My Travel Blog
Rome - hot, slightly smelly, and history just sitting there. Cars zoom through ancient gates and you eat gelato from a modern, air conditioned store right next to the 2000 year old Pantheon. History taken for granted but still appreciated - graffiti covers most of this city but there is absolutely nothing on anything of historical significance.
Today was a warm one, but that is to be expected in Rome in August. I find it so boggling how many businesses close up for the entire month and make whole neighborhoods feel like ghost towns. We walked for almost 20 minutes this morning before finding a café to grab a cappuccino and didn't see a single place open to purchase anything at all, aside from tires. We wondered where regular Romans buy food in August? We eventually found a market that had a handful of open stalls - probably 25% of them were open and the rest were graffiti covered metal shutters. Luckily we spotted a lady carrying a few stuffed plastic grocery bags coming out of an alley and were delighted to find a small hidden entrance to a fairly decent grocery store. After stocking up on a few basic goods we eliminated the need for tomorrow's early morning game of breakfast hide and seek.
Sleep last night was… okay. Actually, the rest of the family slept pretty well - bed at 10:30 and up at about 6. I also went to bed at 10:30 but woke up at midnight and stayed awake for the next 5 hours. (!!) I tried to remain calm and played a lot of solitaire on my iPod before sleeping from about 5 - 8 am. So we were all a little tired today but in these first few days we try our best to ignore jet lag and live in the current time zone as best we can; strong Italian coffee and the sugar hit from gelato is great fuel for the weary.
After unloading our meager supplies we hit the computer (thank you Google!) to figure out our plan for the day - our main goal being to visit the Trevi Fountain as that was the one thing the girls wanted to see in Rome. They have watched the Lizzie McGuire movie about 28453 times and wanted to toss a coin in just like Lizzie did. It really is spectacular and although there were a lot of tourists we still managed to get right up to it and sit on the side for the perfect coin-tossing location. Considering how many people stick their hands into it and the number of coins being tossed the water is surprisingly clear and clean. This is in complete contrast to most of the sidewalks of Rome which are saturated with dog pee (I hope it's dog) and lovely little piles of poop. The Romans certainly love their dogs but there doesn't seem to be any kind of bylaw in place for what comes out of their cute little behinds. You definitely need to keep one eye down on the ground while you navigate the streets - not so much in the heavily touristed areas but most definitely in the areas where the 'real' people live. The heat doesn't help the smell, I can tell you that much!
We came back for a much needed break in the afternoon and everyone had a nap. We all felt like we could've slept forever but made ourselves get up after about 45 minutes so that we don't mess ourselves up too much. It was so hot outside and the cool air conditioning and soft beds were absolute heaven. Then off we went in search of shoes for me; after yesterday's explorations I came home with a sizeable blister and a realization that my footwear was completely inadequate. It was strange because last year in Spain I wore a pair of sandals that were perfect and so comfortable. I hadn't worn them all winter (obviously) and for a few days before we came I wore them around to make sure they were still comfy. I thought they were until I walked for 2 hours in them and sadly, no, they weren't still comfortable. I think our arid winter climate dried them out or something and I fear they will end their life in an Italian garbage can. Of course there is always a silver lining and this one happens to be Italian leather shoes! We found some really cute strappy leather sandals in a department store that were happily half price because they were the last pair. They fit perfectly and off we went in search of the second gelato of the day.
One thing I wanted to mention is how completely friendly we have found everyone to be. Every single interaction we've had with waiters, taxi drivers, gelato servers and merchants have been amazing. After having a 'less than positive' experience in Italy 14 years ago we came with quite low expectations and have been more than pleasantly surprised. It's been a real pleasure and our meager attempts at Italian have been met with encouragement. Chloe has really taken to the language and keeps writing down new words she learns and tries to use them whenever possible. She's starting out with the gelato flavors and is getting quite impressive considering we've only been here for about 30 hours! Sisterly competition is a good thing in this situation and Julia is starting to use a little Italian too. Bene!
