Before we start today’s post (and eat some real Italian Pizza), I just wanted to thank you all so much for being here last week as we kicked off The Road Jess Traveled’s new journey. I am already loving documenting these nomad life adventures and having you here reliving it with me truly makes it all the better!
If you want to keep getting notified of new posts, make sure to sign up for my email list – that is how you’ll get notified as the story continues! I am going to aim for Mondays, Wednesdays, and/or Fridays right now for new blog posts – bear with me as I settle in to this new routine!
Thank you for being here today and without further ado, let’s get back to Italy!
Today’s post is going to be a little more lowkey, as the new few days were just work/adjusting days. I am not always going to write blog posts about these slower-paced days as time goes on because, frankly, there’s a lot of them and they’re not always entertaining.
But, like I’ve said before in our Nomad Life Q&A – this is a lifestyle and not a vacation. So with as much fun and travel you see through blog posts, there will be just as many (if not more) rest days fueling that. It’s truly all about balance, folks!
Running Errands in Italy!
On our next day in Italy we woke up at 9:30 AM and that felt VERY early.
(Honestly, looking back on that now, that’s very ambitious because my normal wakeup time is currently between 10 and 11 am)
We found a local Vodaphone location to get help with our phones. Like I mentioned before, we got Vodaphone SIM Cards at the airport and the directions they gave us for activation were very unclear.
Strangely, mine was perfectly activated – but we did not realize that until we got to the store and the specialist did something to turn it on. However, Steven’s was not activated?? We thought it was gonna be disastrous but he just had to pay 5€ to activate it.
Thank God because the airport charged us like 80€ for the original card, which is ridiculous looking back on it now. If you’re going to get a SIM card in Europe… my advice would be don’t get it at the airport, just wait until you get into town.
Stopping for Breakfast
After that errand was done, we walked around and went to a place called Gatsby Cafe!
Our waitress spoke English and gave us a few tips of advice – as she knew we were Americans traveling in Italy. One of the most valuable things she taught us is that when we see “Latte” on a menu it is not what we expect… it is actually milk! So (if I remember correctly) she told us to order a cappuccino!
I got pancakes for breakfast and Steven got a salmon bagel!
Getting Acclimated With Our Surroundings
Then we walked around some more! There was a really beautiful church near our Air B&B so we went to check it out! As we walked by, Steven goes in a thick (attempted) Italian accent – “Ciao, Jesus” 🤣 Which was either absolutely hilarious or I was so jetlagged that I thought it was the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. Probably both!
We also had our first experience with the Rome water fountains! All over the city, there are these streams of constantly flowing fresh drinking water! They are exceptionally convenient and one of my absolute top favorite things about Rome.
As always, I was just admiring the buildings – they were SO BEAUTIFUL!! I remember being in that square near that church and just taking it all in!
We walked through the train station on our way back to our apartment named TERMINI! Which ended up being such a significant part of our time in Rome. We became very emotionally attached to Termini – it was our landmark on our way home to our Air B&B and it got us everywhere we were traveling to within Italy!
A Typical Week Night
Upon returning to the Air B&B, I took a nap so hard I had sleep paralysis when I was trying to wake up. I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS! Does that ever happen to you guys!? It’s like… you’re awake in your brain but your body is asleep and you have to like force yourself out of sleeping. Ugh, I hate that feeling but I’m not surprised because of jetlag.
And after all that, it was time for work!
When I had a free moment, I made dinner tonight – pasta with Amatriciana, bacon, chicken, and zucchini on the side!
Steven went to the grocery store and got us wine – 2€ tonight! We could not resist.
We ate dinner, finished up work, I took a shower, and then worked on revamping my Instagram highlights! I went to bed around 2 AM because what is a sleep schedule.
On To The Next Day…
BONUS – I am also going to share about the following day in this post as well. It was another lowkey day that isn’t really full enough for a whole post, but it did have some mentionable highlights!
