Rome, Italy - Day 1
Monday, March 25, 2024
Today marks two months of travel for our family. We’ve been blessed to see and experience so many different cities and countries on this trip, and stay in different types of accommodations, too. We’ve liked something special about each one.
Last night, we stayed at Park Hotel in Perugia, Italy. It wasn’t the fanciest hotel in the world, but we enjoyed sleeping in comfortable beds with soft bed linens, and using the swimming pool/steam room/sauna area. One thing Andi and I’ve realized traveling the world is that people from the USA have high standards for things like sheets, towels, mattresses, and taking long showers. The quality just isn’t there in other parts of the world. It’s not a huge deal, but when you’re in a place that has it, you notice it. A hotel is a pretty safe bet for comfy beds and hot water though, and Park Hotel was quite enjoyable in that way.
Breakfast was included in our hotel stay, so the four of us walked down to the restaurant around 9:00am to eat before check-out. There was a nice spread of food offerings available on the breakfast buffet from traditional Italian cakes & pies, pastries, fruit, sliced deli meat & cheese, and eggs made-to-order.
Another difference between cultures is people’s view of personal space. Our family was in line at the breakfast buffet when a group of Italians came into the restaurant. They swarmed us like bees on honey without any respect for the line. An older woman saw me waiting off to the side and said, “prego! prego!” inviting me to jump into the middle of the line. I couldn’t do it though; manners told me to wait my turn.
After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and drove 45 minutes from Perugia to Spoleto to return our rental car. The same woman who rented a car to us last Friday was working at the AVIS counter again today. Andi asked her to call us a taxi to the train station, but the taxi operator said there weren’t any cars available (I think there’s only one or two in town). So, Andi asked the woman working at AVIS if she’d drive us to the train station. She was reluctant at first, but eventually agreed and closed the store to take us. Wasn’t that nice of her?! “It never hurts to ask,” Andi told the kids later.
We arrived to the Spoleto train station around 11:10am. The next train to Rome departed at 11:35pm. It was a simple process to purchase train tickets from the kiosk, and we knew this time to stamp our tickets in the validation machine before boarding the train. Total travel time from Spoleto to the Rome Terminal was 90 minutes.
Aden still wasn’t feeling 100% today. He hadn’t thrown up since the car ride in Tuscany on Saturday, but he said that he felt nauseous today, and he hardly ate anything at breakfast. I kept a gallon-sized ziploc close by in case he threw up on the train.
Fortunately, the train wasn’t very full on the ride to Rome. All four of us were able to sit in seats together. Andi and the kids watched downloaded shows on our phones while I finished writing a blog post.
The train station in Rome was crazy busy! A large group of people were congregated outside our train when we disembarked. We had to fight our way through the crowd to get to the central part of the station. “I don’t know why people like this mode of travel,” And said. “Train travel is not for me.” It is fast and for the most part, inexpensive, which I think is why so many people travel this way in big cities, but man — so many people, so many germs, and so chaotic.
The central train station in Rome felt like a mini city with restaurants, groceries, and clothing stores. We walked by a pharmacy, and Andi suggested we stop in to buy a different anti-nausea medicine for Aden. European countries have a lot of powder medicines that mix into water, and we can’t get Aden to drink those.
Andi promised the kids Five Guys for lunch in the Rome Terminal, so we made our way up to the 3rd floor where are the restaurants are located. Aden said he felt well enough to eat a hamburger and fries, but in actuality, he didn’t eat much of it. Tory and I also ordered lunch from Five Guys, and Andi got sushi from a nearby restaurant. It was not a cheap meal inside the Rome terminal! €65 spent at Five Guys, and another €20 for sushi.
Outside the Rome train station was nuts, too. The line for taxis wrapped all the way around the block. “I am not waiting in that line,” Andi said. There’s Uber in Rome, but no cars were picking up our call for a ride. We decided to walk a few blocks away from the train station to see if we had more success elsewhere. A couple blocks away, there was another taxi stand with no customers in line. Getting across the busy street was the challenge though! We found a crosswalk and tested the waters by slowly stepping out into the street. Surprisingly, all the cars honored the crosswalk and came to a screeching halt allowed us to cross the street with ease.
Andi rented us a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in the San Giovanni neighborhood of Rome. It’s a more residential neighborhood, and about 20 minutes from the famous ancient landmarks of the city, but the price was nearly half to stay here. It took us a good 20 minutes to drive about 6 miles from the train station to our rented apartment. The subway would have been faster, I’m sure, but Andi and I didn’t have it in us to navigate that with our bags in tow.
The owner of the airbnb met us at the apartment to let us in and show us around the unit. I thought the owner of our Lisbon, Portugal apartment was thorough — this guy showed us every single amenity down to the wine opener. The apartment is older, but very well-equipped and clean. One of the more odd aspects of our accommodations is the toilet in the center of the bathroom floor. There’s also a mirror positioned low on the wall so you can see yourself on the toilet? Weird.
By now, it was 5:00pm. We dropped our bags in the apartment and walked around the block to the nearest grocery store. It wasn’t a big store, but had enough food & beverage offerings to buy meat, pasta, bread, and wine.
Back at the airbnb apartment, I made chicken, zucchini, and pasta for dinner while Andi hopped on some work calls. I made him a plate, and the kids and I ate without him. Nothing fancy.
We spent the rest of the evening in our apartment. Tory and I talked to my mom & nieces on FaceTime for a little while before bedtime.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a rainy day in Rome, but we decided to take advantage nonetheless. Andi booked us a golf cart city tour which should be interesting. Excited to see all the major sights of Rome.
