Prague had quite a blanket of white when we headed out this morning, so we were really ready for some warmer surroundings. We had booked our flight on Smartwings, a low cost Czech airline (similar to Southwest) that Odile had highly recommended. The flight was quite comfortable, although it did get a little bumpy as we flew over the Alps but in less than 2 hours we were descending over the Mediterranean Ocean and into Rome. We had told the guy who manages the apartment we’re renting that we would call the guy who was going to meet us at the train station before we headed into town to let him know we were on our way, but we could not for the life of us, work the pay phones at the airport. We didn’t know whether we weren’t putting the right amount of coins in or what. Finally, while Jim stood in line to buy the train tickets, I went over to the tourist information desk and explained our dilemma to the guy working there who very nicely used his cell phone to cal Cristiano (the guy who was meeting us at the train station) and let him know we were on our way.
The train ride was a smooth 20 minutes or so and once we got into the station, there Cristiano was holding up a sign with our names on it. He drove us to the apartment we rented, which is just 10 minutes or so from the station in the Trastavere neighborhood of Rome. He brought us into the apartment and oriented us to everything we needed to know about the place. After getting settled in, we decided to stretch our legs and head out for something to eat. The Lonely Planet guide to Italy that we had purchased in Prague mentioned a great little square in the neighborhood that was one of the best for people watching while you ate dinner. The neighborhood is really classic Italian with lots of winding streets and scooters whizzing by. The square was quite cute and we found a couple restaurants there with outdoor seating. So, we enjoyed our wine and pasta (delicious!) along with some entertainment. Just like the street performers we saw in the plazas of Madrid and Barcelona, this one had a woman playing an accordion, which was the perfect accompaniment to our first night in Rome! Halfway, through, though, a young woman showed up, turned on her boom box, and began a fire dancing show that was really quite good, but you could just see the scowl on the accordion player’s face as she realized she was being outdone. She just sort of sat on the steps of the fountain and sullenly smoked her cigarette while her younger competitor got all the attention. Well, we felt bad for her so after the fire dancer left, we made sure to give her a tip of a couple of euros to show her efforts had not been overlooked (we gave a small tip to the fire dancer as well cause she was pretty good too!). We were pretty worn out after travel all day and we had a fairly long walk back to the apartment, so we decided to head back and get a good night's sleep. We had a lot of sightseeing ahead of us!
The train ride was a smooth 20 minutes or so and once we got into the station, there Cristiano was holding up a sign with our names on it. He drove us to the apartment we rented, which is just 10 minutes or so from the station in the Trastavere neighborhood of Rome. He brought us into the apartment and oriented us to everything we needed to know about the place. After getting settled in, we decided to stretch our legs and head out for something to eat. The Lonely Planet guide to Italy that we had purchased in Prague mentioned a great little square in the neighborhood that was one of the best for people watching while you ate dinner. The neighborhood is really classic Italian with lots of winding streets and scooters whizzing by. The square was quite cute and we found a couple restaurants there with outdoor seating. So, we enjoyed our wine and pasta (delicious!) along with some entertainment. Just like the street performers we saw in the plazas of Madrid and Barcelona, this one had a woman playing an accordion, which was the perfect accompaniment to our first night in Rome! Halfway, through, though, a young woman showed up, turned on her boom box, and began a fire dancing show that was really quite good, but you could just see the scowl on the accordion player’s face as she realized she was being outdone. She just sort of sat on the steps of the fountain and sullenly smoked her cigarette while her younger competitor got all the attention. Well, we felt bad for her so after the fire dancer left, we made sure to give her a tip of a couple of euros to show her efforts had not been overlooked (we gave a small tip to the fire dancer as well cause she was pretty good too!). We were pretty worn out after travel all day and we had a fairly long walk back to the apartment, so we decided to head back and get a good night's sleep. We had a lot of sightseeing ahead of us!
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