Trip Report - Day 1 : Rome

We left from home at around 1:00 AM. Somehow our excitement had caught onto Isha too and she was cheerful and bubbly even at that time of the night. After arriving at the Bahrain International airport, we checked in and had a quick meal at Mc Donalds. Our flight from Bahrain left at 3:05 AM and arrived in Istanbul at 7:20 AM. We had a layover of 4 hours 45 minutes here which seemed quite a lot with a toddler. However, surprisingly Isha was a sport and had a great time running around the airport and entertaining fellow passengers. Our flight to Rome left at 12:05 PM from Istanbul and arrived at Fiumicino airport in Rome at 1:40 PM.
There was a lot of confusion with respect to the belt on which our luggage was to arrive and after a lot of running around, we finally collected all our bags and left the airport.

There is a tourist information office on the arrivals level of Terminal C. We bought our Roma passes here. Roma pass provides a free entry to any 2 public museums or archaeological sites you want to visit and discounted entries on all subsequent ones. Also it allows a free use of the city's public transport. This pass is valid for 3 days. For more information, visit http://www.romapass.it.

We had requested our B&B to arrange a pickup for us and as expected, the driver was waiting for us with a sign board at the exit. The minivan which was sent was very comfortable and the driver very good. After travelling for around half an hour we reached our B&B Peace of Rome. It is located on the first floor of a 19th century palace. Our host Simona was waiting outside to welcome us and showed us our rooms promptly. She was a pleasant lady always giving helpful advice on what to see, how to reach particular sites, giving excellent restaurant recommendations, providing us with maps...I cannot say enough good things about her. The neighborhood was excellent, located very close to a metro stop and the Vatican city yet very quiet and peaceful. Also, there were a lot of restaurants and cafes in the vicinity. As for the room, it was small but extremely clean, cozy and comfortable.

We freshened up at our rooms while Sumegh picked up some snacks for us from a bakery located very close by- La Compagnia del Pane. It is a bakery which serves sandwiches, cakes, pastries, croissants etc. Sumegh picked up a variety of different croissants, focaccia (A flat oven-baked Italian bread product similar in style and texture to pizza doughs topped with herbs or other ingredients). Everything was good.

We left the B&B at around 4:30 PM after receiving directions for Trastavere from Simona . While walking towards the bus stop, we took in all the surroundings and fell even more in love with the location of our B&B.

We took the bus and I must admit our first experience scared us about whether we would be able to use public transport throughout the trip. There was a big language communication problem with the driver not understanding English and us not understanding Italian. We tried a lot to communicate with him asking about our stop and about how we should validate the Roma pass, however all our attempts were in vain. Finally, we found an English speaking lady on the first seat who helped us out with our doubts and despite all problems, we managed to reach Trastavere. However, after getting used to the public transport, we were comfortable and used buses frequently throughout the trip.

Trastavere is considered one of the city's most authentic neighbourhoods and has much of the look of medieval Rome. I had finalized a restaurant called as Dar Poeta for dinner after reading the amazing reviews on tripadvisor. We followed google maps and reached Dar Poeta. We reached at 8:30 PM and were very lucky to get a table as within minutes the entire place filled up. We shared two pizzas (superbufala and pizza with eggplants) both delicious. Our drinks consisted of the local beer e peroni and house wine. To end we ordered the nutella-ricotta calzone. The entire meal was amazing. The pizza was one the best I have ever tasted. And the calzone was yummy....

After a lovely meal, we wandered around a little and were met by the wonderful site of numerous restaurants lined along river Tiber. After reading up, we understood that every year during summer, numerous restaurants, bars, art galleries are temporarily set up along river Tiber.

We had plans to visit Piazza di Santa Maria after dinner. However, after the long day of travelling, we were exhausted and went back to our rooms very happy with our first day and looking forward to the rest of the trip.