Arbitrary, Incidental, and Accidental Musings...

Editor's Note: This post is the last in my Italy saga. Hope I didn't bore the hell out of you. If I did, hopefully this post will make up for it. Enjoy!

I was excited to fly Air Canada again. I hadn't flown it since I was kid, I was going to finally visit Pearson International Airport (YYZ for all you Rush fans), and it was the cheapest way to get to Italy. The flight out was smooth, uneventful, and I even found myself asleep for most of the ride (a absolute rarity when I fly). However, the way back was a nightmare...

It started with Italy's Fiumicino airport. This airport has to have one of the most retarded setups I've ever seen. Ticket counters that face each other with no ropes to form decent lines ensure that travelers will have no idea where they are going, what line they are in, or how far they are from the actual counter. This isn't Air Canada's fault, but it was just the beginning of a long nightmare. Once we checked in, they started to explain the difficult process of getting back into the United States. Here was the plan:

1. Land in Toronto at 5 PM
2. Go through Canadian Immigration
3. Claim bags
4. Go to the other terminal where the U.S. bound flights are
5. Go through U.S. Customs
6. Check bags back in
7. Go to gate*
8. Go home on 7 PM flight

* - Note: I am well aware there is no number seven, thank you.

This process seems difficult enough in itself, but theoretically can be accomplished in under two hours. Considering we barely made our flight in Italy after arriving over two hours early, I had a bad feeling about this. Here's what really happened:

5:05: Landed in Toronto
5:15: Breezed through Canadian Immigration
5:20: Waited for bags at the carousel that FIVE different Air Canada employees told us our bags would definitely be at to claim them for travel to the U.S.
5:40: All bags out... except our bags. Found an Air Canada employee who told us, "Oh no, you have to claim them at the other terminal."
5:41: Jim curses out Air Canada vowing never to fly them again. (boy, that was quick)
5:42: Search for the bus to the other terminal begins. Not well marked.
5:45: Bus found and boarded. BTW, we are now outside of the terminal with nothing but our carry on and boarding passes. There is no way we are not going to have to totally recheck everything.
5:46: Bus driver sits and reads his paper while angry passengers to the U.S. fume.
5:50: Bus leaves for the other terminal.
5:55: Arrival at the other terminal.
5:56: Frantic search for baggage claim.
6:00: Baggage claim for U.S. bound passengers found. All bags come out... except our bags.
6:05: On a hunch, I check in a random pile of bags in the corner. Yep, our bags were in there.
6:10: Recheck bags through a makeshift metal detector (I'm starting to feel less safe here)
6:15: Get in line for U.S. Customs. Holy crap! This is a long line. Why? There's three lines with two customs agents working for each set of six desks. They couldn't have at least three agents for each line? I don't get this. By the way, our flight boards at 6:40.
6:30: Passengers start cursing at airport employees because apparently we aren't the only ones who have a chance of missing our flight.
6:45: Getting closer to the front of the line, airport employees start moving people whose flights are leaving in five minutes to the front of the line.
6:55: We make it through customs.
7:00: In the U.S bound terminal we find out that our flight has been delayed (whew!). Apparently, this always happens on Sunday nights and is expected around here. What?! Shouldn't they try to fix this by maybe putting a few more U.S. customs agents at the terminals or having the flights leave later? I don't understand this. So many easy ways to fix this rather than pissing everyone off.
7:01: We run to the other side of the terminal (because of course we're at gate 'A' and our flight is leaving from gate 'P') with Rachel on her bad ankle. Not good times.
7:05: Arriving at gate 'P', we find that there is no flight or people there. Crap! Did it leave already? I ask the gate next to 'P', "did this flight leave already?" Response: "Oh, we're not Air Canada. I can't tell you." ARGH! I move to the next Air Canada gate... same question. Response: "Oh, that flight has been moved to gate 'A'." ARRGGHH!! Would it kill somebody to update the departure board?!
7:09: Mad dash back across the terminal back to where we started. Did I mention Rachel is on a bad ankle?
7:13: I tell the gate lady to hold the plane and to wait for Rachel. She very calmly says, "Oh, this happens every Sunday." Yeah, I heard. She then proceeds to type all of our information into the computer because apparently computers haven't been invented in Canada yet that can transfer this information from ticket counter to gate. Good times.
7:16: As the last two people to board the flight to LaGuardia, Rachel and I settle in our seats and try to catch our breath. Just glad to be going home.

What I learned: The process is retarded. I'm not going to say I'm never flying Air Canada again (although they pissed me off severely) because I may be left with no choice to get to Canada one day. However, I can definitely say that if I am going to fly internationally, I will definitely think twice about saving a bunch of money vs. the convenience of flying Continental out of Newark direct. Well... it was an $800 savings. Hmm...

