitian's stadium UNDER modern building. #7 Piazza Navona at 12:12, blazing hot. #9 and 10 of Fontana dei Fiumi (Rivers) by Bernini. LONG wait for spaghetti alla carbonara at Don Chischotte in Piazza Navona, Ken had SALAD to slow us down, and pizza. To 1:40 and dash across the river to Castel Sant'Angelo, #11 at 1:50, in at 1:54, for 5E, #14-16 from Sant'Angelo to 2:09, seeing Hilton so we must have seen this from Hilton. LONG curving walk up, BIG decorated rooms---PALATIAL. To 2:15, to toilet to shit in the closed-off area, clean and lots of toilet paper, and out at 2:20 to look for taxi stand and see bus with "Stz Termini" express, and sit in last seat at 2:24 and HOPE. Starts at 2:27, #17 last look at Castel at 2:29. Stops at 2:43 and I dash to nearby taxi and onto taxi at 2:45, only 3E, and to office and 37E on Visa onto jammed (19 of 25 seats filled) bus at 2:50, breathless, next to nice New York wife of husband Tom who specializes in edge-painting of books, on THREE sides yet, and Heather who may be a daughter or not. Off at 2:56, finding I left my HAT under the counter where I bought my ticket, but figured Ken would love it (which he didn't: "I don't like your shirts or pants, but your hat was no problem.") Anyway, it's gone, and remarkably the next day it RAINED! #18 Lake Alfano and Monte Cano at 3:40, #19 Castel Gandolfo at 3:43, all private, enclosing the ruins of Domitian's palace, NO one can get in except for weekly papal blessing. #20 Lake Albano from jetty. #21 Castel Gandolfo at 3:58, no big deal. Leave at 4:02, having shit again downstairs and drunk lots of water, as usual, being healthy to the last day, when my throat is sore and I'm agitating the 8:45 flight, even though I managed to get a window seat! The rest of the trip is rather disappointing: 1) first of all, we did NOT pass the Baths of Caracalla as the brochure said, and though the Villas of the Quintillian brothers were impressive, as was the walkway of the Via Appia Antica, we just cruised through Grottaferrata without seeing whatever villas it was famous for, and we "couldn't stop because it was so dangerous" along the road (though many cars stopped where it WAS safe, and how long could it take for those of the 19 of us who wanted photos to get out and back into the bus?) to get any kind of a decent photo of the Rocca de Papa, though I may have caught it on a snip of videotape, and there was ANOTHER something mentioned in the brochure that we didn't do. So I didn't tip him: HA! #22 villa in Frascati. Off bus at 4:40, wine tasting. Video church of Gesu's false dome at 5:14. #24 and 25 from Frascati at 5:23. Fancy wedding in Frascati's St. Peters, very plain inside, taking a picture of two long gowns. Back to empty bus at 5:28, leaves at 5:32, and he leaves me off first at 6:02, after the DRIVER knows that it's Plaza de Galena, rather than Plaza de Celano, as I'd said (and rather insisted on). Get to hotel at 6:05, TIRED. Home in 32 hours. Look at Ken's Santa Maria Maggiore mosaic book. Dress at 7PM and leave at 7:10 and GET to Eden Hotel at 7:20 and have drinks on terrace, with an older man with a BEAUTIFUL long-haired blond boy, who is surely NOT a relative as Ken hears the boy asking what the guy DOES, and he seems to know all about Rome and telling "his companion" about it. I think I see him later in the restaurant with a young WOMAN, but Ken looks and says it's definitely not him. In to dinner at 7:40, which is disappointing. The first course---actually, the first amuse-bouche, is dynamite: good pastry, good anchovy filling with vegetables, but sadly the entire meal goes downhill from there: not terribly imaginative, and Ken looks through the ala carte menu to observe that MOST of the seven courses are the CHEAPEST of the regular choices from the menu categories. As the sun goes down (over the wonderfully gardened-top of the monastery next door!) and becomes less glaring, they put up the awnings and the view expands for us, almost better than the Hilton since we're IN the town, not ABOVE it, and the towers are closer and the upward-facing lighting on a nearby building is quite beautiful, though Ken wouldn't deign to agree with me. I get a chance for a different wine when Ken say that the Chardonnay is a REAL characteristic Chardonnay, and mine is somewhat better but no great shakes, and we had hardly any repours since we didn't drink it all that fast. We didn't even bother to get a copy of the menu, since it didn't seem to be repeatable, though the 4-year-old Chinese boy that fell asleep in the next chair was charming, as was his older brother who was somewhat less forgiving of his straight-backed chair. We were happy when the loud-mouthed Southern gabber from the back table left with her party. Sunset came without fanfare, though the nearer hills weren't as fogged-out as the farther hills were from the Hilton. He paid the 480E bill, which with 120 added for the conversion ends up as a $300/person dinner, about an eighth as satisfying as the $400/person dinner the night before. But it gave me something to chat about (the first two, Agata and Romeo and La Pergola) with the wine-partners at the tasting at Frascati. To hotel by my 9E taxi at 10:15, put stuff away, REMOVE the flight from my mind (the 27 hours before I'm HOME) and take one Ambien and get to bed at 10:35, Ken still up and reading. I don't remember him shutting off the light, and he said I started snoring VERY loudly VERY quickly.
