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Warning: These are long and unedited. Just stream of semi-conciousness...

Rome Day 1
Our flight to JFK was slightly delayed departing and then we did donuts off the Jersey shore in a holding pattern for a while. We started with 3+ hours between flights and never worried about it. The guy next to us did not have that luxury and was freaking. Alitalia flight attendants are some snappy dressers in the colors of the Italian flag with cute little hats. Ordered my first “un bicchiere di vino bianco e vino rosso” ordered a second and then a Pammyxany to eliminate about 6 hours out of the flight. Woke up for espresso and a cherry pastry and watched the sun come up over Italy.

We landed and that’s when the fun started. We lost track of everyone else on the plane, followed the signs for passport entry/customs, breezed thru… into the wrong terminal baggage claim. Oh boy. Got semi lost (lost) getting to the right terminal, couldn’t find baggage claim, got sent to lost and found (our bags weren’t lost...yet, we were) had to go in the wrong door and be helpless enough to be harmless and get thru the employee entrance at lost and found. Get spun around and were trying to read the Korean board to find the right carousel, get sent to the right carousel, try to explain what was happening to our very Italian driver who was patiently waiting for us, watch the carousel go round and round until Pam walked to the other side and found them sitting there by themselves. Did I mention I lost Pam for about 10 minutes at one point? Easy as cake. The ride in from the airport was mind bending for 2 reasons. 1) we passed the Baths of Caracalla ruins and Palantine Hill and Circus Maximus and 2) scooters and motorcycles are like a swarm of locusts. They are everywhere and fill even the smallest of gaps between cars no matter the speed or direction of travel. There are no lanes. It’s just however many vehicles of all shapes and sizes can possibly be squeezed into the roadway.

Our AirBnB host, Giovanni, met us and we checked into our place and it is amazing. It is easy walking distance to everything on a small square, Piazza del Monte di Pieta. So we walked. First stop was a block away for a cappuccino at Bar Rosanna that has been there with the same family since 1946. I think I have found my first coffee of every day. Then to the Punto Simply grocery store. You walk in thru the fish market then the wine. We are such tourists it’s embarrassing. I am in the produce portion taking pictures of fruits and vegetables. I like the weigh your own and print out a price sticker method. Olives, bread, cheese and meat oh my. Bewildered by the selection and let a lot of regulars go ahead of me and studied. Still made of semi informed random guesses.Drop things at the apartment. The 6th floor (5th if you are counting European) apartment. No there is not an elevator. I will be used to this in a day or so or I will end up sleeping in the stairwell too often. The Campo de Fiori is a block or so away and filled to the brim as a market. Then we peeked into Arco degli Acetari before getting a pizza in a come for our first food. I know sacrilege right, but it is a walkable street food. They just opened one in Iowa. Hearing a lovely Italian lady say Iowa was priceless. The plaza Navonna is a bucket list view. The fountains are titanic and functioning as opposed to Paris last year. There are a bunch of tourists and even more guys selling selfie sticks. The Church of Saint Augustine didn’t look open but the Biblioteca Angelica next door was. The oldest public library in Europe since, and I quote the young man, Sixteen and Zero Four. The Pantheon is an amazing interior. If you are in the plaza in front at noon on the 21st, which is tomorrow, the sun shines thru the hole in the roof and out the door. It is going to be crowded as hell but I think we will give it a shot. We went and saw the white spiral dome of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza and it’s beautiful courtyard. Some things are for both of us, some are for Pams pleasure and some are just for me like the best espresso of my life at Sant' Eustachio Il Caffè. Yes it was that good. Then we went to see St Maria Sopra Minerva Basilica and the crazy obelisk on an elephant in the plaza. Always look up. And look in store windows. That is how Pam spotted Barbiconi, the one stop shop for priestly garb. I had to promise not to be a smart ass and to be respectful before she would go in with me. Cool beyond description and I behaved myself. One of the absolute highlights of the trip for me was going to be the tromp l’oeil ceiling of Chiesa di Sant'ignazio di Loyola. Mind blown first day. It absolutely lived up to my 3D spatially oriented lofty expectations.

Back to the apartment to enjoy the fruits of the shopping trip. A glass of red wine, a plate of mixed olives, prosciutto di Parma, Coralina salame, caciotta di capra ciumachella and cacio Romano on the terrace gazing at the dome of Sant'Andrea della Valle. THIS is what I came here for! Well not quite. The red is a cheap Bardolino I got from the grocery. I was just looking at varieties and not whole labels. As I was sitting there sipping in imagined unknown luxury I noticed the actual label. I had bought a bottle of Bolla Bardolino that I can get at any Total Wine. Dumb ass. Of well it was still awesome. I will do better and honestly the Bolla was light enough to be exactly what I wanted.

Off to dinner at Da Sergio a few blocks away kind of out of the way. I picked this place in advance just to be sure I had somewhere that our jet lagged brains didn’t have to make any hard decisions about. When I asked our host Giovanni about it he asked slightly suspiciously how I knew about it. I confessed I was a Google Maps addict and found it that way and it looked and sounded like an unpretentious spot. He said that was one of his favorites and pointed to a list of spots he reccomended for people looking for a simple Roman meal. It was the first one listed. Score! It was great from the half litres of house red and white, I love saying the casa bianco e rosso, the mixed antipasto which was essentially what I had just had but the first was just practice, cacio e pepe for Pam and carbonara for me. I’ve made both of them but have always wondered what they were supposed to taste like. The cacio e pepe, pasta with cheese and black pepper, had a lot more pepper presence than I have ever given it The carbonara, pasta with bacon (guanciale in this case) cheese and egg cooked with the heat from the pasta, was much less heavy handed than mine. The egg was still glisteny and less hard cooked. Both were simple and delicious. An espresso then wander home at night to crash HARD.