You know what? I think I'm done writing about movies (and possibly music). Here's why:

1. I'm not good at critiquing movies. I know what I like and what I don't like, but I don't know how to explain it.
2. I do nothing but complain about how much better movies could be and how Hollywood is slowly sucking the life out of me with no new ideas. I'm not sure that's really fun to read.
3. I don't watch enough movies these days.
4. I don't want to ruin any endings for anyone who hasn't already seen the movie. Granted, I usually see these movies after most people, but you never know.

So what does this mean? I'll still blog about them, but it will be much shorter and give only information and a ranking. Maybe a sentence or two so you can get the idea. Most of you already know my taste in movies, so this should be enough.

As for The Longest Yard? I never saw the original (although I hear it's a classic sports movie), but I can tell you already that this version probably wasn't as good. I like Sandler movies, but this one is a bit formulaic. Funny in parts, entertaining on the plane ride home to kill a couple of hours, but I wouldn't rent this one. And there you have it. Much better, right?

I was never a huge fan of the Fantastic Four comic book. (Actually, I liked the Doom 2099 comic better) However, I loved the TV show when I was a kid. I don't know where that leaves this review, but I'm pretty sure that's irrelevant. Why? Because ever since Marvel Comics figured out, "Hey! There's a lot of money in movies! They got great special effects these days! We can take any superheroes and make movies about them now!" superhero movies have been completely hit or miss. For every X-Men (and more specifically X-Men 2), there's a Daredevil or an Elektra. Fantastic Four is one of those misses.

Don't get me wrong, it doesn't miss entirely like The Hulk. It kind of half misses. It was enjoyable to watch, the special effects didn't look tacked on like in the Spiderman movies, and there was a decent plot. I think the problem was the flow of the movie. I would say that 75% of this movie was setup. The Fantastic Four and Victor Von Doom gaining their powers, the back story, the aforementioned characters dealing with those powers, etc... The action really only gets going toward the end of the movie and when it's done, you're left thinking, "That was it? It's over?" Plus, they left the movie open for a sequel by not killing off the main villain (the killing of villains being a problem some would say about every Batman movie, not necessarily me). The whole thing felt unfinished and it was to the point where I really wouldn't care what happens in a sequel.

The acting was decent enough. They took general unknowns and made a decent cast out of them. This should be done more often. I don't need to see Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson as Starsky and Hutch. I don't need to see Johnny Knoxville as Bo or Luke Duke or whoever the hell he was; I'm not watching that movie. Where did they go wrong? Jessica Alba. Yeah, she's attractive, but she can't act. They couldn't have pulled some newcomer off of the street to play the same role? I find it hard to believe that she's that much of a box office draw that they expected her to carry the movie.

The Bottom Line: Worth a watch if you have nothing better to do, trapped on a U.S. bound plane from Europe, or if you loved the F4 comic. Prepare to have an empty feeling at the end.

For our last meal in Rome, we wanted to do something very nice. However, with a less than helpful concierge, we weren't really sure what we would get. Luckily for us, this didn't take much thought on the concierge's part. She responded with, "A lot of people have said good things about Camponeschi". After the checking of one of our guides confirmed that Camponeschi was not Italian for "Wendy's", we ventured off to take a look at the menu and make reservations. Boy were we glad we did.

While not quite as good as Da Divo was, it was pretty close. Just in a very different way. Camponeschi featured the older, fatherly-like waiters we had been missing most of the trip. It was a place where outdoor dining became a more formal affair. Nowhere was that more evident than at the table next to us where some local Italian politicians were having an enormous 20 person dinner with their families. Some people arrived in limos while others were just tourists. A very odd mix.

Jim Ordered: The Bucatini alla Amatriciana. Folks, this may very well have been the best pasta I have ever eaten in my entire life. When I was a kid, I used to frequent this Italian restaurant in New Jersey two towns over. They made a bucatini where I could have sworn they found a way to stuff bacon into this otherwise ridiculously thin, yet hollowed out pasta. As time went on, I thought I dreamed this. No one could stuff bacon in hollowed out spaghetti that small. Turns out, I was right. However, this dish made me believe in the magic of the memory. The bacon in this dish and the ratio of cream to tomato to cheese is quite frankly indescribable. I really think they just fried the fat of the bacon up and served it to me nice and salty and crispy. In fact, if that is the case, I'd prefer not to know otherwise.

Rachel ordered: Rigatoni with eggplant. This dish was perfectly al dente (like mine) and Rachel thought it was excellent.

