We had to get up early today to get breakfast and get off the ship. The regular dining room was closed so we were a little concerned that the upper deck buffet would be closed too. Thankfully, it wasn’t. We ate and waited for our luggage number to be called. I miss breakfasts at home.. even if this is such a wonderful journey, I think it’s ok to miss home a bit too.
At 8:30 almost to the second, they called our number and we made our way down the stairs to get off the ship. We had to pick up our covid testing kits (the ship sold ones that are guaranteed to be accepted by the US on arrival back into the country, so to not have to deal with figuring that out at last second, we bought them to carry with us until the day before we arrive back in the US), grab our luggage, go through customs.. and finally get to the line waiting to board the shuttle bus to the Ravenna train station.
It all went very smoothly. We boarded our first train of the day to Bologna. It was just over an hour and while waiting for it, we met a couple from Nashville and we helped explain how these trains work. They’re going to Rome, too, so they asked if they could just follow us to make sure they don’t miss the next train. They were entertaining to talk to and made the sitting and waiting go much faster. Apparently, they were even on our cruise ship, but we never saw them..They said they found out the night before that the cruise went out of Ravenna and not Venice, and ended up paying close to €400 to get a taxi to the terminal and were some of the very last to get on the cruise ship! I thought we had it bad!
We made the connecting train from Bologna to Rome without difficulty, but the couple said they were so grateful for us because they wouldn’t have known where to go. That made me happy! Lol we arrived in Rome, found the metro subway, went two stops, and walked out into the heart of the city. We had already parted ways with our new friends back at the train station, they were hiring a private transfer to their hotel. Our little metro ride was less than 15 minutes and it spit us out within 400 feet of our Airbnb for the week. I’d call it a win 🙂
We used the passcodes to get in the main door, right out front by a busy restaurant. Then another to get in the gate inside the hallway. We took the elevator to the 4th floor and used yet another code to get into the lockbox with our set of three keys-to both the front door and the gate door, then the apartment door, too. The apartment is a two bedroom/one bath home, with a nice living room open to a tiny kitchen. There’s a long hallway connecting the bedrooms and the bathroom and two big balcony doors that open up to a courtyard. It really is beautiful. It didn’t feel that beautiful though so our first mission was to turn on every air conditioner in the place.
We decided to take our dirty clothes to the laundromat and to grab a late lunch (it was almost 4pm). The man at the mat said he’d do our laundry for us for a fee and to just come back in an hour. Honestly, I was so hot and hungry, I wasn’t going to question him. I just said a quick, “ok! Grazie!” And left. Ha, now if anything fits later, that’ll be a different story. We walked up the road to the pharmacy, grabbed a few necessities, and then found a restaurant.
We opted to eat inside since it felt like it was 8 thousand degrees in the sun. The waiter was so nice and helped us pick things to eat-we shared bruschetta and a small pizza, both of which were delicious, even if they still do this weird thing of putting each ingredient on its own slice of the pizza.. so you never get a single bite with all the things, weird. We stayed long enough to take up the exact amount of time to get our laundry.. and then we waited there a little longer because moms clothes weren’t all the way dry yet.
We took everything back to the room and cooled off in our now cooler apartment. Those little units work great! We rested long enough to start feeling guilty about being in a new city and laying on a couch instead of exploring-and then went for a walk around town. From our apartment, we can see the top of the spear like monument in front of the Spanish steps! So, naturally we ventured to that first. We took it all in, and slowly made our way down the steps, happy we unknowingly came in at the top and not the bottom of them.
We then ventured through the crowds to the Trevi Fountain, stopping to snap pictures of this incredible city every 5-10 seconds. We didn’t care if it took hours to walk a half mile.. we were soaking it all in! It was gorgeous, old, rich with details and character. It seemed like no two buildings were the same. The fountain was stunning too, although at 6pm it was so dang crowded there we vowed to come back at a better time of day to get decent pictures.
We made our way back to the room, red faced and sweaty, and laid on our new couch for the week. The TV has Netflix capabilities, so I turned it on and navigated the profile on the screen, which was Dutch.. so, that was tricky. I literally couldn’t figure out how to log that person out, so we just picked an English movie from their profile.. “Senior Year” with Rebel Wilson, cheesy, but funny.
After the movie, I changed and went for my run. I walked up to an area where my phone said there were gardens, to find out the gardens are on the other side of a huge brick wall that had locked gates.. so, I just did what I could in the park connecting to it, down a ways.. as I was running I made sure to stay near street lights and where I saw couples walking, strolling hand in hand.. but then I got this creepy feeling that I was about to be on an episode of Rome: SVU.. so I ran back towards the apartment and called it quits just under 2 miles.
We watched another movie before I showered and getting ready for bed. I’d say today has been the perfect first day in Rome. I’m excited to see what the rest of this week brings!