Euro 2 - Roma here we coma!

What I did not mention in my first Euro trip post is how much nerdy planning I did for this trip. For every day of the two week trip, I had a google doc row for destinations, details, expenses, and song of the day. And for our big site-seeing day described below, I mapped it out ahead of time and put the map link on the travel spreadsheet. I'm glad to say that, even though it would be a good keepsake (for a nerdy person like me), I passed the image and accompanying six pages of directions to Maria, a teammate at Paganello who was headed to Rome after the tournament.

Becca and I touch down in Rome, exchange some money (immediately it was apparent we were going to be confused about the conversion/card usage/withdrawal fees), and waited in line for the airport's tourist office. Having read good reviews of the Roma Pass - and knowing our three day stay would fit it perfectly - we thought why not start by getting it right off the bat. After fifteen minutes or so, we get the Roma Pass and head to the airport's train station (which I half-heartedly remembered from my trip ten years earlier, when I landed in Rome and took a train to Termini then to Livorno to meet my girlfriend at the time).

On the train into town, we

share a cabin with a family including the cutest girls. Probably ages 3 and 6, and Italian as could be, they were both fighting for their parents' attention. Becca and I land at Termini and look walk Via Marghera looking for our hostel for 20 minutes. Note the small sign saying the beehive (which is an asset for keeping the place/guest quality high but drawback for finding it for the first time) -->

We send an email to moms and pops saying we arrived safely, leave our bags in the hostel's hallway (not the bag check we expected, but I got my ipad at least stowed in the staff's closet) and take off for the sights.

By 2:00, we were happy for the following things: our Roma Pass, which allowed us to get to the front of the line, sunglasses (weather was great but the sun was beaming), a nap in the grass of the forum, good walking shoes. Although we intended to cut our afternoon short, we stumbled upon the Trevi Fountain before the Spanish Steps. Becca bought an Italia soccer sweatshirt, and we ended the day by saying hello to some obviously American obvious ultimate players. Nice folks from Cincinnati and Notre Dame university.

Here are some pictures from day 1:

Colosseum

Forum

Pantheon

Trevi Fountain

Spanish Steps

Having had no sleep on the overnight flight, then having walked about 16,000 miles around central Rome during that first day, and following that up with several large glasses of wine for dinner...

1. I walked up the stairs at the metro station near our hostel around 9pm and said "I can feel eye red." That got a lot of laughter from Becca cause she knew what I meant but it wasn't a complete phrase or thought.
2. Then, as I was getting ready for bed, with a full water bottle set in the corner of my top bunk bed (with the cap not totally screwed on), the bottle spilled over my bag and my bunkmate's t-shirt laying out presumably for the next day. I scrambled (tipsily) to grab my towel and dry some of it up. Fortunately, the guy didn't say anything the next morning and Becca and I switched rooms for night #2.