Rome

After all three wonderful towns we visited Rome had some huge shoes to fill and if it weren’t for the size and overwhelming amount of tourists I’d say it succeeded.  Rome was a great place, but I’ve found that I prefer larger towns to a capital city.  Our first night there we just had time and energy for a good dinner and gelato to be rested up for our touring.

The Forum (view from our colosseum 'tour')

We started bright and early to go to the colosseum where we opted against the line and high ticket prices and chose instead to listen to Rick outside sitting on a wall.  This was the best thing we could have done.  For anyone who has plans to go to Rome on a budget like we did I highly recommend this option.  Rick had six “chapters” of his podcast of which two were focused on things within the colloseum, all the rest were outside, where we were sitting. From there we looked at and learned about (thanks Rick) the Forum.  All of this was really fun for me because I just took a Roman civilization class in France and I was telling Kristy things before Rick could get there, I didn’t know how  much I had obtained and it was all in French!!  (Tooting my own horn)

View #1 from our forum audio tour

 From the Forum we literally walked into a restaurant with a great deal on pizza and a beer that we couldn’t pass up and then we went on a search for the Spanish steps…this was a fail.  I’m not sure how we managed to get so turned around, but we made up for it with gelato and a successful discovery of the trevi fountain.  We had been confused all day by the amount of people out wearing light pink shirts, scarves, flags, etc. and it was here at the fountain that we put the puzzle together.  As it was a Sunday (the night for ‘football’ games) and there were about 150 pink people chanting by the fountain we realized that the pink was the team playing against Rome that night and the people were taking in the sights before the game started.  It was so crazy in fact that Kristy took a video.  

We did a little shopping and headed back to get ready for dinner. At 7 we met Aubrey and Susan at the fountain and set off together to find a restaurant by the Spanish steps that had been recommended to me by my friend Marryn.  We couldn’t find the place, but we ended up in a great little place with very comfortable chairs (an integral part of the restaurant decision process).  We had a wonderful time catching up, drinking wine, and enjoying our meals.  From there we saw the Spanish steps and headed back to the fountain to split ways. 

Aubrey(left), Susan (right) and I at dinner.

Kristy and I making our wishes

                                                                                  

                                                                                  

The next day Kristy and I set out for the Vatican.  As we didn’t have money we chose to go to St. Peters Basilica for free where we did another Rick Podcast.  We figured from there we could decide if we wanted to pay the money for a tour of the rest of the Vatican, but we were both churched out so we did what we know best…we ate.  

Me in St. Peters

At the very top there's an image of God, we had to squint to see it while we were there.

From there we moseyed around getting lost and finally found our way to the Piazza Navona my favorite part of Rome. It was certainly a more trendy part of town and the square had two beautiful fountains and all kinds of people to watch.  Both my Grandmother Baba, and friend Marryn suggested a drink on the terrace of a hotel Naturally that became one of my top priorities.  The hotel Marryn recommended was a two minute walk from the square so we classied ourselves up and enjoyed some wine with finger sandwiches looking out at Roma.  

Afterwards we were both full and tired from a long day and trip so we headed back to the hostel rested a bit, drank our wine from cinque terre (that was a disappointment after the delicious wine on the roof) and went for our last dinner and gelato in Italy. 

Last dinner out, pasta in funghi sauce

                                                                                                       Destroying our gelato chipwhiches

While my heart still lies in France, I completely understand why people love Italy as much as they do.  The food, landscape, and people actually saying “mamma mia” won me over almost instantly. 

Kodak moment