Arrival in Rome and first day
Trip Start
Sep 11, 2008
1
2
19
Trip End
Sep 20, 2008
Rome,
Lazio,
Italy
Friday, September 12, 2008
10:37 AM (Italy time)
~Rome, Italy
Hey! I'm finally in Italy! After enduring the very long flight on only an hour of sleep, we gently touched down in Rome's airport and progressed slowly through the airport. I've only been in Italy for a few hours and I've already noticed how Italians are never rushed to accomplish anything. Driving to the hotel was an experience though. It seems like the Italians are only rushed when driving and they do so as if there are no rules. It took a bit to get to the hotel, but I enjoyed passing the Roman ruins that seemed to be on every street corner. More later.
12:00 noon
Okay, I'm back
Cool Church in Rome...one of many
. Rome is awesome. Everywhere you look there is something that is picture worthy (sometimes it takes a bit of a photographer's eye). Just wait until I bring out my camera - there will be no end in sight. I soon arrived at Hotel Mediterraneo. It's a nice hotel. While Granddad waited at the hotel for the room to be ready, Grandma and I went to exchange USD for Euros and pick up a phone card. We were going to call as soon as we got the card, but I remembered that Italy is 6 hours ahead of the US and my parents would not like to receive a phone call at 6:00 AM. Okay, I'm off to Aunt Elena's for lunch! Ciao!4:37 PM
Elena is Grandma's cousin who lives in Rome, so we stopped by for lunch - an Italian lunch. We took a taxi to her apartment. Taking a taxi in Rome is crazy. All of the drivers are playing a never-ending game of "Chicken" with each other and no one seems to obey the painted lines on the road. Crazy people on mopeds weave in and out of lines of Smart Cars while going 50 mph and everything else is grid-locked. It's not worthy of video taping, but it's certainly entertaining. We eventually did get to Elena's apartment in one piece and I had to quickly apply all of the Italian I learned over the last 6 months. For most of the time, it was only Aunt Elena and her husband Uncle Rigardo, but Cousin Fausto (their son) did show up and say hello and chat with the "American cousins". I had the best food at Aunt Elena's!! (She made and fed us the best Italian I had during my entire trip to Italy.) We had scrumptious pasta, yummy meat loaf (the best I've ever eaten, even in the US), salad (Uncle Rigardo taught me how to eat it properly), peaches, berry tartlet, and EXPRESSO!!!
These Italians definitely know how to cook and eat
Looking up...
! I love espresso - so much better than American coffee! I was flying! No more jet-lag for me! (Unfortunately, this buzz didn't last forever.) Served in a thimble-sized cup, espresso is an Italian staple that one can not miss out on while in Italy. We talked for a while (I in my broken Italian, Grandma spoke it fluently) and took a few pictures before we said "ciao!" and headed back to our hotel. I'm so tired. I barely slept in 24 hours. Need sleep. Must nap. So dizzy. Ugh...more later.
10:28 PM
Hello! I slept for an hour (yay) before heading to a briefing of what I'd be doing for the next 2 days. It'll be crazy and hectic, just wait. I met the others in our group and there are 36 of us (that's a lot of names). We then boarded the bus and drove 20 minutes to the restaurant. It was a short bus ride, but I saw so much! My jaw hit the floor when I saw the Roman Forum. The look of excitement in my face could've been seen from space. We also drove by several churches, Roman ruins (they're everywhere!), and went over the Tiber river. Apparently it's dammed up or they haven't had much rain cause it looks like a creek. When the bus stopped, we all got off and walked a bit to the restaurant.
The restaurant was underground, but it didn't feel like you were eating in someone's basement
Antipasta
. I ate so much food - but it was only a small portion of what they fed me! We had some really good antipasta (I loved the fried zucchini flowers) with a variety of good Italian food. The second course was the pasta course but I didn't feel it necessary to eat it - I ate all of Elena's pasta. But I did eat the salad before the entrée. Of course, there was olive oil on it. They use this "Roman Gold" for nearly everything over here - yum! My entrée was pork. It was pretty good, however the dessert was the best. It was a mixed berry cake with CAPPUCCINO!! SO good!! I don't usually drink coffee but this Italian coffee is great! So after a great meal, when we're just about to leave, it starts pouring. The clouds just dumped water on Rome. After waiting for a bit to walk back to the bus, it starts to calm down and we carefully made out way to the bus. However, I did not bring an umbrella, so I ran back to the bus in stilettos over wet cobblestones while taking pictures. I did make it back to the bus in one (slightly damp) piece and we drove back to the hotel. Exhausted from a never-ending day, I finally called it a night. Oy.
