Camino Musings

After a week in the bustling city of Lisbon, it was a relief to escape into the Portuguese countryside. We left via the Ponte 25 de Abril, almost the spitting image of the Golden Gate Bridge, for the region of the Alentejo, about a 90 minute drive southeast.

The landscape gradually changes from verdant hills to flat dry fields of wheat, vineyards, and farms of cork oak trees and eucalyptus groves. Nests of storks can be seen perched on high tension electric towers because these fields provide a never ending supply of bugs to eat.

We arrived at our hotel, the Mar d’Ar, located just inside the old town, at around 10:30 am. This five-star hotel opened in 2008 and was previously a 16th century palace. The remodel turned it into a sleek modernist structure with a portion of the town’s medieval aqueduct in its garden.

Our local guidenfor the morning walking tour was María, a charming woman with a wicked sense of humor and the characteristic demeanor of someone of the Alentejo (i.e. slow and deliberate and never in a hurry).

This town dates back to the time of the Romans (2nd Century BC) but megalithic ruins dating back to 4000 BC can be found in the area. The old town is surrounded by a 16th century aqueduct that was built on the remains of an ancient Roman one.

The architecture shows a Moorish influence, with arched and wrought iron balconies and the buildings are whitewashed and painted yellow and blue.

We saw the remnants of a Roman temple at the top of the town

and there was an adjacent park with a magnificent view of the surrounding countryside.

Other sights on our walking tour included the Church of St. James

with its magnificent Baroque altar and chapel, tile covered walls and painted ceiling; the Basilica of the Virgin of the Assumption, built in the 12th-13th centuries on the remains of a Moorish mosque in the Romanesque-Gothic style with its unusual statue of a pregnant Virgin Mary,

and the Chapel of the Bones in the Cloister of the Church of St. Francis Assisi.

Midway through the tour, Raphael, our Rick Steves tour guide, surprised us with an impromptu treat of queijadas de Évora- a cheesecake-like pastry.

Despite this treat, our stomachs were rumbling so we decided to lunch at Cafe Alentejo, feasting on the local specialty of pork cheeks, from the local black pigs, braised in wine and the crusty local bread with olives and local red wine.

There was some time for shopping (no, we did not buy this cow!) and just relaxing in the main Praça before the annual religious procession for the Feast of Corpus Christi.

We ended the evening at our hotel with a happy hour of local wines, bread, cheeses and cured meats, fresh cherries and figs. No need for dinner tonight!

Well, we are winding up our stay in Lisbon. It’s been seven days of climbing hills, eating custard tarts (pasteis de nata) and drinking ginjinha and vinho verde. My main impression of this city is that of brilliant light- the sun reflecting off the yellow and white buildings, the limestone and basalt patterned Calçada pavement art and the open hearts of the Lisboeta (natives of Lisbon).

The most striking image of image is that of the patterns formed by small hexagonal bits of the characteristic white and black stones on the Praças and sidewalks, painstakingly placed by hand by skilled workers using only a hammer with only sand between the stones. However, these pavements become quite treacherous when wet, morphing into impromptu skating rinks!

On this last day in this charming city caught in a tourist boom, we visited sites west and north of the city center – Belém and the Gulbenkian Museum. After all the miles of walking these past six days, we were overjoyed to finally be taking a bus. Belém is only five miles from the city center and is the site of the Jeronimos Monastery (built in the 16th century), the Monument of the Explorers and the Tower of Belém. And one cannot forget the famous pasteis de Belém (the custard tart found throughout the city but most famous here because of its secret recipe). We first visited the Monument of the Explorers where Rafaele explained the voyages if the Portuguese Explorers who used the water route to expand the spice (and slave) trade, gain colonies in Africa and Asia, and develop into a world power in the late 15th and 16th centuries.

The monument depicts individuals who contributed to Portugal’s rapid rise to become one of the world’s greatest powers – from Vasco da Gama to St.Francis Xavier to Prince Henry the Navigator.

We then visited the Jeronimos Monastery cloister and church. This neo-Gothic Church miraculously escaped major damage in the earthquake of 1755 and hold the empty tombs of King Sebastian (killed in a battle with the Moors in Africa, dying without an heir, resulting in the crown transferring to Spain – his remains were never found and there remains to this day a cult Sebastianists that are still waiting for the king to return and solve Portugal’s problems) and Camões, the Portuguese Shakespeare who wrote a classic epic poem describing the history of the country.

