Travel Day to Rome – Day 1 – I had been dreading this day since we picked up the rental car and left the city.
And for good reason. But first, breakfast! Ana made a typical Italian frittata (among many other things) for us this morning. The inclusions were potatoes and red onions and it may have been the best frittata any of us have ever had. I had to look up a similar recipe to recreate it at home. Found one I think is very similar here.
Mikey was at the wheel today and the drive to the city was mostly uneventful (because we took the highway back instead of the scenic drive). But man once we hit the city streets the switch flipped. I wish I had taken pictures of some of the scenes we lived through, but the important phrase is “we lived through.” (Incoming drama queen.) Seriously though, for someone who has never lived in, nor driven through big cities before, it’s an experience! One that I would be quite happy to never have to experience again.
It’s not just the traffic – of which there is plenty of. It’s the locals and scooters zipping around you as if you’re standing still. It’s the very narrow streets lined with parked cars and scooters – on both sides. It’s the pedestrians walking in these narrow street along side the moving vehicles and in front of moving vehicles. Finally we arrive at the garage where we have to return the car. There are two ramps – one going up (where we think we are supposed to go) and one going down. When you return your car goes up to the top where it is inspected and cleaned then it is parked downstairs until the next rental. As we’re ushered into the upper garage, other vehicles are backing down said ramp (and clearly not stopping) even though we have nowhere to go – there are other cars behind us and we’re all blocking the “street.” I swear we all thought we were gonna get rammed. One person tells you (yelling at you in a different language) to do one thing and another one is telling you the opposite. Dude, we’re just trying to drop this bloody car off and catch our train. Clearly, since I’m here to write about this, we survived. But it was not without high anxiety. And I am not an anxious person. I have PTSD from this whole experience. Seriously. This garage reminded me of the type of chop shop like you’d see in a movie. You know those little puzzles in a frame where one piece is missing and you have to manipulate all the other pieces one at a time to try to attain the correct image? That’s what this was like. You would not believe how these people can maneuver these vehicles around in such a small place. Again, I wish I had video/pictures but I was just trying to breathe. LOL
After that, shlepping luggage through the streets to get to the train station was pretty insignificant. Talk about perspective. However, I have learned train stations are not my cup of tea either. But not nearly as stressful as the car situation. We arrived on time in Rome, took a taxi to our AirB&B and was met by our host’s assistant, Karina, who was delightful, friendly and very helpful. The apartment is located right by the Spanish Steps. As in, we can walk up a short staircase from a very small patio from our apartment and if we could hop the fence we would be on the steps. Even though we are right in the middle of everything it’s much quieter here than it was in Florence.
As in a lot of these place in the cities, the bottom floors are retail or restaurant and residential is above them. So is this apartment. We had FOUR locked doors (first door was open all day because there is shopping located there, but locked at night) and two flights of stairs. Interesting huh?
After regrouping we leisurely walked through the streets/alleys to a family owned restaurant where we had reservations for dinner at 7:30. Since we were early, we sat at a small place a few doors down to enjoy an Aperitvo. As we sat outside around a small table in this narrow alley we learned it was also a street as vehicles (can’t say cars because vans also went by) came within inches as they passed through. It’s a different way of life.
Dinner at Lagana was wonderful (minus the “traffic” squeezing past). The food was amazing, service was wonderful and it was much quieter here than the busy area where the apartment is located. It was nearly 10pm when we started back “home.” We detoured a bit to catch the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain (still packed with people at 11pm), beautiful at night and mostly less people.
Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps
We walked by the Church of St. Ignatius and decided to peek in since it was open. It was a beautiful church on the inside. There were quite a few people admiring it and taking pictures. The ceiling was amazing! Construction began on the building in 1629 and took nearly 60 years to complete, ending in 1685.
https://youtu.be/r_lfvNqXUqY?si=UPheK722ipKpbFHk
Bedtime. Tomorrow is the Colosseum.
Day 2 – My get up and go was depleted this morning. I know the Colosseum is a landmark in Rome but I wasn’t heartbroken to not go. I know I should’ve put my granny panties on and gone but I simply didn’t have the energy and I didn’t want to hold the others back. So I stayed back at the apartment to try and recharge (do a load of laundry) and catch up on journaling. The other three grabbed some breakfast and Bob picked up a berry tart for me. We met on the Spanish Steps for him to hand it to me through the fence. (I haven’t talked about the four keyed doors we have to go through to get to the apartment. Talk about secure!) I am now getting pictures from my peeps. Looking at the crowds (and stairs) I can’t say I wish I was there. I think I’m all peopled out. I’m not an introvert (not totally) but this has been a very peopley trip. Also, the older I get the less I tolerate crowds well. Since I didn’t go, I’ll let Bob journal this part of the day …
After all the walking we have done this trip Mike and Paddy wanted to take a taxi to the coliseum. We stopped by the taxi stand but none were available so we ended up walking about a mile to get there. Thankfully, It was a fairly flat walk and we arrived just in time for our 10:30am admission. Interesting fact: The colosseum requires passport/ID name to match the name on ticket. “Paddy” is a nickname (“Mary” is her official name) so as they were checking IDs, she was not allowed to enter without buying another ticket. Once we entered we spent a little over an hour walking through the ruins. While it was neat to see there were people everywhere. We then left, ate lunch and headed to Palitine Hill and the Roman Forum. We enjoyed these areas much more than the Colosseum. So much history and interesting reading. After we saw everything we headed back to our Airbnb. Another 5 miles in the books.
