Eugene, OR to Rome, Italy
Ben and I are off on our Italy and Turkey adventure. Mom and I picked Ben up at his house at 6:45am and we were through security by 7:30am for our 8:22am flight to SFO. I slept the entire time and landed upon arrival in SFO eager to check up on our upgrades. In the event they hadn't cleared I wanted to look for my friends in SFO to try and make it happen. Unfortunately I didn’t find my SFO United Club friend nor my International Terminal contact. The flight from SFO to Frankfurt was nearly full and our upgrades did not clear. To my surprise it turns out you don't die if you fly across the world in coach, at least economy plus coach. I still think you might die if you had to do it in coach, coach ;~) It was also greatly appreciated that Ben and I were fortunate enough to get a very nice seat mate. He was a fit, 6’2"ish, middle-aged guy named Mike. He chatted some but not to the point of being obnoxious. We taught him how to use the Ipad he had just purchased and he seemed very appreciative of that. My favorite conversation point was around Packer football. We were discussing the Niners game from the day before and I mentioned that my best friend's dad's team was being honored at halftime. He asked who it was and when I said it was an O lineman he's probably never heard of, he said "Try me." I told him Tim Stokes and he said, "Oh, yah! He played for the Red Skins too. Well all be darned." I was super surprised. You still have fans out there Timmy!
Upon landing in Frankfurt we cleared customs and made our way on a long walk to the Lufthansa lounge adjacent to our next gate. The lounge was on the smaller side and a bit dirty but it had an extensive food selection which was nice. I had hard boiled eggs, a nice salad, a bite of Ben’s pretzel and a lot of self serve coke light out of a fountain. After checking a few emails and recharging on food, it was time to catch our final leg to Rome.
The Rome flight on Lufthansa was nice. The service people were friendly and efficient but the best part was that we had an open middle seat. Upon arrival in Rome it took about 40 minutes to get our bags. Once they finally showed up we made our way out of customs to our shuttle service. Within another 45 minutes we were checked into our hotel near the Vatican. I little more than 24 hours after leaving home we ready to really start our Italian adventure.
Item one on the Italian adventure was... a nap. What we intended to be a one hour nap turned into a 2:30 hour snooze. After finally waking up and showering we went to dinner at a restaurant a few blocks from our hotel. Ben had raviolis that he said were delicious and I had a fettucini bolognese that was decent. For dessert we shared the below pictured Nutella Crepe. It was awesome.
After dinner we decided to go for a long stroll to give ourselves a feeling for the city. We wandered a few miles down to the Trevi Fountain, which was beautiful in the evening glow. The below picture of the fountain may look familiar as it has been featured in such movies as Three Coins in the Fountain, Gidget Goes to Rome, La Dolce Vida and Roman Holiday.
We’ve now walked the few miles from the fountain back to the hotel. My bed is called my name. On tomorrow’s agenda are the Colosseum, Forum, Palatine Hill and the Borghese Gallery.
Until tomorrow,
Katy
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