The Monastery at its height housed about 100 monks of the order of St. Jerome.

The Belém Tower was a strategic building that protected the harbor from foreign invaders. It is built on a basalt outcropping on the waterfront.

The church, Monastery, tower and voyages were in large part bankrolled by the Knights Templar and the symbol of the Templar cross is ubiquitous on these structures.

Of course, we sampled a custard tart, too, to complete the touristic experience!

We the rode the bus to the Gulbenkian Museum, one of the world’s greatest private art collections donated to the city by the famous Armenian oil magnate.

Mr. Gulbenkian really liked cats, as evidenced by one of the ancient Egyptian objects.

We walked back to the hotel (about a 45 minute stroll) and relaxed a couple of hours before riding in yuk-Turks to our final dinner at a small family restaurant, Casa Aberta, in the Graca neighborhood, high up on one of the hills.

The view was outstanding and the meal was home style Portuguese cooking.

We started our day on the metro, with a wasted fare for a short ride to the next stop, most likely to introduce us on how it works. Actually it’s just like every other subway (except for the beautiful tile murals that grace the walls) I’ve used – wave the fare card over the sensor and walk through the open turnstiles! After an introduction to the Rossio and Figueroia plazas, we began our climb up to the Castelo S. Jorge, which has a great view but virtually nothing remaining if the original structure. It was rebuilt in the 1940s by the Salazar government to resemble the original 1500s fortress. With its crenellations it certainly has a Moorish appearance. On the way up the hilly streets and many steps, examples of street art can be seen.

These murals celebrate Fado, a soulful form of singing that is characteristic of Portugal.

On the way to the castle we stopped to catch our breath in addition learning a few fact about St. Anthony who was born in Lisbon.

The castle is pretty much an expensive tourist trap. But they do have some interesting wildlife!

The views of the surrounding city were impressive, too.

The bridge seen in the distance of this glorious view was designed by the same company as the Bay Bridge.

We then strolled down through the Alfama, learning of its unique culture, with a surprise stop for homemade bacalao fritters and ginjinha.

These tasted soooo much better than the one we sampled yesterday that had melted cheese in the center!

The walk ended around 12:30 pm and we retired to the hotel for a short rest, after which we returned to the oldest book store (in the world- established 1752) to look for translations of books by Pessoa and Camões. We came up empty-handed but did pass a couple of hours people watching at the outdoor seating of the Cafe Brasileiro when we each had a beer

and shared a ham and cheese sandwich ( nothing special but tasted great!). We also sampled a pasteis da Nata straight out of the oven. The highlight was trying to figure out how this busker appears to be suspended in mid-air!

After a gelato, we went back to the hotel to relax before dinner and Fado. The venue was not a theater, but rather the Casa Alentejo, previously used as a casino but now used as a meeting place and event venue. Delicious appetizers (cheeses, cured sausage, fava beans, chick peas with cod and olives) preceded the meal of pork loin or salmon.

We had a private Fado performance by Ines Graca and Ines Briho accompanied by guitars.

Fado, loosely translated as fate or destiny, is sung by women in Lisbon and many times tells the sad stories of lost love. It was a lovely evening with two talented vocal artists.

After all the steps we’ve clocked on the Fitbit these past four days, it was time to give those tootsies a little break! We had nothing planned for the morning or afternoon (our first meeting with the Rick Steves group was scheduled for 5 pm), so after we dropped off a load of dirty laundry at the 5e dry cleaners located not too far from the Rossio train station we proceeded to the Praça do Comércio to the tourist trap ticket booth. Yep, we were going to ride a double decker tour bus for a couple of hours. We chose the “Modern Lisbon” itinerary of the Yellow Bus Company that traverses the eastern portion of the city in the direction of the site of the 1998 World Expo because we figured that this was the one part of Lisbon that wouldn’t be covered on any of our pre-arranged tours. It really wasn’t that interesting- basically the old shipping port area that was the site of the world fair had been transformed into a shopping and residential area with an impressive train station (Oriente station) and a gigantic shopping mall that rivals anything you see in the States. Since we still had quite a bit of time to kill and we didn’t want to walk around, we stayed on the bus for a second round. The most exciting part of the ride was dodging the branches of the overhead trees! We did get to see a cruise ship (the Aida) in port but as our bus tour itinerary was pretty mundane it did not attract any of the cruise passengers! Despite the coolish temperature (70ish) and the brisk wind at the top level of the double decker, I look like I spent the afternoon at the beach without benefit of sunscreen!

