We took off Wednesday morning. The 500L had GPS navigation built into its central panel, but when I first entered the destination address, I couldn't figure out how to say "Now go there." Since I pretty well knew the way there, I didn't worry more about it. During the drive, it occurred to me that the system was made by TomTom, and I've had their satnav system where you start navigating by touching any part of the screen. When we stopped for fuel on the outskirts of Rome, I re-entered the address and saw where to touch to start navigating. We got into Rome, where I'm pretty used to driving on via Salaria to reach the main car rental offices, but traffic was very heavy this time including my finding myself in a gridlock situation of blocking an intersection. When we got close, I took the route that I remembered rather than what was on the screen, and it worked. We returned the car, I used the IT TAXI app to get a cab, and one showed up before the one that people before us had called.
We got to the Indigo, and our upgraded room was ready. There were steps down from the entry area, and with the status I have with the credit card, we had free use of the minibar, but the only alcohol in it was beer. We did get free small bottle of red wine and jars of different snacks, with a card saying "Happy Anniversary." Was this because our previous stay two years ago was at the time of our anniversary in May, and this was still on a guest record for us? Or did they do major detective work and find that it was the anniversary of when Margaret and I met in high school in Rome? Or my credit card anniversary, when another free night is issued? A nice room with some confusion about which switches to turn to control lights, operate the in-room coffee maker, and keep the charger for our devices on during the night.
We had some coffee at the hotel's rooftop restaurant-bar, then went down the street to Pierluigi restaurant, which was a neighborhood hangout when we were in the school across the street. It has now become an upscale seafood restaurant with high prices, and we managed o.k. with one dish each.
We didn't have much of an agenda for this time in Rome; one thing we had in mind was to shop for good-scented items at the Rome branch of Profumeria S. Maria Novella. It was a nice walk through our old neighborhood to the store off Piazza Navona. On Piazza Navona, we mostly dodged harassment by vendors. In the old neighborhood, we saw some stores reflecting gentrification, but there were also old-time shops serving a traditional population. For the evening meal we were fine getting slices of pizza at Pizzeria Romana al Taglio, on via del Governo Vecchio, with creative bio toppings.
During the night, we had the problem that, when I turned off the master light switch by the door, it also turned off charging for the devices. As I was working on that at 7 a.m., we heard loud beeps and the start of an announcement. As I was wondering if I'd caused it, there was an announcement that there was nothing of concern. When we got to the breakfast buffet, we got word that it was a fire alarm caused by a guest trying to smoke in their room. We had the breakfast buffet, at a discounted price by agreeing to it at check-in. It was a pretty good spread, with breakfast meats, eggs, and salmon, along with breads, cheese, and more. Oh, and Prosecco. This was the day that our main goal was to see St. Peter's Basilica. In the morning it was raining and we made an effort to get a taxi. The IT TAXI app didn't recognize Piazza S. Pietro as a destination, perhaps because it's outside Italy (Piazza Pio XII could be something to try). We asked at the hotel desk, and they said there was trouble getting any cabs in the rain. The rain let up and we walked. We got to the Piazza at 10 and the security line reached the opening in the colonnade. We joined the line and rapidly saw it getting longer. We eventually got through security, I wondered about some people passing the modest dress screening, but didn't see anyone denied entry.
We entered the Basilica, and felt the difference from when we had been there decades prior. We'd had the wait and the screening, compared to when we could just wander in. Inside, the crowds were immense and it was difficult to appreciate the majesty of the structure. It was difficult to get a clear look at Michelangelo's Pietà . Then we wandered with the crowds, so many people holding phones and selfie sticks, and didn't feel like staying much longer.
We got back to the hotel, working around a 2 p.m. salon appointment that Margaret had, and just got panini from the bar down the street. We'd talked about wandering in Trastevere in the afternoon, but didn't feel that much up to it, and it was just as well when we saw a downpour of rain. We did take an occasion to drop another part of her parents' ashes into the Tiber in the city that they loved.
We'd talked about having dinner at La Carbonara on Campo de' Fiori, where we have a long history but I worry about it having declined. I went on a walk before dinner to look into alternatives, and found Osteria dei Cappellari, which was nice for a Roman meal, having cacio e pepe and saltimbocca.
We had these two nights in Rome, most of the time in the hotel room and the neighborhood. We had a second morning with the buffet and just spending a little time before a late morning departure and taxi to get a new rental car. Here's where I relied on my memory more than I should have. I remembered the Europcar address as via Sardegna 52; the driver first went by the garage, not what we wanted, and then found the street ending before 52. I searched my phone (fairly new to have that option in Italy) and found the address was 51. I know some quirks of addresses in Rome: that in the old neighborhoods numbers go 1-2-3 on one side, continue to the other end of the street, and then continue on the other side, so 1 could be across from 500. In the newer quarters, which I understand via Sardegna, you'd have odd on one side, even on another, which this was, but not with adjacent numbers across from each other, so 51 was a few blocks from 52.
Anyway, with a wait, we got the new rental paperwork done, and had to go a block to the garage. Our new car was a Fiat Tipo. I didn't locate built-in navigation: I could pair my phone with it, but only saw phone calling features. An interesting feature, during the slow move through stoplights in Rome, was that if I stopped in neutral, the engine shut off, and it restarted when I put the car into gear. The return drive was o.k., and we got back to Umbertide.
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