Italy - Pedestrian Only

Travel

Wandering Rome, Italy, Part II

dez

At 7:30 a.m. on Saturday the 16th, I was awake. Perhaps it was jet lag, excitement, the people coughing in the courtyard below the open window, or all of the above; I can’t be sure. I ducked my head out to let Matthius, the front-desk attendant, know that I was cancelling my 8:30 a.m. wake-up. Matthias is the only staff member of the B&B whose name I got to know, and he was as jovial as when I’d met him at 11 p.m. on the 15th. He assured me that they could make room for me in the breakfast room

Travel

Wandering Rome, Italy, Part I: Arrival

dez

On a Friday afternoon in August, 2014, I landed in Rome, Italy. I had been abroad with family in the past, but this was my first time travelling solo. I was 25. Shortly after take-off from Toronto, I fell asleep listening to Bon Iver on repeat. I woke eight and a half hours later, with a gain of ten minutes thanks to a favourable tailwind. Upon landing, all passengers were shuttled through the 30-degree sunshine from the tarmac to the airport’s main building. The airport was a lot smaller than I expected for an international airport. I waited an hour