Turistico di Roma

After my flight and the hour wait for passport (wait, let me pause to talk to a buddy and sip coffee) control and my luggage, I was dragging. I looked like garbage in my travel clothes (athletic pants and a T-shirt as comfort is king on an 8-hour-flight), and I was in need of a bed. I went straight to the hotel and took the only room they had ready three hours before checkout, a smoking and handicapped accessible king room that smells like a bar in 1997. On the plus side, I can smoke my Cuban cigar in the room.

I went to sleep from 9:30 until 2:15. Then I got dressed and was on my way into the center of Rome by 3. I got to Roma Termini right around 4 and then I roamed Roma like a ravishing Roman. I visited the Arch of Constantine and the  Colosseo, the Roman Forum,  the Monumento nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of Italy , the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and Piazza Navona. I was on my way back to the hotel by 7, so all of that was done in three hours.

I also found ancient obelisks that, if my knowledge is correct, were taken from Egypt during past conquests.

Thank goodness I had been walking so many 5Ks in the weeks leading up to the trip. My feet are still hurting, but I was able to do most of the travel on foot today.

Tomorrow morning I’ll pick up the rental car and tackle the last leg of my trip, the 4 hour ride to Campomarino and my residence for the next 5 weeks. Once I get Internet up and running, I will make more posts. My email is up and running on my phone (that was a great surprise). 

Foodtopia Moments

In the first Foodtopia Moment of 2012, I went to a little restaurant called Macondo on via di Torre Millina in Rome. It was just off of Piazza Navona up the street from bar I Tre Scalini. I started with a plate of mixed bruschetta. There were four types of bruschetta on the plate: one had eggplant on a garlic toast, one was just garlic (the best garlic bread I’ve ever had), one had melted fresh mozzarella and salami piccante, and the fourth slice was a normal tomato and basil bruschetta. For my entrée, I ordered an Italian classic, spaghetti alla carbonara. It has cheese, eggs, cream and bacon. It was delicious and something that I only seem to order when in major Italian cities. If you go to Italy and order it and the waiter brings you something that looks like Alfreddo sauce with bacon, send it back and go someplace else. On a lot of the main squares, that’s the way they serve the tourists, but you all know better now. I felt guilty ordering such a dish, so I also ordered a plate of spinach and only drank water at the restaurant.

On a side note to this Foodtopia Moment, I was walking down the street just outside the Pantheon and smelled something familiar, the baking bread of Subway. No, I didn’t go there. 

Way to go Italy

When I went to dry my hands in the airport bathroom, I was shocked. Italy has the Dyson hand dryers! In the past, my choices had been a looping cloth hand towel or a blower that had about as much strength as a 90-year-old smoker. Though, it still looks funny how we can see the power cords for the hand dryers. 

What a great choice

The plane pictured here was the bird that was stuffed with Mike. It was clear from the seats and bathrooms that this plane was built to transport Asian dwarfs, not Caucasian giants. The best move I made was paying a hundred bucks extra for an Economy Plus seat when I checked in. I fully recommend it to any human over 5-feet-tall. United says it is only five extra inches of leg room, but it felt like way more. The plane was also equipped with the best entertainment on demand system I’ve ever had. At my seat was a screen about eight inches with games, music, TV shows and movies. (In first class, thankfully seen on my way out of the plane, they had 20 inch monitors at each seat.) I watched “21 Jump Street,” “Man on a Ledge,” and “Dr. Strangelove” which I had never seen. I tried to watch “Young Adult” and got about 10 minutes in before I was bored (and I was a literal captive audience). The most impressive of the three movies was “Man on a Ledge” (“Dr. Stangelove” is a classic but will leave some people yawning). If you have 90 minutes to spare, “Man on a Ledge” wasn’t a bad movie.

Early start

Well I know I wrote yesterday saying I had two days before my journey begins, but I guess it is all in the way you look at it. Today I turned the hot water heater to vacation mode, and locked the Hamilton place up. I also swept, mopped, and cleaned the bathrooms. The garbage is out, and my travels have started with the shortest part of my journey, the harrowing 30-mile ride from Hamilton to Cherry Hill. Today I checked into the flight online. It was a real waste of time for an international flight. When I get to Newark airport tomorrow, I'll still need to go to a counter and check into the flight. All I did was give them some pre-boarding information about my passport and I let them know how many bags I'm checking. They don't allow international boarding passes to be printed at home. Tomorrow it's all last minute things then an early afternoon hour and a half ride to the airport. Talk to you all soon.

Two more days

The time is flying by and in just two days I will be heading off to Italy. I feel like I have a 1,000 hours worth of stuff to handle in only one day. Today I did my last load of laundry before the trip and packed my suitcase. I'm taking one bag and a book bag carry-on full of electronics. 


The biggest development of the day is that my mother has decided to come to Italy too. This will be her first time there since 2009 when we spent plenty of time getting to know the Italian medical system (which by the way was top notch and free). She will be heading over a few weeks after me and then flying back on my same flight. 


I am hoping to have internet access pretty quickly, and I am debating purchasing access in the hotel in Rome for $40 a day (after Euro conversion rate). Otherwise I will be without contact for a few day this week. 

The Countdown is On...

It's that time of year again. School districts across the country are shuttering their classrooms and urging their fine faculty to go out and explore the world beyond their cinder block walls. I will be taking that advice and heading east to Italy again this summer. I leave July 3, and will be spending July 4 in Rome. In honor of the American Independence Day ritual, I'll make sure to get a hot dog and french fries on my pizza that day (which coincidentally is a very popular pizza topping in Italy). 


This year my plans are to explore the regions around me. Nothing is set in stone, which can make for a wild time or a relaxing one. I'm ready for either. Hopefully I'll write some things this year about Isole Tremiti and Pescara, and perhaps even Bari, Lecce, and Taranto.These cities are all possibilities this summer.


Tonight I began my packing list and the charging of electronics. I'll have to charge again before I leave, but at least I have everything in one spot. I will only be making sporadic posts between now and July 3, but once I arrive in Rome and get online, I will be attempting daily Travels & Tales posts with plenty Foodtopia Moments mixed in.