9-25 The Road to Rome

 Today we are driving from the Adriatic side of Italy to the Mediterranean side.  From Pescara to Rome.   We have stuck close to the sea coast so this was new terrain for us.  We stayed on the autostrada for the most part.  There was construction going on - but not too bad.  Lanes were closed and some times the entire side going either way was closed so we would end up driving on a two way single lane highway.  Great fun going through tunnel!  

So this is a post about mountains and highways.  At least highways in Italy.  It seems in Italy they go out of their way to make sure the road stays level no matter how much elevation changes.  If the mountain is in the way - they just tunnel through it.  Or if suddenly there is a valley below you - just build a bridge over it.  Not enough level land along the side of the mountain - just built a bridge next to it and tunnel through the rest.  When you are traveling 100 - 130 kph there is no time to get a photo to show this.  There were so many shots that would have given you the idea of what I mean - but they were gone in a blink of an eye.  So here are a few shots I did get:

As we head inland - you can see the mountains way off in the distance.

I have cropped this picture - or you would see a lot of guard rail.  I tried really hard to get photos of towns cascading down the mountains.

We were heading down, down down.  Into the valley.

And then we can see - the opening between two great mountains.

Heading towards a tunnel.

Seeing light at the other side of the tunnel.

Coming out of the tunnel.

In the middle of a - really - really - long tunnel.

Hillside town in the distance.

Closer.

You see a lot more of these in the U.S.  But they have them here as well.

Heading toward a mountain town.

A mountain top town!

When road designers make decisions how do they decide whether to just fallow the terrain, or when to tunnel through or when to build a bridge?  Are they comparing the costs of the gas for the many vehicles to go up and down hills over decades versus the cost of digging tunnels or building bridges.  What about the farm land that would be seized to make the road on - how is that production calculated in?  What other things factor in?  Just curious.

It was great seeing another part of Italy.  We made it to our 5th floor apt in Lido Ostia.  This is an extremely busy seaside town close to Rome - and more important - close to the Rome airport.  When we arrived - we double parked in front of our apartment building.  Michael went to the door to push the neighbor's intercom - as he is supposed to show us to the apartment.  He tells us to take all our luggage out of the car - and I am to wait on the sidewalk with it while he shows Michael where to park in the building assigned spot.  

Michael comes back with a dazed look in his eyes.  We grab all of our stuff - the neighbor does not help at all.  The lift is about 3' x 5'.  We squeeze in two (not so tiny) people two large suitcases, 1 small suitcase 3 extra large shopping bags full of kitchen stuff and two backpacks.  We get out on the 5th floor and wait.  I'm thinking the neighbor probably took the stairs - but no.  He waits for us to get all the stuff off the lift - calls it - and leisurely comes up all by himself.  He opens the apt door - opens a metal door(security like you see on shop windows in ABQ) - hands me the door keys and says - all OK - ok goodbye and leaves.  We have not had a chance to catch our breath yet - nor think of any questions.

Luckily Fabio who is in charge of this apt has a book of instructions with photos!!!  I cannot tell you how unusual this is.  And how helpful!  It is after 2pm and we have not had lunch.  A Conad is just a few blocks away.  We quickly make out a list and then head out.  But first we have a discussion about the car and the underground garage.  Michael is not happy with the situation.  He cannot imagine getting the car in and out of that spot multiple times.  We are right next to a park with a lot of parking spaces - with no parking charge.  Our car is parked less than 10 feet from the garage door - and it takes two keys to open two gates to walk down to it.  It takes Michael 5 minutes to extract the car from the extremely tight space between many posts to make it to the garage door.  I wait outside - as soon as he has the car in position - I walk to the spot where you insert the key to open the gate.  He drives out and slightly up the hill.  I say keep going - I will walk to the next spot where I have to insert a second key to open the top gate to get out of the gated area.  That takes another couple of minutes.  We are out - I get into the car and we just drive down the block and across the street to park in that parking lot.  Still plenty of spaces.  We both breath a sigh of relief.  Why is everything so hard here!!

We walk to the Conad just a few more blocks away.  Get bread, ham, water and a few other things.  Back at the apt we are ravenous.  We eat ham sandwiches.  We have miscalculated - the ham packages have only 4 pieces of ham in each - they are very thin.  After lunch Michael goes back to the store to get eggs for breakfast - after all we have finished all the ham.  I do up the dishes - except there is no hot water no matter what position I put the kitchen faucet in.   I pull out Fabio's instructions - Indeed - there is something there.  Sometimes if the electricity goes out - you have to manually turn the hot water heater back on.  There are pictures - it is out in the side deck next to the kitchen.  There are many things that Fabio could be referring to - that you are suppose to switch on.  I'm thinking not the light switch thing, but the off/on button on the machine.  But I need to wait to see if I am right.  Hot showers in the morning are counting on making the right decision!!

The water got warm.  Michael returned with the eggs - 10 of them which is more than we need - but hey you never know how eggs are going to be sold.  I have seen them sold in a carton of 2 or 4 or 6 or 10 - but never 12.  This time it was a carton of 8.

We had a meeting with the Floorscapes people about our proposed work on our bathrooms - Then went and got take out pizza - delicious.  Time for this blog and then bed time!