Thank goodness for modern smart phones, SIM cards and google maps and translators! Jesse dropped us two old folks off at the TrenItalia station in Vicenza on Tuesday morning with our backpacks and tickets in hand.  Our solo adventure was about to happen! It was a 3-hour ride on a bullet train going 155 mph and faster! The countryside flew by, no good pictures, alas. We were dumped out in downtown Rome with a street address for our Airbnb.  The train was a little late (hey this is Italy, not Germany lol!) and we were starving.

Rome train station

Fortunately, the Coliseum tour we had planned for the afternoon had a glitch and we were able to change to Wednesday morning. Amazing how God knew that all along, didn’t let me change my train ticket, etc. There was a divine appointment coming!

Our first adventure was eating close to the train station. We were starving. We forgot Jesse’s warning: “Never eat close to the station”. We did. We were sorry. Don’t eat kebabs in Rome.

Our next adventure was finding our AirBNB.  We found it, I’m not sure what primo piano means but I know now it does not mean a first floor flat. Three at least flights of steps up.  Here’s the views on the way.

Our door

And out of our window. Notice the end of the street.

These were the ruins at the end of our street!

Since there were no breakfast items in our AirBNB, first order of business was exploring and finding a market to buy breakfast items. We explored our street, checked out the location of the Coliseum (our tour for the next morning) and bought some groceries. Italians only have cappuccino and brioche or cornetti for breakfast. We found out why later on in our stay in Rome.

These are some views of the Coliseum on our walk. Some might be paintable.  We shall see.

 

Yep, that’s us.  And we’re really here!

So he gets a rash from this plant!

We found our way to a restaurant – Diadema Cafe

We played it safe that night. Pizza and lasagna. I had lasagna 4 different restaurants. Different every time. The best was what Paige made at home, though. She’s a great cook!  We got back to our flat, trudged up those stairs and fell into bed.  What we didn’t know is that there was a bar underneath. Italians party till 1 or 2. We did not party. Our morning wake up was 6:30 because we had an appointment at the Coliseum at 9:00 the next morning.