Day 5: Liz's bday celebration , Tori's arrival & a different take

After yesterday’s blogging session, I realized that writing about what happened that day is mind-numbing. I am still finding my “voice” and so I am going to try something different today. I’ll only be blogging about thoughts, people, interesting things, or great stories.

Adam Roumm-

I got a message from Aviki that I should only refer to Rome as Roumm to honor the great Adam Roumm. Good suggestion, Doctor, however; this won’t be happening. Instead, I will share how I am reminded of Roumm everyday here: the arcade that it on the block of our B&B. There is a stuffed animal claw machine right in the door and I know that if Roumm were here, I would be the proud owner of an Italian stuffed dog. You are the best Roumm! And Roumm, Liz gave me that hickey last night.

SWOT of B&B Trastevere Relais-

To show that I am the ultimate nerd, I am going to share a ½ SWOT of the B&B we are staying in. I don’t know enough about the Roman hotel/B&B market to intelligently comment on opportunities and threats.

Strengths:

Lots of room- we have a huge apartment with a kitchen, sitting area, loft with 1 queen, and a bedroom with another queen bed

The hangers- The external closet is really tall so they have these great hangers that even I can reach. I will be looking for these when I get home.

Wifi!

The shower- I have mentioned this before but it is this crazy capsule that sprays water from the sides and rains from the top, all while pumping top 40 tunes

The location- just over the bridge in Trastevere, it is in a great neighborhood but close to the sights

Weaknesses:

Caterina- She does not understand business or customer service. I’m over her, way over her

The metal ladder used to reach the loft- kind of scary and definitely a problem if I come home drunk one night and try to climb it

The shutters- In Rome, all of the windows are adorned with brown shutters. The ones on our windows don’t close all the way so they don’t actually block the light. They come to this weird triangle and then latch. I don’t get it

TV- we get a total of 3 channels, not including MTV. This would be a strength if it included MTV

The toiletries- the soap is making my skin itch. I miss my Dove

Roman consumerism/entrepreneurship

There have been numerous times in the last few days where Liz or I have commented on things local businesses should do to improve business, or ways that locations or resources could be used to start a business. It seems like there are endless opportunities and that the Romans are just not as entrepreneurial as others around the world. But I think that this is exactly what makes Rome, Rome. They are perfectly happy with the way things are, and that is why the city is so well preserved. They could use some of these locations to house new businesses and extract more money from tourists, but this would ultimately denigrate the feel of the ancient city. Rome has a difficult task of balancing and utilizing its past while still being modern and forward-thinking. It will be interesting to see how Athens handles this situation.

Liz’s birthday-

Tonight we celebrated Liz’s birthday. We started with a bottle of Prosecco on the roof of Hotel Minerva. Beautiful views, and even more beautiful friends. We found a hipster bar (!) and some beautiful Italian men to top off a great night. Liz got the bartender to play some Phoenix for us and we grooved with some great cocktails. Liz requested to write something and since we’re celebrating her birthday tonight, I obliged. Colette signing off and Liz signing on…

Ciao Roma. How goes it? Man it feels good to be a gangsta. So besides my deep thought about whether or not birds can actually smell (I mean, think about it-- how do they know where bread crums on the ground are if they don't have a nose? Where are those nostrils???), I've also had some other deep thoughts that go like so:

- Do you ever have those moments where you are constantly confronted by history and the utter insignificance of your own existence in relation? Because that has been a daily focal point here in Roma.

- Italian women completely live up to their name. After querreling with Caterina, our hotel office person, over 60 euros (which by the way, thanks to Greece, is worth a dinner or two at the moment, while six months ago it was worth a hot dog), I realized that my negotiation skills still need work. Man that woman was scary. And even for me!

- Traveling is best spent went you know what town you are living in for the next year and don't have to ponder what it might be like to live in Jacksonville, FA or Watertown, NY

- How it is possible that I am 27 and have so many incredible friends. Throughout my life, and particularly now with business school, so many GOOD people have come upon my way that have touched my life and I am eternally grateful.



So here's to Tori's arrival, Colette's amazingness, my birthday, good friends, good family and good Italian eats. Life es bueno mi amicas!!! Ciao preggo

Day 4: Sunday in Roma

Moscow Mule: 1, Liz & Colette: 0. We slept until Caterina, the owner of the B&B, barged into our room, assuming that we were gone. I suppose most tourists are out and about by noon but we are not your average tourists. Eventually we got up and took the bus to Villa Borghese for a leisurely afternoon in the park. There was a cute book fair and a horse jumping competition, but we continued on to a lake with rowboats and then a grassy field full of young couples in love. We grabbed sandwiches at a little café in the park and then had some Unilever ice cream; Liz had a Magnum and I had a Cornetto. My friend Sarah had worked on Cornettos (the Italian version of a Good Humor Drumstick) for her summer internship project and I learned from her presentation that the Italian cones are the best in the world, so naturally I had to try one. It was pretty good but there were some soggy spots, so there is room for improvement in my opinion.

