Back to Rome
Trip Start
Jul 21, 2005
1
13
15
Trip End
Aug 05, 2005
Rome,
Italy
Thursday, August 4, 2005
After checking out of our hotel, we walked through St. Mark's Square in a light rain (the first and only during our trip) one last time with all our luggage in tow. Instead of waiting for a vaporetto, we chose to spend the money on a water taxi instead. Arriving back at Piazzale Roma we walked to our garage, paid for the three days (26 euros per day) of parking and started back on our drive to Rome.
Arriving back in Rome was confusing, the ring road has many ways in, but it is difficult to determine which one we needed. After getting incredibly lost, we finally found our way into the heart of Ancient Rome where we could use landmarks to navigate back to Piazza Santa Maria and our hotel.
However, unbeknownst to us, the roads leading into the piazza in the evening become pedestrian only, although if you know the way it can be done
Try to navigate
. Have a look at the map and see if you can find a way into the piazza. After calling the hotel for directions, we were informed that there had been a mistake and they did not have a room for us for that evening, but had booked us a room in a nearby villa. Following the directions given, we followed the one way road adjacent to the river to get into Trastevere. We could recognize exactly where we were, and where we needed to go, but the roads were either closed to traffic, or one way in the wrong direction. Calling the hotel again, we were given further driving directions, followed them and ended up back where we started. Now too far beyond the roads we needed, we had to cross the river, and double back for another try. The second time around we were stopped by a local policeman, who in trying to explain how we could get to where we wanted, said "no car, two foots". Upon hearing that, we drove to a piazza nearby, abandoned the car, and dragged our luggage to Hotel Santa Maria, stopping on the way in the piazza to book a table at our restaurant. The receptionist then walked us down the road to the villa she had booked for us.
The Villa della Fonte is a 17th century palace built on roman ruins, a few yards away from the piazza. With a roof top terrace over looking both the alley leading to Hotel Santa Maria, and our favourite restaurant, we settled in immediately.
We spent the evening at the restaurant, chatting with Marco and getting to know him better. After exchanging email addresses, we said good night and returned to the villa.
The villa, with it's proximity to the piazza, was a bit noisy, so we spent time on the roof watching the festivities for a while before going to bed. www.villafonte.com