After about four hours of riding (rather than walking) around and seeing the bullfighting stadium and some interesting street art we disembarked near the Rossio train station. Tony was obsessed with sampling the bacalhau (salted codfish) and potato fritter and we still had about an hour before we could pick up our clean laundry. A pitstop at Starbucks (to use the rest room, one needs to purchase an item and then there is a restroom access code on the receipt) was necessary and then he got to try the “interesting” combination of fish, mashed potatoes, and gooey cheese! The Italians are absolutely correct that fish and cheese are not compatible 🤮.

After we returned to the hotel, we had a short respite before meeting the people with who we would be sharing the next 11 days. Rafaele, our guide, is passionate about his country and enthusiastic about sharing this passion. We will also be learning some Portuguese on this tour – today’s word of the day: saudade (untranslatable but sort of means the presence of absence – missing someone or something, a sort of melancholy). After going through the logistics of the tour, we convened in the lobby for a walking tour of the Bairro Alto ( which we already toured yesterday with Ian from Context). Of course, the St.Anthony feast was still going on and we even got to see some street poetry. The highlight was Rafaele’s recitation of a poem by Portugal’s most famous poet, Fernando Pessoa.

We concluded the evening at Leao d’Ouro with a meaty dinner (lamb, chicken, beefsteak and pork sausages) accompanied by rice and black beans, fried potatoes and salad, red wine included! I passed on the bread, potatoes, and lime dessert- I have a mother-of-the groom dress fitting when I return home!

By the way, we still walked 15,849 steps today!

Lisbon’s topography consists of a flat central “valley” with the neighborhood of Baixa that extends from the waterfront along the Tagus River flanked by two hills, the Alfama to the east and the Bairro Alto to the west. Baixa was pretty much destroyed by the earthquake of 1755 that devastated the city and was entirely rebuilt in a grid pattern whereas the other two neighborhoods were relatively spared and maintain the tangle of steep and narrow streets that date back to the 1500s.

Today we took two walking tours led by Context Travel that explores these areas. We started at 9:30 am with Ian, our guide. Originally from Liverpool, England, he has been living in Lisbon for four years after a ten-year stay in Italy where he also worked as a guide for Context. He has a Masters degree in archeology and his engaging personality certainly made him quite entertaining. We were lucky to be the only clients for the morning tour. As we strolled the narrow winding streets that were deserted on this cool, sunny Sunday morning, he briefed us on the history of Portugal from the times of the Celts in 700 BC up to the great earthquake of 1755.

The streets were decorated for the month-long celebration of the Feast of St.Anthony but the revelers were probably sleeping off the libations of the prior evening and we were pretty much the only ones walking along the streets. This was traditionally (and still is) a rough neighborhood inhabited primarily by students. We visited Sao Roque Church, an incredibly elaborate 16th Century Jesuit house of worship dedicated to the patron saint who protects from disease and plague. The most expensive chapel in Portugal was also constructed in Rome and transported to this church – the Chapel of St. John the Baptist. It is rich in precious materials such as gold, blue lapis, and marble and the “paintings” on the walls are actually mosaics!

We also saw the ruins of the Convento do Carmo, destroyed by the 1755 earthquake. We then descended to the Baixa and walked down to the Praça do Comércio along the River, where our morning tour ended. We had a quick lunch break

before our 2:00 pm afternoon tour of the Alfama. In contrast to the morning tour, this one was all uphill! The Alfama was the area where sailors resided, and, in contrast to the Bairro Alto, remains a vibrant residential neighborhood. The area directly adjacent to the Castelo Sao Jorge, however, has transformed into a tourist Mecca, filled with air B&Bs, restaurants and souvenir shops. On the way up, we saw ruins of a Roman theater

The Alfama really celebrates St. Anthony and remnants of the festival can be seen around every corner.

There was even an elderly woman selling homemade Ginjinha from her front door!

As we descended, we were able to get some great views of the city.

By this time, our feet were throbbing and a great thirst overcame us! We ended our tour at 5 pm with a tall cool beer in a small hole-in-the-wall bar in the basement of a church.

