The European leg of our adventure was one where we left quite a bit of flexibility.   We were staying in 5 cities for 3 to 5 days each, renting Airbnb apartments instead of hotels, and booking very little regarding tours or really making plans in the least.   In theory, this sounded great.   We arrived in Rome on a Sunday night with the knowledge that someone was picking us up at the airport to take us to our apartment, we had the wifi password once we got there, and we didn’t have to move again until Friday morning; the city was our oyster…

Only with great freedom there is still some responsibility…namely, figuring out how the hell to see all the old crumbly things dotting this city instead of aimlessly wandering in the sticky Roman sun in search of an English sign.  Guess which option we actually went with?

The first evening in the city was divine…we dropped our bags and walked a few blocks along the cobblestones until we ended up in a bustling square.   The restaurants had taken over what appeared to be a road with rows of bistro tables.   Students perched high up on the statues to drink bottles of beer and chain smoke as they watched the tourist get hustled with light up trinkets and roses for one Euro.   We had our first divine taste of real gelato and joined them on the base of the statue. Rome was perfect already, we could spend a few days here for sure…

Reality dawned quickly with the realization we were a building away from a major road and Monday morning traffic is much louder when the commuters use motorbikes instead of a mid-sized sedan.   Determined not to waste a minute, we lathered on sunscreen and packed our cameras and water bottles and set out on an assumed 15 minute walk to the Colosseum.   I had read advice to buy tickets at the Forum and not the Colosseum as it allowed entry into both and avoided the lines of tourists, because clearly we were smarter than those fools and much more local-we ate gelato in the square last night, after all!

An hour later in the scalding Roman heat, we were rethinking our entire approach to Europe.  Imagine our surprise when there was not any signs in English telling us how to get in (or even where an entrance may be), and my surprise on top of that for completing failing to realize the Forum, the old city center and area of law, libraries, markets, sports, etc, for ancient Rome, was in fact HUGE!  We wove our way in and out of the annoying group tours following the leader holding up a colorful umbrella until we eventually found the tiny ticket booth.   As we scurried inside to seek a little shade, we vowed to rethink this entire approach and do some leg work before we left the air conditioned house and wifi with Google!