Rose and Ron Krumpos in Italy

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Italy

A dinner party with Italian friends at the Hassler

We were given a suite at Hotel Hassler Villa Medici, atop the Spanish Steps in Rome. Ron invited three Italian travel agent friends to dinner. He asked the hotel Restaurant Manager to suggest a menu and they prepared a unique risotto cooked in champagne. They served different wines with each course and a heavenly desert. This was to be charged to us, but Carmen Wirth, the Hassler's owner, insisted on hosting the dinner.

The people Ron invited had been in San Francisco as guests of British Airways or TWA. Carmen said she hosted dinner because they were managers of the three largest tour operators in Italy who could bring business to the Hassler. Also, she was a good friend of Jim Nassikas, General Manager of the Stanford Court. She and her son Roberto were very kind.

Watching slides of the owners' vacation at La Cantinella, a Sardinian restaurant

We walked to La Cantinella, a Sardinian restaurant, to have their roast suckling pig. Owner Ken Cosentino had invited some friends to view slides of his family's recent holiday in England and the U.S. While eating terrific Italian food, pictures of London, New York and Washington, DC flashed on the wall. Talk about a captive audience!
Many restaurants had a 'table charge' (coperto), not applicable at the counter and the most for dining outside, because Romans love to see and be seen...spending hours on the patio. We walked down the Spanish Steps, where hawkers were selling designer knock-offs, to visit the elegant shops on Via Condotti. Ron actually bought something for himself.

Dinner at colorful Tana del Grillo with Thomas Cook's manager

Elettra, Manager of Thomas Cook Travel, and husband Ben, were our dinner guests at the Hotel Hassler. Another night they brought us to colorful Tana del Grillo - near the Coliseum - serving the specialties of Ferrara in Northern Italy. Marisa Balboni was Owner/Manager (our photo together is super). Florence was enchanting and our host hotel the Excelsior excelled, although we arrived a day late due to a snap railroad strike.

The American Express Manager, another Hassler dinner guest, provided two tours for us: Vatican City and Rome (we certainly wouldn't drive in that traffic). On Sunday we saw Pope John Paul II on the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square (Ron saw Pope John XXIII in 1963). In Florence, a woman driver almost hit us. Ron tapped on her roof...she looked back to see his Italian salute. We visited Ferragamo and some other designer boutiques (Rose regretted the lost day). The (Westin) Excelsior is between the Duomo Cathedral and the Ponte Vecchio covered bridge.

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