My Parents' European Adventure - Roma

When my sister, who lives in Rome, asked me to help my parents book their flight to visit her over Easter, none of them probably expected that they would end up deciding to not only visit her, but also go on their own European backpacking adventure. They will be spending the first couple of weeks with my sister and then they will be off on their own making their way across Europe by train with several stops along the way! They were horrified when I decided to jet off with a backpack to train around Europe after college, but I think it has turned into curiosity! I mean, what could go wrong sending your 70 year old, small town, parents off on their own in Europe? Their grand European adventure has been planned as much as I could but they will be on their own to find their trains, hotels and activities. I offered all the advice I could think of, making sure they have eSIM cards and data, simplified booking tools, a tutorial on how to use Google maps for public transportation, the Google translate functions. And made sure we can track them every step of the way. Then we realized that this is going to probably have some wild moments that are best memorialized on the blog. Welcome the guest blogger, Jack!

Getting Ready for the Trip

This trip is an idea that my daughter Katie came up with. I wished to visit my daughter Jessie, her husband Elan and granddaughter Eleanor in Rome. Katie wanted to encourage us (Debbie and I) to explore more of the world, so she collaborated with me to create a more European experience. My only request was for only one flight each way as I don’t do well with flying. This required flying out of one of the direct to Rome airports, so JFK it was. This left me with many options to get to JFK from Russell, Pa, but none of them were good. 

After realizing parking for almost a month would be a grand and looking over train options, I elected to rent a car from Jamestown NY, one way with a return location at JFK. A 6.5 hour drive or so. 

All went as expected. Amazing that I navigated NYC ( with a lot of help from Google). A word of caution, if google says that “closure” on I-80 is still the best route, don’t believe it. 

Getting in early is usually a good thing, but at JFK  almost all of the restaurants are past the TSA check, and our ticketing was not open for 4 hours. We found our way back to another terminal that had something to eat. Overall, we waited nearly 7 hours for our flight (note from Katie: there is such a thing as getting to the airport too early).

The flight was very nice - we opted for the Norse economy flight which took about 8:00 hours.

One of the designs of this trip is to use only a backpack each. At first it seemed impossible, but Katie lent us her backpacks, helped us buy lightweight clothing, and showed us how to pack by rolling up the clothing and organizing them into these lightweight nylon packets.  These backpacks have 2 components: a larger primary unit, and a smaller secondary one. The larger one goes in the overhead bins in the plane, whereas the smaller one goes under the seat in front of you with everything you need for the flight. They combine into one larger backpack for most of the transit. (I’m doing better with mine than Deb.) We used one of the smaller packs for day hikes. 

The Art of Packing Light

Day 1: Roma

Landing in Rome was so different from the asphalt jungle of NYC. Everything was green, like landing in a pasture. Because I get vertigo on every flight descent, the airline provided a wheelchair and assistant. He was very polite and considerate. I tried some over-the-counter meds and increased my water intake, which helped with the vertigo. 

Being a small town native, I was surprised how comfortable I felt here. Everything is so different and so old. I remember thinking it reminded of 1960 US. I was surprised with the complexity of the Roman streets, amazed that my daughter could navigate so many streets to get across town. I slept like a baby for 11 hours that first night. It was pleasant to wake up to open windows, a gentle breeze and the sounds of birds outside.

Day 2: Rome

We had an invitation to attend a garden tour at the US Embassy at noon. Navigating the 30 minute walk was OK using Google Maps. The city is very busy, with many using scooters and motorcycles. At first it looks like chaos, but somehow everything works. I don’t plan to drive here. The tour was pleasant and the people were very friendly. It was interesting how thorough the security was, most of it provided by Italian personnel. (no pictures as they took our phones).

After lunch we set out on our own with a few suggested sights in our walking Google map. We visited the Spanish Steps and there were interesting things along the way like a gas station on a sidewalk.

Day 3: Vatican City

The weather was partly rainy. We set out with rain gear (again chosen by Katie) in the pack, and ended up having to use it all morning. Google Maps provided the walking directions which would suggest the exact path to follow, mostly accurate, leading though paths in parks, but some surprises like locked gates!

In the city center, there are many places to get out of the rain like doorways. We dried off in a small restaurant near the Vatican. We found the people very accommodating and polite, even offering some advice on tariffs in a humorous way. 

As we toured the Vatican outside (Thursday before Easter) and it was interesting to see the crowds from all over the world. We had no intention to get in a line to go inside (the line went out of sight and we’ve seen it before in 1999).

We are enjoying the food including cafes and Elan cooked a great dinner stopping at a meat store and grocery store nearby. 

Day 4: Rome

We are taking a ferry to Sicily with all of us crammed in to Jessie and Elan’s small car. While trying to figure out how to get on the ferry, I said to Deb, “Thank God Jessie speaks Italian, we’d be screwed! The barcode didn’t read!” This is a first time on a ferry for us. Not sure what to expect!

The boarding process was slow, maybe 3 hours. They grouped cars together, campers and RVs, and Motorcycles. They crammed everything in, then you left your car and entered the upper floors where it was somewhat like a cruise ship but not so nice. We had cabins that had 4 bunks a very dirty window and a bathroom like a camper. I guess instead of booking a whole room you save money by just buying one bunk and sharing the room with strangers? It looks like some people save a lot and sleep on the hallway floors with just a pillow and blanket. We think this ship carries some to North Africa (Libya ?) based on some of the vehicles we saw loading. As we lay here thinking of the long night ahead, the engine shakes everything and rattles the room. It may be just the ticket to get to sleep. Eleanor made plans to sleep in our room, but Mom and Dad overruled.