A Trip to Italy - Maria Turns 40!

---

The Deitz Travel Blog has resurrected from the dead. We last wrote about our travels in March of 2011, when we went to Qatar. We had decided to write down our experiences since it was such a different place than we are used to visiting. This time around, we find ourselves in Italy – September 2013. The purpose of this trip’s blog is to mainly keep the kids up to date on what we are doing. Some family may see this…I hope not to bore you. It’s nothing fancy…just the Deitz’s in Rome.

I’m sitting down to write this at 11:30 pm local time – local being Rome, Italy. Maria’s 40^th birthday is on the 13^th and we decided to do something big for the occasion. It’s a long way to travel for a week, but hey…we’re in Italy!!!

We left Calgary Monday, September 10^th around 9:35 pm. Flew with British Airways to London Heathrow, and then a short 2+ hour flight to Rome. We arrived in Rome at about 7 pm local time on September 11^th. An important day in history…and it did cross my mind that we were flying through some major airports on this day.

The airport was very busy. It had to have taken about 45 minutes to get through Customs. Lots of random lines of people from all over the world. The European Union citizens went through a separate line that didn’t take long at all. Once through Customs, we found our luggage and walked out into the busy meeting area of the airport. We had arranged for a driver to take us from the airport to the hotel in advance. He was standing there waiting for us, with our name on a sign. The driver cost 55 Euro from the airport to the hotel, and will cost the same when we go back. It was well worth it. We could have taken the train for much less, but this was perfect. We hopped in his Mercedes and he drove like a bat out of hell through the winding streets of Rome, pulling up to the door of our hotel with no problems. I couldn’t watch where he was driving – it was better to look out the side window and pretend not to see the several near collisions. I’m so glad I didn’t have to drive through that.

We are staying at Hotel Abruzzi (www.hotelabruzzi.it) . We decided to pay a bit more to be in a good location so we don’t spend a lot of time going back and forth to the tourist sites. Our hotel literally faces the front of the Pantheon. The hotel is an old building, with an elevator that starts on the second floor (strange). The rooms are very simple. What you pay for is the location. We opened our window and looked out onto a piazza and the Pantheon, lit up for the night. Below our window, there are many restaurants packed with people eating on the patios. There are people sitting around the big water fountain in the middle of the piazza. A woman plays the accordion, in search of tips. I first referred to it as everything cliché about Italy. The man at the front desk says when you open your window, you see and hear Italy.

I slept about 5 hours the night before we left on this trip, and slept very little, if any, on the flights over. I’m not going to write for too long today, as it’s almost midnight local time. I need a shower and a good sleep.

We’ll take lots of pictures, some of which will make this blog. With only 5 full days in Italy, we are staying in Rome the entire time, other than one day. Sunday, we will take a train up to a town called Orvieto, where we will meet with friends, Sam and Phil – who will be coming to Italy in a couple of days, and both turn 40 in a few days.

Back to our first evening – we had some champagne in the room, unpacked a bit, and decided to go poke around some side streets. We headed away from the Pantheon, and a few blocks away, found a restaurant called Osteria Spaghetti. We grabbed an open table on the street and ordered some wine and food. The street is very narrow, cobblestone, with room for one vehicle to drive through. Only a couple every drove down the street while we ate though. It looked busy and the food looked great, but we didn’t want to eat a huge meal. We ordered a ½ litre bottle of wine, some bruschetta, and each a margarita pizza. Along with some water, and some Limon cello, the bill came to 22.50 Euro. I thought that was a great deal. We avoided the busy places facing onto the main tourist attractions, and will try to eat at places tucked away on side streets. So far a good start.

Right next door, there was a long line out the door of a gelato place. We had to try it out. We had some difficulty speaking the language. I kind of got what I ordered, and Maria at the time didn’t know what she ordered, but she liked it. It seemed to be very popular with the locals. We’ll have to visit there again!

So, we wrap up our first few hours in Rome. We’ve already had wine, pizza, and gelato. A good start.

Tomorrow, we have a light day. We hope everyone is doing good back home!

Ciao.<!--EndFragment-->

p.s. It's too late to figure out how to add pictures...so to start, this is all you get.

---

Comments

[Noah]

Wow
Hi it sounds good already most likely better pasta than at home. Im typing from grandmas iPad i hope you guys are having a good time. Noah

[DoubleD]

Hi Noah, we have seen a lot. We've also had pasta a couple times already and it was very good. Dad