Impressions of Rome - Day 1

It was one of our (my wife's and my) wishes to visit and experience Rome in it's told grandeur.

So we finally managed to organise a trip to Rome in April, 2007. We were so excited when we started the trip from Stockholm. We kept reminding each other that we were finally going to Rome ! :-) It was exciting. But our excitement was short-lived.

We reached Fiumicino Airport on the evening of 4th April. When we were collecting our baggage at the airport, my colleague (who was accompanying us on the trip) discovered that his digital camera was stolen from his bag. Having lived in Stockholm for almost an year, it seemed his (and our) perception of the cunning world outside had changed a bit. We seemed to have assumed for granted that the world was as trustworthy elsewhere as it was in the Nordics. Unfortunately we realised the hard way it was not. Then came the second disappointment, when we found that our own bags had broken due to mishandling. Well after all the complaints and formalities we finally got out of the Airport.

From there we took the non-stop train to the Roma Termini Stazione (Central Station). It costed 11 Euros per person for a one-way trip.

During this journey from the Airport to the Termini Stazione, it seemed like we were headed for even more disappointment. Enroute to Termini Stazione, we saw loads of places along side the train routes that seemed flithy (to be modest). Reminded me of my train journeys to remote parts of India 20 years back ! I even saw people in torn clothes running around dump yards ! Not something one would expect from a country with heritage that dates back to the begining of recorded time !

Nonetheless, we kept our hopes high and ignored these minor things.

We reached the Termini Stazione and found the typical taxi touts hunting for foolish passengers. When I told one of them the name of the hotel we were going to, he asked for 70 Euros ! Fortunately, I had already enquired with the Hotel and knew that it should not cost more than 20-25 Euros. So we ended up taking a registered taxi (the white ones).

The taxi driver was a very good gentleman. Though he was dressed in a Leather biker's jacket and had long hair tied up behind his head and had an unclean look, he was very courteous and good to talk to. A major relief was that he spoke English reasonably well and that is not common in Italy. Leaving the Termini Stazione, I felt relaxed in less than 10 seconds. That's because it took me less than 10 seconds to realise that decent driving was not the most favoured code of conduct on the road. This was the kind of road sense I had lived with for the larger part of my life in India. Zipping in and out of lanes without using the indicator and getting into tight gaps between cars seemed quite normal to me and everyone else on the road.

Well, we finally reached the hotel and that was the first relief of the day. Though it was far from the city (~10 Kms), it was very impressive. The hotel & our room was spacious, clean & comfortable. The property seemed realtively knew. We were able to relax and have a good night's sleep.