We decided to take a trip to Italy.
August was the month of choice.
It is consistently our least busy month with both kids not in any summer camps or school.
Huzbend had been practicing Italian via Duolingo for quite a while.
He had started before our trip was even a "maybe?".
Mikey started Italian Duolingo a few months back.
After researching different package tours, we settled on the "do it yourself" approach.
Although the "do it yourself" approach meant more work and stress, it also meant that we could tailor our trips to be a bit more flexible.
But, man, I tell ya.
Many, many, MANY hours were spent researching all of the different aspects of our trip.
Hotels and flights were just the beginning.
We also made sure to book train tickets, research restaurants that could accommodate our kiddos food restrictions, and to pre-purchase day tours and entry to museums/churches and archeological sites.
We also decided to travel as light as we possibly could. Only carry-on luggage.
Finally, after months of planning, it was time to hop on the first leg of our flight to Italy; a 5-hour jaunt to JFK.
We arrived at the airport early after hearing horror stories of the lines to get through security.
Even TSA-Precheck had been a nightmare.
We found no lines and were super early for our flight.
It was all good. No complaints from me.
The kids on the other hand.....hmph.
We decided to snack a bit before getting on the plane.
The yogurt parfaits Huzbend found were Nasty, with a justified capital N.
He liked them though.
Mikey got himself some beef jerky and Katie some fancy popcorn that cost, like, twenty bucks.
Our flight departed on time at 11am on Wednesday, August 9th.
The first flight was uneventful.
We arrived to JFK hungry and a little mournful about the 8+ hour flight ahead of us.
We made our way through the airport and stopped for some "just okay" Mexican food.
A lot of movies were watched on that second flight.
Katie watched Harry Potter One, Three and Four (they didn't have two).
Mikey watched Birds of Prey (again), Despicable Me Two and Three and then slept.
I'm not sure what Huzbend watched. He eventually caught some shut eye.
My screen wasn't working so I just watched other people's movies or tried to sleep.
We arrived at Fiumicino Airport (aka Leonardo da Vinci International Airport) at about 1pm the following day, Thursday, August 10th.
The airport was very modern and clean.
And, it was very NOT busy.
I was surprised by the not busy part.
Of course, the first thing we did was hit up the bathrooms.
Katie liked their touchless sink situation.
This passport control was the EASIEST we had ever been through.
The line wasn't very long, moved along quickly and it was easy to understand the flow.
We breezed through passport control and went on to pick up our luggage.
Sigh. They had run out of overhead room for bags and our luggage ended up checked.
We encountered no issues here either.
And this is where we encountered our first, and definitely not last, bump in the vacation road.
We had to purchase tickets for the direct train line from the airport to the main train station in Rome.
The ticket machine would not accept ANY of our credit cards and there was no way to use cash on the machines.
We must've tried a dozen times and it just wouldn't work.
We decided to walk to the train platform in the hopes that we could find a kiosk manned by a person so we could use euros. Good thing we got some before leaving on our trip!
We ended up finding a ticket machine that took euros.
We used that to purchase our tickets to Roma Termini station.
With tickets in hand, we found the platform and waited for our train.
We spent most of the time on the platform and in the train stressed and strategizing what to do if our credit cards would not work in Italy. I mean we had euros, but not enough to cover almost two weeks of meals and purchases.
Here's our train!
The Leonardo express takes you directly to or from the main train hub in Rome.
This person got sleep on the plane.
This person did not.
The trip took about 30 minutes.
Although our hotel was within walking distance from the train depot, we decided to use the Metro (subway system). This would let us know if the airport ticket machine refusal of our credit cards was a fluke.
I'm happy to report that it was.
We were able to get our metro tickets and hop on the Red Line towards our hotel.
We stayed at the Hotel Artemide.
Located in the center of Rome, it had convenient access to the metro and was within walking distance of many sights in the city. It was a great home base.
We opted for two twin-bed rooms.
It was cheaper than a room that would fit all four of us.
The rooms included a mini fridge stocked with beverages that were on the house.
There was also a welcome bottle of wine (we did not partake) and some biscotti (I definitely partook) waiting for us.
We decided to chill out in our rooms for a bit to relax and recover from travel.
The hotel was able to get us a last-minute reservation for the restaurant on the roof.
In the intervening time, Huzbend and I ventured out to a grocery store to pick up some items for breakfast. We were going to be getting up super early the next day and would not have time to hit up the hotel breakfast.
We got a kefir drink, something I thought was chocolate yogurt but was actually fortified pudding, some gluten free madeleines, a soft pretzel and some fruit. I think they were pears.
Dinner on the hotel roof was relaxing.
It was warm and breezy up there.
There were a few bees that wouldn't leave us alone, but no one got stung.
I ordered some fried pork belly as an appetizer and ravioli of some sort for dinner.
It was okay. Not the best.
But it did hit the spot after all the airplane food.
Mikey was excited to try fresh pasta.
He ordered it topped with duck ragu.
Do not mistake this facial expression for dislike.
It is confusion on how fresh pasta could taste so radically better than box pasta.
I can't remember what Huzbend ordered.
Maybe pork with some apples?
Katie got crazy and ordered grilled octopus over some type of gazpacho.
No. She had never tried any of that before.
Yes. She did eat some of it.
We discovered a new bird while on the roof.
This is a hooded crow.
After dinner, we went back down to our rooms to chill.
It had been a long two days of travel.
We were asleep by 9:30 or so.