After admiring the view from the top of the park, we went down to Piazza del Popolo and walked down Via Margutta, one of the best streets in Rome. Then we hit up the Trevi fountain (possibly my favorite place in the world), the Pantheon, and Piazza Navona before we realized that we were walking around like zombies and needed to eat something. I’m tired of writing about food so I’ll just say that dinner was amazing and I recommend Osteria La Quercia to everyone. They had some great art but my favorite was a take on Da Vinci’s Last Supper but instead of the apostles at dinner, there were some of the greatest artists and thinkers.

Other things to note:

• I bought a kick-ass jacket that I am now obsessed with

• We still don’t have out Croatia plans set and we leave in 2 days

• I love Italian waiters. So cute and so attentive

• I bought an awesome motorcycle poster but I’m not sure what I am going to do with it

• Tori arrives tomorrow

• They have these crazy miniature ponies in the park that little bambini ride on
  

• I wore a ridiculously Euro outfit today and Liz was embarrassed to be seen with me

I will end today's post with a deep thought from Liz. While we were admiring the scenery in the park today, Liz was deep in thought and I could tell that there was something heavy weighing on her mind. I asked her to share said deep thought and she replied, "Can birds smell?"

Day 3: Best of Rome day

Jet lag: 1.5, wild dreams: .5, me: 0. Liz and I slept until 1pm today. I kept waking up but I didn’t have any way to tell what time it was so I went back to sleep. I was also dreaming about Greek debauchery so I wanted to stay asleep. Anyways, we finally got up and went for a run around the circus maximus. My days of pure indulgence are over. I am not on vacation, but rather I am living the next month in Europe and I cannot continue such an unhealthy lifestyle for that long. Runs, veggies, and long walks on the beach are now part of the program.

We finally got around to having lunch at 3:30 and we successfully convinced my favorite salad place to stay open for us. Liz ordered the expensive salad. That was the name of it- expensive salad. Apparently shrimp mushrooms and parmigiano quality as expensive.

After, we set out to recreate my walk from school to my old apartment. We stopped at the Campodoglio, il Monumeto Vittorio Emmanualle, and the Mercati di Traiano where they had a great exhibition featuring William Klein’s photography in Rome. The photos were great and I especially loved the series of couples on vespas. I want to go back and buy the coffee table book at the end of my trip.

With the our cultural quota filled, we continued on to via Nazionale and my old 'hood to do some shopping. I bought some fab shoes at my favorite handbag store (that now carries shoes, to point out the obvious) and a new lilac longchamp for my trip.

We wanted to go on a pub crawl tonight so we set out to have an early dinner, but we were side tracked by a great boutique where we both did some damage. I put my negotiation skills to work and I got them to take 40 euros off my purchase. Our luck continued at da Buffeto pizzeria where we had dinner. We were seated next to the oven where the pizzas were made and where the waiters had to come to put their orders in. One of the waiters, we like to call him Marky Mark (he looked like Mark Wahlberg), fell in love with me and then he mysteriously showed me that there was a bathroom downstairs and tried to make out with me when we I left the bathroom. We paid 23 euro for 2 pizzas, 2 beers, and a big bottle of water so I think that the waiter helped out a little. Our dinner took longer than expected and we missed the pub crawl so we headed back to Trastevere. It was probably a good thing.

After listening to the music from the shower for a bit (there is a bumping radio in our shower and it reminds me of Regi) and putting on our new crazy jewelry, we headed out to Campo di Fiori for a Saturday night out on the town. We started at an outside table where the specials were 3 shots for 5 euro. Clearly we are savy travelers and decided to partake in this offer. We then headed over to this other bar we had scouted out and made friends with these dudes who bought us light up bunny ears because they liked our shoes (both were purchased today) and introduced us to rum and pera shots. Essentially, you take a shot of rum and then a shot of pear juice. Not bad. We moved on to what was my go-to bar, formerly known as heartbreak, and got a Moscow mule. It is a difficult circumstance when you can’t tell whether the guys are gay or just Italian or both. It puts us in an interesting situation. Anyways, at this point, I was done and ready for some of the best late-night pizza ever. We made it over to Trastevere where masses of 20 year-olds were standing in the streets, and got sammies at Aristocampo. Best sandwich ever, I just wish it was twice the size. The woman was kind enough and astute enough to give us a frequent eater card. 10 more sammies to go and we get a free one. Something tells me that I may just get that free sandwich. I realize that I started blogging this morning about my new healthy lifestyle, and I am ending the post about my late-night sandwich, but so is life.

We made it back to the B&B safely and we are thinking about just repeating the day tomorrow. See you at 1pm Rome. Ciao!

