Benvenuti Roma!
In spite of some challenges that we all had leading up to our trip, we actually had the best type of air flight you can hope for – Uneventul! The long flight from Chicago to Rome took me back in time many years when I used to have to travel back and forth to Europe for business. The main thing that I remembered is that if you are going to be stuck in a silver tube flying across the sky for 12 hours on end – its best to do it while being in first class or business class.
Our flight and our attendants serving us was very pleasant. Fortunately for all of us we managed to sneak in a few hours of sleep. Our flight was shceduled to land on Friday, May 12th at 10:45 am. We actually landed about 15 minutes late. We were all a little tired and groggy but we made our way down to immigration and customs along with the many other people arriving at the same time from Toronto, Mali and other parts of the world. You can’t help but wonder how long is it going to take to get through immigration and passport control.
Although the lines were a little long everything moved fairly quickly. Eventually, Elisa and I were called up to “Window 3′, where we were met by what has to be the surliest of immigration agents. Upon stepping up to the window, we are met with a steely eyed stare. Our agent has tightly pursed lips and a slight hint of a sneer. Not a word is uttered. Elisa demurely hands him her passport, he gruffly grabs it, shoves it into a scanner and intently stares at what ever pops up on the screen. He pours over the contents that are hidden from our view, his sneer turns into a slight scowl and you can’t help worry, that your passport information has somehow gotten mixed up with some terrorist that is on Interpol’s most wanted list. Just as the cold beads of sweat are beginning to break out on her forehead, he snatches her passport from the scanner, grabs ahold of his rubber stamp and slams it down ont the visa’s section of her passport and rudely tosses it back to her. Now its my turn and the process is started all over again. He roughly grabs my passport and shoves it in the scanner. Then I realize that the scowl he gave Elisa when he studied her passport was actually his “happy” face, because the look he gave my data left me feeling sure that armed security would be pouring out from unseen doors any minute. To my relief, he repeats the drill, loudly stamps my passport and tosses it back to me. I say, “grazie” upon retrieving my passport and I receive some sort of grunt in return. After rejoining Elisa, who s standing just past the checkpoint she asks if we should wait for Trent and Carolyn and I tell her “no, lets head to baggage claim before Mr. Cheerful decides to change his mind about us.”
We make our way to baggage claim and are soon joined by Trent and Carolyn and they describe a similarly “warm welcome” from their immigration officer. So they must train them that way, Either that, or they must all really hate their jobs. In spite of a longish wait for our luggage, we are all thrilled that our checked bags have also arrived in Rome. We were all a little worried because of the relatively short amount of time for the transfer when we arrived in Chicago to catch our connecting flight. As the seemingly endless stream of luggage circled round and round on the carousel, I was pleased to see my trusty little Hartmann roll-aboard make its way to me. I didn’t have to check my bag, but since Elisa had decided to bring the “large” suitcase which was going to have to be checked I decided to check min as well. Elisa’s suitcase soon followed mine and all was good. Trent, who was standing next to me soon spotted one of their 2 bags. Upon grabbing it I realized that I was mistaken about my assessment of Elisa’s “large” suitcase. Her’s looked downright petite compared to Carolyn’s “steamer trunk” sized bag. There it was, plopping off the conveyor belt onto the sea of other bags already on the circular loop, The sea of bags were parted by the sheer size and mass of Carolyn’s bag as it fell from the conveyor onto the loop. It was like Mooy Dick had leapt out of the ocean and crashed down upon the armada of ships awaiting its arrival and in the process scattering them by its sheer mass and weight. As the mighty “beast” rolled toward us, Trent and I thought we might have to enlist some help from the many other passengers standing around us, to help us heave the “beast” off of the belt and reel it in. Somehow we managed and the bag was righted onto its substantial heavy duty wheels and quickly joined by its smaller companion bag that would be Trent’s. (I may be exaggerating a wee bit here, purely for dramatic effect”
Now, we had to find an ATM so that we could retrieve some Euro’s so that our trip could commence. With that accomplished, we now had to find our driver that would take us and our bags to our awaiting accommodations at 116 Via del Seminario, situated in the heart of Rome, mere steps away from the Pantheon. Our driver was courteous and efficient and spoke no English. This gave Elisa a chance to brush up on her Italian and even I was able to understand and speak with him. We learned that he had recently broken up with his girlfriend, but he didn’t seem too put out by it. He was receiving a stream of calls from his friends who were determined to see him through the emotional stress. It always amazes me how we seem to be able to elicit the most personal of details from the strangers we encounter on our many travels. Nevertheless, we make it to our apartment which Carolyn had booked for us through VRBO. We make it up to the sixth floor in a building that looks like it may be as old as the nearby Pantheon. We are lead to an “elevator”. It’s about the size of the last shoe box that accompanied my pair of size 12 walking shoes I purchased on Amazon. Our greeter tells us only 1 person and no mor than 2 bags onto the elevator. I am the first one up and my heft and 2 bags are nearly more than this antiquated elevator can stand. It slowly makes its way up to the 6th floor apartment. Soon I’m joined by Trent and a couple of other bags. A little while later, we are joined by Carolyn and Elisa, who had both shunned the rickety elevator and instead braved the trek up the winding stairs all the way up to the 6th floor apartment.
