Italy – Days 1 & 2: Buongiorno!

[April 2011]

Something about traveling in Europe always results in me over-using muscles in my legs that I never knew existed - Rome, Italy is no exception.  It's currently a day & a half into my trip and my legs are already pretty angry with me.  Little do they know, there's a good four days more they've gotta last me until normal use resumes.  Though I take that back, with 48 hours of my return to Chicago, my first 8k awaits me.  Shhhh!  Nobody tell my legs.  

So far, Roma is wonderful...  
I'm here with my favorite traveling buddy Maria, and I'm happy to announce we have a MUCH better place to stay than we did last year at this time when we were in Barcelona.  The place we're staying is one that I found on Vacation Rentals by Owner (www.vrbo.com), and looked like it would be a cute little apartment in a good central location.  Thankfully, it turned out to be just that!  SUPER charming, not an inch bigger than we need it to be, with a small kitchenette - and we're right by a metro stop and pretty close to the Colosseum.  Apparently the area we're in is called the Roman Forum.

The trip started with an afternoon departure on Friday April 1st...  And if we're going to be honest here, I was SUPER late to the airport.  If you wanted to check baggage you were supposed to get there 60 minutes before the flight (unlike domestic flying these days - with international flights, you usually get to check a bag for free - which this packrat needs for sure), and well anyway, I skirted - well dashed - into the airport about 50-55 minutes before my flight.  Dumb, dumb dumb.  But everything to get ready earlier that day took longer than I thought!  As I was zooming around O'Hare to get to the International Terminal I frantically tried to work on a Plan B if they didn't let me check my bag... Luckily, they took it no problem - whew - thanks Alitalia!  Such a relief; I almost hugged the check-in lady for being so cool about it.  

The 8 hour flight to Italy wasn't too bad - had a little trouble sleeping and felt a little cramped by the end, but much less of a hassle than the connections I've done to Europe in the past.  Guess I should be glad I'm little and short :)

We took a shuttle service from the airport to our "hotel" - which was, just as I'd hoped, an entryway marked by a cool wooden door on a street with many cool wooden doors.  Honey, I'm home!  It is so satisfying to travel to a foreign city and feel like a local.  A set of keys and everything.  

A woman named Simona met us to welcome us and show us our place.  She was around our age and knew English - so it was nice to be able to ask her questions about the neighborhood and get restaurant recommendations.  After she left, we went to a nearby neighborhood grocery store that was tiny, yet had everything we needed (including Greek yogurt!!  success!!) - we picked up some essentials.  Basically - wine, water, meat, cheese.  Arms heavy with items, we ran it all back to our apartment fridge.  

Then, onto a day full of sightseeing!  I should mention the time change at this point.  Rome is 7 hours ahead of Chicago time - quite the adjustment.  To give you some perspective, our flight arrived on Saturday at 8:10am... which felt like 1:10am.  How would you feel if you went to bed around 11pm or so - and had to wake up 2 hours later (I maybe got 3-4 hours of broken sleep on the plane) to start a whole jam-packed day of running around a foreign city?  NOT ideal - but obviously, not much to do about it!  I didn't pay money to go to Rome and then sleep :)  By the time we'd finished checking in and doing our grocery store run, it was about 10am or 11am local time (- reminder, 3am-4am to our body clocks).  

