[EUROBOUT CONTINENTAL CAROUSEL - 1984] DAY 12

Travel Notes
August 22, 1984 - Day 22
ITALY

Rome - City Tour

We saw in daylight all the sights of last night; and it has confirmed my initial reaction that the night view is a much better way to meet Rome for the first time. Daylight has a certain edge, a harshness that throws the defects into sharper focus.

We were able to walk into the Colosseum, and when one thinks of all the years it's been standing there...it boggles the mind.

At the Vatican City, Ma and I visited interior of St. Peter's, where I saw my first saint under glass, Pope Pius X. He looks like he just fell asleep, and for some reason his face is black.

There is a major reason to be in St. Peter's by day - while the piazza view awesome at night, the Basilica interior by day is beyond words. To view works of Michelangelo and Bernini in their natural settings is to know a dream come to life! All those magnificent marble figures are breath-taking, in the most literal way, if only because of the angle at which one has to crane one's neck to view them!

At the Sistine Chapel, getting a stiff neck a distinct probability, if one has not developed one after St. Peter's. I never realized till the guide mentioned it, the challenge of getting the perspective and proportions right. In fresco painting, the painters work about two to four feet from the surface of the ceiling. However, frescoes are meant to be viewed from the floor - which is a very long way down, which naturally alters prespective and point of view. Somehow, Michelangelo made it all work out : but then again, his Pieta was a master work accomplished at age 25!

On to the Vatican Museum, where the sensory overload from the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's is nothing to what is in here. The operative phrase would be "antiquities galore", no wonder Rome has always been a "must" for every traveler doing the Grand Tour since the 1700s.

Dinner was a proper dinner in an authentic (they claim) Italian trattoria: a buffet of cold cuts, salad, tuna, omelet, bell peppers in sauce, and watermelon, with vino bianco. We were distributed along two tables on the terrace, lighted up with candles - once some enterprising body found the switch, the electric lights went out and improved the ambiance provided by the light Italian melodies.

Being both young and hungry, I took second helpings of the omelet and watermelon. Basil set the pace and soon the atmosphere was crackling with bonhomie so that by the time the pasta arrived, I managed to tuck away into that with gusto; ditto for the veal scallopine, though others had cried a halt.

That night I made a name for myself as a gourmet/gourmand of the first water. To be fair, the pauses between each course were quite long, so there was enough time to properly digest one's food. Between courses there was music, singing, and good-natured repartee.

Bart came out to check on us and the musicians began "the chicken dance"! Carmen and Yolande dragged him down the steps and made him show us how it was done, thus providing us with several moments of hilarity.
There must have been something in the dessert...because between that and the coffee, Yolande lost her usual restraint and pulled Earl out of his seat for some few bars of slow dancing. Which gave our biddies a lot to cackle gleefully about!

Bart, who had taken a seat at Carmen's table, said it took "13 days, 7 hours, 2 minutes and 15 seconds" for the dam to break. Certainly anyone with any heat sense would have felt the warmth in Earl's face!  It was rather encouraging to see that he's definitely a man so in love with his wife, that he can't dance with another woman without blushing, even in the line of duty : after ten years of marriage, mind!

Bart came to visit our table and Basil remarked on my food intake. In keeping with our running gag, Bart claimed the tire over which I was sitting was going flat because of my weight. In response I claimed I didn't know him at all and feigned righteous indignation at his allegation. I made him work to get back into my good graces with"forgiveness" granted over a glass of wine. Then I went and hid the keys to the bus under the table napkin as a parting shot.

Arriving at the hotel, decided to take the merriment to the limit and bussed Earl on the cheek, by way of thanks for a delightful evening. Fortunately, it was well taken. I suspect Earl is used to such "under the influence" actions. Basil remarked that any man who comes to call on me should have his resume and prospects sent to Trinidad for evaluation and approval...this comment was brought on by how Carmen and Jun were matchmaking me to Gene's son. The lad seems personable enough, but it was a very Miles Standish-Priscilla Mullens sort of wooing.

So in keeping with Filipino custom, I "threatened" to make them my wedding sponsors (ha!) and take them for everything they had as wedding gifts.