Rome Travel Notes | Part 1

6 Days in Rome, Italy. Part 1 - February 2023

You know what is fabulous? Stepping outside and pushing a button and then an Uber ride shows up within minutes. Our few days in London had come to an end and now it was time to move to Rome, Italy where our next 6 days unfolded.

We debated on whether to take the Underground and bus system to the Gatwick Airport which by car was an hour at best if there was no traffic. The train and bus would have been cheaper by a lot, but it was something we had never done before and we were lugging 4 suitcases. It’s always debatable on what to do when you must make it to the airport because there is so many variables to consider.

The driver that took us was a man in his late 30’s, married with a newborn baby. He was originally from Romania and he and his wife were enjoying life in England for the time being but had a dream to buy a place in Spain, and rent it out till they could afford to live there full time. Chris and I have no problems going from the shallow to the deep in end real fast. With our driver, we talked about socialized medical care, (he says its great but awful all at once) We talked about our country’s standards in food quality, taxes, the price of property and his idea of not wanting to beat his brains out living his whole life just to survive. That he desperately does not want his wife to have to work a job outside the house as well as doing everything else she has to do. He really wants to find a way to live stress free and to be able to just enjoy life. My initial thoughts were, he is wasting his intellect on driving an uber and if he hasn’t found his purpose here on earth yet, he needs too. Of course, those are just off the top thoughts. He said he doesn’t do social media anymore because he found himself drawn into it and wasting copious amounts of time with it, on top of it dragging him down emotionally. He was a nice guy; I hope he can lasso his dreams!

All these different airports seem to have different rules or slightly anyway. Gatwick is a smaller airport if we are going to compare its size to Heathrow. We checked in our bags ourselves, then went through security and had a nice lunch overlooking the airstrip. I was a nice little slice of perfect! Then, it was interrupted by a notice on Chris’s phone that our gate was closing! I was in the bathroom (which we almost needed a scooter to get too it was so far away) My phone was on silent which meant I didn’t get the 5 dozen calls from Chris, instead, I hear him yelling my name into the lady’s bathroom that happens to be full… Yeah, no time to do the hair, I just turn and move as fast as I can go! We started running through the enormously long hallway, through the crowds of people, dodging them like we were on a racetrack. Down the stairs, look for the signs, run some more, turn more corners of halls we have never been in and Chris meanwhile is telling me “I think we missed it! We missed the plane!” Meanwhile, I am thinking, “I am out of shape. What do you mean we missed the plane? This is absurd, running like this! It's my fault, isn’t it? That I simply wanted a few minutes in the bathroom to refresh?  Why did my phone have to be on silent? This is all together embarrassing, which is why, just like many occasions before this, I am going to pretend that no one knows me, in fact I do not even know myself!”

We roll up to our gate, which is all the way at the end of the corridor- of course. We are out of breath and low and behold, there is a massive line of people still waiting to get on the plane. Praise God. I don’t know about Chris, but I sucked it up and did my best to pretend like I had not just run forever with intense amounts of cortisol pumping through my system. No one needed to know that. I smoothed back my undone hair, straightened my shoulders, and got in line.

The plane ride from England to Rome, Italy was just under 2 hours. We got to sit almost in the front of the smaller plane, 3 seats on each side. The one time I am seated near the restroom, and I don’t need to use it the whole time, but I guess it’s a good thing because every other person on the plane needed to use it. It was one of the busiest flights I have ever seen! A bonus on the plane ride was that we got to see (well, see through the head of the lady next to me anyway) the tops of the Swiss Alps! I wondered if there were any chocolate waterfalls down there, or perhaps some lonely yodeler, yodeling to his lonely goat herd?

We landed in Rome. Our bags showed up. We got into a taxi in the long taxi line. The ride into town was roughly about 30 min. You kind of get a romantic feeling as you watch the “Roma” signs on the side of the road. Although, I will say that passing a lot of rundown buildings and trash puts a dent in the romance thing real fast. Coming from cooler London, England and being used to modern, clean and green is a bit of a shock to step into a place where they don’t care as much about clean and modern. Or perhaps they can’t afford it.

