Day Ten- A Paris Morning and a Rome Night

As you can guess from the title, this was another travel day.  This time we were flying between Paris and Rome which is about an 2 1/2 hour flight....

but we had a Paris morning to enjoy and my sweet sister-in-law agreed to join me for a walk along the Seine--and to cross a bridge or two.  I had figured out a route from the hotel to the river and then cross some bridges, walk along the river, and then head back to the hotel for breakfast.  I don't know about Charon, but I loved this and it was a great way to end our stay in Paris.

Heading under the road to the walkway along the river........

to the east----

and the west-ish....

 Walking a bridge across the Seine

It was a fun walk and the conversation was great.  (I know that I keep using the same words--perfect, great, amazing, awesome, beautiful, memorable---but that is the type of trip this was.)

We made it back for breakfast and then packed up and headed to the airport.

Many of the roads had been closed in downtown Paris as a move to cut down on cars in the downtown area of Paris on the weekend.  Also there was still concerns about unrest from the prior day's protests, so our driver arranged to pick us up very early to make sure that we got to the airport in plenty of time.  That plan worked, we had no difficulties getting to the airport, and ended up waiting there for a couple of hours.  Oh well, that is what books and walking are for--spending time in airports.  We had a quick flight to Rome and arrived in the early evening while it was still light.

It was a beautiful drive from the Rome airport into the city where our hotel was.  I couldn't take photos from my position in the van, but there were lots of rolling hills with farms and vineyards.  We arrived into Rome just as it was getting dark but even in the growing darkness, you could see that this was Rome--the city of stone buildings and statues and foundations--and crazy driving!  I couldn't wait to visit it in the morning.

With some help and directions from different staff, we headed off for our first dinner in Rome.  It was fairly dark when we headed off and definitely night when we finished dinner.  We had a nice dinner in a packed restaurant.  It was crowded and loud, but it felt like you would have expected in an Italian place in Rome.  The staff was very warm and engaging and the food was Italian and yummy.

Then we headed out for our hotel.  Now I take great pride in finding my way around places--both by remembering landmarks and using a map.  However when we left the restaurant, I forgot to pay any attention to which direction we were going or take any worry about getting back to the hotel.  I knew the group was heading in the right direction and really gave it no thought, just looking around and enjoying conversation and the Rome streets.......until someone stopped and asked if we were going the right direction.  All of sudden I realized that I had not been paying attention and wasn't sure where we were.  And despite having a great map of downtown Rome, it was not helpful as the city streets were not often labeled.  Ugh... I retraced our steps a block or two back but then was concerned about being by myself in a dark city so hurried back to the group.  I knew what the street looked like that we had turned on but wasn't sure exactly where it was.  We crossed the street, but it wasn't right so we paused as we tried to figure it out on our map.  As we were doing that, an American family of three walked by and asked if we needed some help.  They laughed when we indicated that we were trying to use the map to find our hotel.  They handed their phone to their young daughter and said she was the master of the GPS map because it was spotted using inside Rome.  They indicated that maps weren't very helpful since the streets were rarely labeled (as we had discovered).  Their daughter typed in our hotel and started walking around the sidewalk to get the service to show directions.  Fortunately we only needed to walk down another block or so in the direction she indicated then we recognized the spot and found our hotel.

At one time, there was a saying that all cities lead to Rome--back in the days of the Roman Empire that was an important connection with the seat of government.  But now I can say, that my road has arrived there as well (with a little help from GPS and some friendly Americans)!