Day 6: Flight to Rome and some sight seeing

The crack of dawn came awful early this morning and actually to be honest it was still pitch dark out when we left the hotel! Joe didn’t bother falling asleep and I got a few hours of sleep but not nearly enough. We checked out of the hotel, had a taxi waiting for us and headed to the bus station. Off we went on the bus to the airport, then got on a plane, was delayed on the runway for 45 minutes but had a quick flight in which we slept through most of.

When we got closer to Rome we were both awake and it was a good thing. As we approached the city we got an amazing view of all the sights! I spotted St. Peter’s Square and the Vatican first then the Colosseum and other Roman Ruins. It was really awesome to see everything from the plane!

Let me tell you about the first thing I noticed about Italians. They are CRAZY drivers. Now there’s several areas in the States that I consider to have insane drivers, Maryland being one of them (sorry Maryland friends but it’s TRUE!) NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING compares to the way these Italians in Rome drive! Holy cow! The airport was 18.5 miles from the city. It took us 1 hour to get there and in that time our bus almost rear ended about 5 cars. We saw a man who was in an accident that had been riding some type of motorcycle and several cars just pull out in front of other cars without a care in the world. On top of all this you have the little scooters that just zip in and out of all this craziness and somehow everyone manages to get to their destinations in one piece. Well, at least the majority of the time they do, the guy who had been in the accident didn’t look so good and I do hope he was OK! So that’s was an interesting first experience with Italy. I was grateful I wasn’t driving! :) But we finally made it to the train station and walked 20 minutes to our hotel.

We stayed in the most amazing hotel and if anyone is planning to travel to Rome I highly recommend it. The people who own it were very friendly and helpful and the room was perfect. We even had a little balcony which we enjoyed several nights while we were there. It was in a good location, close to the subway and we had breakfast included. It was perfect!

So, after getting settled we found a little cafe for some lunch, had some great Panini’s and then set off to see some of the sights. We started at the Piazza del Popolo. This area has a 4000 year old Egyptian obelisk which was really cool to see. There were also some churches and a park just above the Piazza which we went to another day.

Fountain at the Piazza del Popolo


Piazza del Popolo

Obelisk at Piazza del Popolo

Next up we walked over to the Castle Sant’Angelo. This was a really cool castle. The castle was originally intended to be a mausoleum for one of the Roman Emperors but was eventually used as a castle by Pope Nicholas III during the 14th century. It was also used as a fortress and prison. We didn’t go into the museum but got some good pictures just the same.

Castle Sant’Angelo

As we were heading to the next stop we noticed a film crew on the street. We weren’t sure what they were filming but we stayed to watch for a few minutes. It’s always fun to see those kind of things while walking around.

Movie time!

Next up the Piazza Navona. This area has two competing structures the St. Agnese in Agone’s and the Fountain of the Four Rivers. Both very beautiful!

St. Agnese in Agone’s

Fountain of the Four Rivers

We kept walking and got to the Pantheon. 1,400 years old the building was under going some maintenance, hence the scaffolding in the picture but I guess I can forgive that so that since that should help the building stick around for a while. I think this was one of the coolest things we saw all day. The structure of the building is really beautiful and it’s cool that since the roof is open the floor is concave so any rain runs down to the sides instead of making puddles on the floor. I was just so amazed at how advance some of the technology was and how well designed the buildings were.

Pantheon!

Inside the Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon

On our way to the Trevi Fountain we stopped at the Piazza Di San’Ignazio and went into another church. I was absolutely amazed by the churches in Rome. They were just so beautiful! I can’t believe how amazing the structures were and all the beautiful art in each of the churches. It was like every square inch had some type of art and even though I was completely amazed by these churches I hadn’t seen anything yet. (St. Peter’s just blew my mind and was utterly breathtaking!)

Church at the Piazza Di San’Ignazio

We made it to the Fountain and I tossed my coin in ensuring a return trip to Rome (at least that’s according to the saying) The fountain was really beautiful and even though there were a lot of people there it was still a cool place to see!

Trevi Fountain

Coin toss

Final stop for the day was the Spanish Steps. 138 steps up to the top and yet another church! The steps were really pretty though and I read that every year they have a fashion show on the steps and make the poor models walk down the steps in stilettos! In my opinion that’s not even right because these steps are crazy! :) So after some good sight seeing we headed back to the hotel and found a place for dinner.

Spanish steps

The guy at the hotel recommended a place for us and I ordered some Pizza and Joe got a Calzone. The food was really good but they charged us for the bruchetta we didn’t even order. That was kind of annoying but we did still enjoy it. Then we headed over to the ice cream shop to taste what was advertised as the best ice cream in the area. Indeed it was pretty tasty. So after a busy day that started way to early in the morning we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep before our next adventures!