At this point, we had logged over 17,000 steps on the Fitbit, and we still had about another mile to get back to the hotel for a quick rest before our 7 pm dinner reservation at Maria Catita, an Azorean restaurant recommended by Estella, our Sintra guide.

Our final tally was over 24,000 steps, 9.75 miles, and I think we earned our dinner.

Octopus salad

Azorean-style steak with fried potatoes for Tony

Grilled tuna with veggies and caramelized onions for me

The only pre-planned activity for today was a food tour. I have been on many food tours in many cities both in the United States and abroad, my first over 20 years ago in the Little Italy neighborhood of the North End in Boston, and I am a food tour junkie. The best ones take you off the beaten track, away from the tourist areas, to experience traditional and local delicacies prepared by local purveyors predominantly for the inhabitants of the neighborhood. In addition to filling your belly, you also get to learn about the natives’ customs and culture and even a dose of history! These food tours usually last for 3-4 hours and are frequently led by someone who hated his/her original job and decided to change professions because they “love food and love talking to clients”. I have experienced amazing food tours in Florence (Italy) led by a young man trained in political science who focused on political and social culinary history, in the Lower East Side of New York City focusing on Jewish cuisine led by a professional chef and cookbook author who was a Sephardic Jew, and a tapas tour of Madrid led by a young woman who was an expert in jamon iberico ( a super expensive ham similar to prosciutto, costing upwards of 120 euros per kilo – that’s more than $80 per pound). Then there are the more commercial touristy ones led by the disgruntled accountants or unemployed recent college grads that take clients to sample the “best” local pizza/chocolates/ beer/etc., with an additional 20% discount card if you return to the pizza joint/ candy store/brew house within 48 hours. After some research on the internet, I came across a company that specializes in the backstreet culinary experience, aptly called Culinary Backstreets, and offers tours in many international cities.

So, for more than SIX hours today, our merry band of six (a Canadian couple, two young women from London, and us) traipsed the streets of the Campo de Ourique residential neighborhood of Lisbon sampling traditional Portuguese cuisine and basically consuming three small meals in addition to many tastes of different foods.

We met our guide, a young attorney who was disenchanted with the legal profession (sound familiar?), at the entrance to the Jardim da Estrela (a lovely park/public garden) where we strolled the grounds after having our morning cafe (espresso) and a Jesuite pastry (a flaky pastry originally made by a local Jesuit order).

Then we were off to the local indoor market in the Campo de Ourique. Martim explained some of the political history of the neighborhood, how it was a center for intellectuals during the 40+years of the fascist regime of Salazar. He also took us to various vendors, explaining the different seafood typically used in local cuisine.

Snails are in season!

They are cooked in butter and garlic (we did not get to sample them). We learned about the piri-piri sauce made with Birdseye chili peppers

and sampled canned stuffed squid

chorizo sausage

grilled sardines

a stew made with fava beans, pork ribs and sausage

as well as a selection of cheeses, several bottles of vinho verde, local beers, gelato made in the traditional Italian style by a transplanted Calabrian, and we sampled examples of food inspired by the Portuguese colonies in India and Africa. We ended our tour, six hours and 5,000 steps later, with the traditional pasteis da Nata custard tart.

With bellies full, we walked the mostly downhill streets to the center of Lisbon. The rest of the evening included a postprandial snooze, another walk along the Avenida da Liberdade (a wide boulevard flanked by high end fashion designers’ shops, grand hotels, and fancy restaurants), and no dinner!

Just a 40-minute train ride from the Rossio train station in Lisbon lies the magical village of Sintra. A summer retreat for the aristocracy of Portugal, this charming, almost Disney-esque destination lies between Lisbon and the Atlantic Ocean. Context Travel, a unique company that specializes in small tour groups (maximum of six people) led by “docents” with at least a Masters degree in art history, archeology, or other relevant fields of study, was the venue we chose to guide us on our day trip to this popular location. Estella, our docent, has a Masters degree in art history as well as an extensive background working in museums in Lisbon as well as London ( at Buckingham Palace, no less!). She was personable, enthusiastic, and very knowledgeable in the history associated with the sights we visited. We joined up with her and the rest of our small group of six outside the Starbucks at the train station where she began by explaining the history of the train station and providing some interesting anecdotes including the story of the missing statue of King Sebastian that used to grace a niche at the front of the station but was irreparably damaged in 2016 by a tourist who had climbed up on the statue to take a “selfie”! The story of Sebastian would prove to be relevant later on the tour.

