Arriving in Rome

After a comfortable and short (1 hr and 10 minutes) flight we arrive at Rome airport. So far so good. But at the baggage conveyor belt... we have to wait and wait. OK, Italian organization and reliability is maybe not world class. Should have realized that. Finally something starts to happen. The two first pieces of luggage turn up and are retrieved with a victorious air. Making sure that the suckers from our Munich flight notice that we do indeed now have our luggage and are ready to roll. It is a sunny Sunday and Rome is waiting for us, here we come. Only, where is the third suitcase? Fck. Hiroko's suitcase never turns up. Endless waiting at the conveyor belt. Endless waiting at the baggage claim office. Message: The bag is stuck in Munich and will arrive in one and a half hours. We request to have the bag sent to the hotel as we want to get out there and enjoy sunny Rome. Most likely, the bag will be delivered tonight.

The taxi driver takes us through unbelievably busy streets. Hordes of people are out for Sunday afternoon strolls. Our hotel is a historic building (they probably all are in this neighborhood) on the corner of the Corso and a side street (Via dei Greci). The apartment is small but very nice. They provide, with the apartment, some snacks so we decide to make afternoon tea.

Later we go out to explore. On the Corso we plunge into a malstroem of people. We walk from one set of street artists to the next. Football artists, dancers, painters, musicians. Great entertainment and it's free. Michael is impressed with the paintings and wants us to buy him some. We manage to persuade him that there are plenty of other, more reasonable items, to buy in Rome. We pass by the column of Marcus Aurelius at Piazza Colonna and marvel at the huge marble pillar stretching up in the blue sky. Surprisingly all the shops seem to be open on this late Sunday afternoon. We peek into a shop with Italian delicacies. They have sandwiches that make your mouth water by the mere sight. Then more or less by chance we end up by Pantheon and take a look. Impressive. The sky is deep blue through the hole in the roof of the ancient dome. The building seems to serve as a church now and there is an alter in one end with benches in front of it. The place is stuffed with people. Probably because it's Sunday. Outside some dark-skinned street vendors throw something, a toy of some sort, with red and blue lights incredibly high up in the air, it spins around as it slowly glides down again from the evening dark blue sky. We joke that they should try to aim for the hole in the dome of the Pantheon. It would look so cool if the thing came down from the ceiling inside... Do we want to buy the toy? No thanks.

Time to think about food... Restaurant or sandwiches in the apartment. Michael does not want to go to a restaurant, so we decide for the cold food. We get some of the delicacies from the shop we looked at earlier and we also go back to a bakery which we looked at earlier to get some cakes.

Back in the apartment we start to worry about Hiroko's missing bag. We still have not heard from the airline baggage service. The suitcase contains Michael's nappies, Hiroko's toilet bag and clothes... We have our good meal and then Hiroko decides to go out to try to get nappies and a toothbrush at least. No such luck. Although most shops are open, even late this Sunday night, the supermarket was closed. Dammit.