We traveled from Florence (Firenze) arrived by train in Roma (Rome a bit before noon.
In our infinite wisdom, we decided to walk from the train station to our hotel… bad idea. For one, cobblestone walkways are not the easiest to push luggage on, and we also got a bit lost on the way.
No worries though, a woman at the restaurant “Il tempio di Minerva” went out of our way to point us in the right direction. We got to our hotel, checked in, dropped off our suitcases, freshened up, then went right back to “Il tempio di Minerva” for some lunch! I love to patronize places with great customer service, even though we were just lost tourists.
After these walks, we were all a bit pooped so Anthony and I went back to our hotel room while Mom explored the city on her own for a bit.
Around nighttime (yes, we were still napping, call it jet lag), Mom came to my room and asked if I wanted to go on an excursion without Anthony as he wanted to continue to relax in the room.
Mom and I hopped on the metro and headed to the Colosseum! I’m so glad that we waited until evening to see the Colosseum as it was gorgeous in contrast with the night sky.
Mom spotted a little cafe so we stopped for some Tiramisu for her and a Caffe Macchiato for me.
After relaxing for a bit with our snacks and our view of the Colosseum, we headed back to our hotel via metro. And boy was it spooky – the metro was EMPTY!
Eventually when we got on there were a few other people at least.
When we got off on our stop, we spotted a chicken restaurant (I’m using that word lightly) and figured Anthony could use some familiar food. He was delighted when we brought chicken to him at the hotel.
After this, it was time for all 3 of us to go to bed so we could be ready for our last day in Italy the following day!
Bright and early the next morning we headed off to our tour of the Vatican Museum. There’s not much I can say about the Vatican other than, it’s a beautiful place with lots of history and tradition. The photos really speak for themselves.
After the Vatican Museum tour, we headed outside to Piazza San Pietro, where the Pope had just recently given his weekly address.
Although Mom would have loved to see the Pope give his address, it would have been much more packed so it all worked out.
After checking out the Piazza, mom went into a huge Catholic gift shop… I thought this is for sure where I’d lose her for good. But she did eventually emerge with a few small items and we headed on our way to lunch!
Interestingly and tragically at the same time, at lunch I had the best eggplant parmigiana I’ve ever had in my whole life. The tragic part? I cannot remember the restaurant’s name and I also did not take a photo of my food. I know, rookie mistake. But you all can trust me, it was amazingly delicious and I wish I could have that every meal every day.
I don’t know if it was the religious spirit, but this is the one point in the whole trip in which Mom gave a beggar some money. We had all agreed not to give money to any beggars but Mom caved. And then? The beggar asked for MORE MONEY. Really?? Get out of here.
We went back to our hotel rooms and rested for a little bit, then decided it was time for a little bit of comfort food so we made the bus trek all the way to the Hard Rock Cafe!
The Hard Rock Cafe in Rome has an interesting sort of layout. They have an indoor restaurant of course, but in addition to this they have a separate freestanding “building” (if you can call it that) in front of the restaurant where people are seated and receive food, but it’s a little different atmosphere. I know this because we spent a lot of time waiting to be seated for our comfort food.
After filling our faces with familiar foods, we went to the Trevi Fountain, which was just a few minutes away by bus.
While there, we separated and each did a bit of people watching.
Following our excursion to the Trevi Fountain, it was time to hit the hay for an early flight to begin our trip home in the morning!
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[…] finally time to say goodbye to Italia after our stops in Venezia (Venice), Firenze (Florence), and Roma (Rome). Time to head back home to our family, friends, and […]
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