DAY 107

Wednesday 26 October 2011

The Queen and King

The 26th anniversary celebration started early, really early, with Dian waking at 3:30 AM in need of ice and sympathy which Charles gladly provided. Plumping up strategically-engineered piles of pillows for her injured ankle, he decided to stay up for a while in case she awoke and needed something. He had given her the king-size bed all to herself, for comfort's sake. He continued the fruitless search for any way to see Rome short of asking the Pope for a spare bedroom, and decided to see how Dian's ankle was when she awoke before committing to anything. He called his buddy Joel back in Santa Monica, through the computer, and they had a nice 4 AM conversation (7 PM Pacific time, previous day).

When Dian awoke we decided Rome, the Eternal City, would have to wait just a little longer. We wanted her injured ankle to be strong enough for hiking around Florence the following Thursday (we already had our tix for the Uffizi online, 80 bucks worth). Charles hiked to the grocery store (30 meters from our front door), and as we were enjoying breakfast Nicole presented her secret project she had been working on in her room, and D & C were blown away: it was a watercolor portrait of the 26-year couple, using a sneaky photo she had taken of them the day before in their new anniversary clothes, and it was really, really good. Like any good portraitist, of course, she lightly dealt with wrinkles and gray and thinning hair and made them look handsome and 20 years younger.

As they toddled of to dinner at a highly recommended local restaurant, they were a tiny bit jealous of Nicole and hoped their meal could match hers: she was invited to Lisa's for hamburgers (fresh ground by the famous local butcher), french fries and beer-batter onion rings. Yes, there is an American cuisine, and that one sounded yummy to everyone. But the dinner at Di Ilio's was memorable, starting with a glass of prosecco (sparkling wine), a huge antipasti selection for two, then our excellent choices of pasta with funghi (mushrooms) and with tartufi (truffles) with a local red wine, finished dramatically with dessert, a surprise plate for each of us of a small slice of all three cakes being offered. Di Ilio's is a funky, charming place that used to be a stage coach stop a century and a half ago, and had odd decor touches like old antique typewriters and a collection of stylish old cigarette lighters. Our maitre d' was a classy Italiano with a 'do that wouldn't have been out of place in Vegas in the '60s. You can have your baccarat with the stars at Monte Carlo or skiing the alps -- this is our kind of fun, and we felt blessed every day to experience it. Happy Anniversary and here's to 26 more!