Day 1 - Part 2

So we left off the last post with the four of us back together on a plane bound for Rome. The only problem was, the girls and their checked luggage were on the plane, and the boys were on the plane, but though they missed their origianl connecting flight, their bags made it through just fine, arriving at 8 am Rome time. So once we landed and retrieved the gals bags, we headed over the customer service to see where we needed to go to find the boys bags. We were told that only bag owners could go into this secure area, so Michelle and Diana camped out at a cafe and waited. And waited. And waited. About an hour and a half later, the boys managed to find their luggage. It was no easy feat either, and the girls were very relieved to see them finally return from their search.

We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel as it was cheaper to do that with 4 people than to take the train. The taxi driver was a pretty funny man, and he made sure to point out the major tourist sights as we drove past them. The rooms are clean and comfortable, which was a relief to see after such a long day. After a few moments to decompress, we were off again.

Our first stop was to the metro to ride out to the Colloseaum, which was a fun experience for Ed and Diana. A lot of people all rushing around underground from here to there. We made sure to stop and explain the system so that (hopefully) it wasn't so overwhelming. When we stepped out of the metro stop, there it was. Using our Roma pass we went right in, and using our ipad and itouch the four of us were able to listen to a podcast from Rick Steves that guided you around the monument and told the history at the same time. Being a teacher, we think Diana especially enjoyed hearing about the history of the place.

Once we were done there, we tried heading over the Palentine Hill and the Forum, but it was too late and everything was closed. So we walked up to dinner near the Piazza Navrona. Of course, before dinner we needed to stop for a little gellato. :) Dinner was a recommendation from the Rick Steves book, since Tim and Michelle had never really had a great meal in their previous trip to Rome. A very good meal of gnocchi for Ed and Michelle, a spicy spaghetti for Tim and an artechoke and linguinni for Diana. We took a slow walk back to the hotel, passing by the Trevi fountain at night (so beautiful!) and called it a day. Tomorrow we are off for a tour to the Vatican, which we are all looking forward to. More to come!