Donna Settling In

Pod Seats

Sorry for the delay in updating my daily post.  Our flight was long but comfortable. We actually had the same aircraft that we were on for our trip to China, an Airbus A330 with the individual pods that make into a nearly flat bed.
Unfortunately, Delta has not yet learned (or may not care) about the quality of their food.  Yes, we did choose the baked fish, but the other choices were far worse. The cabin attendant suggested we avoid the pasta (ordinary airline pasta were her words), and the other choice was braised short ribs.  The wine however was decent.
I slept pretty well, a total of nearly 5-hours, and had the breakfast of granola and yogurt.  Had to avoid the eggs at all cost.
We arrived a little after 10:30 am and breezed through immigration and customs. The Italian agent didn't even ask to see our passport, just waving everyone through with a quick finger point. There were no custom agents in site, and we simply walked through an empty customs area to retrieve our bags.  We arrived ahead of our limo driver, and I was in the process of calling their office when he showed up, apologizing for being late because he was used to long baggage delays on arrival.

I had ordered the larger 7-passenger van for the five of us and was glad I did. We just had enough room for our luggage and were not crammed in for the 30-minute ride to our hotel at the top of the Spanish Steps, Hotel Scalinata di Spagna, literally Hotel Spanish Steps. I knew it was near the top of the Steps, but had no idea it was literally at the Top of the Spanish Steps, perhaps 50 ft. or less from the first step leading to the heart of the city.

Hotel in Rome

We checked in and were told that our rooms would be ready in about 3-hours (of course) so we left our bags and headed for a walk down the steps.  As I am notorious for my lack of directional navigation without a GPS, and since I could not cajole the Garmin portable I brought along to find a satellite, we elected Daniel as our tour guide and followed him for the next three hours winding around the lovely shops and markets of Rome.

We had our first taste of a potato pizza that Daniel remembered having from his last visit to Rome.  Nothing like what I would have thought. Thin squares of pizza, crusty, salty, olive oil, and potato topping that was suprisingly good. After finaly being able to move into our rooms, Daniel, Sharona and Karen on the first floor, Donna and I on the second (walk up only), we were able to wash, change clothes and go out to dinner at a local place called Ginger near the Steps. We ordered several pastas (including ravioli with recotta in tomato sauce), several salads, and a bottle of Monsupello Riesling 2011.  I didn't know that Rieslings were even produced in Italy, but it wasn't bad, even though the waitress said it was "seco" (dry), it was actually rather sweet.  It was an exceptionally long day, but managed to stay up to 9:30 pm and slept pretty well considering the 9 hour time change.  More tomorrow.