Day 2: Roma in the rain

Jetlag: 1, me: 0. I woke up at about 5am (Rome time) and was up for a bit. My Chinese eye mask would have helped but it was down on the main floor and I didn't feel like climbing down my ladder (one of these says I will write about the loft I am styaing in). Luckily, Liz and her mom were exhausted too and I got to sleep until 10:30. The first stop was the farmacia for headache meds and decongestants for Liz’s mom and Liz, respectfully. Then off to the little café where we get free breakfast. I had a café macchiato, yogurt, and a chocolate cornetto (croissant) just because they were all free. The plan for the day was to walk by St. Peter’s on the way to Villa Borghese (the big park) and then hang in the park, but as we crossed back over the river, it began to rain. So we did what you are supposed to do in Italy; eat. There was a great salad bar place and it had wifi! In BA they had wifi everywhere, but here things are a bit more antiquated. For a developed country, things feel more traditional than they did in the developing countries I just spent time in. We learned about how hard it is to start a business in Argentina. Is it just as hard in Italy or are they just not interested in opening modern businesses (read: lazy)?

The rain eventually subsided and we continued on to Via del Corso to do some shopping. We stopped at my favorite accessory shop and of course Liz and I found some ridiculous jewelry. We didn’t do too much damage but we did take notes of where we want to go back. We picked up a bottle of Prosecco on the way home to celebrate Liz’s mom’s last night in Roma, and then played Pheonix's Rome as we drank it.

As you can see, I'm trying to become a more sophisticated blogger by using hyperlinks and pictures. As a marketer extraordinaire(cough, cough), the lack of pictures and logos was really getting to me. Unfortunately, Paula Ecklund's info management class did not prepare me for the nuances of blogging, or for anything else, so I will be teaching myself as I go.

For dinner we set out to find a seafood place that was mentioned in my Time Out Rome book; however the book is two years old and the resto was closed. We wandered for a bit and almost fell for a tourist trap until we took a fortuitous left turn and found a great little place called ai Fienaroli. Our waiter was cute in that "I'm eurotrashy and I have no idea what you are saying to me but I have a cool fauxhawk and diesel jeans on" kind of way. He was very nice and helped us pick out a bottle of A Mano Primitivo from Puglia (that was for you Scotty) that Liz and I had no problem finishing off. Dinner was tagliolini with sausage, mushrooms, and peas, Liz had spaghetti with saffron and shrimp, and her mom has sea bass with truffled potatoes. Her mom came to the sad realization that she doesn't like truffles. How can that be? How do we like in a world where one doesn't like truffles? I just don't understand. I could get deep and philosophical about the world we live in right now, but I will refrain. I know that the world is imperfect to say the least, but in Italy it is all about finding the simple pleasures in life: good friends, good food, and good wine.

On another note, my parents are moving to the Bahamas tomorrow. I'm proud of my mom for giving up the luxuries for suburban life for the island life. No manis, no pedis, and no Whole Foods. Hopefully soon there will be a Fuqua reunion on Deep Water Cay.

Day 1: Roma

I was more disoriented than expected when I got off the plane. First I went into the EU national line at customs but realized my mistake when I only heard Italian spoken in the line. The customs guy stamped over another stamp on me passport which really irked me. I went through the exercise of getting my pages in my passport for nothing apparently. The train station was exactly how I remembered it and I was the last one on the train to Trastevere.

I got to the B&B Trastevere Relais without a hitch despite not being able to say a word of Italian beyond grazie. Any remnants of knowledge from my Italian 101 class 7 years ago, was completely wiped away by the Spanish I practiced on a daily basis in Buenos Aires. It has been a long time since I’ve been in a situation where I cannot understand anything that is being said to me. I started to rethink my itinerary and long for Spanish speaking countries.

With no plans for today, I set out on foot across the Tiber. I remember it being a brown mud color, yet today it resembled a liquid wasabi (thanks in part to my Ray-Ban style Prada sunglasses that help me fit in). It looks like they had cleaned the river up a bit but the graffiti is OOC. I don’t remember Rome being so gritty and grimy. I pondered the possibility of Buenos Aires knocking Rome out of its 1st place spot but I was tired from the plane and I don’t want to be hasty.

As I got to the right side of the river, I remembered Becca’s favorite pizza place and made a stop. I wasn’t hungry but the pizza with eggplant was delicious and clearly Pizza had to be 1st on the agenda. Next I found a grocery store and bought a bottle of red and a bottle of white, shopped a little, looked for a restaurant for Liz’s birthday feast and then grabbed some gelato (though still not hungry after the pizza). Pizza, vino, shopping, gelato, check, check, check, check.

