It has been three days since Alias and I left London and headed for Rome, for a short break. After all the excitement that has happened, it's time to chill and take time-out from it all. Left for Rome at some ungodly hour to catch a 06.45am flight. Leaving from Gatwick, would mean leaving the house at 4.45 am. As we always prefer getting to the airport ridiculously early, we actually left the house at 3.30am only so we were happy we didn't have to get unnecessarily stressed when/if there were any holdups like traffic jams or accidents or flat tyres. Luckily, I booked the parking, and checked-in online. This saved me at least half hour to forty five minutes of our time.
It was busy but not too busy at Gatwick. I guess the advantages of going in the midweek.
Arrived Fiumicino Airport in Rome ahead of schedule. Excellent start. So headed straight for the bus terminal to City of Rome.
We love random travels, sometimes not planned, and we travel light on low cost budgets. This time we stayed right in the middle of the city....in a 'homestay'. Apparently it's a new concept where people who have extra guests rooms in their house rent the rooms out to tourists. We were lucky to have stayed with this lovely Italian lady who spoke little English but her hospitality was A*. That's the great thing about this concept is it has a personal touch to it. You feel well taken care off whilst in this place where you will call 'home' for the next few days. She made us feel like being at home, making sure we were comfortable and respect our privacy.
There were two other rooms in her house that were hired out to other people. We had the ensuite, whilst the others had shared facilities. We met the other 'housemates' at breakfast, one couple didn't say very much, I think they didn't speak much English, and managed to say 'Good Morning' and the other couple were Swedish, who spoke perfect English.
I managed to pick up some Italian Greetings too taught by Iginia, the home owner and some shop assistants during my short stay here. Some I learnt from the Easy Italian App I downloaded onto my phone, which I found useful. The Roma App which had the local map came in first class during our walks in the city. I would highly recommend it. Another useful gadget to have is the power bank for battery for your phone. We used a lot of the phone not only for checking maps, weather etc but also to watch some English Language TV news or programs.
Anywhoo, I'm sitting here at Termini Stazione, waiting for the bus back to the Fiumicino Airport in 20minutes, back to Gatwick. I can't upload the photos I took on my camera yet, I'll do this on my return home.
In the meantime...Arriverderci Roma....
