We did indeed land in Rome on my birthday. Today, eleven years after the event, I can still see the perpetually angry man, boarding the plane with us (I pulled his wife's hair on the flight, but it was accidental), and I remember how miffed Ronda was when I discovered that I had forgotten our Greece travel guide and had to buy another one in the airport. Other than those two little inconveniences, the safari began as we had planned.
My birthday celebration consisted of getting settled in our hostel and then eating dinner at a quiet restaurant. We toasted each other with a local red wine and ended the meal with tiramisu. We wandered the streets. Being in a city that I had only read about made my heart beat fast and brought tears to my eyes. Wait -- it was my tired feet that made me cry!
Tired feet made me change a lot of plans. This is how it happened: Ronda wanted to buy me a haircut for my birthday. After we found our hostel and ate dinner, I said I would go to the train station (about a block from our hostel) to buy a magazine. This was fine with Ronda, as she likes time to herself. There were no hairstyle magazines in the train station, so I walked a little farther. When I was ready to go back, I, not having left bread crumbs, couldn't find my way! This led to about 4 hours of walking and asking directions and more walking. Under other circumstances, it would have been a lot of fun. That quest for the perfect haircut, however, started three weeks of pain every time I walked. I stayed in the room when Ronda went out with friends (she didn't mind), we took shorter walking excursions than we'd planned, and I complained a lot.
This was not the birthday that I'd planned, but there we were, surrounded by old world architecture and art. It was amazing. After 11 years, it is STILL amazing.
Return to this blog for information about Siena, specifically how to take a shower at a hotel that charges for hot water.
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