I seem to make one mistake on every trip. This one was a doozy. Ugh.
After the fabulous Galleria Colonna, the five of us hopped into two cabs and hightailed it over by the Spanish Steps to take a break at the famous Cafe Greco.
In hindsight, I remember putting my camera down by my feet to buckle up.
Unfortunately, it wasn't until I was out of the cab and two blocks away that I realized I hadn't picked it back up and placed it into my day pack.
I raced hurried back to the cab stand where we were dropped off, but there the taxi was gone. I went across the Piazza di Spagna in hopes of finding the cab there, but no luck.
My heart sank.
My photos from Galleria Colonna, gone. My camera (it's replaceable), gone. All because I did take the extra few seconds to put my camera away first, and then buckle up.
Well, at least I download my photos from the memory card every day.
Except, as it turns out, the previous day. So not just the Colonna Galleria, but also the Vatican Museum, St. Peter's Basilica, and Castel Sant'Angelo phots -- gone. Ugh.
The photo I already miss the most is the dome of the Pantheon from the top level of Castel Sant-Angelo.
So I joined the group at Cafe Greco to break the bad news. Ashley, Maria and Van's oldest daughter, had joined the group there. She and younger sister Kate had flown to Rome two days before the four Meredith family members were going to Sicily, the home region of Maria's family. They nicely invited us to join them, but Carol and I wanted to get back for the post-election/pre-Thanksgiving crush.
Historic figures including Stendhal, Goethe, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Byron, Georges Bizet, Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, Keats, Henrik Ibsen, Hans Christian Anderson, Felix Mendelssohn, James Joyce, Orson Welles, Mark Twain, Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, Antonio Canova, Charles Baudelaire, Wagner, and Casanova have all had coffee at Cafe Greco. Glen Bolger has had sparkling water there, as Glen Bolger is NOT a coffee guy.
After my snack, I left them behind to check out a nearby camera store to see if per chance it had my camera. Except it was out of business. Gone, not a trace. Thanks Apple maps for implying that not only was it there, but also open that day.
So I went to the next nearest place. That was a ways away. And likewise, despite Apple maps to the contrary, that store was gone, also without a trace.
Sigh.
The only thing that could cheer me up now was a vast display of the bones of dead Capuchin monks, so that's where I went.
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