Saturday, September 5

So we landed in Rome just after noon on Saturday. My first job was to get cell phone service. See, I was the "member of the group in charge of technology". I brought toys.

World's biggest USB charger	Mobile Hotspot

Now, these are not toys for the sake of toys.

Stuff has to be charged these days. Especially the mobile hotspot.

The mobile hotspot was the coolest thing ever. I was in Rome 15 years ago for ten days. Honestly, I saw more this time in five days than I did last time in ten, and it was all because of this.
All four of us could connect to it at the same time, and we used it to

• Get bus schedules from point A to point B instantly. Google maps is amazing, it told us exactly which buses to take, where to get off, and even the time the bus would arrive.
• Getting answers to questions like "What's this pretty building we're standing in front of?"
• We all cooperated and made maps of places we wanted to see, and places we wanted to eat. Friends contributed to our restaurant list, and it was AWESOME!! We ate so well, and it wasn't expensive. No matter where we were, if we were peckish someone could pull up the map and say "There's a great restaurant right over THERE!"

I did something extra cool. I forwarded my Houston phone number to this device, so friends could call me for free while I was over there. And lots of them did! I felt happy and loved.

If you ever travel abroad, you definitely need to borrow this. Don't buy your own; use mine :)

I made it work by going to a local Tre cell phone store in Rome and buying a data-only sim. It was my first chance to practice my Italian: "Voglio comprare una SIM super internet plus." They handed it right over, $20 for the entire week, unlimited data.

Since I hadn't slept: nap, dinner at the Pantheon, then bed.

 

The Pantheon really was extraordinary, doubly so at night, and we found a ristorante in the piazza that we just loved.