To celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary, we spent the last two weeks in beautiful Italy. After visiting Assisi, Florence, Milan, chianti country, and Rome, we are thankful to be back in the USA.
I think we visited nearly every art gallery and famous location in each city. We enjoyed cappuccino and espresso, ate wonderful food, but still yearned for some American culture. My husband and I agree that no one does cappuccino like the Italians (Starbucks comes close) and the regular Italian coffee leaves a lot to be desired. We were happy this morning to enjoy our great American Maxwell House coffee from our own coffee maker in our kitchen.
Our last night in Rome we went to a Bruce Springsteen concert at the Olympic Stadium. Because another event was going on at near the stadium, the concert started at 10:30pm. Bruce played until just after 1:30am. Bruce and the E Street Band played an extraordinary concert and the crowd was fantastic in their appreciation.
The only problem happened after the concert when 40-60,000 fans spilled onto the street and the taxi drivers started to arrive with their usual speed (s-l-o-w-l-y). We should have had an indication of what would happen after the concert when a woman sitting next to us hinted that there might be problems with transportation after the concert. She said that "...taxi drivers in Rome don't like to come down to big events because of the traffic jams...."
After trying to flag down the few taxis that came in front of the stadium with hundreds of others, we were left tired and frustrated. For nearly two hours after the concert, we stood outside the stadium trying to catch a taxi. Finally, with the help of an American living and working in Italy, we were able to share a taxi back to our hotel. Our American "guardian angel" negotiated and yelled at a Roman taxi driver and got us the ride.
(Note to New York taxi drivers: Taxi drivers in Rome need your help on how to hustle, make more money, and be nice to passengers. I'd suggest that Roman taxi drivers attend New York taxi driving school to learn courtesy and business skills. I can also understand why there are so many Italian race car drivers. They must have all had experience driving the streets of Rome, where red lights, speed limits, parking spaces, and street directions are viewed as small suggestions.)
It is good to be back home in the USA!
