Rome

There is always at least one day of the vacation that doesn't go as planned. Today would be that day! We awoke really early so that we would be ready for a 6:15 taxi pick up to get us to the airport early enough to check in for our international flight to Rome. If you are ever in Barcelona and the taxi driver tells you there is a storm coming in from the sea, be sure you buy extra water and snacks, especially if you are planning to fly into that storm to cross the sea!

We managed to check in and find seats to eat our breakfast by about 7:30. Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 10 am. So we were a bit early. In Barcelona they don't assign gates for flights until an hour before scheduled departure time and they don't do overhead PA announcements for boarding. We found our gate okay and even managed to get into line at the right time, though we were about 5 minutes behind the time we were supposed to start boarding. And then we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally the plane arrived and we boarded. We were in the very last row, which was fine with me since I planned on making the girls rest. 

So at this point we were about 45 minutes late leaving – about 10:45 or so. Then the captain came on and said something in Italian that made a whole bunch of people groan. Michael looked at me and I looked at him. (Because although Italian is close to Spanish because they are both derivatives of Latin, we don't understand much of it AT ALL.) Then the captain started speaking in English. Our flight wouldn't be leaving until 12:15 because of an electrical storm. Now I don't know if there was a current storm or if we had lost our place in the queue because they were late in the first place because of an electrical storm. I didn't ever figure that part out. What I did know is that we were going to be late, VERY late, to check in at our next place and we had no way to contact them. Vueling didn't have onboard wifi and we don't have international calling – we can manage to fool the computer into letting us call from Spain to the US when we have wifi, but we can't call from Spain to Italy wifi or not. Then when we finally left around 12:45 the turbulence was crazy taking off, flying, and landing. Bumpy doesn't effectively describe it. But I can't complain because the girls and I were so exhausted, we all slept through three quarters of the hour and a half flight.

SO we finally arrive in Rome at 2:30 and head off to buy train tickets. We got them at a tobacco shop that Michael had read about, but he didn't get any direction as to which train we were to take. So we bumbled through the validation process (did it upside down), walked onto the platform and asked the first official looking person we saw. Asked is a loose description, because it pretty much involved me sticking the paper with the directions I printed out from the internet under his nose, pointing to the name of the train we were supposed to find, and pointing at the train next to us with a questioning look. I felt ridiculous, but he nodded and pointed to the train. And the doors were closing on the train. So I ran over and pushed the open button, and much to my surprise it opened and we got on! And then we had to trip over bags and people to find open seats in three different rows. And then pray we were actually on the right train. Was there a route map with labeled stops to reassure us? Of course not. We were supposed to get off at the ninth stop. Anyone try to count to nine while being vigilant for pick pockets, wrestling five suitcases, five small shoulder bags, three kids, and a gazillion questions from those three kids? I lost count of the stops after four.

Fortunately we did know the name of the stop, so we leaned over to look at the names of each of the stops as we approached them and eventually came to the one we wanted. We managed to get out with all the bags and all the children. Hallelujah. Of course then our gps decided to take a nap for a bit. It took about 5 minutes to find the signal and then we started up the road. Until it told us to go through an alley. Michael didn't want to go that way, so we took the long way around to the other side of the alley and found the street. But not the building number. We wandered around for about 20 minutes looking for number 10. We found 5, 7, 12, 15, but 10? Nope. At one point we happened to look up and lo and behold number 10 was the same entrance as number 12. Did that make any sense. Nope. So we were back at the building where we started. And three hours late.

Of course the building was locked, as all apartment buildings are. We eventually were let in the building by a kind soul who probably thought we looked pathetic standing there, and then we sat. One man took me up to the seventh floor in the worlds tiniest, most adorable elevator and showed me how to use it (which was nice because I wouldn't have known what to do with all the doors I had to close) and told me the seventh floor was the bed and breakfast. So I rang the doorbell of the only door that didn't have a name on it. No answer. So I rang the doorbell next door to that one. Got yelled at in Italian. Couldn't be offended because I have no idea what was said, and to be fair they didn't have a clue who I was.

Back downstairs I went and throwing my hands up in utter failure I insisted that Michael deal with it. So off he went with Luke to find a payphone (!!!) to try to call the owners of the apartment. At this point we had been on the street or in the building for about hour and a half and I'll be honest, I was pretty sure we had been ripped off and there was no apartment to rent here. A couple minutes later a lovely woman came down, looked at me with the bedraggled girls and exclaimed, “Do you need help?” in very lovely, delightful English. I could have kissed her. I explained and she had her cell phone and told me – “I can call them, what is the number? “ Oh, the number I sent with Michael to try calling on the payphone? That number? Couldn't catch a break. But she took extreme pity on me and asked what my husband was wearing, left the building, tracked Michael down around the corner on the next block, dialed the number and explained to the couple that leases the apartment that we were here and waiting.

And 15 minutes later we were in a gorgeous apartment. This one is a two bedroom with a sofa bed for Luke. It also has a beautiful tile terrace where I plan to go relax as soon as it dries from the rainstorm that just rolled through. Because why wouldn't there be a rainstorm? Its been that kind of a day.

We checked in, dropped our bags, and left in search of food. We had eaten granola bars, beef jerky(thanks to the Nelsons, that came in handy!), bread, and cheese all day long. Now it was 6 pm and we were wiped out and really hungry.  First we went to the market to buy food for breakfast tomorrow. Isa said we were torturing her – “Why are we buying food for tomorrow when we are so hungry right now, Mom?” So after dropping everything off we successfully bought pizza for our first night in Rome. Because we are going to eat pizza every day if we can. And our kids will be so happy! My pizza was covered in olive oil with thinly sliced potato and rosemary. It was so good. Isa opted for cheese and ham and the other three had pepperoni and salami pizza.

Tomorrow we have tickets to the Vatican, and I have to hope that it will not be as difficult a day! I would also like to eat some pasta and have some gelato. After today, I may need a lot of gelato!

Ciao!