Village Chronicles

 We all knew Rachael was having a great time and adjusting to life in Rome—great classes, nice people, nice campus, and many opportunities for side travel. But when my husband said, ‘Why don’t you and Brett go visit her,” I was immediately struck with the practical thoughts of—’no way, too expensive, too close to the holidays, planning a big show at House of Blues with the band I manage’, amid many, many other practicalities of life’s lists.

But as time went on in September, I was finally convinced that this was an opportunity of a lifetime to get to Europe and more importantly, to go see Rach!

So the planning began.

A girl at work was on maternity leave, and it was all set that I would be working additional hours, including Saturdays, so I started calculating costs and searching for airline fares and a place to stay.

Got the airlines right away with only one layover in Germany. The length of the flight was a bit of a shocker, but that’s part of travel—time on a plane. Jet lag? All included in the price.

 Over the years with the vacations we have been fortunate to take, I found that for a little bit more, you can rent a great condo or house for about the same amount as a nice hotel. But this time, looking for a house/villa/apartment was more of a task than I imagined. Since we were traveling off-season for Rome, it was quite a bit cheaper than I expected, and there were so many to choose from, I got caught in the I’ll-just-wait-and-think-about-it phase.

So when it came down to me saying, yikes, the trip is less than a month away and I don’t have a place yet, the one apartment that was first on my list was rented for a long weekend within the time I needed. Darn! That apartment was huge by European standards, and they gave you a local cell phone to use, fully stocked kitchen and it was recently renovated—great location.

The other apartment in the running was in a typical Italian neighborhood and two sisters owned it. One lived in Seattle WA., and the other lived an hour outside of Rome. It was very large for Europe at 1200 square feet with two bathrooms and a large outdoor balcony and reasonably priced, so I booked it.

I communicated with the sister Anna, in Seattle and she sent me a letter with recommendations of the best cappuccino places, restaurants in the area. She also sent me a glossy map of Rome that was very helpful.

The flight was uneventful if you don’t count the two crying toddlers right behind our seats —yikes! During the nine hours in the air, they cried or whined well over half the time. Oh well, we survived. There were two dads traveling with them and the one dad was sitting with the two behind us and the other dad was across the aisle. The one behind us had the patience of Job. Seriously, his voice was so reassuring, calm and low in his efforts to keep them quiet and amused. Quite honestly, I gave him so much credit for being so patient and loving. I have heard many a parent scream and yell at a child and even the occasional slap or swat on the backside, which never helps a situation. We managed and he was a superb parent!

We arrived in Munich after being up many hours without sleep, and the airport personnel were crabby. You would ask a question, and they looked at you like you were covered in green slime with horns on your head. Not at all friendly. (Note: On the way back, with another stop in Frankfort, we had to show our passports four times!).

We were almost home free, as the layover was not long and we needed to find our gate for the next leg of the trip. Flying to Rome on Lufthansa was heavenly—such nice flight attendants, and I loved hearing all greetings and instructions in German, English and Italian.

Rachael surprised us at the airport, and we taxied on to our apartment, which was awesome! Sister number two, Alessandra, was there to greet us and she was wonderful. She gave me a bottle of wine and a package of fresh pastries.

There is a lot of graffiti in Europe (Paris included!) and it was a typical neighborhood with all Italian people speaking Italian. I didn’t expect anything less and why should I? Just like people traveling here should not expect anything else than English.

I learned a bit of Italian (from the airline back-of-seat TV monitor option. Ichose languages and learned Italian for about three hours). So we settled in a bit and we were off to sightsee. It’s the typical rule of thumb, don’t take a nap or rest because you will be off kilter. You must force yourself to stay up, and then when you are numb with fatigue, then you go to bed!

So we took the metro to the Trevi Fountain and walked, walked, walked. Public transportation is superb! This was indeed, a foreshadowing of the walking ahead in the nine days there. We walked a ridiculously, inhumane amount—seriously. I wish I wore a pedometer just to see what we covered in those days and nights, because our feet ached every evening!

What an experience to have a REAL cup of cappuccino. OMG, it will never taste the same here in the states. Pasta? Loved it.

Rachael proved to be such a great guide from the very start. You know how some people have an affinity for languages? Well she was fairly fluent in Italian and paved our way with taxi drivers, waiters, storekeepers, etc. She was awesome.

There is a lot to say about the trip, and in follow-up columns I will break it up into tourist sites, people, food, transportation, etc.

Brett and I both agree we were happy to be back with American plumbing and our comfortable, larger showers, and glad to see family and friends, but we whole-heartedly enjoyed our trip!

Ciao for now.