Welcome to It-ly, Gentlemen!

For those of you unfamiliar with the minute details of the Bill Murray-Harold Ramis classic Stripes, tonight's blog title comes from that film and is an homage to my sister.

Hotel Delle Province, Rome, April 28,2015, 10:42 p.m.

If you think it was easy to fly away and leave Berlin...well, you'd be wrong.  The house on Ordensmeisterstr has been our home for a week, and we could not have been more fortunate.  Tears fell as Melli and Petra came to the airport to see us off.  Onkel Werner and Tante Cissy also came to the airport, but to drop off Reiner's camera, which he had left behind in their car after dinner the other night.

Petra meets Onkel Werner

Selfie with Tante Cissy

Maddie and Heidi chow down before take-off 

The flight of low-budget Vueling Airlines went well.  It wasn't full, which meant there was room to spread out sideways.  But, being a true "budget" airline, no frills meant no frills.  Leg room was nearly non-existent, and no free snacks were offered. On the bright side, we arrived a full 30 minutes early.  On the dark side, those 30 minutes were wasted while we waited and waited for our luggage.

Into a taxi we went--and I think it was the cabbie's first day on the job.  He had an old-timey GPS system that would not recognize the address of our hotel.  We were finally able to show him a map that at least came close to the hotel, but then he made several wrong turns.  All the while, it was rush hour in Rome.  Cars were everywhere--and I meant EVERYWHERE.  What you hear about Italian drivers is all true.  They are absolutely, bat-shit crazy! And our cab driver is their role model. Lane lines mean nothing, everyone jockies for position, we saw one motorist take his foot off the break and let his car drift into two young girls crossing against the light, and a guy on a little motor scooter thing biffed it just a few cars ahead of us.  Somehow the word "eventful" fails as a description of our more-than-an-hour long drive into the city.

For this part of the trip, the girls and I share a room, while Reiner has a single for himself.  Our room is neither too big nor too small, the bathroom is pretty good sized for Europe, with a generous shower.  Maddie strode into the bathroom as soon as we got here, and then came storming back out again asking for someone to show her how to use the weirdest toilet she'd ever seen.  You can guess--it was a bidet.  The toilet was hiding behind the open door.  

As it was 8:30 p.m. by the time we got settled into the room, everyone readied themselves for dinner. My first choice was unacceptable to Reiner, so we had to walk along the wet streets (oh, did I mention, it rained cats and dogs on the way from the airport?) until he found a Chinese restaurant that suited him.  Yes, our first night in Rome and we had Chinese food.  When in Rome, do as the Romans do--eat food from China.

The "grande" Coke Cola 

The food was actually very good, and everybody enjoyed their meal.  We had passed a sweet shop on the way to the restaurant and, happily, it was still open when we walked by on our way back.  For Melli, I had gelato, a cup so big that I couldn't finish it.  Maddie and Reiner enjoyed gelato, too, while Heidi got an assortment of little cookies.  We are all sugared up now.

I wouldn't have eaten this, but I promised Melli

The windows of our room are open, and the air is fresh from the rain.  We can hear cars and voices below, although we are on the fifth floor.  Happily, there is no disreputable gay sandwich shop immediately across the street (Yvette will remember just what that is like!).

Enough for tonight.  I'm ready for some sleep.