We both ordered: The Chateaubriand. I know this may sound silly, but I don't think I ever had chateaubriand before. Weird for me. I guess I haven't shared many meals up until this point. Anyway, it was cooked perfectly rare and juicy. The bernaise was also exceptionally well done. I could have eaten the entire thing myself if I wasn't already so stuffed.

The Wine: We ordered a red from Camponeschi's vineyard that was very good. Not too memorable, but Rachel barreled through it faster than I did. This should tell you something because her drinking faster than me is exceptionally rare.

The bottom line: They had these mozzarella balls at the beginning of the meal that was almost like tortilla chips at a Mexican restaurant for me. I couldn't stop eating them and was forced to restrain myself. They had a very creamy texture. Why do I mention this? Because Camponeschi got all the little things right. More importantly, they got the big things right as well. If you're spending a night in Rome, this is the place to eat. Be prepared though, it's a bit on the pricey side and tips are not included as they are elsewhere.

We stopped at a lot of gelato places while in Italy, but it's not really worth blogging about any of them except Della Palma. This place offers over 100 flavors of gelato, frozen yogurt, soy ice cream, and mousse. We liked it so much and Rachel thought it was so "heavenly" that we stopped there about four times during the trip.

The flavors: To give you an idea, here are the flavors we tried. We liked every single one. Chocolate Mousse, Mixed Berries, Coffee, Creme de Caramel (both mousse and gelati versions), Dark Chocolate, Mint, Stracciatella (Italian Vanilla, Chocolate chip flakes, and nuts), and Amaretto.

Bottom line: If you want gelato in Rome, there's really no reason to go any place else. They also offer a wide variety of candies if you're interested.

While hungry and walking around Rome, we stumbled upon what looked like a trendy luncheonette with a ton of Italians in there. Thinking, "the locals must love this place" we decided to wait a half hour to be seated despite there being several other decent looking places to try. Boy, were we ever disappointed.

Jim ordered: Meat Lasagne. This was TERRIBLE. Soft noodles, almost a Chef Boy-ar-dee sauce, and this was the special! Then I had the carpaccio. It tasted like smoked Italian roast beef I would get in a deli at home... and not even that good.

Rachel ordered: A fresh spinach, pear, walnut, grapefruit, and gruyere salad which was "okay". Not exactly resounding praise for a place that really had nothing but salads on the menu and no secondi.

Bottom line:The one thing this place had going for it was that it was near the Spanish Steps and all the trendy shopping. We felt very rushed and we were done with our meal before I finished one glass of wine. Unlike 50,000 Frenchmen, 50 Italians in a wine bar can be very wrong. Stay away. Also, these people market foodstuffs under the Shaki brand. I would be very careful if I were you before purchasing them.

Il Cantucci takes the prize for the third best restaurant that we ate at. While not in the stratospheric company of the top two, it managed to separate itself from the throng of "very good" Italian restaurants we ate at. Il Cantucci is a very traditional, red jacketed restaurant in Rome. Pictures of famous Italians and movie starlets lined the walls and the service was excellent. The waiters weren't great English speakers and I think we were the only Americans in there. Good sign.

We ordered a non-descript white table wine and settled in to our plate of carrot sticks and olives served along side a decent basket of bread which included some very good flatbread. If you were going to pick a romantic spot for a date in Rome, this is about as good as you're going to find.

Jim ordered: Tagliolini alla Salmone. Undaunted by my first attempt in Rome to get a local favorite, I decided to roll the dice in a nicer restaurant and came up with a "7". This dish was much better than Cornucopia's version and featured a lighter sauce with much more salmon. This is truly the way it should have been. For my entree, I ordered the Veal with Mozzarella, prosciutto, tomato, and basil with a potato gratinee. Very good, but I ended up feeling a little hungry at the end because the portions were a bit small.

Rachel ordered: Pumpkin ravioli with black truffles and a light cream sauce (the special of the day). For her entree, she ordered clams in the shell with olive oil and herbs. This was served with crostini. Both were excellent.

Bottom line: Quality service and food served up in a classy, old fashioned atmosphere. The downside was that the portions were a bit small. However, that just left us with room for gelato later, so it's not all that bad.

Today was tourist day. Rachel and I spent the morning in the Vatican (which was tremendous, BTW) and followed it up with a walk to the famous Piazza Novona. Piazza Novona is crawling with nothing but tourists and restaurants to separate them from their money (and gypsies, but that's really another story entirely). In fact, you'll find the best English speakers here. We had our choice of about seven restaurants that lined the inside of the piazza and we finally settled on Dolce Vita. Partly because of the menu and partly because of the hustling Matre D'.

