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Published: November 21st 2007
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Trevi Fountain
The famous fountain at night. I made it to Rome today. Everything was on schedule which has been a rare first for me lately in my love/hate relationship with Northwest Airlines. Was a long day of traveling with the overnight flight out of Minneapolis. Watched a couple movies on the flight in the very convenient personal monitors in the seats and otherwise napped. They even fed us dinner and breakfast. Had a stopover for a couple hours in Amsterdam (got another passport stamp when I cleared Customs) and then the flight to Rome.
It was raining the entire time I was in Amsterdam but Rome was full of sun. It was nice and warm with the temp in the low 70s. However, I arrived in Rome very tired. It’s so hard to sleep on that overnight flight because your body just isn’t ready to be sleeping at what would commonly be early evening in my home’s time zone. I tried to nap on and off for a few hours to try to start the adjustment process. I landed in Rome and the next step was to locate a train to take me to the main train terminal in Rome. The airports in Rome are located
quite some distance from the City making taxi cabs around $70-80 Euro and very few shuttles. I thought I’d try the train to see if I could save myself some money and get a bit closer to my hotel. For those who are more traveled in Europe than I, you are probably going to laugh when I say that I was a bit worried about taking the train. How does it work? Is it like the Metro? Where do you put your bags, etc. etc. It was very easy and I’m glad I didn’t bring my big suitcase. I managed to get myself on the right train which was an express that took me directly from the Airport to the Main Terminal. The train fare was 11 Euro and would get me over half way to my hotel. This is the only hotel in my package which is not right near the train terminal or the major sites. I’m a little north of the main sites in a residential area. Very safe and quiet but not convenient for getting around. If I was going to be here longer, I would have upgraded some more to get closer but it’s a
nice and affordable hotel for the couple days of site seeing I’ll have. I can grab taxis for the trips down and back each day or take the bus and still be affordable. (Note to Melodie…you were remembering right. The Rome Terminal is VERY big. There must have been an easy 20 different track lines going into it. Much like Zurich’s.) Then, got out of the Terminal and my options were to take a bus to my hotel or take a taxi. I was pretty tired at this point and the time change was hitting me like a brick wall so grabbed a cab instead of trying to haul my bags onto a bus. Was a little pricey but I justified it since I had cut down my costs so much getting half way there with the train.
Got to my hotel and got settled in. It’s a very comfortable hotel and very quiet. Very large room for a European single but unique in that it has 8 stairs in it to get from the door and bathroom down to the bed. Has marble floors; high, sloping ceilings; large double windows looking out on a garden and a baudet (not sure of spelling there)! The bed is great and that was where I spent the next few hours catching a little sleep so that I could get myself switched over in the time zones as quickly as possible.
Then, in the evening, I signed up for a Rome Night Tour. Didn’t want to waste my evening and I’ve always found those tours very helpful your first night in a city to really get yourself orientated to where things are and figure out the sites worth seeing in more depth. The bus tour took us by all the major sites with stops at the Trevi Fountain and St. Peter’s. We were told that St. Peter’s was having a concert for the Pope that evening so that explained why there were so many cars still there. I’ve loaded up a couple pictures from the tour. The sites are just incredible. Many were lit up at night but not worth trying pictures through the bus glass. The Coliseum was much bigger than I imagined it would be. Can’t wait to explore better. For a history buff like me, the idea of walking around and seeing up close the Pantheon, Coliseum and Constantine’s Arch gives me goose bumps. On my bus was an Australian couple who had the exact same camera as I so we reminisced about how pleased we were with our purchases. The nights do get chilly. I noticed that once the sun went down, the temps do drop into the low 40s. Still…very comfortable for those of us from the Northern Continents.
Plan for tomorrow (Wednesday)…I have signed up for a tour of the Vatican area. I read some TripAdvisor reviews which suggested it was worth the cost to avoid the lines and get experienced info that you wouldn’t get if you did it on your own. Will see the Sistine Chapel and also plan the climb to the top of St. Peter’s dome. Apparently, for a few Euro you can ride an elevator up the first 200 stairs. Then, you can climb the final 327 stairs on your own in what sounds to be a winding claustrophobic staircase which brings back memories of my climb of the Grossmunster tower in Zurich. The views are supposed to be worth it and will remind me that I must go on a diet when I get back to the US. After that, I’ll probably spend the rest of the early afternoon meandering around the Vatican area and then start making my way East seeing the sites which are plentiful. I hope to end the day around the Spanish steps and an obligatory stop at the Hard Rock Café (the only one in Italy) for a late dinner and some souvenir shopping. Given that I heard on one of my English television stations (CNN with the others being MTV and the hated Fox News) that the dollar hit an all time low against the Euro today, probably won’t be doing much shopping this trip. Yet another thing to thank President Bush for. The plan for Thursday (my last day in Rome) will be the ancient sites located in the southern part of the city.
My thoughts of Rome so far? I haven’t been able to see much but it reminds me a lot of New York City so far in how it moves. It’s very fast, loud and has something to see anywhere you turn your head. The taxi drivers drive like maniacs here as well. You just turn your head away so you don’t scare yourself. Everyone drives very small cars here and you’ll see all kinds of crazy parking as a result. Lots of motorbikes and lots of people mixed in with an active public transit system of buses, metro and trains. Everything’s busy. Main difference is obviously the archaelogical ruins and history of Rome.
Well…that’s it for today. Hopefully I won’t have a heart attack tomorrow climbing the Dome. If not, I’ll blog if not too tired.
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melodie
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Awesome!
So glad you made it! The pics looks awesome. Can't wait to hear more! :)