My very tired crew arrived back at the apartment around 2:30. Bob and I went out so I could grab a snack since I didn’t venture out on my own for some lunch. We landed at this little place not far away that was open (we had run into lots of places that close after 3pm and didn’t open again until 7:00 or 7:30) with outside seating. Both of us ordered salads – mine, Caprese and Bob, Greek. Back at the apartment everyone just hung out and tried to recover from their day – until we went for dinner.
Paddy threw a load of laundry in when she got back – we didn’t know how long it would take for it to finish and dry. This was the second all in one washer/dryer combo we had encountered – there was one in Florence too. And they are teeny tiny!! I had a load of undies and socks (or so I thought – there ended up being three t-shirts in there I didn’t see) that the machine said would take three hours to wash and dry. At the end of the three hours they were not dry. As I found the t-shirts I removed them and hung them on hangars to finish drying and reset the machine to dry only. It took another two hours to finish drying the remaining items. A friend of mine told me before we left that doing laundry over here was not the same as doing laundry at home. Boy how right she was! Bob booked places in Venice, Florence and Rome that specifically had washer/dryers. We were hoping to come home with mostly clean clothes. That ain’t happening.
Anyhoo, we ended up back at the place Bob and I had our snack today for dinner. Service was great, food was great and the setting was about as good as it’s gonna get I think. We keep comparing our outdoor cafe settings to Venice and how wonderful and calming it was to hang out just enjoying the moment. Well that’s the only place that doesn’t have cars. LOL Everywhere else we’ve been with that type of setting has vehicles using the same “street” passing by your table within inches. Just not the same vibe.
Early night tonight. We had whipped puppies and they were whining. Plus, Mike and Paddy have a big day tomorrow – the Vatican and the Sistene Chapel.
Day 3 – We got to sleep in today!! No rush to be anywhere! Even Mike and Paddy had some time because their timed ticket for the tour was at 11:30, so we were able to go out and get a nice breakfast. Well, most of us did. I ordered an egg sandwich with avocado on bread and this is what I got. You live and learn. LOL
Bob and I went back to the apartment and vegged for a bit. I actually took a two hour nap (and still needed more) before we got up and started pulling our stuff together for the big travel day tomorrow. One more time to lug the suitcases down flights of stairs and through streets and airports. After we made some progress we went out for lunch and picked up a few more souvenirs. Mike and Paddy weren’t far behind us as they came straggling in. As wonderful as it was they said they’ve never seen that many people in one place before. Shoulder to shoulder. For hours. The tour was 3-1/2 hours long. Mike said never again. LOL One and done.
Tomorrow we get to go home!!! Gonna be a long day but we’re all ready. Three weeks is a long time for an active, on-the-go trip. And we’re old. All of us are going to need some recuperation time.
Final Thoughts
I knew I was more a country girl than a city girl so I thought I knew how I’d react to the cities, although I really did try to go with an open mind and hoped I’d enjoy them all the same. In the end, this trip just reinforced I’m not a city girl. LOL Out of all the cities, Venice was the one I enjoyed the most (except around the Rialto Bridge – that area was crazy) – probably because while there were people, there were no vehicles. Rome came in at #2 for me which really surprised me – although I didn’t go to the high traffic areas either. Don’t get me wrong, there were still plenty of people – way too many for me to be comfortable. But Florence? I have PTSD from that city. Florence came in last for me. Never again. I also learned I am not a train station girl, especially with luggage. All in all we walked somewhere between 60 and 70 miles in 20 days. Mike and Paddy walked more because they had their Pisa day and Vatican which we didn’t.
Food in general – we had some amazing food! Amazing pasta! However, pasta (with different toppings), beef (mostly rare or tartar) and local seafood (some of which raised our eyebrows – I guess we aren’t that adventurous) is pretty much it. Everywhere. Other than that there isn’t much variation – at least where we were. After three weeks of pasta (which I absolutely love) we are pasta’d (I know that’s not a word) out. I’m craving big old salads, Mexican, Chinese, comfort foods, filling soups, etc.
While we loved the Dolomites we really didn’t get to see much of what we had hoped because the weather didn’t cooperate. I’d definitely love to see that area again – or the Alps, somewhere. Tuscany, hands down, was my favorite. I knew it would be. I loved the people, the food, the landscape, the wine – I loved it all.
Paris Airport – not very well organized. You have to walk forever to get anywhere. They don’t post what gate your flight is at until 30 minutes before boarding starts. They scan your boarding ticket and passport soooo many times. I even needed my boarding pass to buy a bottle of water – for real – and it was scanned. Talk about tracking every move you make. Would not recommend. Also would not recommend flying Air France. Customer service was good/fine, but the rest of the experience not so much. Seats very uncomfortable (and we paid for Premium economy mainly because Bob has to have the leg room for such a long flight) and the food I wouldn’t feed to my dog if I had one. Really bad. Not sure it even qualified as food.
Wanda’s Top 5
1. Cooking Class & Tuscany in general
2. Gondola ride and dining in Venice
3. Seeing the Dolomites
4. Olive Grove Tour and Tasting
5. Carriage ride in Venice
Bob’s Top 5
1. Cooking class and exploring Tuscany
2. Dinners in Venice and gondola ride
3. Colosseum/roman ruins
4. Seeing the dolamites
5. Leaving Florence
Paddy’s Top 5
1. Snow in Dolomites
2. Colosseum
3. Roman ruins
4. Wine tasting / DE’ RICCI
5. Cooking class
It's a Wonderful Life! 
Have been enjoying all of these!Sent from my iPhoneP
LikeLike