Jim ordered: Homemade Fettuccini Alfredo which they were saying was one of the best. The fresh pasta was tremendous, the sauce was really good, but quite frankly, I've had better. After trying Rachel's pasta, I wanted it much more than mine. I also had the carpaccio with arugala and fresh parmesan which was some of the best carpaccio I've ever had.

Rachel ordered: Homemade Fettuccini Pesto which was fantastic. I ended up eating a lot of it. She also had the Eggplant Parmesan which was very light. There wasn't a lot of cheese and it wasn't breaded.

Bottom line: Dolce Vita was one of a series of restaurants which was very good, but not tremendous. There was a stiff service charge (15%, which is a lot for Italy) and the waiters still stressed you to tip them on top of that. Don't get me wrong, they were a great wait staff, but they were really hustling you for tips. Maybe the manager beats them in the back and feeds them gruel.

Rachel and I wanted to get over the previous night's food debacle and ventured across the river again to what I can only describe as an area (Trastevere) that looked like downtown Manhattan in the early 80's. We found a place where the people were struggling with English and thought to ourselves, "perfect".

Jim ordered: Suppli (fried rice balls) and fried zucchini flower stuffed with cheese. I was a little disappointed that this appeared to be regular rice in the balls and not left over risotto which I was expecting. Our friend Jen makes this much better with risotto. However, this was quite tasty as well and I would have ordered another one if I hadn't ordered so much other food. This would end up being just a sample. For my pasta, I had the Taggliolini all Gricia (fresh pasta with crisp bacon and pecorino romano). For the entree, I ordered the Saltimboca alla Romagna (veal with prosciutto and sage). Both of these dishes were excellent and really showed off the true scope of Roman cuisine.

Rachel ordered: Fusilli with ricotta, bacon, and zucchini which was out of this world (note: that's better than 'excellent' in case you were curious). She also ordered a mixed salad (eh.) and Pasta Fagioli (eh.)

The wine: We ordered a Frescati which is a regional white wine of Rome. Quite good.

Bottom line: The service was good and they tried hard considering Rachel and I don't speak a word of Italian. Their strengths are definitely in their pasta making, but some of the other dishes showed real glimpses of brilliance. A local experience to be proud of.

Antico Caffe Castellino can almost be described as the Roman version of an New York Deli. Which is to say cheap and good lunch fare served up quickly. This place was crowded and had no atmosphere, but we weren't there for that. We were there for the pizza.

Rachel and I both ordered the pizza. We shared Quattro Formaggi and Margherita pizzas. Both were excellent (although the Margherita didn't have basil for some reason). I had finally found truly great pizza. I was very happy. In fact, it was definitely one of the top 10 pizzas I have ever had in my life. I suppose this shouldn't be surprising since we were finally close to Naples which is considered the birthplace of pizza. We also ordered a Pinot Grigio (our first of the trip) which was quite tasty as well.

Bottom line: The service sucked, but the pizza was tremendous.

I was told that Hotel FortySeven would be different. I just wasn't expecting a trendy New York style hotel. Our room wasn't the biggest, but it was the nicest. The bathroom had an actual shower instead of allowing water to spill all over the floor. Our shades were even remote controlled from the bed. Pretty neat. In fact, the whole place reminded me of a "W" hotel. If you've ever been to one, you can pretty much imagine what this place was like.

FortySeven is in the heart of the ancient center and allows an easy walk to places like the Coliseum (and everywhere else in Rome for that matter) with easy access to most city bus lines as well. The staff was the worst of the three hotels we stayed at, but the breakfast was probably one of the best free breakfasts I've ever had. We truly looked forward to getting up in the morning. The TV had the most English channels and I got to watch some interesting Cartoon Network shows I had never seen before while trying to go to sleep. (BTW, Transformers is totally F'ed up these days)

The elevators were very small and only fit three people. I thought this was odd. I figure the average size family is four people. You couldn't make the elevator big enough to fit one more person? However, the coolest feature was the key cards. You didn't have to insert them to get into your room. You just waved them in front of the sensor on the door. Then, like all keys in Italy, you had to insert them in a slot inside the room for the lights to work. Must be some sort of energy saving initiative because the air conditioner reset its temperature each time we left the room as well. And finally, this hotel didn't have any floor towels...

