Ok, so the flight wasn’t so bad. 9 hours of flying time. We left the lounge around 7:45pm EST and headed to the gate. When we got there, they were already boarding for an 8:45pm flight. We jumped in line and were onboard and on our way. Before I knew it we’re 2 hours into the flight. We flew ITA Airways. The flight attendants weren’t the nicest or friendliest people. The plane was a bit dingy, I ain’t gonna lie. We had to wipe down our seats with sanitary wipes and something got stuck to the bottom of my foot. Some kind of sticky candy. The stewards and stewardesses are not so enamored that you don’t understand Italian and seemed annoyed we didn’t speak it. But all in all it wasn’t so bad. A few quick naps here and there and we were on the ground.
As well coming in through customs was not so bad either. We were herded into different lines that moved pretty quickly and we were greeted by our driver once we got our luggage from baggage claim. Our driver from the airport to Rome and our Airbnb was 60 Euros. Not cheap but I can’t deny the fact it was very easy, quiet and intimate. We were in a Mercedes passenger van and we had plenty of room and it was a nice and quiet trip into Rome.
So our Airbnb is quite interesting. We got situated quickly since the driver was handled by our host. It has a patio area but it’s surrounded by buildings. When I first saw pictures of it on the Airbnb sight I was under the impression it would be facing a street or have some view to a street. But in all actuality you enter through a door. Walk through a building and then up a couple of steel stairs and you are on an open platformed area surrounded by terraces, windows and doors. The apartment is very art deco-ish and very “Italian” styled. Quite cool if I don’t say so myself. My wife’s not so happy with the lingering odor of tobacco smoke, but since we’ve been here and the weather is quite comfortable the windows have been cracked open.
We walked around. We walked about 1.5 kilometers to Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We hit a bit of a drizzle but nothing too bad. Headed back to our apartment. Stopped and got pizza at a place that had a neon sign saying “This pizza is fucking amazing” and it was! And then we headed back to the hotel for a quick nap before going to a restaurant named Broccoletti for dinner.
Dinner was a delight. We made a reservation but it never said ‘accepted’ just ‘pending’. So thinking it was a glitch we ended up going to the place at around 7:15 instead 7:30 pm, our appointed reservation time. The waiter said it said ‘pending’ because they hadn’t accepted it because they were fully booked. He said if we didn’t mind the table at the door then we can stay and eat. We readily accepted. Our appetizer was a squid and artichoke dish. The presentation was amazing. The taste… ok. I then had grilled octopus and my wife had pasta with black ink sauce four our main courses. We both thoroughly enjoyed our meals. They were fresh and tasty. The wine was a dry red and it was enjoyable.
