ARRICANDO IN ROMA
- Hannah McDonald
- Jun 28, 2017
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 10, 2022
Already leaving Barcelona, our bags were packed and we hopped on the airport shuttle. The Barcelona Airport is much bigger than the San Sebastian airport, and, for some reason, security took a lot longer to get through. Mom got randomly swabbed, and my bag got searched. After managing to stuff everything back into my suitcase, we went to the gate. The flight was about two hours, which felt like nothing compared to the trip from the US to Spain. I slept a little, and, then, Joey and I watched a movie.
We had arrived in Rome, and the only language my mind wanted to speak other than English was Spanish. I would respond to simple phrases in Spanish and no longer felt comfortable speaking. I was just starting to get comfortable with the language in Spain and now it got switched up on me.
A driver picked us up from the airport and drove us to our hotel in the center of Rome. Outside the city it is very green and beautiful. Entering the city, the building looked similar to many of the other cities in Europe. However, I kept finding us running into huge, beautiful buildings or ruins, which I have know idea what they are or were. The roads were also cobblestone. They are beautiful to look at but difficult to walk on for hours.
The street our driver pulled onto to get to the hotel did not appear to be a street to drive on, to me. It looked like a pedestrian street. However, I was wrong because I watched our driver drive up it backwards, extremely tightly between other stopped trucks and people. It was slightly terrifying.
The front desk people at the hotel were extremely nice, and, once checked-in, they helped us find more tours for our one full day in Rome. We already had a Colosseum tour booked, but the hotel managed to book us a catacombs tour as well. They also recommended restaurants and sights, so we could see as much of Rome as possible in our short time here. They even went on a restaurant search for me because I really wanted pumpkin ravioli. Unfortunately, pumpkin isn’t in season, so I won’t be able to have any on this trip.
The apartment we are staying in was across the square and on the top floor. There was a market covering the square with lots of pastas, flowers, and other goodies I didn’t get the chance to see. Originally, I hadn’t realized that staying on the top floor of the apartment building would be a good workout. There are sixty six steep stairs to climb to our apartment and no elevator. It was sure fun to carry luggage up.
Making it to the top panting, we quickly turned around and headed back out for lunch. After a bust on one vegan restaurant, we found a vegetarian friendly restaurant called Ginger that was absolutely amazing. The inside was modern and painted white with tons of fruits and vegetables lining the front counter. It looked like my kind of place. They had smoothies, acai bowls, pastas, and much more. Excited for Italian food, I couldn’t help but get a pasta. It was delicious and accompanied by a nice tropical smoothie.
Stomachs full, we headed over to see the Pantheon. We seemed to just walk down the street and bump into it, sitting there amongst the modern city. This was one old church, but it was very beautiful. Joey remembered from history class that, when it rains, people rush into the Pantheon to watch rain fall through the hole in the ceiling. It didn’t rain while we were there, but I can imagine that would be beautiful. Mass started at 5:00 pm, so we had made it just in time.
Pantheon now closed for mass, we walked through the streets a little bit. The woman at our hotel had marked several things on a map for us, including three gelato shops. Dad wanted to try all three to determine which was the best. He began with the oldest one in Rome, which ended up winning the contest.
From there, we walked into one of the city’s plazas. It was huge and beautiful with three fountains. There was a street performer preforming as well. We walked around a little bit before determining that our exhausted feet really needed a break. We gave them just that by sitting down in the middle of the plaza.
Wanting to take even more of a break, we headed up the sixty six stairs to our apartment. Our feet were up for a little bit before Dad and Joey went for a run. They went on a beautiful run through Rome while the sun was setting and darkness approached.
Now 10:30 pm, we went out to dinner. This was definitely on the late side for me. I was ready for bed. However, Mom and I split a really good gnocchi. It was worth it. Tomorrow is an early and full day though, so it was off to bed after that.
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