Dinner with Marcia

Randy is delighted to be home for many reasons, including being in a kitchen where he can cook!  He celebrated by inviting our friend Marcia over for dinner, which included smoked grouper spread (amazingly sweet, and one of my new favorites), stir fried vegetables, Caprese salad, lasagna, and Key Lime pie. After all those days with nothing good to eat, this was so welcome!!

Really excellent old beef

One side effect of our extended stay in Italy was that the prime beef Randy was aging ended up aging longer than anticipated. On June 14th we got it out of the fridge; Randy assured me that it was supposed to look like this...

Today day he set about transforming it. It took lots of weighing and trimming to convert what looked like a mess (to me, not to Randy) into something wonderful.

He was careful to trim only what needed to go. This beef is really well aged and very dark. 

And when he was done, we had some very beautiful beef. This has a rich, unusual flavor, and was well worth the wait!

June 14 so good to be home

It is so very, very good to be home.  Home to our sweet Shorty, our own bed, our washer and dryer, our groceries. Randy is cooking up a storm and practicing making Italian coffees. So good to be home!!!

2022 06 13 Monday at last!

We didn't sleep much so a little after 5 we got up, showered, repacked. Prayed. Prayed hard.

At 7 we went down to check out. The front desk wasn't open yet but as we were standing there the desk guy came in.  As Randy was talking to him I got a text from Giuseppe that the taxi was on it's way. He then called me, sounding half asleep but wanting to follow up. The guy behind the counter could not give us a receipt because their system was down. And just as Randy finished the taxi pulled up. Thank God!!  Bags loaded and we were on our way at 7:09. Thank God!!!

The airport was very, very busy but the staff here are really efficient. They help everyone get their passport scanned on the various gates and they have someone who directs you to the shortest line. We bought a couple of things in Duty Free and the lady at the register explained to us how to use the last of our euros and credit cards for the remainder, and how to be able to take the purchase on board. That's important because we're transferring planes. 

Randy found a few loose euros in his pockets. He gave .20 to American trying to get a packet of mayonnaise, then we spent the rest in the Venti store. They are so honest that we told them how much money we had and they told us what we buy, then followed us out to say we could pick one more item.

For lunch we looked at all the options, then got a Porchetta sandwich. That was an excellent choice!! Very flavorful and tender.

Soon we took the train to our gate area. Our flight was scheduled for 12:25 - 6:04 but we didn't get going until 1:17. Fortunately we have an almost 5 hour layover in Toronto. I chatted with the young lady next to me and learned she is the girlfriend of one of our pilots. She's an air traffic controller herself so they have a lot in common. 

It was a great, easy flight. We watched a few movies, had a reasonable meal...

and finally a real Diet Coke!

When we arrived in Toronto we were shuffled into a room where we waited in line to talk to a lady at the counter, who told us to stare at the overhead display screen until our name showed up. Then we could go to customs because it meant that our luggage had been transferred. What an odd system. 

After about 30 minutes our names showed up so we went to customs. We were supposed to scan our passports first but those machines didn't work so we just got in line, showed our passports to the custom agents, and went on through. 

What with the delay in Rome, the delay in Toronto, and apparently the flight went long, we didn't have much extra time after all. We were just glad we had enough time to wait through all those lines!

Our flight boarded on time but the flight was delayed anyway due to passengers waiting for their luggage notification and trying to get through customs. We left at 7:15 and would have loved to get some sleep but it was so very, very cold on the plane! No blankets and I hadn't packed anything useful in my backpack. I was cuddled up next to Randy and still freezing. We got to Orlando at 9:30, got our baggage and Fast Park ride out of there by about 10:30. It was so good to see our truck! It was late and we were tired but Randy still had a long drive ahead. He did great, of course, and stopped at Checkers for burgers! And when we got home, we brought in our luggage, ate burgers, and went to bed in our own, large, comfortable bed! Thank God!!!

