The overnight flight from Boston to Zurich was rough. We hit a fair amount of turbulence. I’m not usually prone to feeling it, but Tomatico and I both had our moments of feeling not-so-great. The rest of the family thankfully barely noticed.
None of us slept much. It’s always hard sleeping on a plane in economy, thought the 2 + 2 seating arrangement is our preferred grouping when available. When morning arrived we were descending into Zurich. It was about 10:30 local time and we had a 2 hour layover before catching our connection to Rome.
Connecting in Zurich
We made our way off the plane and followed signs to the terminal for our connecting flight. Midway there we had to go through a passport checkpoint. The lines seemed long but they moved quickly and we were through in about 15 minutes.
Maybe it was the jet lag, but we had a difficult time figuring out which gate our flight was leaving from. The video boards were ordered differently than we were used to and the fog from the jet lag and the bumpy flight was my excuse. We ended up going to the nearest gate and asking them to help look it up for us. We had no problem finding someone who spoke English.
While we finally found our gate, Tomatico and I were still in a fog and my wife went off to find us breakfast or a snack as the food on the flight was… well it was typical airplane food. We had ordered kids meals in hopes they would be more palatable for the kids but they weren’t anything special other than coming with something to color and a small bag of gummy bears for dessert.
We had our makeshift breakfast and waited for our flight, which ended up being delayed by about 20 minutes. The new plane had 3 + 3 seating so we ended up getting 3 + 1 for seats and sat all in a row near the front of the plane for the short hop to Rome that took just over an hour.
Landing in Rome
The flight was crowded but forgettable. There was a little turbulence after takeoff but it quickly smoothed out for the rest of the hour. After landing in Rome we gathered our luggage while I got some euros from a nearby ATM. We got some smaller bills at one of money exchange places as the ATM only gave us 50 euro bills! It all went smoothly and we didn’t have to go through and customs or passport control because we had already gone through it in Zurich.
Getting to the Hotel
Originally we had planned to take the train from the airport into the city. The train airport train terminated at a station that was only a few blocks from the hotel and we would have taken a taxi from the stations to the hotel. Just before going on the trip, my wife reached out to one of her co-workers who lived in Rome for advice and tips. He gave her information about a car company he recommended so we ended up using that.
For about $50 euros we had a driver pick us up at the airport and drive us in a Mercedes S class car directly to our hotel. His English wasn’t perfect but he was able to tell us about some of the landmarks we passed by and gave us some tips of things to see. It was about the same cost as what we would have paid for the train and taxi combination and was a much more pleasant experience.
The Hotel
The hotel building used to be an opera house and the building itself was quite old by US standards, but practically new by Roman standards. We quickly checked in and got keys to our room(s). We had booked a suite and that turned out to essentially two connected rooms. Each room had a door to the hallway with its own key, but also had an adjoining door. There was one bathroom in the main room with the king bed. The second room had two twin beds as well as a couch. Both rooms had their own TV’s and chairs for a sitting area.
Overall the room was quite spacious! The bathroom was large as well. The decorations in the room definitely had an Italian flair. There was even a chandelier in the main room. The floors were hardwood and creaked when you walked on them. There was a lot of character in this room and we really enjoyed it during our stay.
The Afternoon
By the time we had settled into the room it was about 4:00 in the afternoon and we were starving. At the front desk we asked for recommendations and found out it was an odd time to eat and that not many restaurants would be open. Too late for lunch and way too early for dinner. They directed us to a place that might be open around the corner. Luckily it was open and we had the place to ourselves.
As would be the pattern through most of this trip. Tomatico ordered a “safe” pasta dish for himself and my wife ordered something more interesting. When it arrived, Tomatico would try my wife’s dish and end up eating that, leaving my wife to eat his. His reviews on the pasta were excellent!
After lunch we walked down the street our hotel was on which was one of the main streets in the area. Within a block of the hotel was a subway station. Across the street was a bus stop, so there were plenty of public transport options available to us, though for today we just wandered around on foot. We enjoyed some gelato and watched the traffic going down the cobblestone streets.
We ended up doing a loop seeing some statues and some interesting looking buildings which we still don’t appreciate the significance of.
It was getting dark and we were tired from the travel and lack of sleep the night before. We made our way back to the hotel using Google Maps and our youngest was getting hungry again. We saw a pizza place and got a couple slices to take back to the hotel. They ended up being nearly inedible which we would find to be a common pattern in the following days.
Back in the hotel we finished unpacking and called it a night. The next night would be our first full day in Rome!
Tomatico Travels 
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