Monday, August 6, 2007

The car came for George to take him to the training center at around 8:30am, so I’m now on my own. We did find out that the restaurant downstairs was at least open for breakfast, so that was a plus. My plan for today is to buy some bottled water & get to the tourist center to find out about tours & whatnot. I’m starting to feel the effects of jet lag though & that’s probably all I’ll do & then come back to the hotel to get some sleep & wait for George. Hopefully, he was able to find out the places to go & such from the instructor of the school. Two guys from Ireland (as told by the receptionist of the hotel) & one guy from Texas are in his class, but none of them brought their wives. Lame-os!

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I set off on my first solo adventure checking out all the shops & places to go for later. It takes about 15-20 minutes of walking to get to the Piazza Maggiore & the Piazza del Nettuno. A lot more people around than yesterday. A couple of people approached me with either some sort of newspaper or pamphlet. I just responded, “No, grazie.” So, I felt pretty safe being by myself. The shops along the way are like little hallways – they’re longer than they are wide & run by East Indians that speak Italian & very little English. I’m glad I at least learned my numbers, but the European coins are more confusing. They all look similar, so you really have to look at them to see the number value on each & me with my eyesight . . . not a good combination. I think one shopkeeper got a little annoyed with me when all I did was show her a handful of change & let her pick out what she needed. Probably thinking, “Stupid, American!”

I found the tourist center & was able to find a 2 hour walking tour to the different churches & palaces. I’m looking forward to that. I have to be at the Tourist Information Office at 10:15am, Wednesday & it costs Euros 13,00 per person which converts to about $19.50. Should be interesting then afterwards, I can do my shopping. I did finally get to try a gelato . . . pistachio. It was good, tasted like very creamy ice cream. Not a big deal to me. There were a LOT of dessert (dulce – dull-cheh) & wine (vino – vee-noh) places. People would just sit at the outside tables (tavolos – tah-vo-lohs) drinking wine &/or eating their dessert taking a break from their shopping. Sounds like something I’ll be doing tomorrow! :)

I made my way back to the hotel stopping to buy some bottled water about 10 minutes from the hotel not realizing that I’d be carrying 6-1.5 liter bottles . . . a little heavy to carry all that way! I took a nap & waited for George to get back.

George described the place where the classes were to be a sort of run down warehouse. There was no AC except for 2 small units that didn’t do much & he was already tired, so it didn’t help. The instructor spoke very broken English & couldn’t explain a lot of things to the guys because when they asked questions, he didn’t know the English words to respond appropriately. Luckily for George, he understands a lot about mammography equipment, so he was somewhat able to fill in the blanks. The other guys were not so experienced so George wasn’t sure how much they actually got out of it. Come to find out too, there was one guy from Texas, but the other 2 were from Iran! Mike, the guy from Texas, said that when he told them he was from Texas, they didn’t understand where that was. But when he said, United States, he said their faces kind of dropped. He said it was a bit comical to him. George joked that if they had to, he & Mike “could take them”. (haha!) And as if the “school” itself wasn’t bad enough, for lunch, they fed them cold green beans, a small can of tuna in oil, a packet with a mozzarella ball in water & an apple. The guys joked that it was prison food, but I don’t think it was too far from the truth.

We found that Mike didn’t bring his wife because they had younger children at home with no one to watch them had she come along. The two Iranians, well, I don’t think they bring their wives ANYwhere. George invited Mike to have dinner with us, which was fine. He seemed like a nice enough guy. We made “my trek” back to the Piazza del Nettuno to try to find a place to eat. Only dessert places. Apparently, the major restaurants all shut down in August. There were only bars that served small sandwiches, desserts & drinks. We walked to the Piazza & beyond before realizing this. We finally found a place that did a buffet style dinner. It was okay & I’m sad to say that my first glass of wine was from a small twist-off cap bottle of Chianti, BUT it was really good! I guess it doesn’t all have to be from cork bottles to be good.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by to get some fresh fruit for us & water for Mike & called it a night. I had to have walked 6 or more miles today, but felt pretty good. I know poor George was tired. He didn’t get to take a nap & we’re both still trying to get our bodies adjusted to the time difference without much success.