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Sabbatical in Rome, Italy
We took our first sabbatical as a family in 1974 in Rome following our tour with America's Youth in Concert. When we arrived back in Rome we thought we would be meeting with our contact who would assist us in finding a place to live. To our great surprise, we could not locate Luigi or Franca so we left the train station and took a cab to Domus Mariae on the old Appian Way. We thought our children would be placed in an Italian school but quickly learned that unless they spoke Italian fluently, they would not be allowed to attend an Italian school.
Eventually, we found a wonderful apartment in the center of Rome and located a school which would accept our 3 children, The Junior English School, also located on the Appian Way. We enrolled them and were surprised to learn that they would be going to school with the children of Anthony Quinn, the winner of the 1952 and 1956 Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor. His children, Francesco, Danny, and Lorenzo lived with their parents, Jolanda Addolori and Quinn, on a beautiful estate on the outskirts of Rome.
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We were driving to our children's school to pay the tuition (during class hours) and stopped by the San Calisto catacombs during the lunch hour. As I recall, the tuition was $2,000 for the three children for the fall semester. We parked and Phyllis asked me to put her purse in the trunk. We then walked a distance to the entrance of the catacombs only to find that they were closed for lunch. We walked back to our car and proceeded to drive to the School to pay our tuition. While driving along the Appian Way, the trunk of the car flew open. I thought that I had not completely locked it before we tried to enter the catacombs. Phyllis reminded me to get her purse.
When I got to the trunk, I found that during the 2-4 minutes it took us to walk from the car to the catacombs entrance and back, some thief had broken into our car and taken Phyllis' purse (with wonderful undeveloped canisters of film of our tour and stay in Italy) and her passport. Bummer. Fortunately, the money to pay our tuition was in my coat pocket.
Dining Experiences In Rome
One evening we had taken our family to a restaurant for a special dinner away from our apartment. When the server brought our orders he brushed against Phyllis in such a way as to touch her breasts. Phyllis thought it was an accident. However, when the next course was brought to the table, that "accident" was repeated. By this time, she realized exactly what was happening. When dessert was served she carefully and discretely turned her back to the waiter only to quickly learn that this time he was serving her from the opposite side. REPEAT!
We were returning to our apartment one evening after taking the kids for gelato. They were walking a good bit faster than we were and Cheri was even ahead of the boys. One block from our apartment, a young man was standing against a building, watching the kids approaching. Suddenly he lunged forward and grabbed Cheri inappropriately. I ran, grabbed the guy by the throat, pushed him back against the building, and threatened him. I told him that I was calling the police. He suddenly ran away and was never seen again.
On another occasion, we took the family out for dinner, to eat at the world-famous restaurant, Alfredo's - this was the restaurant that "invented" and "perfected" the internationally wonderful dish, Fettuccini Alfredo. The restaurant was simple and delightful with naturally lit candles on our table. Because of the familiar cuisine, we all ordered the Fettuccini as our pasta dish. It was piled high with fettuccini and a luscious creamy sauce. Phyllis leaned forward to examine the dish more closely. Suddenly the aroma changed from a wonderfully garlicky enticement to that of a rancid burning smell. Phyllis had leaned forward a bit further than necessary and her hair had been ignited by the candle flame. We quickly extinguished the burning hair and continued the ecstasy of Fettuccini Alfredo. We think of this every time we attempt to duplicate that wonderful culinary delight.