Arrivederci Roma

It's sad, but true, all good things must come to an end. Our recent trip was amazing, but unless we decided to make Italy or Greece our permanent home, at some point, we had to return to our humble abode in the suburbs of Sacramento. Truth be told, if it wasn't for my grandchildren, I could almost make that move, but Sam is always ready to go home when it's time. He misses the kitties, the kids, the house, the garden. He loves to go, but he also loves to return. I feel like I could stay away forever sometimes... but maybe that's only because he would never go along with it, so I'm safe in feeling that way. The yin/yang thing.

There is one thing about the end of a trip that I always find fascinating though. Just when I think it's over, we're usually staying at a nothing-special-hotel the night before our morning flight home, when something special happens. 

The first time it happened was on our first trip to Italy ten years ago. We stayed at a business type hotel near the Milan airport, in a town called Galarate. After we had settled into our room and made a phone call home to check in with the girls, we asked the clerk at the front desk where we should go to dinner. As I recall, it was a Sunday night, and he was concerned that nothing would be open. (Obviously, this was not a tourist town, and pretty dead on weekends - kind of like Wall Street on the weekend.) He told us about a restaurant that might be open, and gave us directions. Our expectations were not very high.



Although I do not remember the name of the restaurant, I will always remember the experience. We walked down an alley, through a wrought iron gate, and into a beautiful garden that lead to the restaurant entrance. Who would have ever guessed something this lovely could exist in this otherwise grey area of banks and businesses closed until Monday morning? Still, our expectations remained fairly low. Surely, the food would be only so-so, and we certainly couldn't expect great service. There were so few people seated at tables... 


Well, we were wrong on all counts. As it turned out, it was one of the best meals we had on that trip! The food was amazingly good, and the service was outstanding! We had such a good time with the staff, we even took photos with them (I should try to find those!). At the table next to us sat a middle-aged American couple, who struck up a conversation with us. They were also on their way home. They had been staying in Tuscany for three weeks for their daughter's wedding and this was their eighth trip to Italy! Oh, my goodness, I thought! I could not even imagine going to Italy eight times! What lucky people they were!


Fast forward ten years.  Now, we are the middle-aged American couple who have just returned from our eleventh European trip and eighth trip to Italy (actually 9th for me, since I went by myself once)! What lucky people we are!  And on each of those trips, there has almost always been something special at the end. This time, it was the beach town of Fiumicino, and another wonderful restaurant, called Pinzimonio.


When we said goodbye to Marco and Antonella in Sorrento, before we began our three and a half hour drive to Rome, I was very sad. Our four week romp through Paris, Greece and southern Italy was almost over, and I was not happy. 


A few days earlier, I had found an inexpensive hotel online, near the airport, in the town of Fiumicino. As usual, we expected it would be a decent, but unexciting, place to sleep before getting up early the next morning to return our rental car and catch our flight.  When we arrived, we found our hotel was right across a one lane street from a very nice beach, and it was obvious, we were going to have a pretty nice sunset that evening. So, we grabbed our cameras and headed for the beach. (Click to enlarge, then back button to return.)

Along the shore there were these repeating jetties made of huge stones, that formed round pools of gently lapping waves, on soft, clean sand, perfect for kids and dogs.

We waded in the warm surf of the Tyrrhenian Sea, took lots of photos, and fantasized about bringing the grandkids there one day.

We watched planes take off from the airport, and head west. The next morning we would be on a jet just like that, heading home.  For the moment though, we still had one more night in Italy!

So we brushed the sand off of our feet, walked back to our room, and then headed down the street to what turned out to be one of the best meals we had on the whole trip!