The next morning, I woke up at 11:30 AM – so we’re just going to continue wilding with the sleep schedule.
Honestly, do not follow my example when trying to kick jet lag, especially if you’re on a short-term vacation. I deal with chronic fatigue so I really struggle with feeling rested in general, so I just totally surrendered to whatever my body and brain wanted to do since we had the luxury of time on our side here. I just did not have the energy to discipline myself into sleeping like a normal human.
If you’re traveling for a short time, the rule of thumb is to try and force yourself to get on the sleep schedule of your new location as quickly and accurately as possible. If you’re coming from Eastern Standard Time to Italy, you’ll be ahead 6 hours. So you pretty much have to force yourself to wake up and go to sleep much earlier than you’re used to.
Anyways. Enough about SLEEPING.
A Stroll To See Some Street Art
Steven and I went for a walk this morning around Rome because the weather was SO BEAUTIFUL! Rome in October is absolutely unreal. The weather was gorgeous and the air was crisp.
We did a loop around our neighborhood and wandered into a few different squares.
You know what I actually did not expect about Rome? There is street art and graffiti pretty much everywhere! Honestly, this kind of surprised us because the buildings are pretty old and already so colorful… but, as all art is, it’s definitely a way that people express themselves!
Here are a few pieces I particularly liked:
This one, though, was my favorite! And yes, I do believe that is ET there right in the corner!
We worked all afternoon… and then as that time passed by, it was time for dinner!
IT’S PIZZA TIME!
Gotta love Italy because the European stereotype of eating super late is alive and well here. I loved being able to work a full day and then go out to dinner after really late at night.
We had been in Italy for days already and you know what we hadn’t done yet!? EAT PIZZA!
The first place we ever went to have true Italian pizza was I Fratelli! This restaurant was located right near our apartment and honestly, I was drawn to it because it had a sun and a moon logo!
We ordered red wine, of course, and each got our own pizza! Steven ordered Spicy Salami and I ordered Funghi… aka mushroom!
I also got a salad and you sprayed the balsamic onto it from a spray bottle, which was so cool. It coated the salad so nicely… I don’t know why more places don’t do this! (I also regret not taking a picture)
Anyways, the pizza. That’s why we’re all here.
It was delicious.
I don’t know if it’s possible to describe this ethereal experience in words, but I sure will try. First off, this was a Naples-style pizza, which means it has a fluffy crust and a thinner inside. The sauce and toppings were fresh. All of the ingredients taste so much cleaner here, especially the tomatoes used for the sauce. The cheese had such a lovely flavor and texture. The crust is always my favorite part and it was perfectly fluffy.
For the Disney crew out there – I can’t get over how authentic the pizza is at Via Napoli in EPCOT. I was absolutely impressed because, as far as “Italian” pizza goes, EPCOT is all I’ve ever known. I am really glad it holds up to the real authentic stuff!
As I spent more time in Italy, I realized that there are a whole variety of different types of pizzas out there to try! So this was really only the beginning of our pizza journey.
As always, I love to end a meal on a sweet note so we got some Tiramasu for dessert! Tiramasu is the dessert to get in Italy and every place makes it a little bit different. I Fratelli‘s Tiramasu had great flavor and texture and I particularly love that it was served in this little jar!
We walked home after that and, to our surprise, we had a little kitty visitor at the door! She was so sweet, rubbing her little kitten cheeks against our ankles and showing tons of affection upon meeting. We brought her a little bowl of milk outside in case she was hungry, but I think she just wanted a quick visit because soon she was on her way! I named her Luna and she must have been a neighborhood cat because this was not the last time we saw her!
Anyways, after that adorable little meet-cute, our hearts and bellies were full and it was off to sleep! We had a VERY special day coming up tomorrow…!
Come back for the next post because it features one of my all-time favorite nomad life experiences thus far – definitely a manifestation come true! You can get notified when it’s posted by submitting your name and email down below. I’ll see you then! 🙂
