My week long Italian odyssey began like most my other trips, on the Dublin Aircoach to the Dublin Airport. Friday was also the day of the UCD Ball, which claims to be the biggest private party in Europe. It is basically just two stages in a field and a bunch of students rocking out under the Irish sky. The odd thing was that only two bands performed live, the rest were just DJs playing sets. For example, they said that they were going to have the Venga Boys but the Venga Boys weren’t there in person, it was just a DJ playing their music. And I ask you, if you are ust going to have a DJ play a band’s music, why not pick a better band to play than the Venga Boys?
But I digress. Brittany and I (Stacy was arriving in Rome the next day) took the bus to the Dublin Airport not knowing what was awaiting us there after a week of cancelled flights due to the volcanic ash. Turns out the airport was not busy at all and we got through security in record time. We got on our Aer Lingus flight and were on our way to Rome.
When we arrived in Rome it was raining and we caught the Leonardo Express from the airport into the Rome Termini train station in the city itself. From there it was just a short walk to the Alessandro Palace Hostel. We were tired and wet when we arrived and they could not find our reservation. I had the booking confirmation printed out and so they said that they must have lost the reservation and put us in a 4 bed female dorm for the night, an upgrade from our eight bed dorm. How luxurious!
When I get into a new city the first thing I usually need to do is find some food. I asked the hostel if they had any suggestions for dinner and they gave us a 15% coupon for a restaurant down the street. Now, Italian is not my favourite cuisine (I don't dislike it, it's just not my favourite), but I was ready to embrace it full force in Italy. Therefore, for my first meal in Italy I ordered bruschetta and pasta with pesto. The bruschetta was not seasoned as heavily as what we have here, but the tomatoes were so fresh and flavourful! The pesto was good, but the pesto I get at home is pretty superb too.
Britt and I then headed back to the hostel and get to bed so we could rest up for our big day exploring Rome.
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