Rome is Dark

Our flight from SFO took us through Zurich on a 2 hour layover and then onto Rome. Landing in Rome was mostly uneventful with the exception of around 5 minutes of some seriously choppy weather.

The wait for our luggage was much longer than we expected but as long as there were other people from the flight, I wasn't worried that our luggage was lost someplace in Guam.

We meandered our way through the airport to the train station. Mary went in search of an ATM for some euros while went off to find tickets and the train that would take us to Roma Termini. While walking down the platform, I was stopped by a guy and asked a question in Italian. My understanding of Italian is just a smidge above nonexistent. But I caught the word train and Roma Termini so I smiled, pointed to the train we were going to get on and said Roma Termini. He smiled, said grazie and headed to the train. Afew moments later and an Asian dude stopped me and asked something about his ticket. After miming through for a bit, I realized that he wanted to know where he could validate his ticket. So I pointed off to the beginning of the platform, drew the outline of the boxes and mimed putting the ticket in to get stamped. He said thank you in asian influenced English and off he went. I'm still wondering why people chose me to ask for help. Strange but satisfying to help.

The train ride to Roma Termini was pretty short, around 25 minutes. The terminal itself was huge! And when I say huge I mean enormous! We walked for at least10 minutes along train tracks and platforms before we made the front entrance. It's big.

Next we needed a taxi to be able to get to our apartment. The first taxi driver we talked with didn't have a clue where the address was but the next pulled out his gps and found it quickly. Cost will be 35 euros which Mary thinks is a ripoff. We decided to pay it just because we didn't want to deal with trying to find other transport.

Driving through Rome is entertaining. Seems that wherever your car is located, that's your lane and that's where you were going. The drivers move fast, cut across traffic and treat traffic rules and signs as suggestions.

Most of the houses on the street of our apartment don't have numbers shown, It's more of a hunt and guess game to find the right one. Luckily Mariola and Tom were watching out the window and saw our taxi driving in circles.

The apartment is a cozy 3 bedroom with a kitchen, eating area / living room. Perfect for a group our size and way better that a hotel.

So far, my impression of Rome is that it's dark. I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.