Candy and Craig's NEWS: Rome, Italy, Monday Evening, July 30, 2012

We have arrived in Rome. We are in the middle of it in a hotel right across from the Pantheon. It is pretty amazing. Our trip was from St. Petersburg was relatively uneventful so long as you skip that part about our luggage not arriving. We had a short connection in Frankfurt, but as we got on the plane we saw our checked luggage ready to load. Apparently, it was not loaded and will be delivered to us tomorrow. Fortunately, we had one carryon with clothes for both of us. Having our luggage missing delayed us getting through customs as we filled out forms and I was beginning to worry that the driver we hired would not be there. We made it through customs – the reality was there was nothing for us to do except to walk through. Tyler found a drive holding a sign saying “ANIS”. It was close enough and it turned out to be the right one as he knew that we were going to the Hotel Abruzzi. It was a good thing we communicated that much because he spoke no English in spite of the assurance from the hotel that we would have an English speaking driver. We were to pay him directly in Euros so I needed to get some. This was a test of whether my debit/ATM card was reactivated. We found an ATM machine, put the card in and chose English. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t switch to English. So we tried German, but there seemed a lot more than needed. Next I tried French and it was sufficiently clear that we were able to get the money needed and we were off. As we got closer, the roads narrowed to almost nothing. It was an interesting ride.

I should mention that are flight from Frankfurt to Rome was also interesting; at least the snack/meal. Here is what they served:

Mousse and filet of smoked eel with balsamico cherry tomato

Roasted carrot with breast of guinea fowl confit
Gelled vegetable soup on spicy tomato chutney
Elderflower soup with pink grapefruit and elderflowers

We tasted it all, but must confess as to not cleaning our plates. I ask the flight attendant if she had eaten any of this and she just laughed and said no.

It was a beautiful evening as we arrived and so we spent the next couple of hours walking the area around the hotel and over to Trevi Fountain. Dinner in the plaza and then gelato to finish the evening off. As we got into the hotel room, Tyler even found an Olympic water polo game on and his day was complete. He was pretty excited about Rome. He said it is the first place where he actually knew some of what we would see and had some preconceived notions. He said it was just like he thought it would be.