Holly and Ward slept on the plane, but Gillian just couldn't relax, nor could I, as her seatmate. I warned her that there would be an afternoon nap, and she was not too upset about that.
Coming out of the airport you realize how totally, absolutely Italian everything is. We managed to make eye contact with a woman taxi driver who motioned us where to stand in the line to get into her (larger, cleaner) car. My Italian was barely sufficient to tell her where we wanted to go; my brain was not working well after the flight. The train for the four of us would have cost exactly the same as the taxi, so we opted for the latter.
We drove past the Forum and Palatine Hill and then RIGHT past the Colossium. Everyone has told us that Rome is so cool in that you go around a corner and there is some ancient marvel. Well, that's completly true, and to drive around the corner and be right on top of the Collossium was amazing.
We arrived at Hotel Nardizzi at 10AM; three hours before check-in. So we left most of our things and headed out with the guidebook to find the Trevi Fountain, which was nearby. Amazingly we had seen the Trevi Fountain and were sitting on the Spanish Steps when the church bells struck noon.
We find Rome to be very crowded, very hot and very expensive. But we are happy to be here!
By 12:30 we were checked in to the hotel and everyone felt better after a shower. We napped from 1:30-4:30 (well, we had to wake Gillian up at 5:30) and found a little shop just down the road where we bought pizza, sandwiches and foccacia for dinner. We took them back to the room and washed everything down with arranciata (the girls) and prosecco (us).
Tomorrow we catch the train to Chiusi and check in to L'Antica Vetreria for the start of our two weeks in Umbria.
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