random thoughts – Day 1,097 (Sunday) – central location

The flight to Rome left Boston at 5:30 pm on Saturday, March 11, which allowed for a leisurely morning of coffee and dropping Winston off at the dog sitter. A small lunch was considered, and while retrieving a container of mac-and-cheese from the fridge, I discovered I had brought the opened vial of insulin that didn’t have enough for the week. That required another stop at the dog sitter en route to the Logan Express station to deliver another vial.

No interesting seatmate for me.

For the record, Logan Express is awesome. It was a 30-minute ride to the station in Woburn, and another 30 or 40 minutes on the Express bus to step off at the airport. It was $56 to park for the week, and the tickets were on sale for $9 each way when I reserved. 

Logan was busy but not overwhelming. And after a wait of a couple hours that included a snack and drinks, the purchase of water and neck pillows, and potty stops, my four friends and I boarded the plane and were off. I had been declaring for weeks that I would be seated next to an interesting stranger, but the seat to my right remained empty. Sigh. 

On the plane, I read, I listened to French club music, and I stretched out across the two seats to nap. The two-pack of reusable earplugs bought from Amazon were a huge help and my eardrums didn’t feel like they would explode on landing and takeoff. Best $18 investment ever.

The view from the rooftop
breakfast buffet.

With the distance plus the time zone changes, we touched down in Rome Sunday morning. A preplanned shuttle took us to the hotel to drop our bags. The rooms weren’t ready, as check-in isn’t until 3:00, but we were able to visit the breakfast buffet before hitting the streets to explore the immediate area. The rooftop breakfast buffet offered a view of Rome architecture.

The Cosmopolita Hotel, a Hilton Tapestry Collection property, was a great location. A ten-minute walk in one direction had us at Trevi Fountain. Fifteen or 20 minutes in the opposite direction had us passing multiple excavation sites and arriving at the Coliseum. We were surrounded by restaurants, souvenir shops, and stores selling clothes, shoes, handbags, and men’s suits. 

Our first morning there, we walked to Trevi Fountain, which was jam packed with people at 10:00 on Sunday morning. We would learn throughout the week that it was always varying degrees of packed.

There was one drawback to the hotel location in the form of Nag’s Head Scottish Pub across the street. From around midnight until 3:30 or 4:00 am the noise from the patrons outside the pub floated right up to my window. I tried to remember what it was like to be young, energetic, and out drinking into the wee hours of the morning, but I could only remember being tired, old, and pissed off at rowdy bar patrons. The airplane ear plugs worked for pressure, but not noise blocking. My friend gave me foam ear plugs which saved my sleep at the end of the week once I figured out how to get them to stay put.