A quick 40 minutes later we disembarked at Sintra and walked to our first destination, the National Palace.

It dates back to the time of the Moorish domination in the 11th and 12th centuries, but most of the Palace was built during the 15th century reign of King Joao I. It housed the royal family until 1910. Most of the architecture is of the Manueline style. Although it is no longer inhabited, the Palace is still used for official government functions.

Several of the rooms had ceilings decorated with bird motifs- the swans representing an alliance with the British aristocracy, the magpies representing the stealing of the kingdom by Joao (who was not from Portugal) (or the alternative story that he was caught stealing the attentions of ladies in waiting).

The walls were elaborately decorated with 15th century Moorish tiles brought from Spain.

The story of King Sebastian, the 23 year old ruler who was killed in a war with the Moors and whose remains were never found, was further elucidated, along with the story of the Sebastianists who waited (and are still waiting) for his return.

Probably the most photographed object is the portrait of John the Baptist who appears to be wearing a negligee (it’s actually an apron!)

After a break for refreshments (and a traditional local pastry), we began the long climb to the Quinta da Regaleira. The mansion and its elaborate gardens were built between 1896 and 1910 by a billionaire, Antonio Carvalho Montero, who made his fortune in Brazil, and designed by an Italian set designer, Luigi Manini, in a weird melange of Manueline, gothic and Renaissance styles. The gardens are magnificent, with waterfalls, exotic plants, tunnels, and a spiral staircase enclosed well that was reportedly used in the initiation rituals of the order of Masons. We descended the depths of the well and explored the tunnels before touring the less impressive mansion.

This concluded our official tour and we spent the rest of the afternoon (after a relaxing lunch at a small family restaurant with our tour mates) exploring the grounds of one of the other palaces, the Pena Palace, built by German-born Prince Ferdinand in the 19th century. The multicolored edifice is truly reminiscent of Cinderella’s castle in Disneyland! The castle is perched at the top of one of the many hills and a 15-minute hair raising taxi ride was preferable to a one hour uphill climb! There was still an additional 10 minute steep climb through the gardens to the castle. We decided to forgo the visit to the castle but the view of the surrounding countryside was amazing!

Another hair raising taxi ride down to the train station and we were back in Lisbon around 5:30 pm, and then we had to do a little shopping at Lisbon’s oldest hat store, Chapelaria Azevedo Rua, so Tony could purchase a chapeau to protect his scalp from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. We couldn’t resist the call of the Starbucks at the train station this time.

The evening was capped off with a pleasant dinner at a small family restaurant that specializes in tapas (Da Venda Lusitana) and an after dinner stroll to the waterfront.

The almost unbearable chore of the travel day started yesterday at the Toronto airport around 2:15 pm when we arrived at the departure gate four hours early. We had spent the prior evening at an airport hotel and despite a late checkout we couldn’t find much to occupy the pre- departure time. There’s only so much daytime television one can abide before totally losing sanity! The flight to Frankfurt on Lufthansa thankfully left on time and we were upgraded to Premium Economy (i.e. more legroom, meals served on real plates, not plastic ones, with metal cutlery and a large seatback monitor). Not quite business class but better than the poor souls in Economy Lite (where you are basically sitting in the fetal position eating lean cuisine-style meals). The food on Lufthansa is much better than Delta (no surprise there) and Alitalia (there goes the reputation for Italian cuisine), with an Indian vegetarian entree that was spicy AND tasty and yogurt (instead of the dreaded Hot Pockets wannabes that I have recently been offered on the other two airlines) for breakfast. We arrived in Frankfurt on time, took the customary bus ride from the plane to the terminal and got through passport control in record time, (we jumped the line) thanks to the 75 euro extra added service of a personal escort from gate to gate. I guess that I can technically add Germany to the list of countries I have visited since we spent about 90 minutes at the gate. Here is proof that we were in Germany- a sausage fast food restaurant!

The flight to Lisbon had over an hour late departure time, but we didn’t care as we had no further flight connections.

Arriving at the Hotel Lisboa Plaza was a relief after all the hours of waiting and in-flight time. The taxi ride was quick and inexpensive (about 11 euros). A shower, teeth brushing and change of clothes do wonders to refresh the body and mind. Today is the Feast of St. Anthony, the patron saint of Portugal, who was born in Lisbon in 1195. The city has been in celebration mode for the past couple weeks and many of the parks scattered throughout the city have set up musical stages and food booths. One of these is just a block away from our hotel. We couldn’t resist trying one of the traditional specialties, grilled sardines. They are cooked over coals, head and all, and can be served alone, with bread, or with other grilled fish and meats. The bones are very fine and can be eaten, but I refuse to snack on fish heads!

