Love, Mom: Rome

From Borgo di Vagli we dropped off the rental car and took the train to Rome. I have to say I was sort of prepared not to like Rome, I had heard a lot of bad things about it. I thought I was going to be right when we arrived at the train station and decided to take the metro to our hotel. Aaron assured me it was only a 1 km walk to our hotel which I thought I could easily handle. Instead, it turned out to be almost a MILE and a half (BIG difference from a km), UPHILL, in the BLAZING sun while wheeling our bags. I was drenched in sweat and cursing Aaron under my breath. When we finally arrived at the hotel the nice lady at the front desk told us about the local train which had a stop literally around the corner from the hotel. I was mad we didn't know about it before, but glad we wouldn't have to make the trek from the metro every time we wanted to go into town. After a long nap and a shower, I decided to give Rome another chance.

Turns out, I loved it! I felt like Rome just had an energy of sorts and so much history and I really just loved it. That first afternoon we just took the train into town and walked around. We saw the Spanish Steps, threw a coin into the Trevi Fountain (it is supposed to mean you get to come back!), and shopped all evening. I loved all the people, and like I said, just the energy of the place, I can't describe it well with words. That first night we saw that around seven all the little restaraunts just drag tables out into the streets and onto the sidewalks to set up for dinner. Its pretty crazy but we ate at a little restaurant at a table literally in the road with a view of the Trevi Fountain. After dinner we watched street performers and walked around until late just people watching and having a blast.

The next day we did the Colosseum in the morning which was really cool, we had a podcast to give us some history too. We also did the Roman Forum which I loved (and made me wish I was teaching 10th graders Julius Caesar!) even though it was REALLY hot. We took a siesta in the afternoon and then went back into town to walk around the Vatican area and see it lit up at night. We got dinner at one of the street restaurants again but this time learned you don't want the table in the gutter!

Our last day in Rome we got up early to get in line for the Vatican museum which houses the Sistine Chapel. We had heard the lines were brutal so we were prepared but we got lucky and the line wasn't too long. The Vatican museum was really cool but the Sistine Chapel was the real reason to be there. It had recently been cleaned and the colors were SO vibrant and amazing and I just couldn't imagine Michealangelo standing on scaffolding and painting that, its crazy! After the Vatican Museum we did St. Peter's Basilica which was the most amazing church I have ever seen. The dome was amazing, the altar, I am just not even going to try to do it justice. I was in awe.

Our last night we did some more shopping and checked out some different piazzas and got dinner at a little bit of a nicer restaurant on one of the piazzas. It was a great night and we ended it by getting gelato (one last time!) and eating it on the Spanish Steps.

Rome was a great city and I think I could have easily spent a week or more there. It was a great way to end our trip. We headed home the next day, sad but excited to get back to our baby! I really hope that some day we can do it again.

Throwing my coin into the Trevi Fountain

The first McDonald's in Italy. It was SO fancy, and all I really wanted was a fountain drink (but they didn't know to put ice in it, well you can't win them all!)

Trevi Fountain at night

In the Colusseum

Colosseum

By Rome we were pretty sick of asking people to take our picture. We attempted the self portrait a number of times but its pretty hard with our big camera, I think that Aaron looks pained in every single one of these that we tried!