Day 13 was fairly uneventful. We had to be out of our rooms in the hotel early, so packing was expedited. We had enough free time to take a final walk through the old Sienese streets and do some last-minute shopping.
I finally got up the courage to walk into this coffee shop that I had passed every day in Siena that had fresh Italian coffee beans for sale in bags. I wasn't entirely sure what to purchase, so I just took one of the pre-poured bags of their most popular variety. Now I just have to get it through customs...
We all met up at the train station for the return trip. We pulled into Rome at about 5 and were back at the College before 6. We all agreed that it felt right coming back to Rome. Siena and Florence were amazingly beautiful cities that I would love to spend more time in, but we all know Rome so well now and it just felt like home walking down the familiar streets to the enclosed Villa.
At the Villa, we met up with Fr. Liam Bergin, our professor for the last leg of the trip. Fr. Bergin is an Irishman, the former rector of the Pontifical Irish College, and one heck of a connoisseur of Italian restaurants. After everyone was settled in. Fr. Bergin led us down the street to one of his favorite restaurants, one that we had never been to. The entire waitstaff knew him and were delighted to see him. Instead of everyone ordering something different, the waiter suggested bringing out three large dishes of different meals to share. The first course was gnocchi, ravioli, and fettucini with bacon and mushrooms. After that was devoured, the waitress removed all of the dishes and plates and put out new plates. Shortly after came the second course: chicken with roasted red peppers, veal, and rabbit. These, too, were devoured (including the rabbit, which was in fact very very good) and cleared away. Wine flowed throughout and the dinner was ended with a limoncello. I announced to Fr. Bergin that this was, in fact, the first meal that we had had in Italy that had both a "primo" and "secondo" - we would usually just pick one or the other. Prof. Coolman assured us that, with Fr. Bergin, it would definitely not be our last. We all agreed that, of the dinners we'd had, this was by far the best simply in terms of good food and good conversation.
Happy to be back in Rome!!!
Tomorrow, we go back to class and have a free day to do as we please.
Thus ends the 13th day.
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