Saturday, September 20, 2014

Does a Birthday Count if It's in Italy?



My birthday dinner on the terrace of a beautiful restaurant in Rome finished with this dessert, which I had not ordered.  I imagine the hotel had told the restaurant when they made the reservation for us.  It was a sweet gesture on everyone's part, except for the fact that we were charged for the dessert!  Oh well.

And how had the hotel known about my birthday? Well, apart from the fact I milked it in making the reservation and asking for a room with a view, they had ordered, at my darling husband's request, a huge bouquet of flowers for my room. And sent up a bottle of Prosecco from the management!  How sweet was that?


But the best thing about my birthday was the four hours we spent riding around Rome on the back of a Vespa, well yes, actually two Vespas since Gene came too.  Just a few weeks ago I came across a reference online to ScooterRoma and I was hooked.  Vintage Vespas? Sold!  Valerio and Lorenzo turned up at our hotel at 10:00 and dropped us off at 2:00.  I could have kept going all day.  





We've been to Rome many times before and never really loved it, but seeing it this way, along with the intelligent history and background we got from Valerio, a historian by training, was an experience not to be missed.  Not only that, we had loved the recent Italian film The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) with its views of a non- touristy Rome and locations we couldn't identify.  When I signed up for the tour I mentioned this and we visited several of the sites.  Too cool!



Other than that, how was Rome? Frankly, still don't love it.  But that was sure a great birthday!



1 comment:

Amanda said...

Happy birthday! What a wonderful gift to see Rome with a guide, on vespas. Way to go!