Picture 3
The obvious:
This is a picture of Mark and I at lunch on our first day in Rome.
What you can’t see:
The weather is a perfect 75 and sunny. We are only a couple blocks away from the Colosseum and a few blocks away from our hotel. Terri (our sister-in-law) is taking the picture, sitting next to Brian, Mark’s brother. We are preparing for lunch at an outdoor cafe. I ordered the lasagna and an espresso. It was amazing and very light, nothing like the lasagna I was used to from home. I proceeded to drink 3 or 4 espresso each day for the rest of the trip, which made it a little easier to stay awake during our sight seeing.
All four of us are exhausted in this photo and this is probably the first point in the second leg of our trip (first leg was London, third was Barcelona) that we were able to really relax. We took a midnight flight from London to Rome that day. When we arrived at the airport at 3 AM, it was virtually empty. I didn’t see a single employee, other than a couple of security guards. We had no Euros, and after we found the ATM, it was out of cash. And so were 4 other ATM’s. So picture us all exhausted, confused because we didn’t speak the language, slightly panicked, and with no money to pay a cab IF we could even locate one.
In walks a cab driver that looks like he stepped out of a scary movie. He had a generally gruff appearance, and it was difficult to understand him. We weren’t particularly convinced he actually drove a cab, so we moved on. After finally finding an ATM that would dispense cash, we made our way outside to the cab line. We had no idea what we were in for when we got into that cab.
The driver ran many red lights, made a U-turn into oncoming traffic, and nearly sideswiped several mopeds and other cars. I’ve only been more convinced it was my time to die one other time and that was after a major car accident. Needless to say, when we finally arrived at our hotel, we were all tired and terrified which made for a restless night’s sleep and serious bags under the eyes for our first day in Rome and for this lunch.
How this picture makes me feel:
Happy and hopeful. This was such a fun trip, despite the many unanticipated “adventures” we experienced. I’m hopeful that the next time we head to Europe, we’ll fork over the extra cash to avoid taking the red eye flights and landing at an hour where nothing is open.
*Title of the post is a line from “In Color” by Jamey Johnson. Buy it here!