(addendum: tested negative!)

2022 06 12 Sunday

The 1st task of the day was to set the two phone alarms for tomorrow morning - we are NOT going to oversleep! 

I couldn't face the Cornetto again so I had Melba toast. Fortunately the jam this morning was apricot, with a simpler taste and edible. The rolls are still hard.

Then we packed up for the airplane - so excited!

The A/C here can keep the room cool as long as the curtains were closed. But if they were opened to let in the light, everything got sweaty. There was nothing outside of the window besides a weed-filled ditch anyway - no birds or flowers. 

And the window could not be opened without a tool that only the hotel people had. So that was another reason we preferred this room - it was by the fire exit.

Fortunately Randy had packed one of the precious bars of Lux soap that he bought at the Coop several days ago. It is a great improvement over the tiny bits of soap here.

People came by to take our temperature again this morning. I got a look at Randy's temperate reading and it was 29.2 Celsius, which is 84 Fahrenheit....I don't have any faith in their medical system here. A few hours later they came by to check his again...no kidding. 

Lunch today was actually good. Or I was extra hungry. I took the meatballs out of the greasy mushrooms, mixed them with the pasta and ground beef, and ate more than I have since I got here. Watermelon was OK too. But not that rolll...

We sat around, passing the time by on our laptop and phones. 

A couple of times we have had to help the toilet out with a bucket full of water, but we stayed in this room because the AC worked (as long as the window shades were closed).

Neither of us could eat the dinner tonight. At a glance it might have been good. 

But none of it was any good at all. Not the pasta, not the salad, and certainly not the seafood salad. There are chefs who could make this good, but none of them work here. 

I drank some old apricot juice box and Randy ate some more of Glenda's tuna. 

2022 06 11 Saturday

We were up by 7:30. Randy upgraded our seats, and we will leave on Monday!! Once again breakfast was lukewarm coffee, warmed milk, fruit juice box, and a Cornetto sweetened roll. That roll is still no good so I started tearing apart the hard rolls we got for other meals and eating the insides. 

Midmorning I finished the last of the potato chips that Glenda gave us before she left. I've been glad to have them because the last couple of days I've only been eating about half of a roll for each meal. There is more food but I find it totally unappetizing to the point I cannot eat it even though I'm hungry.

Well, we finally got a TV and there is nothing on it in English except CNN. I know because I ran through 100 channels looking for something. Friday I found a couple of old reruns in English but they are not on during the weekend.  The majority of channels have nothing at all, a few have sound with no picture, and fewer still have picture and sound in either Italian or German.

At least the people who come to take our temperature on this floor are not dressed in contamination suits. They are in paper gowns and masks. 

Today Randy used half of our little bottles of bubble bath and took a long soaking bath accompanied by a cold bottle of water, a few chocolates, and a book. An hour later I used the remaining bath bottles and did the same thing. Besides feeling nice, it was a way to kill some time.

There so little air movement in these rooms that the underwear I washed out the first night we were here didn't dry overnight, didn't dry the next day, didn't dry last next night, and finally dried enough today that I could pack them.

Lunch was late at 2:00 but I was happy to get it. The baked chicken thigh with small potatoes was cool and the bowtie pasta was in tasteless tomato sauce but I ate most of it anyway.

It seemed like a long time until dinner which was the next event of the day. And when it got here it wasn't good. It was a couple of pork slices way too well done on a lot of nasty spinach; the rice salad was only slightly edible. 

Randy went to the front desk and got information about how to get a cab and the actual address of this place. They told him again it's illegal for us to leave. We called Giuseppe and asked him to arrange the taxi for us on Monday morning since we don't speak Italian and we want to make sure this is right!

20222 06 10 Friday - Healed!!!

This morning I am healed!! What social medicine cannot do, God can. Praise God! The relief of finally not being in pain is amazing. 

Now that my main worry is over, we took stock of where we were. They will not test us for 7 days so we are stuck here. But Randy has a very strong feeling that we will go home on Monday.

