Fly into Rome....and sleep
Long Flight
What a long flight! Keri and I flew to from Seattle to JFK which was about a four hour flight. With the time difference we didn't get there till 4PM. We had a short layover to stretch and grab something to eat. Then we got on a flight from JFK to Rome's Fiumicino airport. That was about an 8 hour flight. With the time difference, we didn't get in until 8AM the next morning. 8AM to 8AM. Not a full 24 hours, but you get the idea. Here is a picture from the plane of the Italy coast.
Note to self, don't use the automated bigliettos.
We took the train from the airport into Rome's Termini station, about 30 minutes. Finding the train was easy, however, we did try to order tickets through the automated biglietto (ticket) machine. At 9.5 euros a pop, both tries failed with the credit card. And then trying to get anyone to understand us would have been worth another 10. Finally, we went to the regular ticket counter and bought our tickets. But then spent another 10 minutes trying to figure out how to validate them. They don't do it at the ticket counter, and the validation machines are very picky about where you put the tickets in.
The trip from the station to Rome was interesting. Apparently, Sunday must be laundry day as we saw many houses with clothes hanging out.
Termini was a bit stinky for Keri. It is tough when your first experience with a town are the bad smells. Smelled a bit like downtown Tijuana. Part urine, part dirt.
Close Hotel
Our hotel is about a quarter mile from the Termini station. So the walk there wasn't that long. We're staying at the Hotel Aberdeen, chosen partly for the name. We didn't realize how convienient it would be to be so close to the Termini, which also happens to be the hub for the underground metro. I'm sure we'll be using the metro while were here. This is Keri outside of our hotel room.
Sleep
The room is very small, and the bed is very hard. But nothing else mattered when we got to the room. We got to the room at 10:30AM and slept until 5PM. And we could have kept sleeping! We decided to get up and walk around in order to shake off the jetlag.
Spanglish, only in Italian
We stopped by a little pastry shop, Terazza Boberelli, for some lattes and snacks. I got lucky when the waitress asked us what we wanted. Due latte, uno tiaramisu y uno profittorolè. After thinking about it a bit, I really wasn't sure that what Keri wanted was called profittorolè. She brought us the right thing. Small victories.
Spanish Steps
After walking around a bit later that night. We decided to see the Piazza Spagna. There were many people out and about for the night. Several hundred just sitting on the steps. Being Sunday, I think that some sort of church service was ending at the time we started walking. I was amazed to see so many people out. We stopped into several churches to view the frescos and statues.
Tomorrow
Most of the museos are closed on Monday, so we plan to do the ancient stuff. We're thinking we are going to do the Roman Forum Walk: Arch of Titus, Basilica of Constantine, Forum's Main Square, Temple of Julius Ceasar, Temple of Antoninus, Basilica Aemilia, Caligula's Palace, Temple of Vesta, House of Vestal Virgins, the Senate House, Rostrum, Arch of Septimius Severus, Temple of Saturn and Column of Phocas. All in the first half of the day. Yah right.
Wacky Keyboards
oh, yah, and the keyboards have slightly different characters so I spend about as much time typing as I do hitting the backspace key. Although, after this post, I'm getting better. The special characters are the toughies. Trying to hit the @ key takes a ctrl-alt-where the semi-colon normally is.
What a long flight! Keri and I flew to from Seattle to JFK which was about a four hour flight. With the time difference we didn't get there till 4PM. We had a short layover to stretch and grab something to eat. Then we got on a flight from JFK to Rome's Fiumicino airport. That was about an 8 hour flight. With the time difference, we didn't get in until 8AM the next morning. 8AM to 8AM. Not a full 24 hours, but you get the idea. Here is a picture from the plane of the Italy coast.
Note to self, don't use the automated bigliettos.
We took the train from the airport into Rome's Termini station, about 30 minutes. Finding the train was easy, however, we did try to order tickets through the automated biglietto (ticket) machine. At 9.5 euros a pop, both tries failed with the credit card. And then trying to get anyone to understand us would have been worth another 10. Finally, we went to the regular ticket counter and bought our tickets. But then spent another 10 minutes trying to figure out how to validate them. They don't do it at the ticket counter, and the validation machines are very picky about where you put the tickets in.
The trip from the station to Rome was interesting. Apparently, Sunday must be laundry day as we saw many houses with clothes hanging out.
Termini was a bit stinky for Keri. It is tough when your first experience with a town are the bad smells. Smelled a bit like downtown Tijuana. Part urine, part dirt.
Close Hotel
Our hotel is about a quarter mile from the Termini station. So the walk there wasn't that long. We're staying at the Hotel Aberdeen, chosen partly for the name. We didn't realize how convienient it would be to be so close to the Termini, which also happens to be the hub for the underground metro. I'm sure we'll be using the metro while were here. This is Keri outside of our hotel room.
Sleep
The room is very small, and the bed is very hard. But nothing else mattered when we got to the room. We got to the room at 10:30AM and slept until 5PM. And we could have kept sleeping! We decided to get up and walk around in order to shake off the jetlag.
Spanglish, only in Italian
We stopped by a little pastry shop, Terazza Boberelli, for some lattes and snacks. I got lucky when the waitress asked us what we wanted. Due latte, uno tiaramisu y uno profittorolè. After thinking about it a bit, I really wasn't sure that what Keri wanted was called profittorolè. She brought us the right thing. Small victories.
Spanish Steps
After walking around a bit later that night. We decided to see the Piazza Spagna. There were many people out and about for the night. Several hundred just sitting on the steps. Being Sunday, I think that some sort of church service was ending at the time we started walking. I was amazed to see so many people out. We stopped into several churches to view the frescos and statues.
Tomorrow
Most of the museos are closed on Monday, so we plan to do the ancient stuff. We're thinking we are going to do the Roman Forum Walk: Arch of Titus, Basilica of Constantine, Forum's Main Square, Temple of Julius Ceasar, Temple of Antoninus, Basilica Aemilia, Caligula's Palace, Temple of Vesta, House of Vestal Virgins, the Senate House, Rostrum, Arch of Septimius Severus, Temple of Saturn and Column of Phocas. All in the first half of the day. Yah right.
Wacky Keyboards
oh, yah, and the keyboards have slightly different characters so I spend about as much time typing as I do hitting the backspace key. Although, after this post, I'm getting better. The special characters are the toughies. Trying to hit the @ key takes a ctrl-alt-where the semi-colon normally is.
posted by Alex at 8:54 PM
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