Rome Day 1, 31 July 2019

After a frantic morning of packing and last minute items, we headed off to the airport with Madeleine. Just as we approached SFO, I asked Madeleine to check which terminal Norwegian Air was in, as my phone was charging. When she did, she did not see it and said she thought they only flew out of Oakland. A closer look at the ticket showed the departure airport as “San Francisco/Oakland OAK which meant we went to the wrong airport! Luckily we we still early, so we got back on 101 which was packed, headed across the San Mateo bridge, and made it to Oakland airport 90 minutes before departure. Whew, I will never do that again. We got checked in and settled, they loaded early, and the rest of the flight was uneventful.

Landing in Rome, a very long line for passports, and when we came out there must have been 50 people with handwritten signs, preprinted signs, even iPads, with the names of people they were picking up. We found our guy, walked to a huge parking area all of black Mercedes, and had a nice ride to the Chiostro del Bramante. the driver expertly navigated the tiny streets only as wide as the car with pedestrians on both sides. We meet Alessandro who gave us an introduction and a map. The loft is in a cloister attached to Bramante’s beautiful octagonal Chiesa di Santa Maria Della Pace, not far from Piazza Navona (with a beautiful Rafael painting just inside).  We unpacked (carryons only this trip!) and decided to go to the Pantheon, which does not require tickets.

We headed out, somehow turned around and went west instead of east, could tell by the shadows were going the wrong way, so we backtracked and found the piazza, teeming with tourists. We headed to the Pantheon, an engineering marvel 2,000 years old. How they built the concrete dome by lightening the stone mixture at each level was an engineering achievement. We then headed to Campi del Fiore not far away to find a place to go eat.

And we found Osteria 140 which specializes in seafood, and it was superb. The waiter gave us some good advice on wine, and they comped us two cuttlefish arancIni which were wonderful. We ordered sautéed scallops with sea lettuce and lime foam, delicate and delicious, which came with a tiny fresh baked round of bread and olive oil from Puglia. Then Barney had the large tortellini stuffed with tuna with a shrimp sauce, and I had squid with asparagus, egg yolk powder, blue “coral” made from cabbage, on a zucchini smear. We we starting to tire so we skipped dessert but they gave us some  delicious chocolate biscuits and a tiny batch to bring back. It was a small place, warm and welcoming, definitely a great find, thanks to the list Alessandro gave us. We stopped at a grocery on the way home to get some breakfast things, and sank into bed.