Today was a very long day, and the TV hasn't been fixed. I remembered the Biblical story about the old woman who continued to nag the lawyer until he finally agreed to her, just to shut her up. I called the front desk every hour for five or six times until finally he said they were going to give us a different room. Randy went to check it out and it is a better room, so we will move there after breakfast. Which was terrible. Randy makes do with the luke-warm coffee but I cannot eat that roll and the juice tastes nasty. 

After breakfast there was a knock on the door; someone came to take our daily temperature check. They were dressed, head to toe, in white hazmat suits complete with bee-keeper type head coverings. 

The new room is cooler, which is really important. It has a working TV but the only English shows are news and occasionally a few old reruns on one channel. But it's cooler, so we will not rock the boat again.

The front desk guy had said to call and ask for anything we needed. So I asked for panty liners (after looking up the words in Italian).  The desk guy said okay and a short while later there was a knock on the door and somebody delivered an open package with exactly two big Kotex napkins in it. Who needs just 2 kotex? I am almost out of my Oil of Olay facial cream but I don't dare ask for that because who knows what they would give me? 

Giuseppe said he would help us get a test on Monday.

And then we learned that the US is dropping the test requirement Sunday at midnight!! Praise God!! Rejoice!! Start packing!! 

We called Giuseppe again and he will arrange a ride to the airport as soon as we know the flight time. Randy called CIE and they will get us a flight asap!

Dinner was barely-warm cod and beans, and cold pasta with pesto sauce, along with the usual hard roll, water, salt, pepper, and olive oil seasoning. Nope. I had to pass on this.

At 1:30 am we got a call to confirm the flight. The guy apologized for calling at that hour but he thought we'd want to know asap, and he was right! 

2022 06 08/09 Covid and Social Medicine

Later Wednesday evening I got very, very sick. I threw up several times and had terrible, constant, intensive cramps. After 3 hours I asked to go to hospital. Randy contacted our manager who called a taxi and recommended a good hospital. 

When we arrived I was put on a gurney, got some blood drawn, and left along for at least an hour. I was rocking non-stop, trying to alleviate the pain. I lost all sense of pride and kept calling out for someone to please help me. Eventually a couple of guys came to move my gurney into a room with some equipment so I thought I would be examined soon. But no, I was ignored for another hour. I guess they got tired of me crying out for help but it didn't work; I yelled louder. I was way past any embarrassment, I just wanted to stop hurting. 

Eventually I was wheeled out of that room, wheeled outside, and onto an ambulance. Nobody would talk to me.  I kept yelling Randy's name as I was wheeled away to let him know I was being taken, but he couldn't hear me.

The ambulance drove to an older part of the hospital and I was wheeled out and stuck in a small waiting room with 5 others in chairs and a gurney. And ignored again. I kept begging for help. An aide told me what I thought was a waiting room was actually the Covid ward. I couldn't get anyone to examine me or give me something for pain.

It was impossible for me to lie still. I could only stand the pain by rocking non-stop. When I couldn't stand that anymore, I would lower the side of my gurney, ease myself out, and hobble to the desk area. The nurses were not happy about this; I was expected to stay in bed. I kept asking for help and they kept telling me that help would eventually occur. They said I would get an x-ray but they were adamant that of course it could not happen until tomorrow. Who ever heard of doing an x-ray at night? Me, that's who.

After several trips I realized they weren't going to do anything. But I still could not lie down for long so I would get off that gurney and slowly hobble to the bathroom, still trying for some relief. The nurses didn't like that either because, as they pointed out, I had Covid but not every patient in this wing did. OK, but I was only going to the Covid bathroom. It wasn't my fault that the bathroom for Covid patients was  Right across the hall from the bathroom for non-Covid patients. Not a very good system.