SUNDAY, 7/25/04: Wake and type dream, see DREAMS-64, amazed that I slept so long, Ambien leaves me feeling slightly dopey, and doze (Ken says I snored a lot AGAIN), which is why HE got up and got ME out of bed, to stop my snoring. I take BIG shit to 8:29AM and breakfat 8:35-8:55, rather light for me because I'm feeling almost nauseous. [Typing now at 8:05PM, 175 minutes into the flight, exactly 1/3 the way. One big segment down, two more (which will seem even bigger, I'm sure) to go.] TIRED, and up to lie down at 8:57. At 9:05, Ken goes to desk for some reason and comes back to say that it's RAINING, just as predicted about a week before we GOT here! Recall shamefacedly that an hour earlier, before breakfast, I looked out and said "Not a cloud in the sky," when it was TOTALLY clouded over. Call a taxi at 9:15, but Ken didn't bring his map and the driver has NO idea where the entrance to the Aula Octagona is, so Ken goes back to get his map and taxi-clock ticks to 9:23. Through rainy streets to "closed today" sign that Ken reads with disgust. No reason given, always open Sunday, but it's closed today. I MENTION the Musei Capitolini, but Ken says they had no stars, which I thought he'd said once but then found it has THREE, and he INSISTS on going back to the hotel, where we sit in the breakfast room while he has a double expresso to clear his nerves [and we now have a 55 km/hr TAILWIND at 8:09PM: YEAH!] at 9:40 and he finds that the Capitoline Museums SHOULD be open, but when he goes to the desk and they dial the number, it just keeps ringing until the message comes on that there's no answer (as modern touch, just as Ken was surprised that Italy uses the ExpressPass system for speeding up turnpike traffic). Desk calls information, who says they're open, and gets ANOTHER number, which ALSO doesn't answer, but we DO think it'll be open, so we call another taxi at 9:55, which arrives at 10:01, and he drives to the Altar at 10:12, saying he can't drive any more because of the tape across the road, so we get out in rain and think he directed us back up to the Victor Emmanual steps, but we ask AGAIN, and get told to either walk around a long road or climb up the short steps, and Ken bitches mightily when I choose the much shorter steps. In at 10:25, both tickets 15.6 which he pays, #27 Golden Hercules at 10:29. #29 noted Brutus bust at 10:37. #30 Romulus and Remus and the she-wolf from the 5th Century. #34 FLASH of two athletes in a closed-off room, and I fear most of my flashless shots of munchy naked men won't be any good, even sadder because they didn't have EITHER English version of the complete or the brief museum guides, and I figured I'd just try the Internet to order it rather than paying good money for a FRENCH guide. The German photos were what they'd had at the MET, which makes the top two floors of HALF of the Conservator's Palace quick, though the outdoor terrace was enormous and appealing. Zip through coins, private apartments, and it's beginning to run together and be overkill. Then take the underground passage to the Palazzo Nuovo and at 11:38 we're through to Temple of Veiero and the Tabularium and the great view down the Forum and over the Piazza de Campidoglio, which I intend to video after but it's raining too hard. To Nuova at 11:39. #35-37 of hunks and put in roll 6 of film. #2 great hall at 11:49. Out at 12, photos to #8. Out at 12:10, into taxi at 12:12. To hotel at 12:25 and they say it's OK to stay even after the noon checkout that Daniela got us from the 10AM usual exit. Ken bitches before I shower 12:51-1:02. Finish packing at 1:10, bags OK, finish at 1:16 and put stuff in pockets and take bags to lobby at 1:20. Page through Corriere Della Sera to 1:25, no sign of 1:30 car, except guy is THERE, and when I go to my bag to get a magazine to read, someone say something about a taxi, and I say "To airport?" and he says YES! Why couldn't anyone SAY anything? To airport at 2:04. 