Mamma Mia, It's Italia!

Rome, Day 1
They told us it couldn’t be done. They told us we were crazy. But ladies and gentlemen, we have proven the impossible – you CAN do Rome in 48 hours! You will also be exhausted beyond relief, but every ounce of energy drained is well worth it.

Our schedule was unconventional, to say the least; we left Wednesday evening from Glasgow, Prestwick (which isn’t actually in Glasgow, but an hour outside the city, on the coast) and arrived in Ciampino, which is a good 40 minutes away from central Rome via shuttlebus. All of the airports we flew from were out of the way because we flew Ryanair, and I should stop here to make a few comments about this often evil airline. Ryanair is famous for cheap flights and proof of humanity’s desperation. We are willing to give up all comforts on a flight, such as free food and drink and reclining seats, for cheap airfare. To be fair, if you can buy a $20 ticket to Paris, you won’t complain much. But if you don’t follow the rules exactly, they will charge you extortionate amounts. We forgot to check-in online. The penalty for not printing out 2 pieces of paper? £80, or about $150, which, I should point out, was twice the amount of our actual plane ticket!  We fought and argued this for over an hour, but to no avail. After this kink, though, our trip was perfect, even in its mistakes.

We arrived at the Hotel Trevi around 11:30 at night, exhausted and a bit stressed after the initial hassles from lovely Ryanair. At that point we had been travelling by car, bus, and plane pushing nine hours. All I wanted was a massive glass of fine Italian wine and a big plushy bed to collapse into. I also wouldn’t have said no to some chocolate gelato…. Mmmmm. When we arrived at the hotel, were no rooms. Luckily, they drove us to another hotel for free, and even though it was not in the city center, the rooms were very nice and the staff was friendly. Even though it was late (just past midnight), I somehow persuaded Mike to go out and explore the city (which is saying a lot, since Mike’s normal bedtime is 9:30).

Our new hotel (optimistically named Hotel Stylish) was right off of Via Condotti, the Rodeo Drive of Rome. Even though it was late, Rome was in full swing. Every restaurant we passed was open – and full! After a short walk we found a place to eat just off Condotti in one of the countless winding alleyways. Four older Italian men were standing outside, and when we gave an interested look they pounced.

“Ah, si, come-uh and sit-uh down-na! Dees is the finest Sicilian food in EEETtaly! No one else make-ah Sicilian food uh-like-ah dees!”

Well, how could we argue with that? It was 1AM, we had not eaten in ages, and on the candlelit table was my beacon of hope– a huge bottle of “dee best Sicilian wine in dee world!”

After the long, arduous day of traveling, we ended on a high note. The food was amazing, as was the wine, and of course we had to end with heaps of “Sicilian gelato”.