  

During one of my bathroom trips I saw Randy sitting just outside the nurses station. I went out to hug him, so happy he had found me. He was happy to find me too, but unhappy because he had tested positive also. Now we were both stuck. 

A doctor came over and told us that we couldn't leave the hospital until we were taken to a Covid hotel. He explained that it would not cost anything but we would need to stay there until we tested negative. We explained our current hotel reservation was up and we were scheduled to move to another hotel today, so we had to get our luggage. The doctor kept repeating that we couldn't leave but eventually he did listen to us. He said he would  tear up Randy's test results to allow him to return to hotel, pack up our luggage, and bring it back to hospital. After the doctor left I tried to get Randy to leave Italy but of course he wouldn't. Instead he left the hospital at 3 am and, because he couldn't get a taxi, walked all the way back to our hotel! Of course we didn't know where we were so thank God his phone had enough battery for the GPS to direct him there. This part of Rome is graffiti-filled and rough looking; I can only assume angels were helping this American walking in the dark with his GPS phone to get there safely. He packed both of our suitcases, filled our largest backpack, and got the hotel manager to call him another taxi. 

Meanwhile I was not getting any treatment, but they finally got tired of listening to me and gave me an IV of pain meds. I think was really a sleep aid; the pain didn't go away but I fell asleep a bit in spite of it. Fine, I would take any relief at this point. It was a horrible, horrible night. In the morning a doctor who spoke some English came and examined me. The room was still full of patients and I had to pull my shirt up for the exam but at that point I didn't care. She poked my abdomen and said she couldn't feel anything wrong. And that the blood work taken when I arrived didn't show anything. It was evident that she meant there was nothing wrong with me.  Hours later I was wheeled into another room for an x-ray. A guy was already in the room, in a covid breathing helmet. I was way past caring so I followed instructions to remove my bra and slip my shorts down for the x-ray. The technician had me hold the x-ray plate against my left side and he took 2 x-rays from my right side. The he took me back to covid room. 

I am not sure there was a charge for any of this but I can not rejoice over that since it was all useless.  I spent hours and hours of being in terrible pain and ignored, and the few things that were done were pointless.  When the x-ray and the blood work did not show anything specific, I really think they did not know what to do. They seemed to think I was just fine, except, of course, for Covid, which required isolating me and ignoring me and taking me places I did not want to go.

Shortly afterwards Randy came back with all of our luggage. He sat with me and we waited. Someone brought breakfast for everyone in the room but I couldn't eat because I was still rocking with pain. We spent hours waiting for something to happen. Lunch was brought and I still couldn't eat. 

Then a guy came in, called out the names of 6 of us, and told us to follow him. We all got into an ambulance and took a 30-40 ride. He dropped us off at an old Sheridan hotel where we were checked in and told we could not leave our room. Meals would be delivered outside our doors. They would not test us for at least 7 days. 

The guy at the front desk spoke reasonable English and explained everything quickly about meals and laundry changes and such but I was crying so hard that Randy had to listen for both of us. If I hadn't gone to the hospital we wouldn't be in this mess.

The room was actually a hotel room which was better than I expected, although not very large. It had a couple of twin beds shoved together, a desk, a small small refrigerator, and a tiny closet. No ventilation in the bathroom and the sink stopper doesn't work. The shower/bathtub is hard to use and the TV doesn't work. 

If you're Italian this is all free like the hospital doctor told us, but for us it's 175 euros a day.

Now I'm praying that whatever I have does not kill me or cause irreparable damage by being left untreated for a week.

Dinner was delivered but I couldn't eat it.

I called the front desk to ask for the pain medicine that I was promised to the hospital. After two attempts to transfer me to the hotel's doctor, she answered and agreed to send something up. There was a knock on the door and somebody handed over a blister pack with four big pills in it and no instructions. So I called back the desk, got transferred to the doctor again, who said these were the same medicine they gave me in the IV at the hospital and I should take one today and three tomorrow. I don't trust anything here anymore so I took half of one. 