We usually like to orient ourselves to a new city by strolling the main thoroughfares. We walked down to the waterfront on the banks of the Tagus (Tejo) River, passing several of the main Praças (like the plazas in Spain and piazzas in Italy). Along the way we sampled the traditional liqueur called ginjinha, made from a berry that tastes like sour cherries and a local draft beer at the Museu (yes, that’s Museum) of Beer.

At this point, our stomachs were rumbling as the two sardines that we shared had been completely digested, so we were in search of a restaurant for dinner. The Rick Steves guide book recommended a place close to our hotel so we gave Restaurante di Gina a try. I had a wonderful grilled sea bass, Tony had cod and octopus prepared “Portuguese style” baked in a wood oven, and our “dessert” was a glass (small) of port wine.

After such a substantial dinner, we needed a long walk, so we joined the thousands of others on their evening passeggiata (Italian word) /paseo (Spanish). There are 275 steps up to the Barrio Alta on the western part of the central city, with outdoor restaurants arranged on the stair landings. We climbed up to the top and then came back down, thereby completing our cardio workout for the day!

It has been a long, sleep-deprived day so we returned to the hotel for a well deserved rest. But not before a visit to the famous (infamous) Fantastic World of Portuguese Sardines! It was surreal, with walls covered with colorful cans of sardines.

It would be great to buy some as small gifts, but I don’t want to lug around a bunch of sardine cans for two weeks! Tomorrow we have a private tour of some of the castles in Sintra, the neighboring town and I am fading – so good night,all!

It’s been a while – about 7 months – since the last adventure and the last blog post. This time we are off to Portugal. We drove from Pittsburgh to Toronto today to take advantage of the cheaper airfares. It took about 6 hours, not too bad taking into account two bathroom breaks and a bit of rush hour traffic around Hamilton, Ontario. Our flight tomorrow leaves (hopefully) at 6:40 pm with a 1 hour 20 minute connection in Frankfurt before we depart for Lisbon. I’m a bit anxious of the tight connection, especially since today’s flight to Frankfurt left 2 1/2 hours late!

We will be spending some independent travel time before we join an 11-day Rick Steve’s tour (“Heart of Portugal”). We will extend the tour by two days with more independent time in Porto (we are aficionados of port wine) before returning home.

Although we are staying at the airport Fairfield Inn, after we perused the restaurant’s limited and definitely unhealthy menu, we decided to stroll over to the neighboring Hilton Garden Inn for our evening repast. It’s a much newer hotel with a much better restaurant, in terms of both menu and ambience. So we toast to the beginning of our next Camino (no, we’re not walking the Camino Portuguese, although we are in way better physical shape than we were when we did the Camino in Spain two years ago!).

I hope that this beer will be prophetic and you will be entertained by this “witty traveler”.

Well, another adventure is coming to a close. After 30 days in Italy, I’m packed and ready to come home. The weather has been pretty awful in Italy this past week, with hurricane force winds, torrential rainfall and flooding in north and central parts of the country as well as in Sicily. Today’s rain persisted until mid-afternoon. The temperatures have also dropped into a more typical autumn-type range. My morning was spent just relaxing in my hotel room as the simple act of venturing outside would result in a thorough soaking. The afternoon was spent with my cousin’s daughter at her apartment. I met her lovable but crazy dog (imagine a pup with ADHD!), she prepared lunch and we took the dog for a messy and muddy romp in a nearby park.

She drove me back to the hotel around 5 p.m. and I hung out at the hotel bar talking to an older couple schedule to start a repositioning cruise tomorrow (when a cruise ship moves to the Caribbean ports of call). I met up for dinner with a woman who gas been in one of my classes in Salerno. We dined at a small trattoria in Trastevere (Casa Mia) and I was struck by the view of St. Peter’s Basilica dome and the Ponte Sisto on the walk back to the hotel.

There was one last gelato in Roma before returning to the hotel.

I’m up bright and early in the morning as I have reserved transportation to the airport at 6:45 a.m. Arrivederci, Roma – until next year.