Early in August my daughter Annie went off to Rome to spend a semester abroad. Although Mom and Dad were quite nervous about sending their baby overseas, I couldn't very well complain since I had gone to Europe with girlfriends when I was in college. The College of Design of Iowa State University has a small campus right in the heart of historic Rome catering to Architecture students in the spring and Design students in the fall. Happily a whole contingent of Annie's Graphic Design buddies were also taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity, so she would have plenty of company as she adjusted to her new setting.
Since we hadn't seen her in 3 months and Annie herself was suffering occasional bouts of homesickness, we decided to visit Annie over my university's Thanksgiving Break. Both of Annie's working big sisters (Engineer Sara and Psychologist Jen) also arranged to take extra days off during that holiday week so they could join us and we could all be together as a family. Of course I worried whether all the complicated airline arrangements and weather would cooperate, but amazingly everything went just as planned.
Jim and I left Iowa Friday after work and drove to Chicago since we had a Saturday morning flight there. Sara, who lives in Chicago, flew with us - first to Atlanta, then on an Air Italia flight direct to Rome. Jim travels so much that he was able to get both Sara's and my ticket using frequent flyer miles! The flight was fine - we watched several movies. The airline tries to help passengers 'transition' to the new time zone by turning down the lights after dinner and passing out pillows and blankets. But someone like me, who doesn't always sleep well even in my own bed, has little luck sleeping in an airplane seat when my internal clock is saying it is well before midnight. We arrived in Rome when it was midnight in Iowa but 7 am in Italy - how confusing to my biorhythms! We were pleasantly surprised to find that Jen's flight from Newark arrived just moments after ours, so we caught up with her in the baggage area.
Having heard that some unscrupulous cab drivers frequent the Rome airport, Jim arranged to have our hotel send a car out to collect us. We piled into a small mini-van of sorts and had our first Roman cab experience (which would be repeated many times over during the week).
Basically Roman drivers drive as fast as they possibly can, riding the bumper of the car in front of them even on rain slick streets, switching from lane to lane (IF only there were any lane markings on the wider streets!), trying to gain whatever minute driving advantage that they can - the heck with other vehicles or pedestrians!! Every one of them must still have Gladiator blood coursing through their veins! There are no speed limits, pedestrians in the crosswalk do NOT have the right of way and even red lights are optional and up to the discretion of the driver! Believe me - that ride woke us up despite our jet lag and most every ride during the week was a white knuckle, close-your-eyes-and-pray, try not to yelp in fear because it might distract the driver as you barrel through tiny cobblestone lanes barely 8 feet wide, adventure.
Annie was waiting for us at our hotel and hurray, the whole fam-damily was together!
It was a bit too early for our rooms to be ready but the hotel invited us to partake of their European breakfast buffet (which I am missing, now that I am back home!) while we waited. Mmm. Croissants, Italian hard rolls and cheese, yummy Europeans yogurts, cappaccino...
Our hotel room overlooked the Roman ruins of Palantine Hill while the girls' room looked into the hotel courtyard lined with orange trees laden with fruit. I never thought of Rome as an "orange tree" area but even some of the downtown streets were lined with them.
That afternoon we took our first exploratory walk down cobblestone lanes (ALL of Rome is paved in cobblestones) with delightful Italian names we tried (awkwardly) to roll off our tongues, past ancient churches, through arches and passageways that legions have passed through, with something historic on each and every corner - until we reached the studios were Annie and her classmates are studying graphic design. ISU's little campus is located on the Piazza des Cinque Scoles (plaza of 5 schools), with a burbling fountain in the center. Annie unlocked the huge doors and led us up older than old marble stairs to give us a tour of their various workrooms and to show us some of her design projects. Then we walked a bit farther until it began to rain (this is the rainy season in Rome). We ducked into a sidewalk cafe with a tent-like roof to enjoy our first pasta dinner of the week. After dinner the time difference was catching up with us so we called it a night and headed back to Hotel Kolbe to recharge our batteries.