Randy and I sent texts messages to our friends, asking for prayer for my health and for our situation. Then Randy held me and prayed for my health, and I went to bed knowing that everything would be alright. 

2022 06 08 Wednesday part 1

Who is guarding the American Embassy? They don't speak English and they don't look Italian. They are all heavily tanned and have big bushy beards. At any rate, we were not allowed to talk to anybody at the Embassy, we were turned away at the gate by the guards. 

We went out to the Republic Square, stopping at McDonald's for a bathroom and something familiar. Had to figure out how to get the pay stub to open up the bathroom but eventually we did.

Randy wanted to visit the train station where we arrived in 1999; our hotel back then was very close to the station. We found the station but of course the area has completely changed. The station is much, much larger and the surrounding area is mostly restaurants with graffiti on the walls and trash on the ground.

Randy found the way to the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria. I'd mentioned a few days ago that I'd like to see that; how nice of him to remember! Inside is a lovely sculpture called the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. When this was created it caused a stir because the "ecstasy" seemed a bit more physical than spiritual.

But what made my day was that one of the "incorruptible bodies" is here - Saint Victoria! 

Sometimes martyrs are dug up for some reason and found to be less decayed than expected. Depending on the scenario, they may be designated "incorruptible". St. Victoria is one of those and it's pretty certain that she actually is in this glass coffin. But she is also encased in a lovely wax figurine, with a discreet wound on her neck and clothes, hair, and roses borrowed from who knows where. 

But she's still in there. The teeth are hers. 

And in the hand turned outwards, her bones are clearly visible. 

I find this stuff fascinating! 

When we got back to the hotel, the manager said they could not fix the a/c in the room we had so we could change to another room. Our new room did have a better air conditioner - not great and we were never going to be chilly, but it was better. So we changed rooms, took a nap, and watched Major Crimes. By 3pm we were ready for a late lunch, but discovered that everything within reasonable walking distance closes by 2. So we went back to hotel for some of Glenda's tuna with Coop's cheese spread on bread and chips. 

We watched some more Little House on the Prairie episodes until time for dinner. Some of the restaurants convert the parking spaces outside of their place into covered tables. This works quite well and is usually a sign of a good restaurant. 

We walked on until we found La Bottega Ristorante, and sat under their umbrellas. Their "Insalata con Mela verde, Noci e Caciottina Primo Sale" (Salad with green apples, walnuts, and Caciottina cheese) was excellent. 

Next: "Proscuitto de Parma e Melone" (prosciutto ham and melon) which was extraordinary. The melon was as juicy as watermelon. 

And the "Rigatoni di Gragnano all Gricia" (pasta, pork cheek, pepper, and pecorino cheese) was great (although it could have used just a touch of lemon). Lovely, lovely meal!

2022 06 07

This was another not good morning. Our room is so hot that it's hard to sleep and hard to stay in during the day. I did some hand laundry and we had breakfast from some of the bread, cheese, and ham from our COOP purchases. Then we had to leave the room so they could clean it. 

When we came back we decided to look for our next hotel. Randy found one and we walked over to see it while the A/C was being fixed in our current room. The new hotel looks better, so we'll stay there 3 nights. 

Unfortunately when we got back the A/C was still not fixed. We had to go out for lunch so we went down the street to Staroccia, and small deli with outside seating. I prefer outside seating so I can stay away from people. 

2022/06/06 REALLY on our own in Rome

It was hard to get going this morning, a little depression was seeping in. Randy walked over to see our next hotel and get some breakfast somewhere for us. He came back with a great breakfast from our current hotels' breakfast room, which the staff fixed for us. That was nice of them and the friendly gesture cheered me up a bit.