2:20 at desk, no window. MAYBE Alitalia ticket woman will try what counter woman couldn't do, and she DOES get my Delta number, charges my frequent-flyer plan, and THEN gives me window-seat 31A at 2:40. Shit WATER, feeling uncomfortable, and lunch of cheeseburger and 1/2 liter of Devil's (which does look like David's) Kiss beer for 10E. Buy a liter of Sambuca Romano for 7.9E at 3:41. Sit in lounge while line gathers and board at 4:10, good seat BEHIND wing. Announced as 8:45 flight time, at 4:33. Have to shut my "computer" off for takeoff at 4:45, having typed about half what's left. Move back from dock at 4:49 and off at 5:10. Much of France is CLEAR, leaving coast south of Nantes as dinner ends about 6:50PM, now, at 7:13PM, 123 minutes, or BETWEEN 1/5 and 1/4 (131 minutes, 8 minutes from now). Awful "beef" dinner with worse pasta, but good salmon to start, with a gin and tonic AND red wine, and a need to pee BEFORE they pick up used trays. Seat-belt signs on LOTS. Toothpick solves lots of my problems. Pee ENDLESSLY at 7:38, coming up to 1/3! 8:25PM starts Ben Stiller in "Duplex," but at 9:16 the SOUND goes, with ceiling lights, and I fear ELECTRICITY has gone, but my light goes on. It's 9:23PM, only 11 minutes to halfway! I'd switched TV channels, so sound had BEEN back when I tuned back in at 9:27. Ends at 9:55, it was all a SCAM, but NOT funny---not even sexy---and all STARS were PRODUCERS. Pee agan at 10:05, ANTSY---hell, SCARED---just GET there! Start watching "Chasing Liberty" at 10:15, but I don't WANT to watch it, but do anyway. Still over Atlantic at 10:20PM, 220 minutes to go. That's over at 11:56, a real time-waster. Incredible mansions northeastt of Mineola water tower. CLEAN weather on landing, 23°. Land at 1:35. Off plane 1:48, quick, but onto LONG US line at 1:55. Get out and Ken HAS my bag at 2:18. Into cab at 2:30, for which he pays $48, and home at 3:11AM, kitchen light on, noting my cab-fare part was about $33, for which I then pay $24. Coolish outside. Weight blue bag at 28# before opening it for pills, taking 10 night pills and 3 grams of vitamin C because my throat is sore from the plane. Bed at 3:24AM and CAN'T sleep. At 5:20AM I take a melitonin and pee. I cough and hawk nasal and sinus mucus CONSTANTLY. At 5:39 take 2 Nyquil and 2 diphenhydramine and pee. Cough STOPS when I'm STANDING. Get second pillow. Wake at 10:30, do Actualism, and get up at 12 "noon," which is actually
MONDAY, 7/26/04: 6AM. Listen to phone messages to 6:05: 1) Shelley from Sunday, 2) Tom Grasso from Monday, 3) Beard confirmation for 7/27 from Wednesday, and 4) Sherryl from Saturday. Shit to 6:10. Internet check to 6:25 (16 messages, $65 Monday Beard offering). Play GAMES to 7:40AM, enjoying Taipei and FreeCell and Spider. Breakfast at 8AM, phone about two indexes. Enter AlphaSmart material from 9:25AM, proofing it but not typing it, then phone Arnold and Bob Lambiase and pick up newspapers and mail and go through all the mail, have an early lunch, pastrami still good but salad going mushy, particularly the green peppers (the milk was curdled today, but OK the next two days' breakfasts). Watch TV tapes from the trip during meals, and finished both Timeses and their puzzles, having done yesterday's sometime on the trip, maybe in the Herald Tribune, which I seemed to recall said "New York Times puzzles." When I got tired of those, I played even more games, just to stay awake to prepare for the Beard tomorrow night, and got to bed at 11:48PM, taking Ambien and Nyquil.
