After I figure out how to buy a train ticket from Fiumicino to the local neighborhood where my AirBnb is, I walk my tired self to the platform and almost get turned around and walk BACK towards the airport terminals. It’s been a long day, guys. I catch the train after validating my ticket and sit back for the ride. It was about 20-30 minutes, if I can remember correctly. Once off the train, I start walking the 6 minutes to Alessandro’s place and I was a bit wary at first. There was graffiti all over the walls of the buildings and there was quite a bit of garbage on the sides of the roads — not a good first impression, Roma. I make it to his building and he’s been messaging me the whole time to make sure I get there alright. He allows me to check in and get the keys, along with dropping my luggage/freshening up a bit before heading back out; the room had just been left by the previous occupant and still needed cleaned. It’s a great little room! Tall ceilings of easily 10-12 feet, a large bed, lounge chair, bistro dining set, standing dresser with a mirror, and an en suite bathroom. I take about 20 minutes to feel more human, washing my face, brushing my teeth, changing clothes, and putting on some makeup. Now, I’m ready to Rome, erm…roam. 😉

I take to walking down the main street and aim to find a few things: an ATM, coffee, and some sort of food. I find an ATM and see other people using it, but for some reason, I was anxious about using it. I’m not sure if it was because it was on the street rather than inside a bank, or what. I walk past it. I walk into a cafe and look at the selection of breads and try my hardest to decipher the menu board — I taught myself very minimal Italian in the last few months. It was NOT helping me in this moment. I get overwhelmed. I leave. I look down a side street just a bit further up ahead and see another little cafe, this time with a bit of English on the chalkboard outside. I muster up the courage and walk inside. I ask in my best attempt, “parla inglese?” The barista smiles and says, “yes!” God bless, that was harder than I thought it would be. I guess I didn’t want to be an annoying American tourist, but it got much easier over the course of the day to simply ask if whomever I was talking to spoke English, and then go from there.

I ask the barista about what the coffee options were, because I didn’t know what to get and I had never really had an espresso. She grins and says, “well then, you’ll get an espresso.” I think I had tasted an espresso once maybe 8 years ago and I remembered it being bitter and yuck, but this was Italy; I HAD to have an espresso! She tells me its real coffee from Naples and that I would like it. She also handed me some sugar packets because well, she knew I’d need them. The espresso wasn’t bad! Definitely strong and not near as sugary as what I’m used to. I also get a veggie burger from the refrigerator. It wasn’t the best, but I was hungry and needed something. Overall, my first experience out in the streets, ordering something and talking to a local was great. She was kind and explained the other coffee options for me so I’d be prepared for next time.

I walk back towards the ATMs and just get over my weird aversion. 50 euros in hand and nothing bad happened. Wimp.

I walk back to the AirBnb to drop off the other half of my sandwich and ask for a gelato recommendation. The place Alessandro recommended wasn’t open, but I found another nearby and the gentleman greeted me so warmly! I asked about English and he responds with, “of course!” This was getting less scary as I realized that a lot of people were going to probably speak a little English. I ordered a scoop of kiwi & banana and chocolate with milk and it was SO GOOD. I walked to a square to sit and enjoy it and people watch.

Post gelato, I figured I’d better get to walking. It was then 1:00PM and I hadn’t seen much at all! I ended up walking all the way from San Giovanni neighborhood into the heart of Rome; my steps for the day rounded out to almost 12 miles when all was said and done. I COULD have used public transit, but I had a Roma Pass that gave me free transit, I just wanted to wait to activate it until the next day, as it was only valid for 72 hours after activation. Plus, walking was a good way to keep my sleepy ass awake.

I walked slowly and saw the streets and buildings change. I saw city walls and cobblestone streets, ancient ruins and colorful Vespas. I. was. hooked.

I had the streets basically to myself at times; it was quiet and lovely. Eventually though, I did hit a pretty busy area with some important looking buildings and decided to look up where exactly I was. Ah. Quirinal Palace, just the residence of the Italian President.

I decided to walk towards the Trevi Fountain, since I was nearby. That’s where I found the massive crowds of tourists and truth be told, that wasn’t a fun experience at first. Everyone speaking over each other in different languages and pushing by each other. I had left my peaceful Rome for the tourist aspect of it, bah. The fountain itself, however, was beautiful. I plan on returning to it before the end of my trip to toss a coin in — I wasn’t in the mood to fight all of those people!

I ended up walking for quite a bit longer, seeing some local artists, a gorgeous church, and a few other things.

I walked past the Colosseum and looked forward to my adventures planned there for the next day!

I made my way back to my AirBnb, with my feet crying at this point and my quads being weirdly sore. It’s 6:00PM local time and dinner wouldn’t be served in restaurants until 7:00PM at the earliest; Italy has a very interesting meal schedule. I finally make it back to my place and kick off my shoes. I take a very short nap of maybe an hour or so before getting up and heading to a local Pizzeria recommended by Alessandro: Al Grottino. I asked the host about speaking English and she set me up with an English-speaking waiter. I ordered the vegetable calzone and their house white wine. It. was. incredible. I must admit that I felt a bit tipsy after only half the wine, due to the lack of sleep (8:30PM meant I had been awake for roughly 37 hours).

I take my leftovers back to my place and was feeling really good at this point. I had just traveled all over Rome by myself all day long and I had survived! I went to set out my clothes for the next day and then…a terrible thing was realized.

My sister’s cat had decided to pee on half of my clothes in my luggage in the hours before I left Ohio and I hadn’t realized it until just then.

You can imagine how upset I was, how exhausted I was, and how defeated I felt as I pulled item after item out of my suitcase and it absolutely reeked. I texted Alessandro and asked him about laundromats open: none, it was 10:30 at night.
I ended up hand-washing everything as best as I could in the sink with hand soap so that they could at least KIND OF not smell when I took them to be washed the next morning.

At least the day was memorable in every possible way, hey?

I climbed into bed and fell asleep around 12:30AM, marking 41 hours of being awake, easily one of the longest days of my life.