We walked to the H501 hotel to see if we could leave our bags until check-in and learned we could check-in now. Great, one less thing to worry about. We walked back to the hotel, got our bags, put our backpacks on, and returned to the H501 to check in. This is an unusual "hotel". It appears that this large building is subdivided a lot, with at least 2 different business on each floor. Several of them are mini-hotels with 3 rooms to rent. Our room was a comfortable size but the air conditioning may not be enough and the couch is stained. Maybe I'm being picky; I'm just so unhappy to be in Italy right now.

The elevator in this building, like every elevator I've been in in Italy, is tiny. And this one has two sets of doors. Both the outer doors and the inner doors must be closed, and if someone forgets to close the outer doors, nobody can use it. But it's a very quiet elevator; almost too quite.  It doesn't make noise when it's working, it doesn't ding when it passes a floor and it doesn't ding when you arrive at your floor. Sometimes we had to just try to open to door to know if it had stopped. 

The elevator shaft is a cage, without solid walls. 

We got settled in, then decided to go out again. I kept my mask on and avoided crowds. Since we were still in Rome, I wanted to revisit the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which we saw 23 years ago. It has a beautiful Michelangelo sculpture called Christ the Redeemer, plus a surprisingly charming dead saint under glass. Santa Wittoria is propped up in her glass coffin, well dressed, with her skull covered by thin gauze. I really, really wanted to see her again. 

It was a long walk but we didn't have anything else to do today so Randy humored me. Along the way we stopped to get cold fresh water from one of the fountains (I called them the spitting lions).

We were constantly zigzagging to stay out of the sun today. Randy's GPS guided us but when it said we had arrived, I didn't recognize where we were. We were by a rough old wall and structure but I was sure that wasn't the church.

Then in front of me I saw the Elephant and Obelisk! Another one of my favorites from my previous visit.  I was so glad to see it here - clean, cared for and in good shape.

So that must be the church behind it...but it was closed for lunch so we turned around and realized that the rough building we had passed was, in fact, the Pantheon!

I had no idea we had walked that far. And to our surprise, people were going in. So we asked and yes, it was open without reservations. Wow! With mask firmly in place and keeping aside from others, we entered. This is such a lovely building, Lit only from the ceiling hole.

But that is more than enough, and it gives such great atmosphere to the inside. 

The center section was corded off, to keep people moving around the outer edge where the tombs are.  I wanted to see Raphael's tomb and there it was, close to the ground. The spotlight is a nice touch but it doesn't photograph well. 

Raphael died young and requested to be buried here. He was so well loved that his request was granted, making him the first person to be buried here. His actual tomb is topped with a sculpture of Mary and baby Jesus. Since I was avoiding people, I couldn't get a photo of the whole thing but that's OK.

They have changed some things since our 1999 visit.  There is a large area set up for mass, I guess; this wasn't here before. 

And I think there are more tombs here, but maybe they are just cleaned up.

Wonderful to be able to visit this again!

Afterwards we went back to the church that I came here to see....and found it is completely blocked off for restoration. That was a huge disappointment; I doubt I'll come to Rome again and I wanted to see that little saint!

I peeked inside but she was not there; no doubt safety stored away until restoration is complete. Bummer. 

Time to walk all the way back. We noticed that in some places those volcanic cobblestone are quite loose. The sand around them has been washed or picked away. 

Nearby was a big pile of them with bags of sand, ready for road repair. 

We stopped by McDonalds for a restroom break and bought a sandwich as is politely expected, then continued onward. We passed one of the Gelato carts that used to be so plentiful in Rome but now are few and far between. 

As we passed the Basilica De Santa Maria Degli Angeli we decided to stop and look in. Very, very beautiful church. 

It has one of those timelines, created in marble, on the floor. Since it's all in Italian, I can't read it. 

I loved this sculpture. Don't know what it is, but I love it.

In a smaller room in back are some lovely statues that somehow didn't make the cut for the main area. 

For dinner we went to San Marco. The bruschetta was good but very spicy! They do pasta well so we had rigatoni with cheese and pork cheek, and rigatoni with sausage and tomato. And that's one day finished.