Sorry for the delay

In the 'H' bar on the Via Veneto in Rome




All the preparations and enjoyment of Xmas meant that I did not have time to post anything, also I had exceeded my download/upload limit on 16th December so I thought I should be a little more circumspect so I have included some ytext and will up-load some of the photos later I think.:
'Saturday 16th September
We had to vacate the villa by 1100 and this included an inspection by Fortunata and the return of a 500 Euro bond that had been held by Fortunata against any damage or necessary major cleaning. In fact we were ready to go at 1000 with no problems.
Because Adam had the previous experience of the road via Meta, near Sorrento we made good time to the outskirts of Napoli even though there were a few showers of rain.
The drivers wee encountered however were diabolical, far worse than on the way down from Rome. Most of them appeared to subscribe to the view that if they drive faster they will get home, out of the rain, sooner. It would seem that many of them do not think that their rear vision mirrors or wing mirrors serve any purpose that they can consider while driving.
We stoped at an ‘Auto-Grill’ to get fuel, food and drink, just past the very impressive Monte Casino with the abbey on the crest of a mountain.
At the ‘Auto-Grill’ and I thought that a service station was a reasonable place to look for automotive products like a polishing cloth to try and finish polishing out some of the scrape marks on the car before it was returned at the end of the hire. No it was not a reasonable place at which one could buy things automotive (apart from fuel).

There were about five large shops where we could purchase food and drink and in one shop a whole roasted pig and a ‘mortadella’ that would have weighed over 200 kilograms. Adam and I tried to imagine the conversation in an Italian car on their way to the ‘Auto-grill’ “Hey Maria, while I fill up with the fuel you go and buy a whole roast pig so we can have a snack on the way”, “Sure Luigi and while I am there I will buy a 200 kilos of mortadella just in case we are still hungry.
As we approached Rome I made sure that I had the map to hand and navigated our way to the Via Veneto, where our hotel was located. We drove down the length of the Via Veneto, and then back up the length of the Via Veneto and none of the four pairs of eyes located our hotel, the ‘Residenza A’ boutique art hotel. Of course the street address was in a bag in the boot of the car. So Adam parked near the top of the Via Veneto and Adam got the street number from one of his bags. Armed with this intelligence we started to drive back down the Via Veneto and as we whizzed back down the street I glimpsed the number on a large wooden door next to the Rolex shop. Of course there was no parking on the Via Veneto and Adam did a series of quick left turns and then managed to find a parking spot in a quiet street. Sheila and I stayed with the car while Adam and Rosalind ‘found’ the hotel and checked about the parking situation. Adam came running back to the car, out of breath, gasping that they had found the hotel, and now Rosalind was guarding a parking spot on the roadside just around the corner from the hotel. We drove quickly to the spot which Rosalind was guarding and parked successfully, putting enough money in the parking meter to last until 0830 on Sunday morning. We dragged our cases to the large old wooden door that looked more like an access to a barn than a hotel and then saw a brass plate about six inches by four inches with the words ‘Residenza Hotel’. It was among six other brass plates advertising other tenants of the building. How anyone would be able to identify it while driving past in a car is beyond me.
Rosalind ‘buzzed’ via the intercom set in the wall and we were quickly admitted to a very large dark cobblestone porch, by a young man who escorted us to a very old fashioned lift that has the two sets of expanding metal grill doors. The lift only accommodates two people and their luggage at a time, so the young man ushered us into the lift for two trips while he rushed up the stairs each time to meet the lift and help extract the luggage.
To everyone who makes the art of relaxation an integral part of their lifestyle, they introduce the Boutique Art Hotel. It looks out over the Via Veneto, and is only a short stroll away from the Villa Borghese with its celebrated art gallery. This prestigious hotel put its guests within easy reach of the museums, historic places, and most famous shopping streets of the Eternal City. Designed in an elegant minimalist style, the trend setting Boutique Art Hotel is at the cutting edge of fashion, embellished inside with famous works of art and regular photographic exhibitions. The Boutique Art Hotel is dedicated to the business clientele and travellers who love cities renowned for art, museums, historic places, cultural sites, theatres, music and ballet, and who do not wish to sacrifice the enjoyment of a high-class elegant environment even during work visits.
That description is from their brochure mine is a little more succinct:
Very small hotel, only about ten rooms, but very modern in the décor and fittings which are great, it is very ‘high tech’.
In our room were a couple of paintings by a Stefania Di Filippo stefydifilippo@yahoo.it and we were very impressed and have included pictures from a small catalogue that was in our room.


Stefania Di Filippo (Artist)



Stefania Di Filippo (Artist)




‘Sguardo Himba’ Stefania Di Filippo



‘Sguardo’ Stefanania Di Filippo



‘Linguaggio Primitivo’ Stefania Di Filippo


Adam took us for a wander down the Via Veneto and then the Via Condotti, the shopping street, at the bottom of the Spanish steps. It was pouring with rain and we were still dressed in tee shirts and shorts, Rosalind bought two umbrellas, from street hawkers, just like the last time we were in Florence. Sheila and I shared one while Adam and Rosalind shared the other. The difference in Sheila and my height meant that I did not get a lot of shelter. We walked up and won the Via Condotti along with hundreds of other tourists keen to see the ‘luxury goods’ shops. Adam looked at a pair of ‘Norwegian’ shoes and was quite keen on them, but Sheila and Rosalind persuaded him that a better shoe shop was one next to our hotel, which had a sign offering some bargains; my type of shop if there is such a place. We were feeling quite cool so we had some coffees on the way down and then on the way back to the shoe shop we had some ice creams. Just after we started eating our ice creams it started to rain even harder and Rosalind bought two more umbrellas so that we all had our own and significantly more shelter in my case.
When we got to the shoe shop both of the ladies were very disappointed as they could find nothing that they liked. However Adam bought a pair of business shoes and I was persuaded to buy a pair of ‘Guess’ casual shoes.
After shopping we were all keen to have a shower to get warm and get changed.

Soon afterwards we walked just a few metres down the road to a very trendy bar called ‘H’ and had brandies and cocktails among the Rome ‘smart set’.