27.11.06

Rome Recap - Day 1


Day 1 Rome (Thanksgiving day)
(otherwise known as Scenes from Frankfurt airport)
I departed bright and early from Basel after a frantic last-minute packing and jotting of directions to the hotel. I was supposed to do all of the above the night before but never quite got it together. After rushing to the airport in Basel, I was met with a delay of uknown duration. I made sure to stuff myself on Hawaii candy in the lounge while awaiting my delayed departure. This would start an unprecedented weekend of binging piled onto an unprecendented year of binging. I look like a biscuit.

I finally arrived at Frankfurt two hours late, and 10 minutes too late for my next flight. In order to ensure it was as agonizing as possible, the bus driver took us on a scenic tour of the Frankfurt airport at 2 miles an hour. We rolled by the plane I was supposed to be boarding and I looked at all the happy faces in the windows. They were going to Rome. I was not. Yet.

For another three hours I sat in the Frankfurt lounge. They had snacks and I partook in them. I also bought an exorbitantly priced People magazine and found out Dougie Howser is gay. I thought I had found that out last time I was in an airport waiting for a delayed flight in August when the liquid bombers were uncovered.

Finally, boarding began and after an hour and a half flight, a beautiful view of the Alps, a late fall sunset, a glass of red wine, an argument with a Roman taxi driver, 5 flights of stairs and a metro ride (in lieu of the cab ride with the con-artist taxi driver), I finally found M. at the hotel and was promptly reminded of why I don't leave him alone and bored for extended periods of time.

The evening had been replanned. Not that there was anything wrong with the original one. He was lonely so he made friends with the concierge. She had given him suggestions and he, being polite and bored, took her up on them. Now we had dinner plans at a fancy fusion Mediterranean restaurant called Glass. I gave him the raised eyebrow (since when does Italian or Mediterranean cuisine need to be modernized or fused?) but it was his birthday and this is what he wanted.

We got ready and headed off to dinner. We passed by the Trevi fountain and Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg came to mind. The fountain was all but vacant in the famous scene from La Dolce Vita but even with the crowds I still wanted to jump in.

When we arrived at the restaurant we knew in 5 minutes it wasn't what we wanted so it was back to Plan A. After a somewhat embarrassing exit from the table and another 45 minutes of walking around (ladies, be warned, these are some of the most brutal streets in the world for walking) we found the place we first wanted to go for dinner and settled in for a nice evening. Bistecca fiorentina and bruschetta. Bennissimo!

We had arrived!
Posted from Basel

2 comments:

Open Roads Mama said...

Looking forward to reading more about your trip! And, those are really nice shots!

Anonymous said...

Hey, have you seen Rome hotel review? It seems to be very useful.