The floor towel story: So, back in Florence, Rachel managed to flood the bathroom floor very easily because of the aforementioned half shower doors. We used every towel in the bathroom to soak up the mess and that left us with the need for extra towels. When describing our towel needs to the front desk person, Rachel was trying to describe the concept of a bath mat. The front desk person did not understand this concept so Rachel was left with describing the bath mat as a "floor towel". When we got back to the room after the maid had been there, we were surprised not to find a bath mat, but rather a towel laid on each side of the bed on the hardwood floor. As interesting as this was, I was astounded to see towels laid on the sides of the bed in Siena as well. I'm convinced Rachel called ahead to have towels placed there in order to mock me because I gave her crap for this in Florence. I am even more convinced after not seeing floor towels in Rome. Any readers out there have any thoughts on this or would know the answer?

Bottom line: Great hotel, great location, great breakfast, okay service. I would definitely stay there again.

Rachel and I arrived in Rome at about 8 PM and needed to find something to eat rather quickly as most restaurants close down by 10:30 PM. We asked our ever so helpful new concierge about something she would recommend and the answer was an all too specific, "Just cross that bridge. There's plenty of places over there." Well gee, thank you. Anyway, captain obvious was correct and there were plenty of restaurants over that bridge. Which one too choose... We happened upon a piazza with three decent looking places. We quickly scanned the menus and decided to go with the one that looked the best and had the least number of Americans in it. I'm not sure if we choose poorly, but we certainly didn't choose wisely.

Jim ordered:Taggliolini alla Salmone (pasta with salmon in a pink cream sauce). This would have been okay if it was in an Americanized Italian place. In Rome, I was expecting a little better. The cream sauce was too thick and there wasn't much salmon in there at all. What salmon was in there happened to be in very small pieces. Good, but unremarkable. For my main course, I ordered the fried veal "milanese". Once again, good, but unremarkable. At least it had lemon this time.

Rachel ordered: Insalata Cornucopia (arugala, pine nuts, raisins, pear, and parmesan). This was very good. For her pasta, she ordered the Linguini alla Panna (cream sauce) with zucchini flowers, fried calamari and shrimp. The shrimp were fried whole and the dusting of flour almost made this more of a tempura. Very tasty.

The wine: We had a Tuscan Chianti table wine which I can only describe as cheap.

Bottom line: The service was just okay and served up with a hint of arrogance. Turns out this restaurant was highly rated in a book we had about Rome. I guess that book is going in the garbage. I'm starting to like Rome already.

The Piazza del Campo is the famous center of Siena. After climbing the 306-odd steps to the top of the Palazzo Pubblico and giving the keynote address at my alma mater, the Siena Beer Packing School, we were very hungry and anxious to get some good grub. Enter Ristorante Il Campo.

Jim ordered: Caprese salad (tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil) which was very good. For my pasta dish, I ordered the Pennette with bacon, vodka and cream. All the flavors in this dish were very subtle and you could even taste the vodka. Very well done.

Rachel ordered: The salumi plate (assorted meats with bruschetta and garlic bread). She also ordered the gnocchi with ragu and canelini beans. Both were excellent.

The wine: We ordered the Vernacio. This is the local white wine of Siena that is extremely cheap while you are in Siena, but very expensive when you get home. Also a recommendation of my former manager. Let's just say we enjoyed it so much that we took a bottle home with us. Oh, and while I'm on the topic, the balsamic vinegar we purchased in Siena is the best I've ever had. Very thick.

Bottom line: The service, scenery and food were all wonderful and this turned out to be the perfect place for lunch. It was very nice to eat "al fresco". Two thumbs up for Il Campo.

The Grand Hotel Continental is the only five star hotel in Siena. It is the most westernized hotel I've seen in Europe up until this point. They gave us a beautiful large room and bathroom (still with the shower door problem though) with very modern amenities. The trendy, open glass elevators were fitting for a hotel that sat at the center of a pedestrian only village that was very reminiscent of Mont Tremblant.

The bad: The staff was friendly and moderately helpful, but perhaps we were spoiled by the service we received in Florence. There also was no concierge, but the other staff didn't always look particularly busy either. By far, the worst problem was the air conditioning. It appeared to work. It sounded like it was working, but it was hot as hell in our room. We opened the windows wide to fix the problem (we got in late and didn't want to change rooms at that point) and that helped somewhat... until the drunken people came home at 3 AM. For some reason, I found the sound of drunken, singing, college-aged, soccer hooligans amusing at three in the morning. It seemed to really reflect the local culture and made me wonder why they were so drunk on a Tuesday night. Rachel did not share my amusement nor my wonder. I suppose I wouldn't have found it amusing either if it had happened all week.

Bottom line:Give me a working air conditioner and I would definitely stay here again. Everything else seemed to be on par with a very nice hotel. I found it interesting that they were the only hotel on the trip that didn't offer free breakfast. They have a restaurant and room service, however, it was very expensive. Factor that into your price considerations. Our donut and Coke breakfast the next day was definitely worth the experience though.