Roman Holidays Part Uno

第一次去意大利，感觉已经很兴奋。八月的意大利，应该会热吧。就是这样，我们还是去。JJ was down with flu on flight to Italy Milano, so I have to stay awake and take good care of her. It was the first time that we slept on arrival at our guesthouse in Rome - in fact we have been zzing from plane to train and to guesthouse. Ignoring the pre-plan itinerary, I decided to let my wife have a good rest. It was more important to let her recover and then we could roam more subsequently.

Day 1 in Rome really started on Day 2. We did our map reading and then started our journey to Spanish Steps (where the shopping centre was near). Purposely planned this way so that we would not be "baked" so early under the hot summer sun. The Spanish Steps were nice, and the fountain caught my attention. Was a bit worried even to try to taste the water so initially we agreed to "wet" our lips - I thot that would at least provide some safety precaution in case. I got a sensitive tummy after a mini food poisoning incident in HK.  It was very hot and we took cover in the buildings' shadow. JJ told me the origin of the name "Spanish Steps" and though I didnt read properly, I still acted that I also knew - just that my wife could decipher when I "acted smart".  We did some windows shopping in the "Orchard Road" of Rome - boutiques and branded goods. Frankly, I seldom touchbased with branded goods, not even in Paris. This time I was thinking that Italy was a fashion city and really have to immerse in "designer clothes" mood. In this way, my wife said I really visited or demanded to visit most of the branded shops in Rome. 

We also wanted to do the "Roman" way - having espresso in cafe. We saw this elegant cafe known as Caffe Greco so we went in to take some cakes and kopi O.  It was then that we realised that the food was not cheap. There were also paintings and the waiters were very well-dressed in tuxedo.  Even the toilets were nice and the "toilet auntie" well-dressed. A surf on the internet revealed that this cafe was Rome's poshest kopi bar since 1760! The speciality was paradisi made with lemon and orange - Not sure if our orange cake was the one or not. But it was still a very RomanTIC experience.  A place for us to rest our tired feet and cool down.

Something that we learnt while roaming was that Pinocchio was in fact ITALIAN! yup, this really surprised us. We saw so many pinos until we convinced ourselves that he had italian citizenship. Well, one consequence from this discovery was I had to pose in a Pino shot.  Guess this served as a sweet Pino memory in our Rome adventure. Along our way, I started to recall the story and my wife did "challenge" me if I could rem the story. Frankly, the most vivid part was the nose and somehow he got swallowed by a whale.  And finally he became a real boy. I would remind my wife next time to highlight to our kids that Pino was Italian during the story-telling. Hee.