After driving the 2 hours to Rome, we arrived in the brand new Rome Marriott Park Hotel. It is huge... but no people. It only opened in late September and is positioning itself as the largest meeting/convention space in Europe. It will take a few years I guess, and in the meantime, we are among the 30-50 people staying in a hotel that has 600 sleeping rooms. It feels surreal, and it is very different from the small wonderful hotels we have been staying in. However, it has a very American bathroom and all the amenities we were accustomed to before we left the States... tissues, lotion, bath gel, etc.
The hotel has a free shuttle into Rome, and today we are walking around the city. After our morning cappaccino, we walked along the Fiume Tevere (the river) and had lunch in Trastevere (the old, arty part of the city). Tonight we are meeting our Roman friends, Claudio and Smilja, for dinner. Again, we are having great weather and feel the sun gods have been shining on us. Our friends took us for an aperitif and then to a new restaurant where we dined in style and talked for hours. Rome is a very dynamic city both during the day and in the evening. Just finding a parking space is a normal ordeal which Romans take in stride.
On the morning of our 63rd day in Europe (and last full day in Italy), Marcia had a hotel sales staff take her on a site tour of this huge hotel in case she ever wanted to organize a conference in Italy. That led to us having lunch with the Director of Sales. While eating, the owner of the hotel came by with a group of men and we were introduced to him. As Marcia never lets an opportunity get by her, she then talked with the owner in Italian (he did not speak English) for a while. He then brought the GM of the Milan Marriott over and introduced him to us (the owner also owns the Milan and a few other Marriotts in Italy). Our friends picked us up and we went into Rome to have a real Roman meal... that means many courses of good, but not fancy, food. When the final 2 courses were brought to the table, we were already stuffed. A singer came by and played Arrivederci Roma which was quite nice given we were leaving early in the morning.
Oh, Marcia also got the hotel to take us to the airport in the morning... gratis.
Marcia added her personal comments about Cortona to a separate blog entry.
Ciao,
Joe and Marcia
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