Week #5: April 2-8

Emily headed home on Saturday and Lance and I were still tired from the week, the walking, the eating so Sunday was a day of rest. Lance went for a run and I made dinner in the apartment but that was it! Felt good to rest!

On Monday, we headed up to the Borghese Gardens to see that neighborhood because it was a lovely day and rain is in the forecast. The whole place is quite large – the Rome zoo is there as well as some smaller museums, there is a lake where you can rent row boats inhabited by hundreds of turtles. It’s a lovely spot to spend a few hours. There is a well known, romantic overlook where you can see the city from the hill so we checked that out too. We walked from there down the Spanish Steps and found a rooftop bar that had been recommended for an aperitivo. The bar was very expensive (20 euro for a Spritz) but the view was worth it. After our break, we headed down to check out the huge building called the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II; also known as Altara della Patria (altar of the fatherland). Turns out, you can walk all the way up and in the building plus you can take an elevator to the roof, which is exactly what we did! You can see some great views of the rooftops of the city from there. We hopped on a bus home then had dinner at a great spot in Trastevere.

On Tuesday, we walked over to the Isola Tiburtina to check it out. Lance went for a run early and I did some work before we left so we were right in time to have a light lunch at the cafe on the Island. It is possible to walk around the entire island (it is not that big) so we did that after lunch. We also had not been to the Piazza Navona so we wandered over there for a bit. There is a museum under the Piazza that we remembered from last time but never went down to see it. With the chance of rain this week, we figured it might be good to save that museum for a rainy day. We had reservations that I booked in November for a place called Roscioli so we headed home to have a break before dinner. The restaurant was very lovely — they are a salumeria so we started dinner with a plate of typical meats and cheeses. They were all delicious but I particularly liked the blue cheese with tart cherries. Lance had tortellini in brodo and I had Rigatoni with french butter and three kinds of parmesan cheese. Yes, basically it was macaroni and cheese but it was insanely delicious. The whole meal was exceptional – the food, the service, the wine… you know the type. The icing on the cake was that we were eating in the wine cellar; there were only 6 tables in the room. I was surprised to see, seated just across the room, one of my favorite Food Network chefs. Her name is Amanda Frietag.  I didn’t want to approach her while she was enjoying dinner but her group got up to leave at the same time as we did so I decided to say hello when we got outside. She was so nice and happy to take some photos. We chatted about our trip and her’s and our mutual youth growing up in New Jersey. Pretty fun to run into her here in Rome.

Today we headed to the Mercato di Testaccio. It’s about a 30 minute walk over there. The mercato is all food stalls of prepared food (pizza, pasta, paninis) or food to take home to cook (meats, seafood, breads, pastas). This is my kind of place and Lance obliged my desire to stroll every row of vendors.

And that my friends, is when everything went off the rails for me.  I came home from the market feeling exhausted and unwell.  I thought a nap might help and woke again at 12:30am with horrible stomach cramps and nausea.  The ensuing days were spent with me in bed and Lance running to the farmacia for meds.  I’m telling the story mostly to tell you about what we did – not how I felt.  Let’s just leave it “I felt utterly horrible”.

Not knowing where to start but guessing this was gastroenteritis of some nature, I looked up the US Embassy’s website in Italy.  On this website, they list English speaking doctors and hospitals in the major cities in Italy.  I didn’t think I needed to be seen but I knew if I wasn’t better in a day or two, it probably wasn’t food poisoning.  And if I wasn’t better in two or three days, the bug was probably bacterial.  The embassy website offered some telehealth options with doctors from all over the EU.  Trying to slow the growth of whatever might be growing, I decided to pay 29€ for a telehealth visit with a very nice doctor from Portugal.  I had 10 minutes with her.  Prior to the call, I set up my profile and entered my information and symptoms.  I scheduled the call and 10 minutes later, I was connected via my laptop on a zoom-like platform for video and voice.

Less than an hour from the decision to have the call, I had a pack of Zofran (anti-nausea meds that I took the entire time I was pregnant with both kids) and was cued up for antibiotics the following days if I wasn’t improving.  I was so impressed with the whole process — quick, easy, relatively cheap and with the patient as the center of it all.

The next day, I got the antibiotics.  I just took my third and final pill.  It is azithromycin, so another drug I know well enough.  Sadly though, I lost the last five days in Rome.  Always being the optimist, if someone made me pick 5 days of this trip to miss, I probably would have picked those exact days.  We have been to Rome two times before and continue to love the vibe.  Yes, there is so much more to explore but we found plenty of new things in the time we had.  Lance was here to take amazing care of me; fending for himself in the grocery store looking for chicken broth and nutritional shakes, Emily had already come and gone and we got a few great days with her.

We arrived in Montepulciano today and wait until you see the pictures!  I’m feeling better and we’re just going to take the first few days here nice and slow!