Rome, DAY 1, Thursday, June 19, 2009

Our flight departed Philadelphia at 6 PM and arrived at Rome at 8:30 AM. Immediately, I set my watch to Roman time in attempt to convince myself to sleep during the seven hour flight. Any sleep would help to synchronize our mental clocks. A seven hour difference is hard to overcome. Diane had some over the counter sleeping pills that did nothing. We both were wide awake for the duration. The non-rest gave us time to read rick Steve’s guide to Rome and help us set some priorities.

Arrival at Rome was a non-event. All signs were in Italian and sub-titled in English. I don’t know why but an Italian speaking couple kept asking me which way to go for baggage, etc. Despite my “no compisco Italiano”, they continued like I could read their minds and had some floor plan of the airport in my head. I was more lost then they were. We followed the herd to Immigration. Since we sat on the last row of the airplane, we were at the end of the line; however, we were at the front in 5 minutes. A quick glance at our passports and we were on to baggage claim. Not even a souvenir stamp in the passport.

The good part of waiting in lines before arriving at the bagagli carousel is that your bags are usually waiting for you. All those other passengers that managed to get there early do their waiting at baggage, whereas we had completed our duty to line-waiting. Well, that is all good theory.

Rome’s baggage claim has all of the glamour of Detroit’s baggage claim when I was there in 1990. It must have the efficiency that makes Philadelphia look like a leader. We waited at least an hour. We amused ourselves by watching the same four bags do the circuit 50 times, then suddenly, one of our bags appeared. Another ten minutes elapsed before the next three appeared. On to customs.

Follow the Red or Green signs, so we did. The Red line was fro declaring at customs. The Green line was if you had nothing to declare. We chose the Green. The door opened and we were in open space. Where are the custom inspectors? Who cares? The people in the Red line must honest beyond belief.

The sign said use only the white taxis. I guess that they pay for an access license. So we followed the taxi signs to the door where a man with an ID tag around his neck says, “do you need a taxi?”. I say. “Yes.” He starts by grabbing my bags. I pulled back, then he said no I take them. I grabbed my computer bag and let him lead me to the cab stand. He stated down the corridor, walking faster and faster. He kept passing the doors to the curb. This was not what I expected. At the end of the terminal he exited with me on his heals well past the last “white” taxi. We followed him into a side parking lot where a gray car was parked. When I saw the car, I said, “NO”. He pointed to his ID and a metal tag affixed to his license plate. I grabbed our bags an walked back to the airport taxi stand. He was just gypsy taxi trying to steal a fare. Of course the chase through the airport almost killed me. ,,,,Boungiorno, Roma.

Off to the Hotel Cavalieri. This place is on a hill on the northwest side of Rome. Taxi fare: 50 Euros or 75 Dollars. This is a really nice five star Hilton-Waldolf Hotel. Our room has a super view of the city. We can see the Pantheon and Parliament.
By noon, we crashed. Jet lag had claimed its victims.

In the evening, we took the hotel shuttle to Via Vento at Barberini Plaza. Dinner at Harry’s Bar left us 140 Euros ($210) lighter.