Day 1

Well I left DFW at 9pm last night, had a quick stop in London and made it to Rome at 5:30 today. I pretty much slept on both flights and was wide awake when I got here. I ended up taking a bus for 4 euros the the center of rome and I was going to take a train to my hotel, but I got a little overwhlemed so when a guy saw me he offered me a taxi ride. But when I got in the taxi it won't start. (me and cars these days) The driver messed around with a few things and then it magically worked. 2.5 hours after I landed I was finally able to get my stuff all up into my hotel room that is the size a bath tub :-p and then asked the hotel where he thought I should get dinner. He recommended this place, which was about a 5 minute walk.

I ended up sitting next to another woman that was by herself from the Philippines, and we ended up chatting for the whole dinner. She has been in Italy 2 months and this is her last stop. She was very pleasant to chat with and she recommend a first course to me. Caciofiore Del Contadino, which is a salad with Pecorino cheese, pears, and honey. I was going to take a picture of it but I gobbled it down in about 10 seconds. It was incredibly delicious! For my pasta choice I had Mezzemaniche Alle Noci, which was ravioli with a walnut cream sauce. It was divine. Here's where things get interesting. I decided after dinner I wanted to walk to the Colosseum so I could see it at night. I had a map and didn't look to far away. So I start walking and I'm on the right path, until all of a sudden I wasn't. Being the stubborn person I am I kept walking because I was sure I was just looking at the map wrong. But about 30 minutes later I realize I am completely lost, and can't even find where I am on my map. So I go into a restaurant and ask for directions. They tell me I am super far from my hotel but there is a bus that will take me there at the bus stop around the corner. So I go and wait and wait and wait. Finally a cab pulls up (by this time it's 10:30pm) So I jump in and show him where I'm going. About 30 seconds into the ride I realize there is not anything in his car that shows he is a cab driver. So I start to panic. I thought more then once about jumping out of a moving car. We drove around for a long time and I knew we weren't even close to the hotel. Then I finally understand him enough to get out of it that he wanted to drive me around to show me things that I haven't seen before. Case and point below:

Rome at night with the moon in the background. So at this point I've decided that this guy probably isn't going to sell me to be a sex slave or anything so I go along with it a little more. Finally at midnight I am exhausted and he took me back to my hotel and didn't charge me a cent. Definitely a weird and creepy way the start the trip though.Oh well, I'm headed to Capri for the day tomorrow! I'm sure I'll have tons of pictures!