TUESDAY, 7/27/04: Wake at 12:50AM. Wake at 5:20 and pee, and the hall and kitchen floor is WET!! 5:40AM call Cadman Towers extension 2, but there's only a message, and then leave a second when it plays through the choices. At 5:55AM the water is NOT worse, and I'm up at 6:50 and down to the lobby to see when maintenance starts, and 21K is there, saying he had a WORSE leak, seemingly from 24K, and later a maintenance man came up with a great water-vacuum to get LOTS of water from the rug and even from the parquet flooring, and then Pineda came up with Paul to look at the damage, but suggested that the BUILDING'S insurance wouldn't pay for anything that the BUILDING didn't cause, and later Ken suggested I get insurance back from 24K's insurance company. WHAT A PAIN! Unpack lots of stuff, leave word with Sherryl and Shelley, get out for "Calendar Girls" from 2-4PM, and feel pretty good during the dinner at the Beard, getting to bed at 11:48 with two Nyquil and 2 Sleep Aids. I felt I didn't do much buy play games today, but I noted down a list of things that I DID do, for my own satisfaction: 1) started Level F, 2) corrected the Cleartel billing, 3) talked to Sherryl, 4) left word with Shelley, 5) took care of leak, 6) sent back Pearson mis-sent pages, 7) checked Beard-Visa billing, and found that they gave me the frequent-diner discount even when I reserved at the FULL price, which is VERY nice of them! 8) picked up the Watson-Guptill package when I got back from the Beard. Not that shoddy, though I'd tired of DOING already!
WEDNESDAY, 7/28/04: At 3:45AM I shit and took two more Nyquil for my cough. Felt vaguely horny about 7:30, so I jerked off quite quickly, and then felt so worried about the possible water under the first bookcase that I emptied out all seven shelves onto the sofa and table, pushed it over on its side and propped up the bottom so it could dry completely. The place is beginning to SMELL, so I put on the air conditioners even though it started at 70° outside in the morning, though it's up to 76° now that I'm typing at 6:20PM. Played a lot of computer games when I wasn't having breakfast, then got out to buy AAA batteries, which were in fact what was needed for the remote to even turn on the TV again; deposit Charles' $333 check at last; went to my appointment with Dr. Chin, and got groceries, getting three heavy bags no matter what. Then had lunch, talked to Spartacus and retrieved the two hour "1421, China Discovers Amerca?" tape for him, finally got to the gym for the first time, only one day late, but the BEARD last night seemed VERY loud, and the people at the gym seemed VERY loud, and all Shelley could offer was 1) get an anti-anxiety prescription, which Chin gave me (as well as a slip for next month's blood tests) for Effexor, or 2) take a "fear of flying" class at some airport. Had printed out the trip-dream pages yesterday, and today I printed the 12 pages of the ROME TRIP diary, ready to print out the slide page, the summary page, and get some dinner for which I'm hungry already at 6:25PM, energized by gym-going!
ROME SLIDES
Roll 1:
#1 of a town north of Ostia at 8:43AM
#2 pines and plane-shadow at 8:51
through #21 to 5:13 in Castel Massimo museum
#23 Carlo Crivelli at 12:56
#24 St. Sebastian at 1:16
#26 Pierino da Vinci at 1:36
to #37 in Octagonal Court at 2:02PM
Roll 2: Vatican
#15 of mosaic table at 3:59
#16 Ken at end of hall at 4:01
#22 of Temple of Esclapius at 5:13
#21 Moses at 9:48
#22 plan of enormous palace
#23 found on site at 11:34
#26 9th Century well in Laterano
#27 BAD side of the Colisseum at 3:26
#29 St. Peters at 3:37
to #34 from the Palatine hill down over the Roman Forum to 3:58
Roll 3:
#1 three architectures at 4:25
#4 top of Castor and Pollux temple-columns at 4:35
#14 Montecassino at 9:32
#15 Pompeii number 1 at 12:59
#16 Apollo Temple (and Vesuvius) at 1:11
#18 public baths at 2:02
#20 of a usual closed street at 2:20
#21 LAST view at 2:27
#23 Piazza Barberini Triton at 8:55
#25 and 26 from villa to Tivoli, to 4:06
Roll 4:
#1-3 by 4:37 in Villa D'Este fountains
#10 Villa Adriana map at 5:27
#27 last shot? at 6:25PM
#28 LITTLE bath at 6:29
#29 Tivoli town at 6:30
#32 of Pantheon at 10:30
#37 of statues in Palazzo Altemps
Roll 5:
#1 Ares at 11:20
#6 Domitian's stadium UNDER modern building
#7 Piazza Navona at 12:12, blazing hot
#9 and 10 of Fontana dei Fiumi (Rivers) by Bernini
#11 Castek Sant'Angelo at 1:50
#14-16 from Sant'Angelo to 2:09
#17 last look at Castel at 2:29
#18 Lake Alfano and Monte Cano at 3:40
#19 Castel Gandolfo at 3:43; #20 Lake Albano from jetty
#21 Castel Gandolfo at 3:58; #22 villa in Frascati
#24 and 25 from Frascati at 5:23 #26 picture of two long gowns
#27 Golden Hercules at 10:29; #29 noted Brutus bust at 10:37
#30 Romulus and Remus and the she-wolf from the 5th Century
#34 FLASH of two athletes in a closed-off room
#35-37 of hunks in Palazzo Nuovo
Roll 6:
#2 great hall at 11:49. Out at 12, photos to #8
SUMMARY PAGE
SAT, 7/17: Dinner and drinks at Brooklyn Beer Garden. Fly JFK to Rome at 7:37.
