Monday morning – after our first sleep in Italy…
{sidenote: we stayed at the same hotel Fri night, so I’ll do a post on the place then}
We slept with the windows open … which was perfect weather-wise … not too cold but still nice and brisk and good to cuddle under the blankets …
Except there was some kind of bird – sounded like a seagull, but I think we were a bit too far inland for that. Scratch that. A whole flock of noisy noisy birds. Felt like they went on for hours. Which they probably didn’t, but you don’ t know that when you’re trying to sleep in a strange bed, in a new city, in a new country, after 24 hours of not sleeping, but still subconsciously know that you have to get up early.
Oh yeah. Did I forget to mention that?
Monday morning we had a tour scheduled for 9am. And we planned on walking there (vs public transportation), plus we had to ‘check out’ of the hotel and get breakfast. So we were waking up at 630a or so. Our first morning in Rome.
Travel: It’s not for wimps.
Anyway ….
Here we are, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed around 730a on a Monday morning in Rome …. Since our bed and breakfast didn’t start serving breakfast until 8a, we headed out to hopefully find a cafe or something, then back to the b&b to check out before heading to the Colosseum.
It was quite a morning.
There was this little ‘gastronomia’ a little ways down the street …. Not a whole lot of Romans out when we were. I don’t know if was the neighborhood or the time …
We got another lesson in Italian eating. Andrew ordered 2 cappucinos for us, and then the proprietor just …. ignored him? No. That’s not right. More like, made absolutely no effort to conclude the transaction. Andrew later went back to get a pastry, and waited to place his order …. then saw several Italians come in and just grab the pastry they wanted off the counter.
hmm…
That’s new.
So …. we learned as we went, I guess.
Andrew was AMAZING about taking care of me …. He handled the bulk of the speaking in Italian, paying in Italian, etc etc etc.
Andrew is the dang best.
After breakfast – back to the b&b to ‘check out’ …
Although, ‘check out’ is a relative term, I guess.
Really, what we did was paid for the night but keep our keys, leave our bags in the room, lock the room, and left. We had train reservations for the afternoon and the b&b owner (Danilo) was perfectly willing to let us keep our bags there. And just leave the keys when we finally left for real. Super laid back.
In fact, so laid back that we were VERY close to being late for our tour.
Danilo was not prepared to think about math and paying and all that at 8am. He told Andrew he needed coffee first. Danilo took his time waking up and helping us …. was helping 2 other guests at the same time (including a couple who had one of their passports stolen their first day in town and a woman trying to get him to make reservations in Italian for her).
So, we did not end up leaving Trastevere until 830a. And we had to be at the Colosseum by 9a. And I only had a vague idea of where we were going ….
So we power-walked. Literally jogging by a group of high-school aged tourists.
I got pretty sweaty ….
But the walk was pretty.
The other side of the street there (cars just driving past it, taking it for granted) – Circus Maximus and Palatine Hill
We met our tour just across the street from the Colosseum …. walked up at 9:01a.
And pretty much everyone else was late.
More next week!
Love the cafe pics! Especially the cappuccino one! Really makes me want to be in a cafe with a cappuccino and pastry right now enjoying delightful conversation with a friend, instead of sitting on my couch returning work emails. Andrew’s got it right! Lets all retire and move to Italy now!
Yup, love the cappuccino pic. How did you finally get your coffee?