Ok, so we are actually already home (it's May 5th), but I am going to go ahead and fill in some of our trip details. It was such a bummer to have forgotten my cable for my camera!! Oh well, we had a great time.
So back to our first day. We arrived in Rome very early in the morning with no problems. We flew through customs and within a few minutes our driver was there to meet us and take us to our hotel. She's only been driving Americans for a year and so she is a bit reserved in her talking with us. She also is driving quite fast on the highway. At one point, I notice we are going 180 kph (which is about 112 mph)! Since it is so early, she is able to drop us off right at the hotel and we don't have to walk. Of course since it is so early, our room is not available. We brush our teeth and we are no our way.
Our hotel is at the Trevi fountain. As it turns out, the early morning is a great time to take photos because it is not crowded. We then make our way to the Pantheon. What an amazing site...you are walking down small cobblestone streets and turn the corner to find a massive structure. We'll later learn that this is the way it is in the ancient part of Rome. Still nothing is open so we sit on the steps of the fountain across from the Pantheon and what people passing by. We saw quite a few children walking to school and people walking dogs. Also it seems so odd that across from the Pantheon is also a McDonald's! We soon make our way to Navona Plaza and then into a cafe to get ourselves warm. Locals were coming in to get their expressos more like a shot and then on to work.
Later we make our way to the Roman Forum. Here you can view many of the ruins from Ancient Rome. It is amazing to me that the city just is built layers upon layers. We make our way to the Colosseum and end up on an English speaking tour. This ends up being good for two reasons- 1. it gets us past the very long lines to get in and 2. nothing is really marked inside, so it was good to have a guide. The down side was that our guide didn't have a microphone and he was soft spoken so he was difficult to hear sometimes. Part of the colosseum has been reconstructed so that you can visualize what it was like. An interesting thing for me was that the entire thing had been covered in marble which was eventually taken by the area churches for their use. After the Colosseum tour, we have time for a quick lunch before the second part of our tour, which is to Palatine Hill. Lunch for us was a mozzarella and tomato sandwich- very tasty!
Our dinner that night was at a restaurant down the street from our hotel. It was great food (I wasn't sure at first when my plate has shrimp on it that still had eyes, etc.). Our waiter was from Sardinia and was very nice. When he found out where we were from he said- Reggie Miller, Pacers! :) ps some of the photos have additional text if you click on them More thumbnails ...
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Rome Hotels
