Rome in 48 Hours

All of life is an adventure. There are Everyday Adventures and Grand Adventures and Troublesome Adventures. If life as I know it is an Everyday Adventure and if i cant help but experience my fair share of Troublesome Adventures, I’ll take every opportunity to experience a Grand Adventure.

Ergo, Rome in 48 hours.

Win: Arriving in time to take a quick Bus Tour of the city. I checked into the hotel, orientated myself, changed shoes, hit the city. The Green Line Bus Tour was a great way to see a lot from a distance in relatively little time, but it’s an over price and under deliver sort of an operation.

Loss: Buying a 48 hr bus pass. I should’ve gone with 24 hours instead. The longer timeframe was better value, yes, but I didn’t take advantage of it.

Win: Getting a hotel with a rooftop garden. The photographer in me is thrilled by the joy of traipsing to the top of the hotel and watching this city go ’round below.

Loss: Sticking to a hotel near Termini Station. It seemed like a good idea, but it really is a tourist trap and, likewise, filled with seedy characters casing for susceptible victims. (My new friends at Flight Centre Abbotsford tried to help me avoid this one, but I didn’t listen to them!)

Win: Navigating the Metro system. It’s easy, it’s cheap, it’s fast.

Loss: Buying a skip-the-line ticket to the Colosseum. Granted, the Travel Agent did a great job point out to me the time saved by prepurchasing a guided tour like this, but neither of us considered the off season lack of lines. And I am so not a guided tour gal. Guide me through the history? yes. Walk me along the streets? No thanks.

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Win: Wandering the cobblestones for hours and hours and hours just to see and hear and smell and be. I found ornate churches, gloriously manicured parks, narrow side streets, a free museum, and I can’t even remember what else. Basically, 20.55km of happiness… followed by all 20.55 kilometers worth of foot aches. 😉

Loss: 20.55km of ache.

Win: Pasta, pasta, pizza, fresh ricotta, pasta.

Loss: Trying so hard to find local, cute, delicious food stops and ending up at random places after all.  Google Maps is only so good … And apparently on all the winding stone streets, it’s less than exceptional.

Win: Even the “normal” and “not specifically recommended” food stops are amazing.

Win: Caving in and chartering a shuttle from the airport instead of sticking to my guns and using the Train. Hiring a driver and being the only solo traveler on board meant I got shotgun and heard about life in Rome from a Roman AND received a bit of a tour while learning all about driving patterns/habits/torture. 😉

Win: whipping jet lag in the behind with the help of Melatonin. (My lingering congestion and decision to take Nyquil might also have contributed to this brilliance.)

Loss: The effects of traveling while the Canadian dollar is at its weakest. Eventually, I have to pretend not to realize that every price tag is essentially doubled for me.

Win: telling people I am from Canada ….and meaning it. This seems to be the truest (and most exciting!) test of how well I am settling into my new country.

Win: I repeat myself to reflect on the ultimate win. 48 hours in ROME?!?!?