Rome, Italy Sunday, July 20, 1969

Today was an amazingly late day – i.e., though we made it up for 10:00 AM breakfast, we didn’t get out of bed till 2:00 PM! We went back downstairs, and I simply conked out, contacts and all. It is seldom that I’ll go to sleep after breakfast: in fact, I think it’s about the first time. Today was my Winkle day.

At 3:00 PM we had spaghetti for lunch at a nearby trattoria and left on a #78 bus to the terminal (from Largo Tritone), where we caught a #93 bus out to New Roma. It is a wealthy section – quite beautiful. We went up the high tower and had a couple beers at the restaurant at the top. The view was great. We had a good view of the Big Sports Palace, and I took some pictures. 

We took the bus back to the terminal and got the 7 o’clock bus for Tivoli. It was a cheap ride (210 lira) for 45 minutes. We wanted to see Villa d’Este, but it did not open until 7 o’clock. To pass the time, we shopped a bit and went to dinner. It was good – we had lasagna (Pinky didn’t like hers) and a whole liter of wine, which cost only 250 lira. We couldn’t drink it all.

We made it back to the Villa d’Este at about 9:30. By this time, it was dark, and the lights were on the fountains. The impression was much different from that of last year. It was really beautiful. We walked down to one of the large fountains, where Pinky decided she wanted to take a flash picture. Having no flash cubes, she went back to find some. While  sitting on the edge of  the fountain watching the inane public dash under the falling water, I saw a fellow standing near me. We recognized each other immediately: Dave Bailey from Hill. Dave and I hadn’t been what you would call close friends at Hill. Acquaintances mostly. I chatted a bit with him. When Pinky returned with her flash, we went off all together to explore the gardens. The main problem was fighting the mobs: there were too many people. But we made the complete round. We found the bawdy breasty fountain I photographed last year, and Pinky took one of Dave and me. At 11 o’clock or so we decided to have a beer, and we went up and rested our feet until we had to leave to catch the last bus leaving the 12 o’clock. We made it and even succeeded in getting a seat.

Once we arrived at the terminal, we said goodbye to Dave and said we hope to run into him in Florida. We were planning to go tomorrow, and Dave sometime after that. We caught #78 bus, but it was on a night run – which was quite different from the daytime. Plus, we picked up some crazy nut from France who insisted in talking to me. He got on the bus with us, got off with us, and walked to our hotel with us – that all he did was wish to use the phone. We were glad to be rid of him. 

Sometime while we were asleep, Aldrin, Collins and Armstrong reached the moon, and Neal A. Armstrong became the first man to step on the moon!! Some honeymoon