Day 1 ~ Alitalia Airlines and Sweetly Home Roma

We started our trip in style.  I had scheduled a shared van with Road Runner Shuttle, but we were pleasantly surprised when our driver, Jim, arrived in a Cadillac!  With a 4:00 p.m. departure, we wanted to be at LAX by 1:00 p.m. and were blessed to ride in style.

We checked in with Alitalia Airlines and hung out in the international terminal until it was time to board.  Our nonstop flight was scheduled for 11 hours and 55 minutes.  Just a tad longer than we are use to!  We considered Thursday, May 19th and Friday, May 20th our first day.  With the nearly 12 hour flight and the nine hour time difference, Thursday was a distant memory by the time we landed.

Sadly, Alitalia was not the best airline.  The service was good, but the seats were horrible!  They were narrower than what we are use to - more like the seats on a commuter flight. We were seats B and C and the poor guy in seat A (by the window) had no room for his feet since there was something underneath the seat in front of him.  I didn't get his name, but he was very interesting.  He is a professor at a seminary and teaches Greek and Hebrew.  He was on his way to Israel for a few weeks to visit an archeological dig, then would be relocating to the east coast.  His reading material for the flight was a Bible written in Greek and Hebrew!

We finally landed in Italy, no worse for the wear.  I'm not sure either of us slept more than an hour, but that's no surprise.  Passport control, customs, and a long wait for our luggage, then we were finally heading out the door.  I had contacted our B&B in advance asking about transportation from the Fiumicino airport.  Our hostess, Martina, was the best!  She scheduled it for us and we traveled in style - this time in a Mercedes.

The ride from the airport is a blur - we were beyond exhausted by this time.  We arrived at Sweetly Home Roma Bed and Breakfast and were greeted by the wonderful Martina.  She told us a bunch of details that went in one ear and right out the other, then escorted us to our room where we were finally able to lay down and sleep.

Sweetly Home Roma was the perfect place for us.  It was clean and quiet, we had room to stretch out but didn't really unpack since we would be heading to our cruise ship in a few days.  The bathroom looked a little different than we were used to...

One tip for traveling across multiple time zones - quit thinking about what time it is at home!  Don't think, "It's 1:00 in the morning, no wonder I'm tired."  Leave home at home and get on your new time as quickly as you can.  As advertised, St. Peter's Basilica was just steps away from Sweetly Home Roma.

We walked the streets for a while before realizing we were hungry.  We decided to try La Pilotta de Mario which was on the same block as our B&B.  The owner, Mario, was very friendly and the food was incredible.  (I will use that word for all our meals!  There was no bad food on this trip.)  First Italian meal?  Pizza, of course!

We followed it up with chocolate covered cream puffs.  There are no words to describe how delicious these were!

The first of many cups of coffee.  FYI - Italians don't drink cappuccino after lunch - espresso or "American" coffee only. 

We had visited Rome five years ago during our 20th Anniversary cruise.  We knew then that we wanted more time in this city.  We only booked a single tour, which took place on Saturday morning.  The rest of the time we explored on our own.  Oh, the adventures!  There's nothing like discovering a city on your own.

I'm using Shutterfly to share all my pictures.  Use this link to view them all - Anniversary Trip Pictures.