SUN, 7/18: Land at 8:52AM: 7:15 flight. Check in at Villa Patrizi. Lunch at Termini snack bar, visit St. Mary of the Angels in old baths. Castel Massimo part of National Museum Romano, great exhibits. Dinner at Africa; Cafe drinks.
MON, 7/19: Vatican and Museums 12:25-6:05, including Pinacoteca, Octagonal Court, many intermediate galleries, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Library, St. Peters and Treasury. Dine at Agata and Romeo for 135E tasting with wines, 280E bill.
TUE, 7/20: Villa Giulia for Etruscan remains, lunch in their cafeteria, Villa Borghese collection, walk park past Temple of Esclapius to Museum of Modern Art, about half closed. Dinner at Il Mondo Chinese for 19E.
WED, 7/21: St. Peters in Chains for Michelangelo's Moses; Nero's Domus Aurea; St. Clements and Mithraic underchapel; St. John Laterano; lunch in Le Tempio d'Iside for 44E; Palatine Hill; Roman Forum; view from Altar of the Nation; Colosseum; drinks across the way; dinner at Le Vulpe de Molese for 26E.
THU, 7/22: Bus to Pompeii past Montecassino; lunch in Hotel Grillo Verde in Torre Annunciata; Pompeii tour 1-2:25PM ONLY; inside Lupinore and a few houses. Dinner and drinks at La Mimosa for 63E.
FRI, 7/23: Barbarini collection; Four Churches: San Carlo of 4 Fontane, St. Andre, Santa Sussanah, Santa Maria della Vittorio for Bernini's St. Teresa in Ecstasy. Hotel Bernini-Bristol bar for drinks and upstairs terrace L'Olimpio for quickie lunch for 100E, after fiddling with my contribution, much MORE. Bus tour to Tivoli for Villa D'Este and fountains, then to Villa Adriana. Taxi to Rome Hilton for La Pergola, only Michelin 2-star in Rome, for great view but stupendous 524E bill, which I somehow mistakenly added to get a $400/person meal, but recalculating, it was "only" $356, still my most expensive meal EVER!
SAT, 7/24: Pantheon, San Luigi dei Francese for Caravaggios, Palazzo Altemps, Piazza Navona for lunch at Don Chischotte for 38E. Castel Sant'Angelo; tour to Lake Alfano, Monte Cano, Castel Gandolfo, Rocca de Papa, Frascati for wine tasting and Church of Gesu and St. Peters. Taxi to Eden Hotel for another terrace for drinks and food for 480E, coming to $300/person.
SUN, 7/25: Try for closed Aula Octagona in rain, then to Musei Capitolini for the two parts of the Palace of the Conservators and the Palazzo Nuovo, on two sides of the Piazza de Campidoglio; lunch at Fiumicino Airport with Devil's Kiss draft beer. Flight Rome-JFK 5:10-1:35, or 8:25, watching "The Duplex" and "Chasing Liberty," both dreadful movies, less than the announced over-nine hours, taxi home and have cold or cough from plane, exhausted to bed at 3:24AM and can't sleep.
MON, 7/26: Catch up on all mail and two Sunday Timeses with puzzles; games.
TUE, 7/27: 5:20AM LEAK with water in kitchen and hall and under living room carpet! Start catching up on all the tasks that accumulated through ONE WEEK! Watch "Calendar Girls" and have dinner with Ken at the Beard with two women.
WED, 7/28: Gym for first time, finish this by 8:10PM, still jet-lagged.