January 26, 2014

Today we set off to see a museum that's we'd noticed nearby.  It's the Leonardo Da Vinci il Genio e le invenzioni.  Any exhibit featuring Leonardo is  OK in my book.  But first we needed breakfast.  We found it at the restaurant facing the really cool facade across the street - the one I wrote about yesterday in this blog.

The little cafe was a locals hangout.

They serve something called an American breakfast which is interesting:

• Eggs fried on top of bacon - not bad!
• A side of proscutto, (an Italian spiced ham)
• Pinto beans, American, yes, but not usually for breakfast
• Fresh sauteed mushroooms; and
• The biggest slices of toast you've ever seen.  Man, these slices were the size of notebook paper.

The little restaurant was not far from the museum.  It was located in what used to be someone's house.  Someone very, very wealthy.  You walk in through a street door and you're inside an atrium.  The building surrounds the atrium so all room windows have an atrium view.  This place is four stories tall.

Another Leonardo Museum!

We cross the atrium and enter the museum.  There are working-scale replicas of many of Leonardo's inventions.  My favorite was the  moveable tank, which for all the world looked like the world's largest teapot.  It took eight guys to propel it but it was only good over level ground.  I'm guessing the enemy fell over laughing.

Sorry to report I didn’t get a photo of the moveable tank.

Looking at big-time engineering soon tired us out and we repaired to the little apartment and took a restorative nap.  

For dinner, Jack wanted to visit Caffe Greco, Rome's oldest bar.  They opened in 1760.  Google said that movers and shakers still frequented this place, along with poets and writers.  Off we went.

We passed this guy along the way.  An interesting way to make money, don’t you think?

A cool watch repair shop we happened onto.

Google also told us that Caffe Greco was in one spot when it most certainly wasn't.  But we did find it, and boy, was it in a hep section of town.  The stores here didn't have price tags on the clothes in their windows.  If you have to ask...

The waiters at Caffee Greco all wear bow ties and tails.  Except one, the one that waited on us.  He was in a lowly tuxedo.  We asked him about this.  He was on probation, only just been hired 3 months ago and as such was expected to provide his own livery until he had proved  to be satisfactory.  Hmm.

We ordered a bottle of restorative prosecco and consulted the menu for food.  No matter!  When the bottle of prosecco arrived, so did food.  Lots of it!  First a huge vase of fruit over ice; then roasted almonds, pistachios, and olives.  Then charcuterie, a tray of cold  cuts and cheeses and of course Italian bread.  When we ate all on one plate, another magically appeared.

At Caffe Greco seeing and being seen.

Yes, I did see percieved movers and shakers easing in and out of the restaurant. One has to have an immense stash of money, or a devoted following, or both, to have the looks on the faces of the patrons I saw.  Must work on perfecting that look...

It's worth a trip inside Caffe Greco just to see all the neat old stuff on the wall.  One was a photo featuring Buffalo Bill and two Indians sitting down for tea. There was stuff everywhere to look at but it would involve peering over other patrons' shoulders.  

Off we went to the little apartment.