From Rome to Cosenza

Our last morning in Rome started with breakfast and making sure we had all of our things packed and ready to go!  We ate, then took all of our stuff down to the lobby for them to hold it while we went and saw one more thing in Rome: Villa Borghese!  Virginia keeps telling me that I have to go there, and Mattea mentioned it at dinner the other night. 

So, we were actually staying really close to it, and so it was truly not a far walk!  It was a bit cold outside, and I imagine the grounds of the Villa are beautiful in the spring and summer, but it was beautiful to me all the same!  After confusion over tickets not being available, then tickets not being free for me and Nick, and discounted for my momma and Barbara, and then more confusion about not being allowed to have purses...we finally went inside!  It was a BEAUTIFUL home, and there were some sculptures that Nick was really excited to see, and he shared the information with me!  It is so much fun to be able to see these things and have these in-depth, somewhat passionate, explanations of them that make it much more interesting.  Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures inside.  The house was just impressive...huge...massive...ornate...

 

 

We took our time walking around a little bit, and then headed back to the hotel.  We did not have time to really go anywhere else. We relaxed in the lobby area for a bit.  The three of them fell asleep, but I just sat there.  Then, Nick and I went to get sandwiches for lunch, and to bring sandwiches back to my momma and Barbara!  So, we walked just a little bit, checking out sandwiches from the street.  We finally settled on a place that had a sandwich that we wanted to split!  We stood at the counter and enjoyed our sandwich while talking and such.  Then, we walked back towards the hotel where we found another place to buy sandwiches that we thought my momma and Barbara would like.  We got my momma this sandwich that had a spice on the focaccia bread, and it smelled AMAZING!!

We brought their sandwiches back with them, they ate, and then we called a cab to take us to the train station.  The cab ride was fun because Nick and the guy were talking about football, which turns out that the guy liked the Washington Redskins and they were playing the Seahawks that weekend.  The guy told Nick when he could watch the game.  Then I had Nick ask him about the Italian Football League that I read about in that book "Playing for Pizza".  He confirmed that they are decent teams, but it's not that popular.  The other exciting thing was that I understood most of their conversation.  SO, the really nice cab driver dropped us off at the train station, and Nick bought his ticket.  Then we stood near the departures thing and waited for our platform #.  Nick eventually had to go catch his train.  We were standing there talking and waiting for our platform number when Nick ran up behind me, surprising me, and gave me a HUGE hug and kiss!  So sweet and thoughtful. 

We eventually got on our train, my momma and Barbara's first real Italian train, and we were off.  The train ride was rather uneventful, and we all tried to sleep some; we were pretty successful!  There were some pretty interesting people on the train, but nothing toooooo interesting. 

When we arrived at the Cosenza station, after we had switched at Paola, Francisco came to pick us up!  I was worried that we would not get all of our luggage in his car, but boys are so good at that spatial thing.  I was actually really happy to see my apartment; feels a little bit like home!  We put luggage on the elevator, and Francisco helped us!  My momma and Barbara were really impressed with the size and stuff of my apartment!  It is a nice apartment! We looked around, got settled in, I gave my momma her Christmas presents, and we just relaxed a little bit. 

It was so nice to have my momma here in my Italian home!