Goodbye Home, Hello Rome

On Friday, December 9th, after a mishap of driving to Ohio because 60 has been changed to 376, we made it to the Pittsburgh International Airport. The other group flying with us was sitting just a few rows over at the gate, but I didn’t approach them until we got to our layover in Philadelphia. I asked if they were traveling to Rome with the Mitchell’s and they said yes. Introductions were exchanged and then we headed for the gate for our flight to Rome.

When we arrived in Rome, the taxi had not been set up for our apartment, which was my fault. Tom Mitchell saved the day though and took us back to his apartment along with Ben, so we could wait to check into ours. The ride into the city center was intriguing. I find that entering a city for the first time, I love to just observe. Roman drivers are insane, which was making Grandpa nervous, but I was entertained. The vespas just weaved in and out of traffic and there were no real traffic lanes. Our driver honked his horn just for something to do, since the congestion in the streets was too much for impatience to make a difference. There were two other groups of people with us in the van who had to be dropped off before us. Finally we made it to the Mitchell’s apartment where we were able to relax for about a half an hour.

When it was time, Andrea and Mr. Mitchell, took us by metro to our stop. Walking to our apartment was rough with our luggage due to there being a lot of steps and going up hill from there. I usually pride myself on packing light, but I definitely didn’t on this trip. They were both good sports about it and even volunteered to take us to the grocery store. The store itself was insane that afternoon, there were people everywhere and we had gone without a list, so Grandpa kept coming up with other things we would need. The store wasn’t big, but trying to figure out where stuff was became frustrating with jet lag creeping up on me. There were quite a few flies buzzing about the store as well. At the checkout, poor Andrea who was helping me unload the basket of groceries onto the belt, dropped a can of spaghetti sauce and it smashed all over the floor and us. The Italian man who came to clean it up made light of it and said, “Now all we need is some spaghetti!” He probably didn’t know it, but that basically made my day and put a smile back on my face.

After a much needed shower, we met up with the rest of the group to go to San Giovanni In Laterano where the ordination was going to be held two days later. It was a gorgeous church with ornate ceilings, beautiful statues, and marble floors. Andrea and I each got audio guides and toured the church together. We learned about Constantine and his role in the Catholic Church as well as the placement of prophets and apostles within the building. The church also had a Papal Door which is only opened during jubilee years.

That night, I went on a pub crawl with Ben, Joe, Linda and her kids, David, Kevin, and Krista. We spent some time near the Colosseum, which is gorgeous at night. Seeing it for the first time as we emerged from the metro station was breathtaking. To kill time, after being pestered by men trying to sell light up gadgets, we went to an outdoor cafe for drinks and pizza before joining the pub crawl. It was right across the street from the Colosseum and I kept glancing over at it in amazement that I was in Rome. The whole experience was rather surreal. When you live in a small town like Franklin, being in a city with a landmark that is known worldwide is incredible. A couple of the servers were curious as to how we all knew each other. I became a Mitchell cousin because it was easier than trying to explain how I had ended up with them in Rome. The pub crawl itself wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. I think of a pub crawl in the Irish sense, where you sit around a table with drinks and socialize. This was more of a club scene type of thing. It was definitely fun just to cling to the wall and observe everyone. I wasn’t interested in drinking too much, especially on my first night in a foreign city with jet lag, so I just had a couple of drinks. Since we were only given one key to our apartment and I knew Grandpa would sleep through the doorbell, I went back to the Mitchell’s apartment with Joe and Ben to spend the night in Andrea’s room. The next day was to be filled with sightseeing and I could hardly wait.