9/30/10: Rome, Day 1

Tired.

I'm quite exhausted. Arrived at noon today in Rome after leaving LA at 3:25pm the previous day. The flight was pretty uneventful and I only watched one movie, the remake of "The Karate Kid". It was easy going through customs and I got my luggage without any problems at all. I took the train from the airport to the main train terminal and from there I took the Metro to a stop close to where my hotel is.
My room at the Hotel Raffaelo is smaller than a sardine can, but that was to be expected. I am happy to see they have available wireless Internet and a fairly friendly staff. I crashed for a few hours then woke up around 6pm to see what places to eat were in my neck of the woods. It's always somewhat difficult picking the first restaurant to eat at, since I have no idea if there is a better place just around the corner. I ended up picking "Gallo Matto" as my first meal in Rome. It was a good choice. I had roasted pigeon in a white wine sauce with baked potato and a beer. I know what you are going to say: "Baked Potato"????? Yes, I ate the baked potato. I was hungry. They even gave me a free desert, some lemon gelato, so I pat myself on the back for picking that place to start my Roman vacation. On a side note, after observing some fellow American customers in this restaurant, I do have one small piece of advise: When traveling to a foreign country where you don't speak the language, if you are allergic to something and want to make sure it is not in your meal, you might want to actually learn that particular word. Saying "Nuts!... I'm allergic to nuts" over and over does nothing to help. Learn the word. Just a suggestion.
I don't really have a plan for tomorrow, but I am pretty sure I will at some point be seeing the Roman Coliseum. Time to get some shut-eye.

Day before the trip

Non Parlo Italiano

In the past, when I prepared for trips to foreign language cities, I spent roughly 3-4 months studying the language there. For my trip to France, I studied french for 3 months & for my (failed) Italy trip last year, I studied for almost 6 months. I never wanted to be "that" American who failed to realize I was in a foreign country and not everyone on the planet spoke English. Now, I leave for Rome tomorrow and have been refreshing my Italian for only about 2 weeks now. I feel as if I am cramming for an exam and have only decided to study the night before. I do know that Rome, like Venice last year, will not require me to know much Italian. They speak English just as well as they speak Italian over there. I have, though, encountered one small problem - all my studied languages are combining into one dialect. I am using English, French, Italian AND Spanish all within one sentence. THAT will confuse anyone - no matter what language they speak. I find myself saying "Hola, Vorrei a hamburger, Merci." I just said "hello" in Spanish, "I would like" in Italian, "a hamburger" in English and "thank you" in french! Actually, when I think about it, that is pretty amazing! How many people do you know that are multi-lingual in only ONE sentence? Not many, probably! I rock.
Anyways, I leave tomorrow for Rome and I can't wait. It is sure to be much better than the failed trip from last year. If I have decent Internet access, then I will be posting as much as I can.

Italy: Take 2

OK, so here goes nothing...

I have not posted anything since my 2009 vacation to Italy crashed and burned. Truth be told, I was not sure if I wanted to ever post on this site again after that trip. After taking almost a year off, I have decided to go ahead and resume posting my trips once again.
So far this year, I have traveled to Atlanta, took a road trip from Dallas to Los Angeles, flown to NC to visit good friends & taken several small trips up north to see a good friend. One week from tomorrow (9/29), I will be hopping on a jet and flying to Rome. I believe I am much more properly prepared this time for the unexpected and feel confident that this time I will have a spectacular week & a half in Italy.
I will be posting updates only as long as I have proper Internet access, so no promises.
Wish me luck!