Bonjourno, Roma!

Traveling with Randy was a worry at first. I need everything-in-its-place, things like where you're going, how to get there, what to do and memorize the details ahead of time so life will be the same here as there. Which is obviously not the point of travel. He is easier going and can figure it out as he goes along, which in the end worked out to be how it was. Randy brought everything including a snake bite kit and flashlight; he manned the camera and I wrote the Travelog.

Best Laid Plans. We booked our flights to Rome via Dulles and the return from Paris via Dulles. Five hotels were pre-booked through the same website that booked the flights - 3 nights in Rome, 3 in Florence, 2 in Venice, 3 in London and 1 in gay Paris. We'd researched and found a great rate for the Chunnel from London to Paris (under the English channel) and also the hopper flight between Venice and London. The Eurail tickets were in hand, a flexi super saver pass where two or more persons who travel together the entire trip can get discounts, and the pass allows the romance of spur of the moment wherever you want to go and when. You just fill in the front of the box on the ticket, keep a log of the travel destination, hop on the train and off you go! That sounded like a blast.

So you can imagine the anticipation was building from home, and dreams of what it would be like and how smooth the trip would go, all due to this expert planning and reams of research. And then we left.

United was on time, and the connection from Dulles to Rome was on time, and we sailed through Immigration and the first stamp in our passport about made us faint with excitement. Baggage arrived and we were soon out on a bench in front of the airport completely befuddled.

How does one get from the airport to hotel?! Everything self guided in the airport was in Italian and we kind of got the gist of it because it is similar to Spanish, but we worked ourselves to the front of the line anyway and to an exceptionally patient customer service agent selling tickets to the high speed train into town. Ok we'll do that. And from that stinky awful train we made our way up and down hills and stairs to the hotel that we had carefully checked through Trip Advisor and their website. Which was a total dump.

Let's Adapt! Any attempts to call the booking agency on a Sunday morning at 09:00 would be more of formality than a solution. But beginner's luck being what it is, we bumped into a nice couple checking out after just one night for obvious reasons -- but who I might add were more cheerful to give it a go even for one night, which was more than we were willing to do because darn it! it's our honeymoon! -- and they recommended the Hotel Modigliani across town. And so we packed ourselves off in a cab for what turned out to be a fabulous find.

There is relief in taking baby steps, and realizing you will be able to feed yourselves and find shelter.  The hotel with its friendly staff and charming European decor empowered us to get out there, and we dashed down the narrow street just wide enough for a SmartCar if we plastered ourselves against the buildings. Which we did with great enthusiasm as cars charged towards us with their horns. The main street was teeming with cafes and buses and motor scooters driven by people with a death wish. There was energy in the air on this bright crisp sunny day. We were in Roma!

Sketchers 'Shape Ups' were on our feet for the first walk of our travel career, and we walked from the Piazza de Spagna (just around the corner) all the way to the shopping district and the Spanish Steps where we dined at a sidewalk cafe and lingered there with a capuccino and glass of wine. It was a long way but felt good after the cramped flight. The whirr of the camera and sights and sounds of the city were exciting and fun. We noticed the people are dark and exotically mediterranean and beautiful. Above the steps, the Triniti del Monte was quietly majestic and we explored that before continuing on to the Trevi Fountain. Next to the church, unadorned, sat a museum celebrating the works and contributions of Shelley and Keats ... and it dawned on us the richness of the experience we were undertaking and it gave us a thrill.

The Trevi fountain was a mob scene with thousands enjoying the sunny and humid day but we managed to squeeze through for a traditional coin toss in the fountain while making a wish.

Here we must thank United Airlines for upgrading our seats from economy to Economy Plus for free for a more comfortable trip. We weren't in first class (but we could see it from there).

We shared the row on the plane with a young Venetian mother and 4 year old son (Elizabeth was raised in NY and has married a native and lived in Venice for six years). She and her son were delayed one week by the volcanic ash in Iceland while visiting her folks in the States. Randy chatted at length with Tom, a six time traveler to Rome that sat on his left and who was a wealth of information. Both of our companions recommended to stay awake until at least 19:00 to readjust our bodies to the time change (9 hrs ahead of CA). 

We tried, we really did, but by 17:15 I was fast asleep and Randy soon after and we slept soundly for 12 hours. For us, that concluded Day 1 in Rome.

The continental breakfast was very good, and filling. Choices were hard boiled eggs, granola, yogurt, croissants, brie and salami, American coffee, Capuccinos and Lattes and blood orange juice. We were up and into the day early with great anticipation of seeing the Colosseum and Palatine Hill, and the Forum and hopefully tour the city sights on a double decker bus. And perfect weather to boot!