This is the first in a series of three posts recapping my trip to visit family in Italy through the notes in my journal. The notes have been edited for clarity, and to avoid making you want to drive an ice pick into your eye.

Day 1 – Italy-Bound

The anticipation is too much. We’re ready to leave, both mentally and physically, and it’s a feeling of “hurry up and wait” as we wait for our ride to the airport.

When we arrive, we breeze through security, only to find that the Plaza Premium lounge is at capacity, and not accepting new guests (first world problems, I know). After some smooth talking – ok, begging – I managed to get us all inside. Beer and grilled cheese never tasted so good!

The flight itself was rough. Every time I managed to get to sleep, I was woken up again by a crying kid, or the steward spilling water on me. As a result, I arrived in Italy hella jet-lagged. A nap helped tremendously with that.

And thank god, because the food we ate after was incredible! The café my wife wanted to see was shut down, so we wandered into a pizza place instead. It was fantastic, and fairly-priced, too.

Dinner was the star of the day, however! The taxi ride over was unreal – the guy navigated the back streets of Rome with pinpoint precision. Dinner itself was, as my brother so eloquently put it, “a spiritual awakening.” Seared scallops with a red pepper garnish started things off, and I had pasta in a sea urchin reduction for the main.

My wife had black truffle pasta carbonara, and man was it good. Our servers were a blast too, and I can’t help but think we got a bit of special treatment because of how much we were enjoying everything. Two amuse bouches!

Early to bed tonight – we just ran out of gas.

Day 2 – An Unexpected Adventure

Woke up late with my wife – a nice, rare, lazy morning. We ate a delicious buffet breakfast at the hotel, then went out for a walk. Our journey took us to the beautiful Villa Borghese park, and we got lost for a while on our way to the shopping district of via Cola di Rienzo. We clocked over 20,000 steps on that trip!

One of the highlights of the adventure was finding our way into the basement of a local supermarket, and purchasing and eating a massive pair of Italian sandwiches to eat there. While we chowed down, I thought of the dichotomy of our experience compared to the rest of my family’s, who were out visiting the Colosseum at the time. Ah, the simple things…

After arriving back at our hotel, we had a brief nap, then went for another walk to get some gelato and granite, during which my wife had an out-of-body experience. As an aside, I noticed today that I’m doing better with my Italian. Not good, but better!

Dinner tonight was pizza and beer. The food was great; the service was not. We ate at Sbanco, and I wouldn’t go back, nor recommend it to anyone else visiting Rome. Still, we left full and happy, and went to bed early.

Day 3 – Heat Exhaustion at the Pantheon

After a leisurely breakfast, we took the subway to the Spanish Steps with the family. They were ok; nothing to write home about though, and so I won’t. Our next destination was the Pantheon.

On the way, we mistook a series of columns for the historic site. As it turns out, Roman ruins are so pervasive that it’s fairly easy to mistake one historic landmark for another!

We entered the Pantheon and took some photos. A look upward revealed one of the most interesting shots of all: a sunlit hole in the ceiling. It actually rains directly into the Pantheon, but the floor is designed to funnel the runoff outside, of course. Neat design.

After some good gelato, I was approached by a man who struck up a conversation and told me he was from Africa. I had heard about folks like this; accept a bracelet from them, and they will harass you until you pay for it. I politely refused… and going forward, I suggest others be more firm in their refusal.

All the walking (and a couple of beers) proved too much; I ended up back at the hotel with heat exhaustion. It took three hours to rest it off. Lesson learned: drink water on hot days, not beer!

We had pizza again for dinner, but it was at the first place we tried, near our hotel. After, we retired back to our hotel for some wine and conversation before bed.

To be continued next post…