Nonstop Flight to Rome 5/20/1996 On Italia Airline on May 19,1996

Staying In Downtown Small Hotel
By Bob Van Leer

(ROME, Italy, May 20, 1996) - We had just got comfortably seated in an outdoor cafe under an awning when a rain hit in full force. We were at a small cafe near the Victor Emmanuel monument in downtown Rome. Our party of five arrived in Rome the day before. Betty and I were accompanied by our youngest daughter, Sally Shuey, and her husband, Dave, and their three-year-old son, Jordan.

The Shueys live in Portland, and Betty and I had driven there Friday, May 17, to join them. Saturday morning we flew American Airlines to Chicago and there we boarded an overnight Al Italia flight non-stop to Rome. The flight time to Chicago was 3 hours and 14 minutes. From Chicago to Rome was 8 hours, 54 minutes. In Rome we were nine hours ahead of Gold Beach. At 8:00 a.m. in Rome it is 11:00 p.m. the night before at home. It was 6:52 p.m. when we left Chicago, still light, but not for long. Twilight is short when you are racing into the sun at 957 kilometers per hour. The night was short also. It was full daylight five hours after the sun set. It was an Italian airline but most of the world flies in Boeing airplanes.

  This was a Boeing 767. Our plane flew across Canada, just north of Montreal and just south of Quebec. We crossed into the Atlantic Ocean just north of Gander, Newfoundland. Our route took us south of England and across France. We passed over the northern tip of Corsica before landing at Rome at 10:45 a.m. Italian time. The weather was overcast and balmy. A small bus took us to our hotel, the Medici, a small hotel in the older part of Rome. It was Sunday and much of the city was closed but we managed to find a restaurant for lunch before crashing with jet lag. Today we changed dollars into lira at the rate of 1524 lira for one dollar. It is not easy to translate shelf and menu prices into dollars. The bank had a small entry port that let in only one person at a time.

  We took a cab downtown to do some shopping, but most stores are closed Mondays. We strolled around sightseeing and stopped at the small cafe when the rain hit. It lasted only for about an hour and we continued our tour. The Vittoriano, the monument to King Victor Emmanuel II, was built between 1885 and 1911 to celebrate Italian unity. It is a huge monument in white stone that is quite spectacular, but our guide book says, "Academically inspired by classical forms, it is an unhappy example of modern architecture in an ancient setting: the Imperial Forums area".

  Traffic is a nightmare here and parking is worse. As long as the traffic flow isn't blocked, there seems to be no penalty for illegal parking. So loading zones, driveways and even corner turn areas are always blocked. Dinner was at an-other small cafe across from the hotel. Rome is filled with small cafes. They are operated differently from home. Our waiter asked Sally if she wanted a wine glass for Jordan. Tomorrow will be for shopping in the morning and a bus tour of the city in the afternoon.