Rome, Travel

Arrival in Rome – Rome Part 1

January 12, 2014

Long before I arrived in Qatar, I had decided I would spend Christmas 2013 in Rome!  I knew that it was going to be too soon to go home.  This would be my first Christmas by myself and I thought I would be miserable and in tears by the end of the day.  I couldn’t have been more wrong!

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I arrived in Rome on December 23 and managed to not get lost making my way from the airport train station to Rome.  It is a straight shot, but I had a fear that I would get on the wrong train and end up somewhere else!  Since I was staying for a whole week, I wanted a place with a kitchen, so I opted to try out Airbnb for the first time.  The experience was great and I had the whole apartment to myself for most of the week. Not only that, I had my own bathroom and tv (although there was nothing in English).

Jumping right in, I headed to the Piazza Navona.  This time I did get lost, but it also didn’t help that I hadn’t slept that much on my overnight flight.  A lovely American woman helped me out and we ended up chatting for about an hour on the streets of Rome.  If I remember correctly, she was working on her PhD in Catholic Studies.  The piazza wasn’t that impressive, but I think that was because the Christmas market I had gone to see was heavily commercialized with many of the same products in multiple booths. This is where I had my first meal in Rome.  While I am sure it wasn’t the best in Rome, it was good and I got to sit outside in December! They also had a Nativity Scene.

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What I did realize is that it was fairly close to the Trevi Fountain!  I knew it was a large fountain, but I couldn’t believe how large it was.  I kept thinking about how hard and how much work went into building a fountain of this size in the 1700s.  I did throw a coin in the fountain, although it was a Qatari dirham coin (only worth about $.14) so it may not get me all the way back to Rome!  The fountain was beautiful and it was amazing to see all the people that were gathered to see it.

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Stay tuned for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at the Vatican!

 

 

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