The moment is finally here... we are in Roma! It is 7:00am when we arrive. T definitely wins at staying awake! I even slept on the plane, yet I am still exhausted. Customs takes forever to get through... lets just say, the Italians do not plan for lots of tourists! I felt as if I were in any country of the United States... or somewhere in Asia, with the amount of English and some Asian language we heard. But, like they say 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do,' we patiently waited for our turn to get another stamp added to our passport. We then headed to the baggage claim, where we went to not one, but four different claims, until we finally spotted our luggage. Backpacks on our backs, we headed out into the streets of Rome, finding our name and Hotel Adriano waiting in our driver's hands.
Driving in Italy is a whole other experience. They definitely have road rage to say the least. If you do not like driving in America, then I suggest that you don't drive in Italy! However, since this was our only method of transportation, we have to enlist our faith with our non-English speaking driver in hopes that we would arrive safely at our hotel.
Indeed we did! And we arrived at the PERFECT hotel in the perfect location! T's endless nights researching on tripadvisor.com really paid off! When we got there, it was everything that we read about online. The concierge were extremely friendly, the breakfast was great, the rooms were extremely spacious and clean, and the best part was that we were within walking distance to everywhere that we wanted to go! We will definitely be writing an excellent review on tripadvisor when we are in London and our internet works a little better!
Though I was jet-lagged at the start of our exploration through the Eternal City, I put on a brave face and begun showing T all of the things that I so dearly love about Italia! The best part about the day was watching T navigate his way to all of the things that he always dreamed of seeing! He was like watching a 'kid in a candy store.' Eyes wide, smile on his face, and so excited to see everything in sight. It made my day! It was so great sharing the things with him that I had always talked about after my many adventures abroad.
For some reason, I cannot upload pictures from the hotel internet, therefore, you will just have to listen to me tell about our day, and I promise to upload pictures once we get to London!
The moment we arrived at the hotel, we were offered a complimentary breakfast... although I am sure we are paying for it somewhere in our lovely cost! Our concierge offered us a place to rest, but as I said earlier, we braved the ever so lovely jet-lag. Our first and closest stop was the Pantheon. This is one of my favorite buildings because it still looks as if it were 126 AD.... minus a few pieces of marble that were 'borrowed' from other later Romans. The piazza (square) is beautiful and it was a perfect start to our Roman day. Of course, T wanted to listen to the audio guide, so... we learned a lot of information, that I probably won't be able to remember in the future. However, it was nice to learn a few new facts!
Our next stop was the ever famous Colosseum and ancient Roman ruins, another favorite of mine. It really is amazing when you stop to think about the history went on in front of you so many years ago. We decided to take a tour guide, not only to learn information, but to skip the very long line, rumored to be about 3 hours. My mom and I visited Rome a few years ago in February... the non-touristy season... lets just say, we had A LOT more friends with us on this visit!
We then went back to our hotel to finally check into our room. We were definitely impressed. Our rooftop terrace was a bonus and we knew that we would see bottles of wine here in our future! After a dress change, we headed to the Spanish Steps. I am not really sure why these steps are famous, but we definitely took the touristy pictures that we needed to! T even drank water from the fountain... like I said... 'When in Rome,' he most definitely followed behind other Italians doing the same thing.
We headed back to our room, busted open that bottle of Chianti, and got ready for the evening ahead of us! Our hotel suggested a restaurant named La Campana, just a short distance away. It was AMAZING... and will require a future post all by itself! The food, the wine, the waiter, the atmosphere... just perfect!
We proceeded back to our hotel, grabbed our unfinished bottle of wine, and headed to the Trevi Fountain. Yes, another touristy site, however, it was SO FUN just sitting on the edge of the fountain, drinking straight out of our bottle of wine, people watching, and enjoying the company of one another. This was a perfect end to the first night of our honeymoon!
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