Italy Moblog #1

We are vacationing in Italy this year. As an experiment I decided to start a moblog (mobile blogging). Time permitting, I’ll blog my experiences every day. Here is day #1:
Landed today morning in Rome, Italy by an Alitalia flight from JFK. The flight was uneventful, but for the woman sitting next to us, who refused to sit next to a man and forced me and my wife to swap seats. I thought I left that one behind in the buses of Chennai. Yeah. Yeah, the world is small and now flat as welll.

Once we landed, the immigration officer peppered us with a lot more questions than typical. She actually made me pull out my credit card and show it to her. Strange are the ways of Immigration Officials. Once we came out, we realized our limo driver had not shown up. So I had to make a call to the taxi company and after a 30 min wait, the guy showed up. He later blamed the delay on the traffic. The drive from the airport to the hotel was a long one. There was plenty of traffic.

Around 2PM local time, we reached our hotel Caprice on Via Liguria near Barberini Square (Piazza De Barberini, if you are local). The jet lag got to us, I think. We wanted a nap but ended up sleeping for a few hours.

Freshened up and hit the streets for dinner. We had some fabulous Italian food at a Alex Cafe on Via Veneto. Interestingly, all major restaurants on this street have a glass-covered gazebo on the sidewalk in front of the main restaurant. The gazebo serves as a mini-restaurant and food is served from the main restaurant. Seems like a concept unique to Rome. Have not seen this in any other city so far.

Haven’t explored the city much yet. But somehow resembles Athens a lot. Tomorrow we are off to Pompeii, the famous city destroyed by the erupting. Mt. Vezuvius. This was not part of the tour we signed up for. Priya Raju insisted that we go here, so we have signed up for a side tour to Pompeii. More on Pompeii in tomorrow’s despatch.

Notes:
1. Avoid Hotel Caprice. Rooms are too old and cramped. The elevator is a piece of work as well.