Day 14: Rome

For the third time in as many weeks we crossed the Atlantic and arrived in Rome about 3pm today. It's funny to say that flying Lufthansa to Frankfurt feels pretty familiar, but it's the truth. We were so very fortunate- in fact, it made all the difference in our ability to stay up as long as we did tonight- that the back of the plane was almost empty. Before we had even taken off, I snagged a row of four middle seats. G settled in across the aisle in three seats. I was asleep before we took off. I woke a bit for dinner service but just picked at my meal and returned to sleep. Aided by the 'Contacts out, Ambien in' approach to eastward travel,  and noise cancelling ear buds and four pillows and four blankets and enough room to nearly stretch out fully, I slept lightly for probably six hours, with frequent awakenings but quickly drifting off to sleep again each time.  

That's the way to travel!  Too bad it's a rare occurrence. 

Changing planes in Frankfort was a whole 'nother sport today. Our first flight was on time, and we only had to go through immigration to enter the EU. No security checks (or two) and no passport control checks. It was so easy and fast that we arrived at our second gate with a little time to spare.  The flight to Rome was a little longer than I expected, but still well under two hours. There were no Alps views to see today; we had solid clouds all the way from Frankfurt to Rome. 

Once we had retrieved our luggage in Rome (another sigh of relief. We had thought we put any potential luggage issues behind us with our flight to Venice, but things change...), we met the driver we had arranged through Rome Airporter and traveled in his Mercedes roughly 40 minutes to arrive at our hotel, the Hotel Vespasiano, just a block or two from Vatican City. 

As you know, this portion of our trip was pulled together on fairly short notice. We felt that staying in the area surrounding Vatican City would make our first full day of sightseeing in Rome a lot easier. We didn't have time to look too long or hard at our options, and in the end are very pleased with the Hotel Vespasiano. It's a brand new boutique hotel built (and this part is hard to explain) in the courtyard of a building dating back probably hundreds of years. It is the most intriguing mix of very old (I'll try to get a photo of the front of the building tomorrow), and ultra modern new. 

 

 

The view from our room. The newer building is our hotel, built in the courtyard of an apartment building. 

G says it reminds him of I Love Lucy, especially with the lady who does laundry every day. 

We booked a junior suite for a bit more room but it's still pretty small. The shower is stand alone and huge, and has a color changing LED light in the ceiling. The toilet and bidet look like something from another planet and the bathroom sink is flat and leaf-shaped (and fairly totally useless for doing hand laundry, I've learned). We have two walls of windows that look out into the courtyard, but several stories above us are old apartments with laundry hanging from the balconies. 

We dropped onto the bed and slept for about an hour (actually, I just used their HIGH SPEED WiFi) and then went out to explore the area. We walked around the wall of Vatican City (I was not expecting that it was surrounded by a tall stone wall) and then around the narrow streets with sidewalk cafes that were slowly filling with diners. We were more tired than hungry but chose a restaurant that seemed popular and had pizza and wine (me) and Coke (G) and ate in near silence. Luckily, the restaurant was right around the corner from our hotel, because we walked home the short distance on dark cobblestone streets, attended to evening ablutions and fell into bed. 

And then I remembered that I write blog posts, so I crawled back out of bed and grabbed my iPad and kept one eye open at a time just long enough to write this. The alarm is set for 7am tomorrow. We will eat breakfast and begin a day of exploring this area. In addition to seeing St. Peter's Square (G's wish for the day) and the Sistine Chapel (mine), we will spend time in the Vatican Mueseum. And gift shop. This is a site that requires the purchase of lots of souvenirs and mementos. After after 12 years of Catholic education, it's like reaching the epicenter of the Church. 

The boomerang travel is behind us. Life is good.