When in Rome

Friday morning we woke up, packed, and then hopped on a train to Roma, Italy. I didn't have the best window seat, but I was able to look at some of the countryside. At one point it became quite mountainous. Some of the train ride was spent speeding through underground tunnels beneath the mountains. Approximately 4 hours later we arrived in Rome. After walking all the way out I realized I had left my battery charger for my camera on the train. Thomas and I sped back, but we must have been too late. There was a train there but we went to our car and Thomas said it looked nothing like the train we had been on before. Well, I was pretty upset and "butt hurt" as Thomas likes to call it. I eventually bounced back and enjoyed the trip. We found a little hotel right outside the train station. Overall, not too the bad. The bathroom made me a bit nervous, but other than that it was fine. On our first afternoon we looked around one portion of Rome. We saw the Pantheon, Piazza del Popolo, Spanish Steps, and Fontana di Trevi, as well as, numerous shops. We did the traditional act of throwing a coin into the Fontana di Trevi to ensure our return to Rome. All of the architecture in the city was amazing. That evening we had some gelato and ate a little restaurant near the Pantheon. It was pretty good, but still not as good as some of the food near our town. Maybe we just didn't hit the right place to eat. It wasn't bad by any means; I have just enjoyed the food near our home better. 

                              Piazza del Popolo

                                            Pantheon

                                                      Back to Rome we will!

                                 Spanish Steps

The next day we visited the area of town that includes the Colosseo and Palatine Hill (Palatino) as well as many other forms of architecture. As we stepped out of the subway, we were immediately greeted by the famous Colosseo. Amazing is the first thing I thought. Once inside the Colosseo, it's even more amazing. It's massive and the architecture is like nothing I have ever seen. All the architecture took my breath away. It's amazing to think of how old all of this is and that it is still standing. I can't imagine the effort it took to build it all. I had Thomas' camera which take paneramic views which I was thankful for. I feel like sometimes the pictures don't even accurately describe the scenes and sights. We took an organized tour of the Colosseo and Palatine Hill, which helped for understanding exactly what we were looking at. We met a couple from Alabama on that tour that we spoke too often on the tour. 

                                              Colosseo

                                                  Palatine Hill

                                               Colosseo

                              Vatican City

Later that afternoon, we went through the Vatican City. Once again, amazement and I didn't realized they are considered outside of Rome. We weren't able to go into the actual churches. We decided to save that for another trip because it was getting late. There was so much more we didn't get to see that we want to go back and see. 


That evening, we hopped on a bus to an area that our hotel described as "romantic" with great restaurants and that the couple from Alabama heard was the place for "nightlife." On the bus, we met a couple from New Zealand. We all decided to have dinner together. I am convinced our waiter was trying to get me a bit toasty. He gave lots of wine and an extra limoncello. After dinner, we went to a local bar and spent some more time with our new friends. We all had a blast and our waiter from the resturaunt actually showed up. Several hours and tons of pictures later we finally made it back to our hotel. 

                             New Zealand friends and waiter

The next morning, I was completely exhausted and a bit thankful that our trip was over. I don't think I could have done much sight seeing that day since we had probably gotten about 4 hours of sleep. We took the morning train and arrived back in Vicenza around 5 in the afternoon. Wonderful trip! Ciao!