Adventure to Italy

We were up at 5am this morning, and Pedro is currently snoring away, recharging before our late night Italian dinner. Our taxi came to pick us up at A's place, and not five minutes towards the airport, I almost lost my breakfast again.  I swear the driver was doing it on purpose- he was constantly accelerating just to pump the brakes, did so consistently for the hour ride to Gatwick.  Luckily I had taken some motion sickness pills to avoid the repeat of the train to London, and they kicked in just in time to knock me out. Even Pedro thought the guy was driving crazy, but hey, we made it. 

We flew past the long lines at check in and went through security with no major issues.  Walking through this airport was different than any I've ever seen. I know a lot of airports can be like a mall, with random stores here and there along with the food, but this one purposely led you through a ton of perfume and makeup stores to get to the food court, where the craziness was amplified. I've never been in such a full airport. Busy, sure, but most are big enough to withstand the busyness. Not this morning.  Every seat was filled, every restaurant line stretching across the terminal, with no easy to get meals. We just beelined it to the convenience store and tried to find seats at a gate. 

Pedro thinks our airline didn't tell us our gate on purpose, and I'm inclined to agree. They kept emailing us asking us to switch our flight even with reserved seats, so we knew they overbooked.  As we're eating, we're staring at the departures board for our gate.  It says the gate will be only ten minutes before boarding. We were in the right terminal, and relatively close to the different pathways for the all gates, but it was still cutting it closer than we'd like.  And we were right, since it was still a few minutes late updating, on top of being a gate at the far end of the terminal. But we made it!

Our hotel check-in was by appointment only, so I told them we'd be on the second shuttle bus (cheap, fast, and frequent by the way) after we landed. I had no idea how long it would take to get through customs, but we were told we could call if we'd be late. We were one of multiple flights going through customs at the time, and I didn't think we'd be making it through in time for that bus. But to our surprise, our passports were scanned and stamped, and we fast walked out of the airport just in time to catch the bus we wanted.  Timed it perfectly, woo!

The drive into the city for Pedro was really funny. He kept making the comment that he felt like he was back home in Cuba (a Cuba 3.0, if you will). The architecture of the buildings, the statues and streets, and, of course, the heat. But it was the origins of the aesthetic in Cuba.  

Our shuttle stops right at the Termini station, about a five minute walk from our hotel. Through great big green double doors and up 4 flights of stairs, we find the place. Also, we're up to 90F now, and my hair was telling me it was at least 70% humidity.  We were sweating.

Our hotel is all on one floor with a few color-coordinated rooms along the hall.  We met the owner at check-in, who was extremely nice and showed us around.  We have key card access to the double doors downstairs, the staircase, the communal kitchen, and our room. The kitchen had a full fridge with color coordinated shelves for our use, as well as a teas, coffees, and a fresh water dispenser for our water bottles. So we just freshen up real quick in the room, and decide to get some food. 

We had no plans for today, other than just arriving.  So the new plan was to just head in the general direction of the Colosseum and look for a restaurant. We found a cute, shaded outside restaurant less than a block away.  Pedro, thinking he's in Cuba 3.0, talks to the waiter in Spanish, so he grabs some menus from the Spain pile of the many different versions of their menu and proceeds to speak to us in Spanish instead of Italian or English. (We realized many people had to be multilingual in the tourist section.) Pedro ordered what looked like a pizza with chorizo slices on top, and I had some rigatoni.  Simple, but delicious. We devoured that food. 

As we ate, we looked around the area on Google maps to see if there were places near by we could go to, and settled on Basilica Papale de Santa Maria Maggiore.  It's a beautiful basilica, and I had come across it when researching places to see that aren't that popular but are really hidden gems. Pedro and I spent a lot of time here just seeking out every detail. The photos don't show the same size and detail we experienced, but here are a lot to give an idea.

We continued to wonder, finding a park to rest our feet for a bit before heading back to the hotel.

For dinner, we stayed near the hotel.  Just walking down the streets, there's plenty of outside seating and menus posted on the walls, so it's easy to just browse.  We picked a place easily enough, and I ordered the house wine with my meal. Best thing you can do! Its usually cheaper, and you're still getting local wine. 

After a very long day, and a very late dinner, we are ready to see the rest of the city.