Day 1 - The arrival
Good god has this been a terrible day. We had a 9 hour flight from Detroit to Rome (not really - its more like a very... very distant suburb of Rome. The first thing that any American will notice is the upkeep of buildings in Italy is quite different from that of the US. We have a mentality that appearance means everything. However, I think Italy gives you a nice "up yours" because the people are so nice but their buildings wouldn't be up to many Americans standards.
While at the station, I decided to drop a heavy so I headed to the bathroom to drop off the kids. The stall was relatively clean and the camode quite recognizable. The stall walls are lower to the ground and taller than typical US style stalls - it felt much more private. After the potty break, we went to the train station within the airport to grab a ride to the Termini station in Rome. Termini is like THE rail station of Rome. I went up to a booth labled "Termini Station Tickets" only to find out they try to swindle you over to their "taxi" service as opposed to using the train. Be careful and talk to a police officer if you need help - most of them speak English and can direct you in the right direction. I digress. Once we got to the Termini station we had to locate our bus - there are plenty of maps giving a layout of the bus station (for those of you going - just follow the bus sign from termini and keep walking until you come up into a building that will sell train tickets. You'll see 4.5 million (exaggeration) taxis awaiting you - ignore them and head to the buses. I think for taking the 90 it was 1 euro per me and my wife. However, I didn't once see anyone enforce anything and several people got on without paying.
We got to our Bed and Breakfast and checked out the room - pictures will be posted by my wife as she will determine which of the pictures taken are good and what not. We decided we were hungry and went to a place called Pizzeria 23. The one thing I loved is that they sell their pizza charged by the weight - not by the size (slice or whole pie). My wife got a margarita pizza and I got a salmon pizza (I KNOW RIGHT!?) We each got a slice equivalent to like a slice from Sbarro or Luca pizza. The price for everything (2 sections of pizza + Coca Cola 20 oz + 20 oz bottled water + 20 oz Chen8) Was 7 euro. After the snack we decided to retire for the evening as the stress was just too much to really go out and explore the city of Rome. One last thing to keep in mind, after exchanging your US dollars into Euro - remember to always think about what you are truly spending. 1€ is around a $1.50 US dollars (October 2009). More coming in regards to day 2 later.
