Rome. Honestly, what can be the best way to describe this city. It is beautiful, it is chaotic, it is packed to the gills with tourists from all parts of the world and it was such a wonderful place to begin our vacation. Kent and I left Seattle at 8am on a Tuesday and we arrived in Rome at 8am on Wednesday. The flight was not terrible, but nothing I would like to re-live any time soon. The online movies were children's features...honestly; Madagascar II and some movie with the cute girl from Little Miss Sunshine. I watched them because I was trapped and tired of looking at my guidebooks and rechecking my purse that our passports were in there. Years ago I left my purse on the floor of the train station in Berlin...my purse that contained all my money, passport etc. I did get it back, but that was a very terrifying hour of my life that I did not want to relive (thankfully we had no experiences like this in Italy). Kent and I arrived feeling very tired, hot, dirty but so excited. To save money we took a train from the airport to the main train station in downtown Rome, Termini Station. I was proud of our thriftiness with money as a taxi was around $75.00 USD. Once we arrived in the train station we were dropped in the middle of more chaos and unexpected bumping around then we expected. We had been warned repeatedly of the pick-pockets in Italy and especially this station. We had one shady guy following us, but honestly, he didn't have a chance.
Kent and I decided that since the train from the airport was so easy that we were going to save even more money and take a public bus to our B & B. I knew the bus number and it seemed like it was pretty simple with the directions I had printed off of the website. We walked out of the train station and right across the street was our bus #70. This seemed like a good sign and with two tickets in our possession, along with 3 heavy bags, we boarded the bus, along with everyone else. Packed to the gills we looked at each other and I know my mind was thinking, "what in the hell are we doing on this bus?" We started off and I did not have a seat and was forced to straddle my luggage and hold on to the disgusting metal bars. All I thought about was staph and fecal matter (too many years in a dermatology practice). We started moving through the city and something hit both of us...what stop do we get off at? I did my best to scan the directions again and realized this was actually vague. We did our best to look at the stops each time the bus stopped and more people piled on, but we realized they actually weren't marked. Fear of being trapped forever on this bus set in and I had the balls to ask this elderly woman if she knew the area of town our B & B was in. She spoke no English. Hmm...I started looking like those contestants in The Amazing Race who just point to a map and smile, hoping someone will get the hint that we are lost. God must have been on our side as literally a priest on the bus pointed to a church up ahead and told us to get off there. I did my best to understand his instructions and we jumped off the bus and just took a couple of deep breaths. Nothing was awful about the area, it was actually very nice, we just started feeling jet lag, serious jet lag. For the next 45 minutes we criss-crossed the cobblestone streets and finally stumbled upon our B & B. It was a mere 5 minutes from the bus stop, but the streets are so insanely set up that we just could not find it.
I was so excited to finally find our home base for the next few days. We met Francesco and he helped us with our luggage. Our B & B in Rome was in a fabulous location, the Piazza Navona.
This piazza was so difficult to photograph as it was impossible to get it all in. It was a beautiful open area that had artists, shops, restaurants and amazing architecture in a single square. It was a truly central location for us to be in.
The B&B in Rome was by far the worst place we stayed at in Italy. Rome is so expensive and I did hours of research on Trip Advisor etc and this place had very good reviews. I do understand the reviews as the location was worth the craziness of the place. I did not take a picture as there was really nothing to photograph. I'm still glad we stayed in this location though because we discovered some fabulous shops and food that we may not have found.
After dropping our bags off we went and looked for somewhere to eat. We found a small place and ordered a few items and were pleasantly surprised that the prices were not as bad as we had been told. I ordered a delicious roman artichoke and realized a few days later I was eating it completely wrong. The house wine was perfect and we sat and soaked in the sunshine. After eating we went back to our room to change, shower etc and ended up taking a 3 hour nap. I tried so hard to stay awake, but I just couldn't do it. I'm so glad we did this though because it did help us wake up for dinner. We were still tired and thought we would try out a restaurant around the corner from our B&B. We arrived at around 9:30 and luckily they had a seat. It took some understanding and hand signals for a few minutes to figure things out, but we had a crazy delicious meal. Kent discovered fresh mozzarella and prosciutto and I realized my trick of having salad and a small dish was not going to work out. The salad is served at the end of the meal and the pasta is too good to pass up. We sat and marveled at people arriving at 11pm to order a spread that would put any major competitive eater in the states to shame. Oh..and they were all THIN and fabulously dressed. I sat there with my Rick Steves guide to Italy Fashion...khaki's, simple non wrinkled top and comfortable shoes (IE- fancy tennis shoes that were gray, not white). Kent and I realized quickly that taking fashion advice from a 50+ year old man may not be in our favor. Oh well! The comfy clothes were a must and I just did my best to have fabulous hair and makeup!
After dinner we walked around and found a quaint wine bar and sat outside. This wine bar was in a very small square that appeared to be the hangout of the Romeo's of Rome. I loved watching the flirting, the serious making out and the ladies prance around the cobble stoned walkways in 4" heels. It was fabulous and such a great way to end our first night in Rome. We headed home around 1am and slept like babies. We had a big day ahead of us...we were going to the colloseum and palantine hill.
