Italy: Day One

I made it to Italy! I really don't think it has completely sunk in yet. We landed at Leonardo da Vinci di Fiumicino airport in Roma right around noon local time. The flight went well. After a surprisingly not-too-terrible dinner compliments of Alitalia Airlines, I watched the first Sex & the City movie and then popped a Xanax and attempted to sleep. I probably got a good 3 hours in. Not the best but better than I expected. We were disappointed to receive no passport stamps, but happy not to have to go through customs. The really just do not have the need to terrify you over here like they do at the airports in America. The trip from the airport to the hotel was speedy. Looked a lot like it could have been anywhere at home (aside from all the Fiats) until we went under some ancient ass arch thingies. Then it was all Roman Fora and whatnot. Way cool. We missed the Coliseum somehow, but had to have been rather close to it. The hotel is so pretty. We settled in a bit and then shuffled out for pizza and a lovely glass of some sort of fruity Tuscan wine at a little ristorante right outside of the hotel on the sidewalk. Mmmm. Then, a pre-sunset walk over to see the Spanish Steps. Everything here is so lovely. Even the filthy stuff. I took a lot of pictures but have no way to upload them from the iPad. (ps: I hate how iPad capitalizes itself whenever I type it in on here.) We then wandered a bit further to see the church where we will be going to the opera tomorrow night, and then further still to see one of the churches that is in some book my mum is reading now. So so beautiful. I can totally see the draw of religion like that in a place like this. It's all just glorious art and architecture. I would like to slap whomever it was that over-warned me about pickpockets in Rome. I feel like I am spending every moment I am walking around thinking about my bag instead of taking in all the beauty like I should be. I am not stupid. I don't look or behave like a target. I'm going to be fine. But because everyone was all up in arms about watching out for my shit, now I can't shake the thoughts. On our way back, I had to pee, I was bloated from dinner (I've eaten more bread in the past 24 hours than I have in the past 2 months), and honestly, I was feeling just hot and wiped out. I hoope all this walking around is not more of a struggle than I expected, or more than I thought I was capable of. Anyhow, we made it back to the hotel and at 8pm local time, mum's already lights out, earplugs in and I am about to crash it out myself. I can't usually sleep with earplugs in, so I hope she doesn't snore and that the sounds of the street outside our shutters (SHUTTERS!!) doesn't keep me up all night. I doubt it. I'm so tired... I will try to get pictures posted from here if possible, and from my phone if I can find free wifi. But the camera ones will have to wait til I'm back. Buonanotte e sogni d'oro! Xxo, Phoebe