RANDOM TRE

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=50 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="0ab0ce82egerdp.png"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=95 BGCOLOR="#CC99CC" TEXT="#080000" background="0aa265f1ezuady.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>Hynda and Nolan's  Rome and Other Adventures</B></FONT><B>  </B><B> </B><B>|   </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hynda and Nolans Rome and Other Adventu"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id251.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ROME FALL 2010"><U>ROME - FALL 2010</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id252.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PEOPLE"><U>PEOPLE</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id253.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="RANDOM UNO"><U>RANDOM UNO</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id254.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SICILY"><U>SICILY</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id255.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="RANDOM DUE"><U>RANDOM DUE</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id256.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="HASH RUNS"><U>HASH RUNS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id257.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BIKING"><U>BIKING</U></A>   |   <B>RANDOM TRE</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=385 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#FFFF33" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>RANDOM TRE</I></div> <div> <I><B>Ariccia</B></I></div> <bR> <div> A colleague of the Queen from NIH was attending a meeting in Ariccia. We decided to have lunch with him and his family so we took the train the Ariccia. It is located about one hour away by train in the Castelli Romani hills southeast of Rome. In the photo below the Queen is standing on a bridge that was first built in 1854 to span the valley. It was destroyed by the retreating Germans during World War II and rebuilt in 1947 only to crumble in 1967. The large building to the left behind the Queen is the Chigi Palace - owned by the Chigi family that produced a number of Popes. The church to the right and the square in front of it was designed by Bernini working for Pope Alexander VII, a Chigi Pope.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="137844b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> …another view of the bridge and the town.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="137a44b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> The town of Ariccia is known for its pork and there are a lot of restaurants that advertise `porchetta'.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="137c44b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Before lunch we sampled some `dolce' (sweets) in the town. Anna, the daughter of the Queen's friend Tony tried one.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="137e44b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> We walked around the town looking for some place to have lunch but it was a national holiday in Italy and nothing was open so we went back to the hotel. The table we sat at was under a leaking roof and we used wine glasses to capture the rain water until we were moved. This is the collection of umbrellas at the entrance to the hotel.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="138044b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> At the train station going back we noticed a number of young people waiting for the train who were singing songs and doing a choreographed dance routine to the music. </div> <div> The King decided to join the circle and try to follow them. That is the King in the gray jacket.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="138244b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Aqueduct Park</B></I></div> <bR> <div> One afternoon we decided to visit the Aqueduct park. This is a linear park located on the south side of Rome reached by subway. It is not visited by many tourists but many Italians go there to run, walk and bike. I had visited it with the Queen's brother Doug when he visited us in 2004 but the Queen had never been there. </div> <div> <IMG SRC="138644b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Seven of the aqueducts that brought water to Rome passed through the area of the park. They stand quite tall in places with the Aqueduct Claudio being 28 meters (90 feet) high in places. </div> <div> <IMG SRC="138444b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> When you take the train in from the airport or you take any train south - like to Naples - you pass the park. In fact the aqueducts at one point cross over the train tracks. In the photo below the train tracks are right behind the fence on the left.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="138844b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> The aqueducts were truly an engineering marvel. In the following photo you can see the mountains in the distance where of the aqueducts started. They are many miles away and the designers had to make sure that the water would flow downhill for up to 40 miles.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="138a44b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> The Queen is holding a part of a brick from one of the aqueducts which we brought home. </div> <div> <IMG SRC="138c44b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> This is part of the Aqueduct Felice which was built in the 16<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> century.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="138e44b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> The aqueduct park is close to Cinecitta which is a large movie studio in Rome. This sidewalk had stars with movie star names embedded in it. Many American movies like Ben Hur were filmed there and most of the Fellini movies.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="139044b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Bunga Bunga - Evolution of Man</B></I></div> <bR> <div> This was a sign we saw all over Rome. The three pictures on the poster are all of the Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlesconi. His most recent escapade involved a party with young girls including one that was only 17 - these parties are known as Bunga-Bunga parties. If you look up Bunga Bunga on the internet the definition is: `Savagely brutal anal gang-rape. Fabled punishment for trespassing on the tribal land of a fictitious African tribe. Death by bunga-bunga.' Actually it sounds like the old King joke except it is `Ru - Ru'.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="139244b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>The Banshee Hat</B></I></div> <bR> <div> About 25 years ago I got a Banshee hat which was a model of and engine that was used in motorcycles and ATVs that Yamaha made. I had left it in Rome and it finally fell apart and I threw it out. Both of the King's sons could not believe that I still had it but both were sad to see it go in the trash.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="139444b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Take a Number</B></I></div> <bR> <div> One thing that is fairly typical in the US is the numbers you take in a store to set an order for service. You never see this in Italy - people just normally group up and are pretty good about who is served next. We went to a very popular pizza place in Trastevere to get a slice of piazza and we found that they had a `take a number' system. The photo shows the numbered tags you take - they all seemed to be J6. It was only after we rolled off ten numbers and found ten more J7s that we realized that the next digit on all the tickets had been cut off so this was useless but very Italian. </div> <div> <IMG SRC="139644b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Rome Flooded</B></I></div> <bR> <div> On our last day in Rome we visited the museum in the Victor Emmanuelle building. In one exhibit it had aerial maps of </div> <div> Rome over the years and many photos. This one is of the forum completely under water. It was taken in the 1910s before the wall was put along the Tevere to keep the flood waters out of the city. </div> <div> <IMG SRC="139844b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Birthday at Lampada</B></I></div> <bR> <div> This year we spent the last night, which was the King's birthday, at Lampada. They picked out a very nice wine for us that was not on our bill and they made one of my favorite dishes - caramelized onions.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="139c44b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="139a44b30.jpg" border=0 width="580" height="435" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>