Roma!

Our arrangements work well. The flight to Rome was smooth and the service was great -- but neither of us slept much. As we walked out of the customs area Ricardo Nemi was standing there holding a sign with our name on it. His limo took us to the hotel where we met Emerson our host at the AirB&B- which is simple but clean, private and quiet. Arrived at the airport at 10:30 and were relaxing on the patio of our hotel by noon. But I was knackered- and promptly crashed for a two hour nap.

By 2pm local time we were out and about getting acquainted with the area. The location is pretty cool. We are three blocks from the Colosseum. One would expect this to be pretty cheesy with tourist junk (and some of that exists) but it is easy to dial into the local community that lives and works here.

Our first meal out was at a family owned place that has been around since 1945 ( think end of the war). The wait-staff were having a fun time greeting friends as they walked by and the prices were really reasonable - at least $20 less than we would expect to spend for a similar meal on Lopez.

We finished the evening with a visit to the locals grocery to get supplies for a picnic.Read more