15 November 2024: Bomarzo, Lazio, Italy—Today is the last day in Rome, and in Italy, really. It marks the end of our incredible stay in this beautiful country! Tomorrow morning, we turn in our car, head to the airport in Rome, wait for the Holland America transfer vehicle, and board our ship, the Nieuw Statendam. The ship sails at about 5:30 P.M. Italian time, and we will officially detach from Italian ground. I am sorry to leave all of the beautiful people I have met behind, but I am confident that we can maintain our relationship through social media somehow. We did not want to go to the top of a mountain today to visit a medieval or ancient town. In fact, we attempted a visit to Calcutta, Viterbo, Lazio, Italy and after actually reaching the town, we decided to move along to a different place. This one was beautiful, I am sure, but we saw that we needed to climb uphill into a fort/walled area and we just did not want to do that today. We travelled to Bomarzo, Viterbo, Lazio, instead. There, they have the Sacro Bosco (the Sacred Woods), aka the Parco dei Mostri (Park of Monsters) and The Gardens of Bomarzo (we liked the sound of the monsters best). This was a shaded, lovely, wooded area, a little bit lower in elevation from the town of Bomarzo itself, and invited visitors to walk through, admiring the stone sculptures in the park. The park dates back to about 1552, when Orsini dedicated it to his deceased wife, Giulia. It is composed of sculptures, most of which are huge, representing what appear to be monsters, animals, reptiles, gods, a giant, a temple, and even a crooked house. Why, or exactly what, about the sculptures, how they are sequenced along the trail in the park, and so on, remain a mystery, but visitors can certainly make sense of it all however they deem fit. We also wanted to drive on the Autostrada again today before leaving Italy. We drove such long stretches of the Autostrada up and down and across this beautiful country for two months, we have enjoyed the service stops and the food/coffee varieties they have offered, and we have witnessed beautiful scenery along the way. Enilive, AutoGrill, Sarai…all come to mind when we think of the comfort stops we have frequented. Driving to both Bomarzo and Calcata provided us a final opportunity to visit some. Dinner was non-remarkable, really. We just stopped at a small salumeria before arriving at our hotel, and I enjoyed a few slices of Margherita Roman pizza while John had a chunk of lasagne with ragout. There was one final thing II needed to sample before departing from Rome, however: the maritozzo. This is a doughy slightly sweet brioche-like carrier, sliced in half lengthwise, and filled with fresh whipped cream mixed with a little bit of sugar. They are not easy to find, necessarily, so I wanted to taste an authentic maritozzo, a good one, not just any I might and might not bump into. A quick Google search yielded a small bar/pastry shop called In Maratozzo as among the best, if not the best in town. Driving in Rome on a Friday night/rush hour was something any sane non-Roman resident would try to avoid, but John and I ventured toward that tiny Bar to ensure that we would leave Italy with no unfulfilled craving. John had a chocolate concoction, which he said was very good; I had the…giant MARITOZZO! It was so worth the drive (from the perspective of the passenger seat, that is)! Tomorrow morning, we will board the ship, and we willl have access to phone and internet while we are docked at port—any time we’re docked at any port. However, during sea days, we will not. We will catch up with any messages sent/emails sent whenever we’re at port. At some point, we will also update this travel blog through our transAtlantic journey, until we have arrived back home. A tutti i miei amici in Italia, alla mia Cara Famiglia in Italia, all’Italia stessa, GRAZIE, vi vogliamo tanto bene, ci mancherete, ma rimaneremo in contatto elettronicamente/via telefono/via posta. In grande abbraccio a tutti voi! And, to my precious Family back home, we have missed you more than you can know, and we look forward to being together very, very soon. Many hugs and kisses to all of you.
Our Travels 