Friday, July 9, 2010

Over the Atlantic Ocean
0240 EST, 0840 Roma

Upon boarding, we were informed that it was an eight and a half hour flight to Roma and that a hot meal would be served to us. Mom apologised for having me purchase supper as she had thought, due to the fact that it was an evening departure there would be no meal. My selection was chicken with pasta, salad vegetable, brownie, and small bottle of water, which means so far I have not touched the three granola boars or grapes in my carry on.

After boarding I finished my novel before accessing the videos and such to watch the end of How To Train Your Dragon which was enjoyable. Afterwards it was discovered that the reclining feature on my window seat does not work. Thus, I spent an uncomfortable time dozing the hours away.

Currently I can see dawn leaking around my window shade which is not unexpected considering we are flying east at approximately 398 mph at an altitude of 35,000 feet. We’ve covered 3,310 miles with 1,158 miles remaining, and we are expected to arrive in Roma 1122 local time.

La Casa di Rosy, Roma, Italy
1532 local time, Eastern European Time

Roma from the air with the ocean in the distance.

So we arrived at the airport in good order and learned that the map on the aircraft’s entertainment system used Greenwich time and did not take into consideration daylight savings. Processed through customs and saw in a donation box a Canadian two-dollar bill, which has been out of circulation for a number of years. Information booth was found easily enough and I quiet love the language crossing barriers of icons to find the train to take us to the Roma Termini with a single one-way ticket costing €14.00 [$18.2806].

View of our B&B room.

Walking to our bed and breakfast was where the trouble started. First we walked to far east in the Termini and ended up on Via Principe Eugenio which required us to walk back west to Via Napoleone III where we proceeded to get very lost as the B&B was on a floor and not at the specific address we had. Our forth stop for assistance resulted in a phone call and a woman came to get us. She doesn’t speak English and we don’t speak Italian but an English speaker will be on duty tomorrow morning. So after Mom showers we are going to get cash, supper, and wonder around a bit more. Oh yes, and the temperatures are in the thirties.

Quiet Roman street with cobblestone road.

A street we walked and crossed many a times.

La Casa di Rosy, Roma
1854 EET

Departing our room we made our way back to Roma Termini, which is just up the street two Roma blocks away. I say Roma blocks because their distances are nothing like the distances at home. At the termini we withdrew cash, €120.00 [$156.6909] for myself an beside purchasing a large bottle of water for €1.80 [$2.3504], we also selected a map of Roma, with all the street names which Mom’s Google printout is missing. The map is also of the monuments of the city, which will be great for exploring and memorabilia.

More of urban Roma.

Roma with I think the belfry of Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.

Our first stop was to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. The interior’s sheer opulence is had to describe and the man-hours unimaginable. The interior is an almost overwhelming use of coloured marble for design with the ceilings and many of the frescos in gold leaf. My few photographs will not do the basilica justice. I was also intrigued by the padre translator booths and by the dress code, of which Aunt Michela forewarned us of, that the shoulders and thighs have to be covered and they provided sheer scarves for tourists, male and female, if needed.

Mom and the back of Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.

The front of Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.

Fresco on ceiling in Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.

Gild work on ceiling in Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.

Leaving the basilica, we selected some gelato and I choose vanilla, which Mom harped about, me coming to Italy and getting vanilla, but it went well with the tarter and grainer blackberry. We did more walking and discovered a museum, which has an Oriental exhibit and it, along with a supper meal from a recommended restaurant from Former’s Italy 2010, are our plans for Saturday.

Supper tonight was a mixed veggies pizza from a delightful restaurant and young Italian man who had previously visited Toronto. Not only was the pizza very good, interestingly they charge by the pound. And as I paid for the meal, supper was €4.50 [$5.8759] which was altogether much better than the meal in Pearson Airport.

On the left, the cut off sign of "ZZA" is where we first ate pizza.