Our Italian Adventure- Rome

Our Italian Adventure began on Thursday afternoon, July 22nd, at the Chattanooga airport. Somehow, we had finally gotten all of our packing done and everything with our daughter and dog squared away. (Thanks mom and dad!) We had our euros, passports, money belt, and of course, snacks for me, and we were ready to go!

We arrived in Rome at 9:00 in the morning, 3:00 a.m. our normal time. We were a little jet lagged, a little stinky, we had bad breath, but we were in Rome!! Here is a fact about the Rome airport that many of you may not know. It is a zoo. A utterly unorganized, unlabeled, confusing mess! Uscida means “exit” in Italian, so we followed a bazillion exit signs until we found our way through customs. First order of business, buying a ticket to take us to the Termini station, which is the center of Rome. I will skip the horrible train ride that we had through the graffiti covered urban part of Rome and the 5 mile walk to our subway line, because it was wretched and I would like to completely erase it from my memory. Needless to say, two and a half hours later, we arrived at our hotel in beautiful Barberini. Ahh! Our little square was so busy and beautiful. Although we were too early to check in, Fabio, (I am not kidding) the hotel manager, let us use a side room so we could change and freshen up for some sight seeing. We gladly dropped off our bags, grabbed our Rick Steve’s book and some water, and we were off to the Roman Colosseum.

Here is something that surprised me about Rome. It is hot. It was ninety five degrees the first day that we arrived. The good news is that there was no humidity and no bugs. My kind of place. The Colosseum was easy to find. Thanks to our Roma Passes, we got right through all the lines and we were inside. The Colosseum was absolutely breathtaking.

This is what I loved about being in Italy. You will be walking down the street and all of sudden, you come face to face with a piece of hundred or thousand year old history. It is awesome. We spent a couple of hours walking around the Colosseum, the beautiful Arch, and the Roman Forum. We also had our picture taken with some gladiators who gladly posed with us for lots of silly pictures and then asked that we pay them 20 euros. Yeah, right. I may be a tourist, but I am not a stupid tourist, thank you. After all that sight seeing in the heat of the day, we returned to our hotel. I promptly went to our room and fell face first on our bed and didn’t move for two hours. I felt much better after that. After our naps, we got ready and headed out to take in the evening sights of the Spanish steps and the Trevi fountain. Just for the record, both are breathtakingly beautiful at sunset. They are both places that are very popular, so they were both crowded, but we still enjoyed ourselves. I don’t know what I was expecting the Trevi fountain to look like, but I was blown away by it when we turned the corner and saw it. The fountain is really a huge wall with intricate carvings and there is a beautiful pool that holds all of the water from the fountain. Legend has it that if you throw a coin in the Trevi fountain,  you will one day return to Italy. So, Michael and I made our way down to the bottom and gladly threw in our coins. We ended our evening by stopping to get our second gelato for the day and enjoyed a leisurely walk back to our hotel.

If Rome is hot and hectic during the day, it is cool and refreshing during the evening. All of the restaurants open up into the cobblestone streets, lamps are lit everywhere, locals are eating long dinners with wine and families are walking around eating gelato. It is about 20 degrees cooler in the evening and it is perfect. Evenings are the redemption of Rome.

The plan for day two in Rome involved going to the Pantheon and the Plaza Novella, which is a popular shopping square in the city. Both were within walking distance of our hotel, so we headed out after breakfast. The morning was cool and quiet and I was loving every minute. We stopped at a market and bought some yummy peaches to enjoy on our walk. The Pantheon kept its Roman promise of taking my breath away. It was built in 27 BC. When I saw it, my jaw was open the entire time, because I couldn’t believe that I was standing in something so old, such a piece of history, and it was in one piece. It was beautiful. The outside was being renovated, but the dome inside was incredible. It has been the inspiration for our Capital building, and the Duomo in Florence. That was just a little tidbit for you, free of charge. We sat in the small chapel area and admired the dome for a while before we moseyed over to the artist, Rapheal’s tomb, which was very beautiful. The Plaza Novella is right by the Pantheon and it is a charming area that is filled with shops, open restaurants, and pastel houses with window boxes filled with colorful flowers. There were musicians playing beautiful music and of course, a fountain! We settled in at a nice pizza shop and enjoyed the atmosphere and eventually chowed down on a Margarita pizza with fresh mozzarella and basil. After that, it was rest time for preggo lady (that’s me). For those of you who don’t know me, I take a nap everyday. It is as essential to me as eating or drinking.

After my nap, we headed to the Vatican City to see the Pope. The Vatican City was really far from our hotel and we were a little confused about how to get there since both the bus and the metro seemed to still be far from the closest stop. ( I couldn’t just walk all the time, I am a dainty little thing.) It took us a while to find the Vatican City, and unfortunately, the museum was closed by the time we arrived there at 4:00. We were disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to see the famous Sistine Chapel, but we still enjoyed walking around the far entrance of the city where St. Peter’s Basilica is located. The building and surrounding crescent shaped pillars were breathtaking, and there was also, you guessed it- a fountain too! We were able to take a picture of the Vatican guards whose outfits are so embellished and fancy, you kind of forget that they are law enforcement. They look more like court jesters, with all due respect.

We walked back to Barberini, and we were exhausted, I mean, laugh until you cry tuckered out. We found a beautiful restaurant on top of a hotel and asked if they were serving dinner. I am not going to lie. I was on a bad food choice streak and it didn’t stop at this restaurant. My only requirements for eating in Rome were: a) to feel full and b) for me to recognize what I was eating. I am not an adventurous eater by any stretch of the imagination and until this point in the trip, all I had eaten was pizza. Well, we got to the top of the building and looked at the menu and once again, the only thing that looked appetizing was, well, pizza. Michael shook his head in disappointment while he ordered lamb and I ordered my pizza. It was yucky. I was tired. So not a good combination for the exhausted preggo lady. We have videos of me that evening sitting at the table with my head on the plate and boughts of delirium where I was making motorcycles noises with my lips. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, they brought out my pizza with yellow peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, and raw meat. Gross! I politely picked all of the meat off, ate the zucchini and salvaged the rest of my pizza. It was kind of a low point for me. Thankfully, I actually felt better after we ate and we headed back to the hotel for the evening.

I really enjoyed our time in Rome. I was glad that we went, and I was glad that we were only there for two and half days. It was a good amount of time to explore and take in the sights, but after two days, I was ready for Florence. Just so I can keep you on the edge of your seat, I am going to write about Florence in my next blog. Plus, my hands are really tired. I am a dainty little thing, after all. Just kidding. Enjoy the pics. My amazingly talented husband photographer took them and we are really proud! Until next time! Ciao!

Our hotel is the last on the right of the three in a row; orange with black shutters

The Colosseum

The Gladiators gladly posing with us.

Michael and I in the Colosseum

The Spanish steps

An evening dining experience in Rome

The beautiful Trevi fountain

The Pantheon

St. Peter’s Basilica

A Vatican guard

Exhausto Bella

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