Day Two -- October 29, 2012

We landed at Paris CDG Airport almost on time and enjoyed getting to stretch our legs and get some fresh air while walking from Terminal 2E to Terminal 2F.  We had about an hour to kill so we walked around some more and had a snack before they called our 2:00 PM flight to Rome.  We were surprised that we were given a full meal on the flight and since we had just eaten something at the airport, passed on everything but the fruit and desert.  After picking up our checked bag at Rome FCO we started following the signs for the long walk to the train into Rome which is called the "Leonardo Express".   The tickets were 14 Euros each and we wanted to buy four (return also) so Mike tried to use his credit card, which was rejected.  Luckily we had enough cash and were happy to see the train waiting at the bottom of the escalator although it was so crowded we had to stand for the 30 minute trip to Rome's Stazione Termini. 

We got a nice cab driver for the short trip to our apartment, The Dolce Vita Residence at Via del Mancino, 11.  After a little confusion in the elevator, we entered our home for the next ten nights, Apartment Federico Fellini (everything in the hotel had something to do with Italian movies).

We were very impressed with the big kitchen which had an oven and a clothes washer (very rare in Italy) and tons of counter and cabinet space.  It was stocked with more plates and pots and pans than I intended to use since I don't really go on vacation to cook!






The apartment had a small living room with a sofa and chair and a dining room table with four chairs.  We were very impressed with the HUGE bedroom with a beautiful vaulted ceiling.  It also had a king sized bed, two closets, plenty of drawers, a desk and a makeup table.  We were also extremely happy to see that the apartment had ductless air conditioners in the front room and the bedroom and that they had not been turned off -- which is very usual in Italy after September.


The front desk gave us directions to the DESPAR grocery store down the street and we headed down there to buy some beer, wine, paper towels and orange juice and then found a very crowded pizza restaurant at Piazza S.S. Apostle for a pretty good pizza.  We were happy to go back to the apartment to finally clean up in our very large shower and unpack.  We got in bed around 10:00 PM (after being awake for over 30 hours) and slept for four hours, got up for four hours and then slept for around three hours -- pretty normal first night.