ROME- My flight landed at 6:30 a.m. at Rome’s Leonardo DaVinci Airport. No long lines this time of morning! I was out the door and on the Leonard Express train within 20 minutes. I made a transfer to the Metro for a short ride to Piazza Spagna.

The piazza and Spanish Steps were desolate this time of the morning, just me and a few stray street cleaners. Using Google maps on my iPhone I found my hotel was about a 30-minute walk, so I struck off across town.

Hotel Palm Gallery is in a residential area north of Rome’s historic city center. With it being only 8:30 a.m., my room was not ready, but I was invited for breakfast. Leaving my luggage at the office, I took a quick walk around the neighborhood and discovered a quiet park, two public schools, a coffee shop, a pizzeria, and the bus stops connecting my hotel neighborhood with central Rome.

The park near my hotel

Returning to the hotel, I checked into my room and took a nap for about an hour. By noon, I was refreshed, and on my way to the nearby Villa Borghese.