Map assessment led us to believe we could walk to a number of things we wanted to see, so we set off on foot - through the windy streets of Rome.  Like Paris & Barcelona, I love the streets here.  There's such a different feel to European streets.  Narrow, narrow, narrow - interesting buildings - beautiful little terraces and porches with greenery and decor that make you wish you lived in each one.  No laundry on these streets like Barcelona, though :)  Cobblestone everywhere (which takes even more of a toll on feet/legs after walking on them for any significant amount of time) and enough interesting doorways to make my heart happy.  We crossed through a number of Piazzas (little plazas, some with fountains, some with statues) - and found our first stop, the Trevi Fountain!  Breathtaking - even amidst the many annoying tourists around us, I was glad I was there.  As we sat and took in the beauty, I had a bit of a dilemma with myself.  The main statue of the fountain is clearly of Poseidon, Greek god of the Water (I adore the stories of Greek Mythology) - yet this was Italy, not Greece.  It didn't take me long to remember the whole set of Roman gods I learned in school, along with the Greek gods.  That the gods are paralleled between the two cultures, and are all pretty much the same, but have a whole different set of names.  So this was Oceanus, not Poseidon.  I'm realizing I'm way more familiar with Greek Mythology than Roman - mental note to brush up on that.  I'd like to be the kind of person that can speak eloquently on both topics.  Plus, I'm so rusty on the Roman stuff, that maybe the actual myths surrounding the two sets of gods are more different than I think.  

As we journeyed more through Rome, there were a number more times that we experienced a predominantly Roman-feel - for example, the Pantheon and the outside of St. Peter's Basilica - which was strange to me.  It took me a little while to wrap my head around it - I think it's because what I associate "Italian" with in my head is checkered red and white tablecloths, pasta, and wandering accordion playing musicians - not Greek-like structures and statues.  I forgot about what "Roman" means - silly me.  I'm in Rome!

Another thing about Rome - I knew about the Colosseum, but what I didn't know is that MUCH of Rome consists of ancient, crumbling architecture.  Which is not to say the city is all falling apart - because certainly not so - in fact, it's surprising how much is intact, with respect to how old it is.  But from our shuttle ride into the city, I remember passing so many ruins, and being so amazed.  It was all beautiful - and some of it, not at all famous, like the Colosseum.  This city is full of gorgeous, ancient pieces of beauty - some of it buildings, some of it statues and fountains.  Many of my "wow" moments here have felt like time travel.  

After the obligatory picture snapping at the Trevi Fountain, we headed on.  At one point we stopped to eat, and I had a delicious sandwich with proscuitto, arugula and cheese.  Heaven.  

We stumbled upon the Pantheon - hadn't realized it was on our route - and were amazed to find out it's a church!  Did everyone in the world know that except for us???  From the outside, it looks way more like a Roman monument/structure than it does a church.  But, sure as day, church inside.  There was even a kids choir singing angelic songs inside.  Pretty cool :)  

After our route took us through Piazza Navona (beautiful art for sale there) - we deemed it time for gelato.  I got half pistachio and half hazelnut.  ALSO heaven.

Next, St Peter's Square!  It was a very long line to get in and the afternoon sun was a'blazing (PS - the temperatures here are in the high 60's... such a refreshing contrast to the Chicago we left behind), so we elected to come back.  We browsed some stores in the area - and then, realizing we'd walked over 5 miles on jetlagged legs throughout the day, thought it a fine time to learn the metro (train) system.  

I'd like, now, to brag.  We are badass foreign travelers.  Without conversing with ONE person, we figured how to buy tickets, get on one train line, transfer to another train line, and end up at our apartment.  Pretty much without much stress or hassle.  Praise and statements of amazement are quite welcome.  Haha.  Plus it only cost 1 euro, or, $1.50.  Nice!  And we avoided having our legs/feet mutiny against us.  Win - win.  

We went back to our apartment to open a wine, eat some salami and strategize dinner.  I did an email check and saw that my family friend Tim had sent me some Italy recommendations - one of which was a restaurant just down the block from us - called L'Asino d'Oro (literal translation - the Golden Ass / Donkey - your pick :)  haha).  Something jogged my memory, and we realized that Simona, our apartment lady had also recommended it!  Two recommendations AND close by?  IN.  When we got there, the super nice owner patiently worked through my horrid attempt at Italian (working with a phrase book, people!  I know ZERO Italian) - and informed us that they were booked with reservations, but he helped us make a reservation for a future night during our stay.  We're going back Wednesday night - and I can't wait.  He also sent us to a restaurant around the corner that he thought we'd like.  We dined al fresco (so great to be able to do that in early April!), enjoyed red wine, various antipastis and salads, and each got some pasta.  Mine had fresh mushrooms... very yummy.  