Aside from blowing by it in a taxi we haven't yet seen the Coliseum. We had great intentions of going tonight but we realized that we'd used up all of our energy and that dinner was about all we could handle. We found a fantastic restaurant just a minute down the road from our apartment where we ate last night and again tonight. You know it's good when it's filled with locals and your entire family eats like royalty for a grand total of 53 euros. (That's 4 wood-oven pizzas, a litre carafe of house wine, a large bottle of spring water, a Fanta, crazy good bruschetta and a piece of lemon cake.) Not to mention that it's all unbelievably fresh, delicious, and real. Mmmmm good!
We've showered off the Roman dirt and everyone (but me) is in bed - where I will also be in approximately 7 minutes. We're hopeful that we will all get a good night's sleep and be ready for more adventures tomorrow. Arrivederchi!
It's funny how you feel like you have so much time to get ready and then you end up running around like a crazy person in the half hour before walking out the door. Those little things really add up - like throwing out the old food in the fridge, making sure all the lights are out and windows are closed, printing google maps and checking (and re-checking) that all the important documents are safe and secure. This is our first time taking KLM overseas and leaving mid-afternoon is very different than leaving late at night as we have done in the past. It took longer than expected to check-in today (for a reason that we still don't understand) and instead of the nice long lunch we intended on having we had to chow down some quick food court grub before running through security.
We were very pleased to have extra seats around us so the four of us ended up sharing 6 seats - total heaven on an 8.5 hour flight! Excellent movie choices, soft blankets and pillows, and cute mini cans of Heineken made for a very comfortable flight. Out of the 4 of us Julia was the only one to get any sleep on the plane, and that was only for the last 45 minutes of the flight.
We arrived into Amsterdam at midnight Calgary time and we were so thankful for our reservation at the Yotel in the airport. We had close to a 5 hour stopover which would've been beyond painful if we had to spend it walking around in a heavily sleep-deprived state! The Yotel was perfect - you pay by the hour (4 hr. minimum) and our basic room contained a bathroom, a double bed, and a set of bunk beds. Free wi-fi too, but we were so exhausted that we didn't really use it. The only snafu was that the family before us didn't leave the room on time - I think they actually had to pull them out! - and so we had to wait for almost half an hour to get into it. We did our best to keep zen about the whole thing and by the time we laid on the super soft sheets we'd forgotten all about the impatient sleepy half hour standing outside the door. After the initial excitement wore off and we acclimatized to the sound of the A/C and the slightly porta-potty smell in the room, we settled down and got about 1.5 hours of sleep - totally worth it. A quick brush of the teeth and off we went to catch our connection to Rome.
The Rome flight was with Alitalia and I was shocked to see how empty the plane was. This time we again had 6 seats for 4 people but probably could've had a whole row each to ourselves if we really wanted to. Sign of a bad economy? Who knows, but I enjoyed sitting sideways on two seats and catching another precious half hour of sleep. One thing I can say about Alitalia - they really know how to make coffee! A tiny paper cup filled with hot, thick brew… exactly what this jet-lagged girl needed. Julia was also very pleased by the orange juice - expecting a glass of typical juice she was shocked to get a cup of dark pink blood orange juice. Yum. We now have high hopes for even more delightful gustatory pleasures in the upcoming weeks!
We booked a driver to pick us up at the Rome airport and deliver us to our apartment - in cases of extreme jet lag we find this to be a very good usage of money. Friendly Rentals, the company we booked our apartment through, arranged it for us and so we were met at the arrivals gate by a very friendly man holding up a sign with our name on it. After a 20 minute ride he deposited us at the front door and even waited an extra 5 minutes to insure that our rental contact showed up. A very delightful lady checked us in, showed us the amenities and how to work the wifi and off we went in search of gelato. In keeping with the trend an amazingly friendly man served us up huge cones with 3 flavors each (!!) for 2 euros a piece. Standing on the street corner a few moments later we licked the rapidly melting cones, smelled the permeating smell of urine, and really felt like we'd arrived in Rome!
We walked around for a few hours and completely exhausted ourselves so we're currently having a little rest before heading out to dinner. I'm not going to pretend that it wasn't a long and tiring day, but everything went very smoothly. It always amazes me how the journey to get here feels so long as it's happening, yet as soon as you hit the streets you completely forget it all! Off to dinner… I feel like having Italian tonight.
PS - We did manage carry-on only - and quite easily I'm happy to say! We even had a little room to spare… yay us!
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