Roma, Italia

Buongiorno from Roma, Italia!

I arrived in Rome Sat at 630am. My flight from DC was very good, smooth, on time, went by very quickly. My friend Marta, a native Italian, met me at the airport. This was blessing as navigating from the airport to train to the Underground (subway) to the bed and breakfast would have been beyond challenging.

We are staying in a nice city style bed and breakfast in the Tuscolana neighborhood. Tuscolana is a modest, very working class neighborhood, about a 15 min Underground ride to the city center.

Yesterday we spent the entire day and night on foot exploring the city center, seeing all of the sites. My feet are blistered. We had espresso and brioche overlooking the coliseum, lunch near the Pantheon, and dinner in the Trastevere neighborhood. If you had one day to cover all of Rome, we certainly did it.

Rome is busy and FULL of tourists. I can't imagine this city at peak season in the summer time. Everything seems to be catered to tourists, and thus very expensive. One of the more entertaining aspects of this city is the drivers. It is awesome to watch and our Saturday night cab ride in downtown Rome was classic - Notorius BIG blasting, which he kept turning up, whipping in and out of traffic in the tiniest car known to man...it was awesome.

Marta leaves tomorrow to return to Turin. From there I will be solo, which should be interesting and fun. I think I will depart Rome on Tuesday and possibly head to Barcelona. A flight from Rome to Barcelona is 37 Euros, 2.5 hours....train is 80 Euros and 36 hours....weird.

The weather has been gorgeous, probably peaking at 70 degrees today and sunny. The people and food have been great, and as one would expect the sites are beautiful. I am writing this from an Internet Pointe (internet cafe) right outside the walls of Vatican City.

From here, I must admit, I look forward to exploring some smaller areas of Italy or Spain...areas with less tourists :) and more reasonable prices, but thus far Rome has been very kind to me.

Have a great week everyone! Caio, Travis