Rome

So after our relaxing Christmas in Luxembourg, we had planned to head to Rome for a few days. We decided to fly on Ryan Air, which, along with EasyJet, is the European equivalent to Southwest (no assigned seating, etc). However, flights are literally like 4.99 Euros. Ryan Air flights don’t leave directly out of Luxembourg, but rather Hahn, Germany (about an hour’s drive east). The drive to the airport was snowy and dark, to say the least. Luckily, we ended up being behind a shuttle bus that was going to Hahn as well, so we just played a little “follow the leader.” We were actually a little worried because of the weather and were hoping our flight would not be delayed.

We get to Hahn Flughafen (airport), park, and walk up to the terminal. The snow was really accumulating! We get up to our ticket desk and the lady, literally, takes our passports, looks at them, and checks our names off of a printed list of passengers. No computers in this joint! We are like “That was a little weird.” So we walk over to security, see that there’s not really a huge line, decide we have time, and go for a beer and pretzel at one of the airport restaurants. Not sure if it’s just in my head, but the pretzels in Germany are ridiculously good, especially with a big old beer.

We finish up, head over to security, get through, and then wait at the gate. We notice that the “gate” is really just a small desk in front of a door that leads directly out onto the runway. Hmmmm…..

As the lady announces that our flight is ready to board, all of a sudden the nice old ladies, hippy-lookin’ people, and families with small children turn into a bunch of Urlacher’s and barrel their way up to this desk. Like a swarm of bees. Seriously, in line, there was a mom full force pushing me from behind. It was pure Darwinism! At one point, Agnes was jockeying for position with these two Asian chicks, and I told her, “Hey! Just let ’em go…they want it more than we do!”

So as you get through the line and present your ticket (which, by the way, has no indication of who you are, so they don’t bother to check ID’s) to the lady at the desk, they load you onto a bus. Of course, the first people on the bus want to be the first off as well, so they crowd up by the door, while the middle of the bus is completely wide open. So it’s impossible to get on. Crazy f#%*ing people!
As the 10 second bus ride to the plane ends (shaking my head…they seriously bus you like 30 yards out to the runway where the plane awaits….boy, thanks for the ride….I don‘t think I could have made it on my own), the doors open and people are, I kid you not, sprinting to the plane. Flat out. I’m talking Reggie Bush to the end zone. One guy even struck the Heisman pose just before he boarded. Let’s keep in mind that there is no overbooking…. everyone is guaranteed that they are going to get a seat on this plane.

So we walk up the stairway (there’s one at the front of the plane and one at the back) to board, everyone gets settled in after that little episode of American Gladiators, and we get under way. The whole 1:45 flight to Rome I’m trying to piece together what just happened out there and why. It was madness, I’m telling you!

We arrive at Rome and quickly find the bus that will take us to the train station in the middle of the city. We hop on and, in anticipation of needing to find our way from the train station to our hotel, I go to pull out the map of Rome that Agnes’ parents had bought for me (see prev. blog), and that I had carefully packed in the same folder in which I put our hotel reservation confirmation. Confirmation is there, but no map. Keep in mind, it’s about midnight at that point.

“Agnes, where’s the map? Did you grab it earlier?”

“Nope, didn’t touch it.”

And just like that, Matt is a salty dog. [Soapbox] For those of you that have traveled to a city in which you don’t have someone there that you know, and you are a total tourist, you are well aware that the map is the key element to a successful trip. To this day, that damn map has not turned up. But I warn the map….if I find you out there somewhere, there will be hell to pay!! How dare you run off on us like that!

Okay, so no map. And I’ve heard how the cabs in Rome can be a nightmare. Welp, that is not true. We caught a cab and he got us to our hotel in one piece and for only 6 euros. Awesome. Check in to the hotel…it’s solid. Great place, nice rooms, etc. But now, Matt is hungry (surprise!). We ask the receptionist if there might be something open nearby. He, honest to God, walks to the door, sticks his head out, looks to the right, looks to the left, and says “Nope, everything around here is closed.”

“Whatever” say Matt and Agnes. We venture out and five minutes later have found a little restaurant, beautiful and classy on the inside, that is open until 1am. We are the only ones there and get great service from the waiter. We must have screamed “American” at him, because he didn’t even try Italian. It was straight English all the way, baby. A plate of lasagna, a salad, and a bottle of wine later, we are happy campers and are strolling back to our room.
The next morning we wake up early and are all geeked up to get out there and explore. We eat breakfast (included in our room cost and very, very good) and head out. Just around the corner we find a bookstore, buy a map (hooray) and we’re on our way.

We literally walked the entire city that day. We left the hotel at 9.00am and got back around 10.30pm.