On our walk home, we walked by a fountain where a ton of locals were sitting around and drinking wine and beer that they'd either bought nearby or brought with them.  Not quite ready to end the night, we ran up to our apartment, grabbed our unfinished wine from earlier, and went out to join them.  We didn't end up interacting with anyone, but got to do some great people-watching until the crowd dispersed.  Then, showers and bed.  I was out within minutes of hitting the pillow.

Now today - more amazement from you, dear reader, to follow - was Sunday, and we aroze at 7am to go to church.  YUP.  We found there was Catholic church within 10 minutes from us - Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, and our handy friend the internet (thank God for the free wifi that came with our apartment) informed us that they had masses on the hour.  We wandered into a huge church - to find that masses were held in side chapels.  It was 8am exactly when we arrived, so it was easy to find the chapel ours was in.  It was a small little gathering, comprised mostly of the cutest elderly Italian women you could imagine.  A weird thing was that throughout the mass, people were taking pictures.  Maria and I exchanged a look of disgust at first, because it was such a small event that the photos were extremely obvious and distracting.  But then we realized one of the people doing it was also leading everyone in song, and that this just must have been an important event.  The priest was very young, and by the end, we concluded that this was his first mass.  (I ended up snapping a photo or two, since clearly no one cared - 10 other people had done it way before I did - and I at least didn't use flash).  One really cool thing was that during the Kiss of Peace (for you non-Catholics, this is a point in the mass where everyone shakes the hands of their neighbors and wishes them "peace") - the old ladies around us shook our hands with big smiles - and then women who were too far away to shake our hands all waved at us.  With reciprocating smiles, we waved back - and then looked around and everyone around the room was waving at people they could reach.  Adorable.  And at the end of mass, people (including the priest) came up to us to welcome us.  Language barriers prevented any of us from having too meaningful of an exchange, but we all, I think, walked away with a warm feeling.  We then wandered around the inner, main part of the church before leaving.

Then, a very necessary stop for espresso and croissants.  I ended up drinking two cappuccinos because they were delicious and quite frankly, I needed the fuel.  Off then, we went, back to St. Peter's Basilica.  St. Peter's is very close to the Vatican, and every Sunday at Noon, the Pope blesses anyone in St. Peter's Square.  I don't know much about this particular Pope (however, I believe that liberal Catholics in my life may not consider him a favorite - and I myself am an UBER liberal Catholic)... but I mean, why NOT get blessed by the Pope, right?

We got there very early - probably 10am or so - and decided to brave the line to get into St. Peter's.  It was much shorter than the previous day's line and moved quickly.  Tell you what:  St. Peter's is BEAUTIFUL.  Gold ceilings - beautiful art - an elaborate altar - side chapels, you name it.  We said a prayer in one of side chapels.  Then, just wandered around the beauty.

The Pope blessing was very, very crowded.  At one point the crowd started moving us, as everyone tried to get in a position to see him.  We actually never did get to see him, because he doesn't get very close to the window he speaks from (I'm sure it's for security reasons) - but they amplified him well so he was easy to hear - but, well, it was in Italian.  I wouldn't call it a life-changing experience, but now I can say I was in St. Peter's Square for a Pope blessing.  And that is pretty cool to say.

We then journeyed home, with a stop for a pizza lunch.  Delicious!  I got a slice with sausage and mushroom, and then I got a cold slice that had olives, tomatoes, artichoke and olive oil.  That piece was very different from the American pizza experience, and very good.

Now, Maria is participating in local tradition of an afternoon siesta, and I am happily writing, with the window open (no screen!) hearing the sounds of the street - including an occasional, roving accordion player - pour in.  Ah, Roma...


Rome Photo Album #1
Rome Photo Album #2