Tuesday we got up and had to pack and say goodbye to the lovely city. I think I forgot to mention, our hotel was not only very nice, but had an art exhibit of bunnies and was right next to the Tate Britain to boot, very us. The show in the hotel was called "Rabbits and Snow Angels" by Ania Tomaszewska-Nelson. After breakfast and packing we had just about an hour to walk around the Tate. No photos were allowed, so tried to scribble down a few names of the best work I saw there. Mike Nelson's Coral Reef, Susan Hiller, and Cerith Wyn Nelson stood out. We took two trains to the airport and flew British Airways to Rome. If you think I was impressed with Air Canada, I was equally impressed with BA! They are more expensive though, so we only used them for the small flight. We lost an hour traveling so it was late when we got to Rome. Fortunately, they don't even start the evening till 8pm there so it was no problem. We checked in to the Hotel Napoleon, a big change from the modern hotel we had, it was old-fashioned but very nice. I had been worried about not learning any Italian before going, but quickly found that Buna Sera (good evening) and Grazie (thank you) were the only terms needed, everyone spoke English. Being in London had felt like a vacation, it is a big city but everyone is so nice I could live there, though it would be hard to not start impersonating the accent everywhere. But Rome! Rome felt like a movie. Cobblestone streets, fountains, old buildings. . . there is a treasure around every corner and full of a feeling. We took the Metro to the Spanish Steps and had pizza and crepes. Walked around a little and decided to try and find Piazza Navona. Instead we wandered right to La Fontana di Trevi. If there hadn't been the crowd there it would have felt like "La Dolce Vita" in that we turned a corner and here was this gorgeous fountain tucked in around apartments. We threw in a coin and did some people watching.
"Brian" by Ania Tomaszewska-Nelson
The garden across the street from our hotel in London.
On the banks of the Livenza, silvery willows are growing in wild profusion, their boughs dipping into the drifting waters, vuurwerk, Idroscalo di Ostia, 1998-Cerith Wyn Nelson
The lounge in the Hotel Napoleon
The hotel still used keys, with giant fancy key rings!
Tom loves him some Italian pizza
I love me some Nutella crepes
The Spanish Steps
Trevi Fountain
The pictures can't show how gorgeous the floodlit fountains were
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