Rome, Italy

“Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning.”

Giotto di Bondonei, a Renaissance painter

I must say Rome is one of our favorite cities. There is so much to do and see, We arrived in Rome a day before heading home, so we hit the ground running. We got there late so we went with to eat with my friends from work at Hard Rock Cafe which was close to our hotel, the Exedra near the train station. The restaurant was busy and with our large group, they still worked with our group and we were seated. The painting in the dome section of the restaurant was gorgeous. We had a nice meal and a couple of drinks and headed back to our room. What a beautiful hotel we were staying in. The details in the lobby were incredible. We wanted to get some rest for the next day was going to be very busy. We got to our room in this lovely hotel and went right to sleep.

We got up at the crack of dawn and started walking. Everywhere we went was another fantastic historic site to see. Our goal was to get to the Vatican by ten am, our ticket time. We had plenty of time to roam Rome. We passed the Piazza Venzia and saw the Altare della Patria, a beautiful monument in honor of Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy. It stand 230 feet tall and was opened in 1925.

We walked over the Tiber River and Joe was very happy to see a vendor selling sandwiches. It was a nice sandwich and we sat on the stone wall over looking the river. Lovely. We continued till we got to Vatican. So much to see and so little time. We loved going through the Vatican and seeing the sites but I covered that in one of my last blogs. Please check it out.

After leaving the Vatican, we walked back to the Tiber River were we saw the Castel Sant’Angelo which was built as a mausoleum for the Roman Emperor Hadrian and his family. It later became a fortress and castle for the popes but is now a museum. It looked stately high above the river.

We walked by many ruins not really knowing what they were but all were fascinating. We could have spent weeks here and not have seen everything we wanted to see. But we move on, as we have 24 hours and that is it. We headed to the Colosseum and Roman Forum. We enjoyed our time there as well. I did a whole blog on that as well if you want to read more about our time there.

We headed back to our hotel to get cleaned up and meet our group at the restaurant, La Terme del Colosseo. When doing research about Rome, I looked in the USO Rome site and they recommended this restaurant. I mentioned this to my boss, and she arranged for our whole group to go. It was fabulous. The setting is very stunning with exposed brick and arched ceilings. They start by putting wine on the table and then brought course after course to eat. From appetizers through dessert and the wine kept flowing. The had wonderful singers who walked around singing traditional Italian songs. It was so much fun.

After we left there, we headed back to the Colosseum to take pictures at night and started walking around Rome. Our goal was to make it to Trevi Fountain. On the way we ended up in a nighttime block party where everyone was singing and dancing. This is a lively fun city that feels very safe walking around even late at night.    

We did make it to Trevi Fountain and bought a glass of wine and sat and enjoyed this amazing fountain with many locals. The fountain was so beautiful lit up at night. We did what everyone does and threw our coin into the fountain in hopes of coming back. After that we strolled some more but then headed back to our hotel as it would be another early day, since we were heading home. We had walked over sixteen miles that day. We only wish we had the stamina to have stayed up all night walking.

We will miss Italy and Rome. We so enjoyed our time in this beautiful city and country. Goodbye and we hope to return (Arrivederci e spero di tornare).