Our greeter ran us through the particulars of our nicely appointed apartment that had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms a small sitting / dining area and a little kitchen. Even though it was a nice 79 degrees when we landed, the humidity was high and the apartment was warm. Carolyn’s first comments about the place was that.it was supposed to have air conditioning. Our greeter tells us “no”, the owner has decided that although the apartment has air conditioning, he the greeter has been told not to give us the controllers. We all groan a little at that thought. But then the greeter asks Carolyn to pay the balance on the rental of the apartment and Elisa quickly interrupts the transaction and tells everyone, were not going to pay because we were promised air conditioning. The greeter is gobsmacked. He quickly tells us its not his fault, the owner Mr. Luigi makes the rules. After a brief stare down that was a bit reminicient of a Sergio Leone western, the greeter blinks first and quickly gets “Mr. Luigi” on the phone and after a few words are exchanged the greeter hands the phone to Elisa. Elisa tells Mr. Luigi how it is going to be and then hands the phone back to the greeter. After a few more words are exchanged the greeter retreats back into one of the bedrooms and unlocks the secure hiding place of the valuable AC controllers are secreted away and we are able to conclude the transaction without further incident.
By now, it is about 1:00pm or as they say in Europe 1300. We all realize that we need to keep moving, otherwise we will all fall asleep in the middle of the day. So we set out on foot to see the sites of this part of Rome. We make our way to the Pantheon, which is virtually on our doorstep. We happen to meet a perky college student from Ireland who invites us to join an English speaking tour of the Pantheon. We happily join a group of other tourists who are being led by our guide Anthony. The tour was very helpful and informative. Elisa and I who have visited the Pantheon many times are always amazed at the amazing architecture that has stood for centuries. Our guide Anthony actually imparts new knowledge and make our return visit all the more pleasant. From there we make our way to Piazza Navona where we are in search of food at one of the street side cafes. Trent and Carolyn enjoy their first Italian Pizza’s, which ironically were NOT invented in Italy, but in spite of that they were wonderful. Carolyn with her Margarita tre colore pizza and Trent with his pizza with prosciutto. I have a salad with some bruschetta and Elisa has gnocchi with meat sauce. We are all quite satisfied, but soon realize that if we don’t start moving again we’ll all fall asleep at the table, and give how much lunch cost us, we were pretty sure we couldn’t afford to take up the valuable real estate that our street side cafe offered up.
We then wound our way through the streets to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. The streets were crowded with tourists even though we are not yet in the “high season”. The Spanish steps were totally crowded with hordes of tourists and locals alike. We looked up at the beautiful church at the top of the stairs. We briefly contemplated going up to visit the church but decided otherwise when we realize there was no “Spanish Escalator” and that if we wanted to see it we would have to actually scale the “steps”. As tired as we all were from our overnight flight and the 5 miles we had already walked we decided to head back toward our apartment near the Pantheon. Using my trusty GPS, I’m sure we turned the ½ mile trip back to the apartment into a 2 mile hike that took us through tiny back streets. In spite of making it a long walk we thouroughly enjoyed seeing the parts of Rome that certainly aren’t on any other tour guide. By now each step is becoming a chore and we are not sure we’ll make it there. I look at the GPS and it tells me we are only 12 minutes and .3 miles away. I didn’t bother to tell everyone that this is exactly what it said 20 minutes ago as we were walking down back alleys. Just about the time when we all started to get a little cranky and Elisa was protesting that we must be hopelessly lost and that maybe we should get a taxi or Uber, we stumble across a small Gelaterria and we all decide that a wonderful treat of Italian Gelato is just what this tired crew needs. We sit outside and enjoy our treat and watch the people walk by.
After we finish we find that we are actually very close to our destination. Just before we get to the Pantheon and our nearby apartment we decide to stop at the Coop store and pick up a few groceries so we can have breakfast in the morning and a bottle of wine in the evening. At the Coop, Trent and Carolyn explore the tiny grocery store and are introduced to some of the differences between a US and Italian grocery store. As they make their way to the check out line with their bananas in hand they get the internationally recognized “eye-roll” from the checkout clerk that is instantly translated as meaning “stupid tourists”. Trent and Carolyn now know that here, it is incumbent on the shopper to weigh the fruit themselves and write the price down for the checkout clerk.
After we get back to the apartment with our sundry items in tow, we quickly realize that eating any more food at this point in time is unappealing. All we want to do is get back upstairs, take our showers and relax a bit. It’s about 6:30 PM now and we have set a goals to stay awake until 9:00 pm so that we might sleep through the night and get our body clocks onto local time. After posting to my blog last night I fail to meet our goal. I am in bed and out like a light fast asleep by 8:45 pm. As I drift off thinking about the 7 miles we walked today, I’m certain I will sleep well and wake up feeling refreshed by our 7:00 wake up call. In spite of sleeping so well, I find myself writing this blog posting at 2:00 am..
Oh well, its all part of what goes into a European vacation. All-in-all, I would say we had a pretty great day on our first day in Rome. Tomorrow, we are off to tour the Vatican and Ancient Rome.
More later.
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