Day 7 in tuscany—on to Rome

The farewell was bittersweet.  My favorite breakfast of juicy cantaloupe, a crisp croissant, unsalted butter, orange marmalade, and strong coffee.  Heavenly.  

I love unsalted butter, as opposed to Kirk.  For me, the bread and olive oil/jam one puts on the bread is enhanced by unsalted butter.  Kirk salts the butter here…

We’d packed nearly completely the night before, so following breakfast, it was simply quick, final organizing before we set our bags out for the taxi that would bring us to the Chiusi station.  Two other women rode with us and our driver, frustrated that he was picking up four passengers, not 2 as he’d thought, drove quickly and erratically, maniacally passing cars and zooming through the countryside.  He charged us 40 Euros each, not the 25 we’d assumed (taxi to Chiusi is usually 100 Euros and he decided 160 was our fee).  Not knowing Italian to argue, we simply paid and chucked it up to “oh well!”  

For us the train ride into Rome was an uneventful 2 hours and my sister Anne met us at the train station and skillfully guided us to the metro stop by her home in Testaccio. A fifteen minute walk got us to her apartment situated in a fun area.  We rested, decided we were NOT hungry after eating day and night with the cooking class.

BUT alas, we did run to the local market for a bit of pizza for lunch.  The Testaccio market sells Anne’s favorite pizza and we brought home 5-6 different slices to try. 

• Chestnuts at the market!
  
  Truth be told, my belly is probably going to take a month to reduce in size, and I never thought I’d roll my eyes at a glass of wine.  Such was the amount of food and wine we consumed at La Cuisa with our delightful cooking class.

Saturday night is a big night of gaiety in Rome. Families cram the local plazas and soccer balls fly through the air and roll on the ground as you cross the square.  Restaurants don’t begin filling up until at least 9 pm. and reservations are generally a MUST, especially on Saturday evening.  No one was very hungry, so we opted for a cheese and meat plate and a bottle of wine at a place just around the corner.  We were gone by the time the later guests were arriving and wandered home ready for bed as everyone else was just getting going.

Cheese tray!

Tomorrow begins our adventure around Rome!