Chris rented us a small apartment which sat on the border of the nicer old tourist area. We met the young girl who was there to greet us and show us what was what, then took a walk about to find a market where we could buy some food to cook through the week. We grabbed something from an Italian deli for dinner. Maybe it’s my blonde hair that gives us away, no one even tried to speak Italian to us unless they literally had no other words to use. I do feel a bit spoiled but also thankful that around the world, English seems to be the 2nd language of many people and places. It always takes me a few days to grow accustom to a different language speaking culture. Google translate was a helpful all through the trip.

The apartment we rented in Rome, was much bigger than the place we had just stayed in London. The bed was upstairs with tiny winding wood stairs to get you up and down. One had to be careful coming down with sleepy eyes. The couch wasn’t comfortable to sit on, which is fine because we didn’t sit very long on it anyways. We had a terrace, except is was chilly in temperature, so we didn’t use it to much.

One thing about Italy, they have bars over most the accessible windows, and they live behind locked gates. They roll down metal doors over store fronts when closed and will tell tourist the places to avoid if possible. Chris and I are savvy when it comes to travel. I don’t trust anyone and am normally careful while in crowds.

At the store we selected, eggs (which are not in the fridge), peperoni, sausage, various cheeses, cream, coffee, some veggies, and something to drink along with a sample of a packaged Crème filled croissant which is their equivalent of our twinkies. And some chocolate bars. Plus, Chris got some gelato for the freezer. We typically ate at least one of our meals at the apartment each day. You know- Their chicken in the fridge section isn’t all the way plucked? Here is my American 'I don’t’ butcher my own meat' attitude… Ew!

The next day- Our first full day in Rome, we left the house by 11:00. The clunking sound of the locked gate behind me always makes me want to pat the keys once more. We had no plans but to stroll, wander and observe for the day. We walked all day long and I think we held up well, considering. The weather was nice, we sent some messages out to people, (not via pigeon carrier, but Lord knows there are enough of those flying rats to have used them to send messages to the Arctic!) We visited the Vitorino Monument which was finished in the earlier part of the 1900’s. This was our 2nd time at this monument. We were here 5 years ago. Still, a zillion people were walking up the enormous number of stairs. It’s a great view at the top. Chris and I broke out our communion cups, I did not share with the Seagulls who were eyeballing it.

If you followed my tinier posts, you might have known I would make a complaint here about the lack of restrooms in the city of Rome. The large Vitorino Monument, (and I do mean large) had bathrooms for the visitors. The ladies and men’s restroom each had 2 stalls. I stood in line for 30 minutes. At the coliseum, the line looked as big as the structure itself! As far as I can see- they do not have public restrooms anywhere. Not even the type where you pay to use them! So- one needs to consider this when taking children or if you have medical problems where you need to use the restroom often. Also, don’t overdrink, but don’t under drink your water. Good luck with that gauge!

This place is full of tiny bathroom stalls and tiny narrow hallways. I had a backpack for a purse and was constantly bumping into people or almost knocking 2,000-year-old artifacts to the ground. There is no parking spots open, ever. Small cars, Vespa’s, bicycles, scooters, bus transport, walking- these are the main modes of transport. They can’t manage to dig underground to put in a decent subway system because they keep unearthing more historical stuff.

I think visually seeing this old, old architecture everywhere is incredible because we don’t have that where we live in Oregon. The state of Oregon is around 170 years old, in comparison to Rome which is several thousand years old. The Trevi Fountain, is always packed with people. Since I went through deliverance ministry a few years ago, I haven’t had a huge problem with tightly packed crowds. I still don’t love them, but crowds don’t give me the intense anxiety they use too. I took my introverted self behind a fence and sat on the steps of an old church near it. Chris pointed out the nun at the gate who was supposed to be selling cookies to help fund the church but instead was more interested in scrolling through her Facebook app. Lol! So funny!

In the evening- we checked in with the kids back home. Everything was fine for them, and they needed nothing from us. We raised them to be ok with us for long periods of time, looks like our plan has worked perfectly!