A sunny day in Rome.

Day one -Roma

The flight was uneventful, and we arrived early. We were met by someone hired by the hotel to take us there. Traffic wasn't too crazy, and we arrived at our hotel by 10am. I thought I had packed about 40euros, but I couldn't locate it. The driver said," No worries," and we charged it to the room. We're now sitting in the breakfast room drinking very strong coffee! The room won't be ready until this afternoon.

I played with my phone until I found the blogger app - yay! We then walked across the square in front of the hotel until we found a cash machine. By the time we returned, our hotel room was ready.

Our first sight was Maria Maggiore, a church built in about 500AD.

Mural of Christ crowning Mary

Side of the chapel

Looking towards the altar

Looking towards the back of the church

Container with remains of Jesus' manger

What an amazing church - so much of it was done in beautiful tiled murals.  It was being built right around the time the Visigoths were sacking Rome...

After we returned from the church, we took a siesta and then ventured out for our second sight of the day: Trevi Fountain.  We decided to walk the mile and a half, taking in a beautiful Roman evening.  We passed so many little restaurants getting ready for the evening's clientele as well as loads of motorcycles.  We even followed a stenciled sign (on the wall) giving a back way to get to the fountain - quite the adventure.  And we validated what the hotel concierge had told us: Rome is safe to walk around - just be careful for pickpockets. 

The fountain was mobbed - we took a few pictures, sat in a church across the way, and then walked back to our hotel, stopping for dinner on the way back.

At the fountain with all the other tourists!

View of the fountain

Bob being ever vigilant against the pickpockets! Clutching his coat under which is his messenger bag fully zipped times 3 inside which is a wallet with only a piece of monopoly currency...this from Bob!

On our way back, we found a little pizzeria and sat outside, sharing a bottle of merlot and two delicious pizzas.  People-watching was great, and we realized that the Italian drivers have mastered the fine art of stopping just shy of hitting a crossing pedestrian (except for the one moment when we almost got hit by a car just before we got to our dinner spot!). 

Bob with our bottle of vino - note the many motorcycles in the background

First toast of the trip!

Quattro formaggio pizza - no translation needed!

The wine.

Romana pizza eaten mangled style...

During our meal, we noticed people with umbrellas. Hmm, we thought, wonder why...  Oh, did I mention that we were sitting outside?  We were under an umbrella on one side and an awning on the other, so we didn't even know it was raining!  But we knew it for sure when we had to walk back without umbrellas (resting cozily in our hotel room closet).  And all the fake purses being sold by vendors on our way to the fountain had morphed into umbrellas - Bob even got chased a little by one guy!

Before going to bed, we stopped at the hotel's bar to introduce Bob to the lovely limoncello nightcap, which he enjoyed so much that he had seconds!  Bed at 10PM.

Post-meal limoncello - yum...