I wandered back through Trastevere where I used to walk home everyday from school. The little map and globe shop where I bought Justin a hand-made globe was still there. It brought back memories of 7 years ago and why I thought that a globe was an appropriate anniversary gift. Ah, to be 21 again and all the things I would have done differently.

After a much needed nap, I was reunited with Liz and her mom and then took a shower in a crazy shower capsule that rained water and pumped techno music. It was amazing. Liz and I got dinner near Campo dei Fiori and we started with my favorite: zucchini flowers. Following that was octopus salad and linguine with guinea fowl and black truffles. Not bad for a first dinner but I have expectations that they will only get better.

Buona notte amici

Flight DL246 JFK to FCO

There was a mob at the door 20 minutes before we were ready to board. Last airport mob I encountered was in the Miami airport on my way to Buenos Aires. That flight was delayed 5 hours and the latinos were shouting and then chanting demands in Spanish. This was nothing in comparison.

I cut the line again and breezed on, only to find that I had a bulkhead seat. I like to think of myself as an experienced travel and so I am embarrassed that I didn’t know this before I got on the plane. Normally this is a coveted seat but my stubby legs fit anywhere and so the benefits are lost on me. I have a few sleeping positions that I rotate between when flying: the window lean, the upright fetal position, and the tray table. Man I am going to miss having that tray table, and I hope it doesn’t interfere too much with my sleep.


Movies are on demand and I hope to get one movie in before the xanax comes over me (only to put me sleep, not for anxiety. Since my bags have to be in the overhead bin, I took my little pink pill a bit early. If my writing from here on out is incoherent, you know why.
I made it through about 20 minutes of Men Who Stare at Goats before I passed out. I moved a lot, but managed to sleep about 6 hours. Other than the delays, the flight was uneventful and I eventually made it to Fumicino.

My Itinerary

Over the course of the next 36 I will visit 4, maybe 5 countries, and hopefully satiate my travel itch for a while. You'll notice that my plans for June 26-July 1 are still TBD. If you have any recommendations, please share.

My itinerary as of today:

Rome: May 27-June 1
Dubrovnik (by way of Zagreb): June 1-June 4
Brac: ?
Hvar?
Split: June 9
Athens (by way of Berlin): June 10
Mykonos:June 11-15
Istanbul: June 17-19
Milan: June 20
Cinque Terre: June 20-22
Florence: June 23
Rome: June 24-26
?: June 27-July 1
Cincinnati: July 2-5
New York: July 6 & 7

Full Circle

I am sitting at Gate 5 of Terminal 3 at JFK. Last time I was here, at this exact terminal, it was when Becca and I took a 2 week jaunt through Italy before I started school. Now, after 2 years and numerous case studies later, I am back at this terminal and asking Delta to once again fly me to Italy. It feels like an accomplishment that this time I have status and I was able to bypass all lines and negotiate my way into the Sky Lounge (thank you Kimberly Wade-Benzoni, I learned something in Negotiations).

My flight was supposed to leave at 5:30 but it has been delayed to 8:15. Mechanical problems in Rome. It always makes me feel good when the plane I am going to be on, over the Atlantic, for 8 hours, has mechanical issues. But my anxiety and xanax filled flying days are over and I am a cool cucumber. The gigantic Blue Moon I got at the bar helped. I took half of it to go- Tybee Island style. The gate is packed with all sorts of people and the air is hot and stagnant. CNN will only report on the oil spill and I still have a few hours until I get to settle into seat 29J.

My flight should arrive in Rome around 11:30. Then baggage claim, a quick nod to the hot Italian Carabinieri with machine guns and dogs at customs, the train to Trastevere, a cab to the B&B Relais, and a long awaited reunion with my favorite city in the world (Sorry BA, but you are a close second). There are small things I love about Fumicino: the electric doors at baggage claim, the signs that direct you to the train, and the train terminal with the ticket machines that never work and an old school train table sign. They all build the anticipation of getting to the coure de la citta bella

The beginning

Lately, I’ve heard my life described as ridiculous. And I have to agree. I very lucky to have experienced all that I have over the last 28 years, and especially, the last 2 years. So as I set to depart on the last leg of my ridiculous b school years, a month plus long trip to Europe, I am starting a blog to capture my adventures.

Thank you to Brian Robinson (http://www.facebook.com/pages/mADD-Man-My-Book-/269967798055?ref=ts), Alison Sutton (http://asuttnyc.wordpress.com/), Missy Lay, Rob Allen (http://www.drfallenii.com/)and Kevin from UNC (random group, I know) for inspiring me. My apologies in advance to my friends who are writers, English teachers, or grammar snobs, because I will be making errors. Please correct me so I can learn the proper way. Other disclaimers: I will use Italian words and they most likely will be wrong, I will mention people you may not know but not explain who they are, and I never claimed to be an eloquent writer.

Let’s hope that I keep this up and that I have proper internet connectivity to upload. Enjoy