We started by walking to the Vatican and passed many historical sites, including the Monamento Nazionale and Castel Sant’ Angelo. As we approached the Vatican, we noticed that there was someone talking over a loud speaker, and then people would cheer. Hmmm….what’s that, we wondered. Yup, it was the German Shepard himself, Pope Benedict. Seriously. So that was very cool. But….when he got done, the line to actually get into the Vatican was incredibly long, so we decided to go get some gelato and coffee and see if the crowd died down.

The crowd eventually did die down and we got in pretty easily. We got up into the top of the dome at St. Peter’s, saw the Michelangelo sculpture of Jesus and Mary (amazing to see in person), toured around the Cathedral, and really just took it all in. Then we noticed, hey, there’s a mass starting. We got in and can now say that we attended mass and took communion at St. Peter’s. Even though everything was in Italian, it was still very cool to be part of it.

After the Vatican, we headed toward the center of town and cozied up in a bar called “the Bulldog.” There we rested up, had paninis and drank a bottle of wine.

Once we got going again, we visited sites such as the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and the Piazza del Poppolo. It was all very cool. Then we started to work our way back to our hotel, but in the meantime passed through a lot of small shopping areas, did some window shopping, and popped into a “clubby“ wine bar and found a table and another bottle of wine! Eventually we found our way to a big restaurant reasonably close to our hotel and stopped in for some pasta and tiramisu.

After that, we were decided we were done for the night, got back to the hotel and basically passed out.

The next morning, we struggled to get out of bed, had some breakfast and made our way out for the day. We decided to trek south for this day and hit the Coliseum and Roman Forum. We quickly discovered that today was going to be a tough day, as it was raining the entire walk to the Coliseum. Once we got there, we decided that the rain was probably not going to let up and so broke down and bought an umbrella. Good thing, because for the rest of the day, it rained harder and harder.

We toured the Coliseum and Roman Forum, both of which were really cool, and then made the rest of the day a mix between coffee places, shopping and wine bars. We actually hit two places for wine, both of which were really cool. One of them, in particular, we really enjoyed as it only sat about 7 people total and the owner and his daughter were tending bar, giving out free homemade appetizers and advice on what glass of wine to try next. Along the way, we also saw again the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Spanish Steps. We then decided that maybe we should turn in for the night, since the day was kind of “blah” and the prior day was such a big one. We did, however, make sure we stopped by another nice looking restaurant by our hotel for another excellent dinner.

On the walk home, we realized that we had not seen the Sistine Chapel yet. (Note, Agnes kept calling it the “Sixteenth” Chapel, to which I responded “Well, we only have one more day left, so let’s skip the first Fifteen chapels and go straight to that Sixteenth one. I heard it was nice.”) So we decided to make that priority #1 for day three.

Day three of our trip also just happened to be Ms. Agnes’ birthday. As always, I was on top of my game and realized it around noon that day (d’oh!). As we’re standing in line for the Sistine Chapel, I look down at my watch, notice that it’s December 30th and say in an almost surprised voice “Hey! It’s your birthday!!” I think Agnes may have forgotten too (or she was just trying to not make me feel bad), because she said, also in a surprised voice “Ohhh yeah….well happy birthday to me!”

We got through the Sistine Chapel fairly easily. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the roof that Michelangelo painted. It is truly breathtaking and really can’t be justifiably described by me here.

The rest of the day we really just shopped, thanked our lucky stars that it wasn’t raining, and strolled around to take one last look at some of the historical sites. Around 6.00pm we had some dinner at a restaurant by the train station and then jumped on the bus headed to the airport.

The flight home was exactly the same as the flight there…a lot of roughness and nonsense. Due to some strong snow storms in Germany, it was delayed for about a half hour, which I think made everyone even more anxious to get out there and get on the plane!

Everything went fine on the flight and once we got back to Hahn (around 12.30am), we made it out to the car and paid for parking. Given all my earlier troubles with the car, the fact that there was a lot of snow and that the temperatures had been below freezing the whole time we were gone, my glass was pretty much half empty and I was a little scared that something would happen (i.e, it wouldn’t start, the doors wouldn’t open, etc). But much to my surprise, everything went fine and we were on the road in no time.

The drive home took awhile given the snowy roads. We went no faster than 50km/hr (about 35mph) the entire way. The terrain between Hahn and Luxembourg is pretty mountainous too, which made it a bit of a stressful drive as well. We rolled back into Luxembourg around 3.30am, had a couple much needed beers, and hit the sack. Due to the bad weather, we also decided to cancel our trip to Rothenburg, Germany, which had been scheduled for January 1st and 2nd. The preliminary plan was just to hang out and relax in Luxembourg for the remainder of Agnes’ time here. However, as you’ll see in the next post, that plan was altered just a bit on new year’s eve. Stay tuned!