Day 1: Turning Lemons into Limoncello

Surprise!

It began easily enough with two uneventful plane trips and a stopover in Philly. It was an overnight flight to Rome from there. We chatted away for half of the flight until we decided it may be a good idea to get some shut-eye. That is, as much as you can on a plane. There was enough space to spread out a bit across our rows and I caught a few Zs, although not very soundly. When I wake about an hour before landing, I looked outside to see daybreak and... The snow-covered Alps. We must have been over France at this point.

We heard it snowed in Tuscany, and the area around the airport was dusted with snow. Little did we realize that by the time we got into central Rome, there were a few inches on the ground. It must have just fallen the night before because the locals were in the parks building snowmen and having snowball fights. We heard this was the first snow Rome has seen in 15 years, and the most in 26 years. We passed the Forum and Coliseum, with it's arches and surrounding cypress trees dusted in snow. I've never seen this in pictures and thought that we were really lucky to be here to see something that is so very rare. Our pictures will be fabulous. So despite the weather, when given lemons, make limoncello.

Spanish Steps

Given that, nothing was plowed or shoveled. Unfortunately our express bus from the airport wasn't making the stop by our hotel so we were dumped at frantic Termini station. With suitcases in hand, we hopped on the Metro across town. At street level no sidewalks were shoveled, so we dragged our luggage through snow and slush. At this point we just laughed. It was the day of an historic snowfall in Rome and we arrived just in time. We were famished and exhausted so after dropping our luggage off and freshening up, we headed north in search of a little restaurant called Cacio e Pepe. We found it easily enough and were seated. When the waiter came to take our order I asked if he spoke English. "No. Espanol?" Yes! So he recited the menu in Spanish, I ordered for the both of us, and the food was fabulous. Who knew I'd be using Spanish as a backup here. Carrie had the carbonara and I the cacio e pepe. The bacon was out of this world. Can I bring home and entire cured baby pig in my suitcase??

Trevi Fountain

We returned to the hotel for a much-needed disco nap. Rested, we set out in the evening to find some dinner and maybe try to find the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. Success! The Via del Corso was close for pedestrian promenade and overhung with red, green, and white lights for as far as you could see in either direction. Couples were walking arm-in-arm on the streets and shopping. The Spanish Steps were lovely, and since covered with snow, no one was sitting on them. This way we got some excellent photos without lots of people in our view. Next we found our way down to Trevi Fountain. It was evening, so the fountain was illuminated with beautiful lighting and covered in snow. Gorgeous. We're realizing that one of the advantages of being here in the dead of winter is that we've only run into a scattering of tourists. Everyone else is Italian. And there was barely a crowd at the fountain. We had plenty of pictures with no one in our views.

Roman Forum in the snow

Finally we settled in to a very warm and cozy trattoria near the fountain with some chianti, pizza, prosciutto, and bruschetta. Heaven. With our check they brought us complimentary limoncello. As I had been saying all day, when given lemons, make limoncello. And here it is! Nectar from the gods. Not a drop remained. We decided to walk back to the hotel since navigating the streets proved easier than expected. Back past the Trevi and Spanish Steps and by 10pm, no one was there. We took a few more pictures since we had the advantage of no one being in the streets and headed back to the hotel. We're settling down for the evening about to watch Bridesmaids on the iPad, and get ready for tomorrow. The plan is to visit the Coliseum, Forum, and Pantheon.

For not really sleeping in the plane, for the exhaustion, for the non-stop headaches, we have fared quite well our first day. We went into this knowing we would be pushing ourselves, but with some rest, food, and wine, we'll be fine. Just make sure there's limoncello at the end of each day.