Travel day:
We left for the airport on a Thursday afternoon. Kelsey was mosquito bitten and sore from cross country camp. Michael was also mosquito bitten, not so sore, but had come down with a sore throat. So we added Airborne, extra ibuprofen, some vitamin C and echinacea to his carry-on bag. Pat and I were good to go! I was happy to see that the Condor plane we were flying on had a Snoopy and Woodstock painted on the side. Our flight departed on time about 6:30pm. It was a 10.5 hour flight. None of us got a lot of sleep that night, even with our cute Linus and Snoopy pillows. We landed in Frankfurt at 1pm their time (so, with a 9 hour difference, that was 4am our body's time). The flight to Rome was only a couple hours, we were there by 5pm or so. We got in one wrong line, but eventually got our bags, got out to the train platform, took that train to the main station in Rome-Termini. They are doing construction on the metro (subways) in Rome, and supposedly were shutting down on the weekends by 8pm. Pat knew this but didn't really tell us until after we "sprinted" through the station--up and down what seemed like a ton of stairs--with our bags in tow. We made it in time to catch the metro to our destination, Flaminio. We later found out that they had extended the time to 9pm. At Flaminio we needed to take the rete tranviaria (streetcar/tram). In Rome, it seemed that most of the public transportation was fairly crowded-and Italians just go where they want to go, when they want to go. It's an adjustment for us more polite Seattleites. This tram was 10 minutes or so. Then we had a 15-20 minute walk to get to the apartment. This part was shortened on future trips, b/c we did not have our luggage, and we found the best stop to hop on and off.
We made it! It was 8:30pm Friday evening Rome time, 11:30am on Friday morning Seattle time. We had been up a good 27 hours or so, with whatever sleep we had on the plane. Dinner was by-passed and we all crashed!
Day 1 in Rome-Saturday.
With a good amount of sleep Pat, Michael and I went to the local grocery store to buy some drinks, and pastries. Kelsey had a headache, so she was resting. Michael still had his sore throat, but IBP was helping.
We had no plans that day other than wandering. So, off we went. The bridge by the apartment is Ponte Milvio, or the bridge of love. There are areas where lovers leave a lock and then toss the key into the river. We had a weekly pass for the public transportation-so we could take whatever we needed to get around town. We took the tram back to Flaminio, which is at Piazza del Popolo. The rest of the day we walked. Our stops along the way: the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, our first of many gelato stops, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona where the Fountain of the Four Rivers is located. Then we walked back to our apartment along the Tiber River. For dinner we decided to go to a local restaurant. We were starving at 6pm, but they don't open until 8pm. We went to a nearby bar for drinks and appetizers to pass the time. And then walked along the Tiber again, to see the Olympic Stadium where a local concert was getting ready. The restaurant was great-outdoor seating and good Italian food. Pat had pasta carbonara, and the kids and I had pizza. Then back to the apartment for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment