Roma – Giorno Uno

Journal entry from Rome Trip – Nov. 4, 2017

Well, so far we’ve survived a long day of traveling, and a full day in Rome! We’re veeeery ready to get some sleep now 😀

Yesterday morning (was it only yesterday?) we took off for the airport, aiming to be there about 2 hours early (we live about an hour drive away). We left a little bit later than planned, but still had lots of time. We were flying domestic (Halifax to Toronto) so we figured that 2 hours was plenty.

And technically, it was. But man, the airport was busy! It took us about 45 minutes to make it through security because the lineup was so long. I had never seen it that busy before! We weren’t in danger of missing the flight, but our plane started boarding just a few minutes after we got to the gate. No time for food or coffee!

The flight to Toronto was good. Air Canada has a pretty nice entertainment system, and I watched most of a movie called Hidden Figures, which is about three black women in the 60’s who made some groundbreaking contributions to NASA during the early space days. Really cool movie. Didn’t have time to finish it on that flight, but I finished it on the flight to Rome.

Got to Toronto without a hitch. Then we made the long journey from the D area of the Toronto airport to the E area. It was a long walk, but the signage there is good. And since we weren’t flying to the US, we didn’t have to go through another round of security like we did when Sarah and I went to Dallas. We found our gate with no problem. We went and had some food, and then settled in for lots of waiting (5-hour layover). Sarah and I watched part of a movie (Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader) which helped pass the time. Plus we got up for a few walks.

Finally we boarded the plane to Rome! It was a few minutes late getting going. I did my best to sleep during the 8-hour flight. I figure I probably got about 4 hours of sleep, which is much better than it could have been. My plan was to be good and tired tonight, so I can get to sleep when I wanted to. Well let me tell you, I don’t think that is going to be a problem.

When we got to Rome we made a beeline for our bus stop, and just missed it. The bus filled up before we could get on. Luckily it runs every half hour, so we didn’t have to wait around long.

Finally, we got on the bus, which drove us directly to Termini Station. I picked up a SIM card, and we had some food from Mercante Centrale Roma (Rome Central Market). It was there that I had my first Italian coffee! I had a cappuccino, which is basically an espresso with some very frothy warm milk. It was delicious! I really enjoyed the flavor and quality.

Then we walked over to our Airbnb and met our host, Claudia. She was very nice and gave us lots of good info about Rome. She needed some more time to clean our apartment, so we dropped off our bags and then went out for a walk around town. Ended up walking to the Colesseum, which was absolutely amazing! Such a vast, impressive, and very, very old structure. It was quite the sight to behold!

Unfortunately, where there are tourist attractions, there are scammers trying to sell you stuff. They try to get a conversation started with questions like “Hey where are you from?”, “I like your shoes!”, or “Are you from Africa?”. A bunch of them want to sell you a selfie stick. Others try to sell you bracelets, or scarves, or something else. If you ignore them though, eventually they go away and talk to someone else.

We got back and went around the other side of the block to buy groceries. I also went to a cafe bar and had a “cafe normale” (KAH-fay nor-MAH-ley), which is what we would call espresso at home. It was very good! A tiny little cup of very strong, tasty coffee. I’m going to have to have some more before the two weeks is up!

Then we went out for another walk. We saw the “Four Fountains”, the Trevi Fountain (absolutely amazing!) and some other neat things. We had supper at a small Italian Restaurant. Had some pasta and seafood. All very good.

And now we’re back at the BnB, and I’m nodding off. Time to get some much-needed sleep, methinks!