Apartment Living in Rome

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Geo: 41.8955, 12.4823

After connections in Houston and Paris, Philip and I arrived in Rome almost exactly on time. At this point, we have been awake over 29 hours; neither one of us could sleep on the plane. We made it safely to our apartment just outside the Vatican walls, in spite of the hair-raising taxi ride that was seriously overpriced.

We booked the apartment through Roman Reference since that company was recommended in a Frommers' article. It is exactly as represented with a combo kitchen-living-dining area, two bedrooms, a big bathroom, a laundry area, and a tiny balcony off the living area. Maria, the key holder, met us at the apartment to give us the keys and instructions about how to make everything work. So far we have been successful with everything except the heaters--two are working, but the other two are not. We spent a good bit of time practicing locking and unlocking the doors. We have a key to get into the gate to the complex, another one to get in the building, a third one to get into a hallway that leads to two apartments, then finally the key to our front door. Each of the doors to our hallway and our front door have four deadbolts. Hmmm?? Should we be worried??

Before we left home, we checked out the aerial and street-level photos on Google maps and knew exactly what the building and surroundings would look like. The neighborhood is full of five- and six-story apartment buildings with storefronts on the ground level. A lot of the retail spaces are empty, but we have found a farmacia and an alimentari and a couple of restaurants we can try later in the week. We bought tonight's meal at the deli counter in the alimentari--bread, cheese, ham, cookies.

The afternoon walk to check out the area and pick up supplies was fun and helped to get past the jet-lag, but we will be turning in early. Tomorrow we'll see some of the ancient Roman sites during the day and visit the Vatican Museums in the evening.

Buona notte.

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