Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed

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2nd day - Sunday
We arrived in Rome slightly ahead of schedule. In fact Beth and I woke up from our sleep with only an hour remaining in our flight. Yep, you gotta love that. The only major stressor was that our friends' bags did not make it to Rome. Good luck prevailed and there was an extremely helpful individual (we think he was some kind of supervisor) that assisted Sam & Terri. The supervisor type guy pointed out a help desk for us to seek assistance.
He came by after a few minutes to check out the situation. This was a good thing because when we arrived at the desk some poor guy was being lambasted by the woman behind the desk. He was Italian and they were arguing with each other, the exchange ended with her telling him that something was not her problem. The supervisor guy walked up just in time, she became very cordial with us as a result. According to the info on the computer the bags were still in Philly but they would be placed on the next available flight. This meant that they would show up in Rome the next morning, or would they?
The supervisor guy walked off and the woman switched to Italian and spoke to me. “Yes, the bags should get here” she said, but as a final note of understanding the forces of nature, she gave me the classic Italian shrug that means “we’ll see.” That, however, colored the rest of that day because the outcome was uncertain. Would the bags actually arrive the next morning?
We then headed into the city and instead of taking the Fiumicino Express (11 euro) we took the regular train (5.50 euro) to the Ostiense station. It is alongside to the metro stop Piramide. We bought an all day pass for the metro/tram/bus system and headed for the Termini. Although the Fiumicino Express is non-stop, taking the regular transport is only 15 minutes longer. Altogether it is a tidy savings plus one gets right in with the locals instead of running with the tourista herd. Not that I have anything against the tourista herd…no, wait…actually I do. I’d rather be an outlier.
The remainder of the day was spent wandering around the historic center looking at some major sights. Despite it being the low season there was a horde of mostly Italian tourists and/or locals all over the place despite it being a Sunday afternoon.
We returned to our hotel for a short nap and got ready for finding a place to eat. I had a place picked out for our first meal but the late bag business had put us behind schedule so we had to look for something closer to our hotel.
That evening as we were walking out of our hotel I stopped and asked an elderly gentleman if he knew of a good restaurant nearby. He said that he did and that he would take us there - how kind!
The self serve antipasto was what I should have eaten as an entire meal. (I need to learn how to prepare the eggplant and zucchini in the way it was prepared at that restaurant.) It was better than the main meal. I guess that my standard for Italian meals is so high that anything less than totally fabulous can disappoint. It was ok but I was anticipating a killer meal to dampen the missing bags buzzkill.
We turned in early and prepared to face whatever the bag outcome would be and pick up our rental.
I will mention that the hotel we stayed in was close to the Termini, the central station; it was a dump, but a relatively cheap dump. As a rule I generally avoid hotels but in this case proximity to the central rail station was important. It did have free wi-fi and a laptop in the room.
I wish I had taken a photo of the bathroom. It was a first!
It was a small room with the sink, bidet, toilet, and (bonus) the shower all in one space. There was no separate shower stall, I kid you not. Ostensibly, one could have sat on the bidet and run the shower at the same time to get that completely freshy feeling!

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Photos

Al's rules for luggage
Al is a strict one-carry-on-bag traveler; after all you’re vacationing in Europe, not moving there.

Al knows bags
Al likes a functional bag – it ain’t quantum mechanics folks!

Al ready to start vacationing
An august looking Al standing archly triumphant – following his in-flight strategy insured that Al arrived fresh (no jet lag) and ready for a morning caffe and a relaxed day of sightseeing.

Headless begging
Strolling through Piazza Navona, Al befriends a busker
for only a small contribution!