Roma!

First things first... The Boy didn't like the little Italian automobile that we picked out for him. How about this Ducati instead? You like???


We arrived in Rome, Italy today. It was a quick flight, during which I took a much needed nap. It was quite an adventure getting to our apartment in the Jewish Ghetto area of the historic district. First, public transportation is striking, so everyone is on the streets in private cars or in taxis. There was a lot of traffic. Our second obstacle is the fact that nobody seems to speak English. And as you know, my Italian lessons didn't really prepare me for conversing with any semblance of intelligence. Our driver was very nice, and avoided traffic accidents while trying to figure out exactly what we were trying to ask him.

We arrived at our apartment only to find it locked and empty. It took some phone calls and a helpful neighbor to get someone here with the key. Grazie, Shopkeeper Man--I'll come buy trinkets and postcards from you tomorrow! And thank you Veronica--thanks for bringing the keys! Palazzo dei Fabii is on a cute street with loads of charming people and trattoria.


The next little quirk in our day was when Veronica left. She closed the doors (yep, plural) as well as the gates (again, plural) and then we realized that we didn't know how to get out! For a while there, I was pretty sure we were going to spend the following few days locked in this apartment. But after some messing around with the locks and a set of keys, I figured out how to get us released from our (potential) Roman prison.

We were meeting friends for dinner tonight and decided to walk to their hotel. The "helpful" polizia pointed us in exactly the wrong direction. Our half mile walk took us about one and a half miles. But we saw a lot of cool stuff and stopped for gelato along the way. An evening with friends, a pizza,some pasta and some gelato, it wasn't a wasted effort after all!