We left Paris pretty late at night and arrived in Rome
around midnight. We decided to cab to
the hotel from the airport instead of taking the train and Luke got his first
taste of riding in a car in Italy.
Eek! Our cab driver was definitely
the perfect example of Italian diving! We arrived at our hotel (which was the
worst of all we stayed in, by the way) and went straight to sleep. We woke up the next day and decided to find
some espresso and just walk around to wherever the day took us. We found a cute little café and I ordered
espressos and croissants for us in Italian (woop woop!) The cashier then
thought that I didn’t speak Italian and asked the barista what we ordered and I
promptly told him [in Italian] that I speak Italian and that we had two
espressos and two croissants. Bam! Take
that Mr. cashier man!
But anyway…we walked around with a little map and found the
memorial of the unknown soldier (crazy big by the way) and found a
hop-on-hop-off bus to join to get the lay of the land and see everything at
once. It was really helpful in helping
us prioritize what we wanted to go back to actually see. We decided to spend most of our time at
Palatine Hill and the Coliseum. We did
guided tours of both and it was so so so awesome to see. It dates back to at least 50 B.C. what?! When you are there, you are walking on the
same land, the same paths, looking at the same buildings as some of the coolest
people in history. Roman mythology even
says the cave where Romulus and Remus were found was in Palatine. I’m sorry, but that’s insanely awesome…!!
For lunch we stopped and Luke had his first pizza in
Italy. Here is a picture J
The next day we woke up pretty late and decided to walk to
the Vatican. On the way, we found more
pizza for Luke to eat- don't worry!! (he was completely sold by the one the day before)
We
happened to be at the Vatican on a Sunday and were able to hear some of
mass. Of course, we couldn’t understand
any of it but it was still really meaningful to be there for, even for us Protestants! Saint Peter’s Basilica was absolutely awe-inspiring. Really no other words are needed for it.
The rest of the time we walked around piazzas, ate more pasta, drank
more espresso and wine, and just took in all the amazingness that is Rome.
The last night, we went to a wonderful dinner off the Piazza
Navona. We walked around the piazza
before dinner and bought a piece of art to take home with us from the cutest
little Italian man. We walked, we
talked, and we just took in life. It was so special and writing this post now (it’s 10pm), while my husband is
sitting behind me still working, I so want to be back there!
PS, the picture below isn't Piazza Novana- it's a smaller one that I don't remember the name of close to it.
The next day we woke up and got on the train to
Perugia. My most favorite place in the
whole wide world. Post on that coming
soon!
