Friday, December 12

We landed in Roma at about 10 in the morning. Apparently, Molly had flown in from somewhere else and had already landed at the airport and so we were supposed to meet her near the baggage. Well, something went wrong and needless to say we never found her, but we could let that little hiccup ruin our trip, so we pressed onward.

Once we got all our baggage, we had to go through with our passports. If you ask me, the security was a little lacking. I don't even think the Italian official looked at where I was from, he simply opened it up, stamped some random page and then asked for the next person. After that we had to purchase a train ticket that would take us to the center of the city and then buy a Metro pas which would allow us to take the subway to our hotel. Of course no one spoke Italian very well so it took a while to purchase all of our tickets, but eventually we got them and boarded the train. The train was rather crowded when we got on, a few of us, including myself, had to stand for the half hour ride in.

On the train ride, we were able to call Molly and found out that she had been waiting at a different baggage claim or something. So we told her how to get a train ticket and metro pas and how to get to the hotel and that we'd meet her later that afternoon.

So the train dropped us off at the Termini, which is where the two subway lines, A and B, cross, and from there we boarded the subway to our hotel. It was incredibly crowded in the Termini, there were people everywhere. The subway dropped us off relatively close to our hotel, and from there we were able to walk and drag our luggage.

Our hotel was called the Cinquantatre and it was this little tiny place squeezed in between two buildings. Although it looked very small on the outside, it was very, very nice and had plenty of room for all of us. I was very impressed at how nice it was, I didn't think we would get anything like that at all. Once we all got settled in, we had the rest of the day to really wander around and do whatever we wanted.

A few of us were starving so we decided to find somewhere to eat. Abby, Phil, Brian, Michelle, and myself wandered around for a little bit looking for a good place. Eventually, we settled on a small Ristorante on the sidewalk. It was really nothing more than a glass box and was a sort of extenstion of the restaurant onto the sidewalk. But the food was really good and we had a nice meal.

For the rest of the day, we pretty much wandered around for a little bit. We came across some churches that I will never remember the name of and some fountains. We also found the Spanish Steps which were really close to our hotel, so we hung out there for little bit, meandering through all the little shops that were around it.

Eventually, we went back to the hotel and turned in for the night. I played some card games and such with some people up on the 6th floor for a bit, but after a while, jetlag got the best of me and I had to go to sleep.

Pictures:

From Rome '08