December 4th-first day in Rome

We are finally safe in our hotel in Rome after a very long day of traveling on less than a full night’s sleep. Our flights were uneventful, everything went pretty much as planned.

The real adventure started when we landed. This is the first city we’ve been in where we haven’t really had friends  in the area to pick us up, or guide us to where we needed to be. We were completely on our own. It was a pretty simple task, however, to figure out where our hotel that we had booked was, and then choose the correct train to get us there. The train station at the airport seemed a bit shady, but we didn’t think too much of it. However, when we got off the train 40 minutes later at our stop, we found ourselves walking down small, poorly lit streets, catching many looks from the locals. Two long haired Americans don’t go completely unnoticed briskly walking down the street trying to read a map and carrying all of their possessions in comically large backpacks.

We navigated the streets well and made it through most of the bad areas. Our last turn was on to a deserted street not much larger than an ally. We knew this was where our hotel was, but it was definitely not marked with any easy to read sign.  We followed the address numbers, until we found our hotel’s address right next to a massive wooden door, at least 15 feet tall, marked only by a small buzzer system in the wall next to it. Reading the labels we saw that “Morpheus Hotel” had been written in pen on one of the buzzer slots. We rang the bell, and the door clicked open. After pushing the door further with a large creek, it opened into a deserted hall in what was clearly an extremely old building.

We rode the ancient caged in elevator to the fifth floor. The elevator could barely hold the two of us and shook violently when it stopped or started. We went through an unmarked door, and were surprised to find our hotel’s front desk. Check in was no problem at all, and here I am.

I’m guessing we will find out tomorrow that this is not as sinister of an atmosphere as it seemed to be tonight. But it certainly felt like quite an adventure.

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