Campo di Fiore

On the way back from the Vatican, Rachel mentioned getting a drink at her favorite place in the Campo de Fiore district of

Rome and when you mention alcohol, students will follow.  I have always wanted to come to this area because it is the land of the flower markets and there is a Bruni memorial in the main piazza.  We had our drink outside, but it was windy and got very cool.  We had to cut short the drinks and

move back toward the hotel with a set of students coming with us.  We cut through the city and saw Largo Argentina which is one of mine and John’s favorite sites because it comes out of the blue in the middle of the city.  You can tell that they were going to do something in the city and came upon these damn temples from the stone age that they have to keep.  These temples are all from the 

 Republican period of Rome and they have toilets, a circular temple, and they are one of the few cat sanctuaries in the city.  Anybody who used to be in Rome knows that the Colosseum used to be overrun by cats and now that they have been corralled into a few places.  I like the cats in Largo Argentina and the lit temples at night.  We also found a very nice café to eat at called Café Teatro because we were near the theater that booed and hissed Rossini’s Barber of Seville off the stage on opening night.  See,

if they do that to great works, what we get in Canadian Lakes for our performances are pretty good.  The students that followed us were given directions to the hotel and wanted to stop at Burger King.  John and I had a great meal of pasta, salad, and cocktail for 12 euro each, which was a bargain.  We had asked our waitress about paying with a credit card and were told that we could, but then watched another waitress tell the table of 8 next to us that they didn’t take credit cards.  After the table of 8 had left, we paid with our credit card and I think that was related to having to run 8 different cards, 8 different times.  Which only makes sense if you consider that merchants are being charged a fee every time they swipe a card.  I’m surprised more US companies don’t follow the same rules.