Rome, Italy

Arriving at the airport with our very oversized luggage, Andrew and I reassembled all of our bikes and gear outside in the street of the airport. Our one downfall was not packing a 10 cent valve adapter to allow us to inflate our tires enough to ride, since the pump we brought only works with schrader style valves.

Ready to build the bikes.

We decided to head into town by bus (6 Euro) and walk until we reached our destination, which was the house of a cycling enthusiast and couchsurfing host, Sem. We were hoping that he could help us inflate our tires, assuming we did not find a bike shop to help us before we arrived at his place.

The bus dropped us off downtown but unfortunately not as close as we thought we would get to Sem’s house. Walking these bikes with all of our gear was very difficult but we managed for several hours. The map we found at the airport was difficult to read so Andrew then snaped a few pictures of a city map inside of a metro station with his camera This was marginally easier. We passed by the Triumph Arch and the Colosseum without a lot of time to appreciate them but they are all amazing. I was not expecting all of the structures and sights of Ancient Rome to be so closely surrounded by the day to day city life.

We spotted a sign for a vespa/bike rental shop which brings hope that maybe they can help us with our with our poorly inflated tires. We continue to head towards our destination with using a compass and maps that we can match up with occasionally, hoping to pass by this bike rental shop. Even they struggle to find the adapter but fill up our tires enough to get us on the road and riding.

In Rome there are few traffic rules (compared to the states), merging, passing, and navigating through the city is possible by a way of controlled chaos where everyone weaves in and out of “lanes”, with the sidewalks filled with people we have no choice but to join this mess.

As scary as this was it was not as dangerous as it first seemed since everyone is aware of all the other crazy drivers.

Our friend Andrea met up with us and Sem (couch surfer host), we ate pizza and had a few drinks, another couch surfer Leo from Vienna Austria met up with us for a drink before we put our things at Sem’s house on the 4th floor (5 stories up), the elevators in Rome (and italy as far as I know) are very small. Sem took us to a bar with some live music for what he said was a weekly meeting of couchsurfing members.

Romans Dancing

Sem then took us around the city for a night tour of Rome before heading home.. As fantastic as Rome is by day it is even better at night.

Nightime views of The Colloseum, Altare della Patria (Vittoriano), and The Vatican, respectively

The next day, we left Sem’s house and rode around the city until our friend Andrea finished his work at the local university. He took us back to his apartment and let us rest and shower while he went to a soccer game with his cousins, and then took us to a local pub (Pride Pub) for an authentic Italian pasta dinner and some live music featuring American 50’s music. On Saturday, Andrea took us downtown to see the rest of the typical tourists sites and gave us some background information on the sites that we would have never learned if we were not accompanied by a local. We got some gelato from the most well known place in Rome before heading to the Trastevere zone to meet some of Andrea’s friends.

Sunday was spent organizing and planning for the next leg of our trip, which will begin first thing Monday morning. The current plan is to follow the national cycling route Cyclopista del Sole north from Rome and try to reach Florence later in the week.

Our last Night In Rome, as viewed from Andrea’s balcony