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Published: March 25th 2001
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Well made it here...believe it or not! To start with, the keyboard here is a little strange so forgive me if some of the things I type do not come off onscreen the way I would like. Let me begin by telling you that I'm in love with this city. Totally, utterly, and completely in love (who needs a guy when you can have Rome?)...and I haven't even been here 24 hours yet! Ever since landing, I feel as though I've been set free!!! In fact, I'm so content that I could cry for joy. Of course having the sun and 70 degree weather helps from the comfort standpoint.
K...yesterday...I DID miss my plane, but not exactly because the train was late, although that was almost the case! I arrived at the Leamington Spa station about 40 minutes early for my train to discover that over half the trains running had been cancelled due to a landslide near Banbury (just south of me, and the direction I was heading!) Fortunately, my train WASN'T cancelled. So I got on it and still, due to only one track being open, we were severely delayed. Now on the train, my initial reaction
to being late was to sit there and worry and impatiently keep looking at my watch. Instead, I kept my head in my book and tried to let it go and not worry since there was absolutely nothing I could do to change the situation and just to have faith that everything would work out.
So I ended up arriving at Gatwick 20 minutes before my flight was set to depart! So you can just imagine me running like mad through the terminal. As it happens, I would have made the flight, but when they went to check me in, they realized that the flight had been overbooked and there weren't any seats available! One of the managers for British Airways came down to speak to me, apologized profusely and set about "making it right". This meant, essentially, rebooking me on the next flight at 6:10, upgrading me to First Class, compensating me £125 in cash (which was about the cost of my flight!), upon arrival arranging complimentary transport to my hotel, and making sure I was taken care of for the 4 hours I had to wait in the Club Lounge!! It was GREAT! So essentially I just
had my flight paid for and got some other perks as well.
Arrived in Rome around 9:45pm Italy time which is an hour ahead of the UK. There was a taxi driver waiting for me at the gate with a sign that appropriately read "Mr. Miller" which made me laugh. He was v. sweet and took my bag and drove me the rather considerable distance from the airport to the Hotel Cortina. The hotel, I have to say, was a little difficult to see from the street. You have to ring a bell and then they buzz you in. Then you have to walk up a flight of stairs! Apparently the way it works here is the smaller hotels may share a building with other hotels. There are actually 2 or 3 hotels in my building. Anyway, the reception area is nice enough, but when they take you to your room, don't expect help with your bags! The room was clean and relatively nice, albeit small, but what do I care? I'm only sleeping there anyway.
This morning I was up early...showered, dressed, and out the door at, what I THOUGHT was 8:00am but due to the fact that Europe changed the clocks last night, I was an hour off! Thankfully this was pointed out to me before I made myself late to something. I set out for the Galleria Borghese in the Villa Borghese. The next opening session wasn't till 1pm so I decided to just wander around the Villa. It is BEAUTIFUL!!! I absolutely loved it! Tree-lined walks, fields, fountains, statues... *Sigh!* Ended up wandering through the National Museum of Modern Art for awhile which was interesting. Then headed back to the Galleria. Now THAT was fantastic! I really was moved by the statues by Bernini...Apollo and Daphne, David, and Rape of Proserpina. They were exquisite. After the Galleria, I walked back through the Villa Borghese to the Spanish Steps. From there, I headed over to the Trevi Fountain (MAGNIFICENT!) and then a slight detour into San Crispino for the best cognac gelato I've ever had! At that point I found this Internet cafe on the Via Barberini and settled in to make myself comfortable and document my day thus far! Of course now it's about 20 after 5pm so I'm not sure where I'm off to next...but something tells me it'll be time to think about dinner soon!
Well that's all for now... I'll sign myself in and write at some point tomorrow.
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