Rome November, 2004

Flights:

flights to Rome are more thoroughly discussed in the Paris 2004 page, as that was the origin of our flight to Rome. To quickly sum it up, other than the flight being really early in the morning it was nice! Champino airport is a fun little place - it even gets an honorable mention in the Da Vinci Code! sorry, i'm a dork!

Accommodations:

Our accommodation in Rome was nothing short of amazing! matt and i stayed with the K guys in their apartment. matt wanted to stretch out, so he took the living room floor and i took the 5 foot long couch! i'm not complaining, because we had a great time and found it quite amusing! the guys were super cool to have us and let us crash! they even let me do a load of laundry! the k kids apartments were all amazing! they were fully furnished (including the kitchens) and all had computers with high speed internet, and washing machines. the guys lived in the [european] first floor. their floors were marble, and they had 12 foot ceilings! sure puts loring hall to shame! Courtney lived in a villa style apartment with a beautiful garden in front! i took some amazing color pictures there, and i was just goofing around!

Public Transportation:

public transportation in Rome is interesting - very different from London! We took the tram every day, as that's how we got into the city from the guys' flat. the tram took between 15-30 min, depending on who's flat you're coming from, and drops you off by the cat sanctuary. there is a nice cafe there, and we made that our regular breakfast spot. when we arrived in Rome we bought three day tram/bus tickets, but we never needed them. apparently they do check, but we were never bothered. the busses were crowded and hot. and wow were those drivers crazy! they whizzed through the skinny, populated Roman streets like they were on the autobahn! the busses had screens that told you where you were, and where the bus was heading. this was nice, once you figured out which bus you needed to get on. bus route documentation seemed to be scarce in any language, so it was really nice having a resident of the city taking us around! Rome does have a subway system, but we never once used it. apparently it doesn't really go anywhere os interest. i saw a stop outside of the Collosium, but that was it.

Food:

here's where things get fun! we didn't have a single bad meal in Rome, from the quick breakfasts, to the elaborate sit-down dinners, to the moroccan chicken that i halfwittedly pulled together. Italian food is so fresh tasting; nothing like the canned, processed "Italian" food that we get back in the states!

Attractions: