We made it!

After a long layover in Chicago we are here in Roma! The overnight in Chicago was made bearable by a great visit with an old friend who lives there and his family, Chad Lindstrom. Keely and I had dinner with them on Saturday night and it was a wonderful meal...probably one of the last home cooked meals for a while!

Our flight left at 5pm on Sunday and we flew nine hours in coach....wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We had our own row and to be honest, even in Business Class, I am uncomfortable and can't sleep a wink. We watched the Tourist...apropos, since it was filmed in Venice... where we are going! Keely got a preview. Then we just read and ate the lovely and delicious airplane food and nine hours later we were in Roma!

I have to thank Rick Steves because I did read up on Rome in his book and he said to avoid the taxi guys that come up to you as you exit the terminal, and I did have a guy come to me and tell me he was a taxi for 75Euro. Rick said to make sure the taxi says "taxi" and has a phone number and that the law is that they can only charge 40Euro from the airport to anywhere in Roma. So I told him no and we got a taxi and I made sure it was 40Euro! I am feeling so good about myself!

Upon arrival at the hotel, we were dead tired but could not get into our room for a few hours, so we walked around and found that we are just down the street from the Colosseum and all of the ruins there, and very close to the other major sights. Our travel agent (that's me!) did a great job. The hotel was nice and clean and very quaint and once we finally got our room around 1pm, we crashed out for five hours! I finally dragged us both out of our comfy beds because I realized that if we continued to sleep...we would be up at midnight and wide awake!

We rallied and went down the street a bit to a cute little plaza with a fountain and several restaurants and chose one that looked good, as it started to rain just a bit. We sat out on their patio anyway...it's the Italian way! It was so fun to sit and relax and watch the local people hanging out in the plaza. The Italians have such a wonderful lifestyle that embraces family and friends and making time to enjoy life.

We ordered dinner and it was so delicioso! Lazagna and pasta with pesto, asparagus, tomato, haricot vert (those baby green beans) and potato...so yummy! Of course I ordered vino bianco and got this cute little pitcher of wine...I love Italy!