Another day, another Panda....

Rome was amazing, but we were glad to get out of the crazy, touristiness of the city. On Friday, we rented our car - a tiny, silver Fiat Panda which we will post pictures of later. There seems to be a Panda theme following us wherever we go. Hotel Panda, Fiat Panda...

Getting out of Rome was difficult. Humorous, yes, but difficult nonetheless. Jennifer, our official navigator, did the best she could with the ridiculous map with which we were provided. However, this did not keep us from circling the city of Rome no fewer than seven times in our little midget car. Being unfamiliar with the nuances of the Fiat Panda and, of course, unable to read the road signs, I was sweating bullets and eventually lost all feeling in both my upper and lower extremeties. Knowing what a stress-case I can be, Jennifer was prepared at any moment to squirt me with the water bottle should I lose consciousness and swerve into a sea of oncoming Smart Cars.

See, the city of Rome is encircled by a road called the GRA. But, the hard part about getting onto the GRA is that there are signs and then there are no signs. They lead you into the graffiti filled ghettos and then leave you to your own wiles. It's like survival of the fittest. Those who are competent enough to find the GRA make it out, and those who aren't are destined to live as gypsies outside the Coloseum.

Luckily, gypsy-hood was not in our immediate future. We were able to get out of Rome unscathed and after a quick lunch of McPaninis at McDonald's, we were on our way to Cevita di Bagnioregio. Can you believe we actually ate at McDonald's in Italy?? We can't either. But we did and that's just something we're all going to have to deal with. We were vulnerable, hungry and stressed, and it was the closest place we could find without getting off the GRA.