Our Roman Holiday....Day 1

I can't believe it has taken me 3 months now to blog about this, but with over 1400 pictures from our trip, it was a little overwhelming to say the least. So beware, picture overload coming up....

Josh first broke the news of his plans over dinner on Valentine's Day.  He told me that he really wanted to take me back to Rome (we got engaged there in October 2000) for our 10 Year Wedding Anniversary on June 8th.  He said he was going to sell his truck so that we could go.  Such a sweet sacrifice for him and it enabled us to go on our dream vacation again.  

We boarded the plane on June 4th and flew from XNA to Atlanta then from Atlanta to Rome.  The last leg of our flight was 9 hours.  We were able to watch movies, tv and listen to music on the plane, so that was nice and made the trip a little less long.  We arrived in Rome at 7:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. our time so we were exhausted!).  We made the mistake and took a shuttle van instead of a taxi to our apartment and got extremely car sick.  Needless to say, we were ready to get out of that van and slap the driver. ha!

                            

Us on the plane

We decided to rent an apartment instead of stay at a hotel so we could really feel like Italians and be in the heart of it all.  We found a lovely little apartment online and had an awesome host, Giuseppe.  After we got out of the taxi, we met up with Giuseppe's mom who showed us the cute apartment.  It was over 700 years old!  Very cool.  Everything is old over there of course. It had a little patio off the bedroom which was so nice to sit out on and listen to the birds, listen to a random violinist playing classical music on the street below and smell the sweet smell of jasmine that was growing along the wall of our patio.....pretty perfect.  

Our street.  Via Della Pigna

Our street

The front door to our building...19 Via Della Pigna

After arriving at the apartment, we were exhausted and took a 4 hour nap.  We then headed out on our adventure.  Our apartment was perfectly located and only a block or so away from the Pantheon, so we went there first.  The sheer size of this building is unbelievable.  It almost doesn't seem real.  

The Pantheon

The "Oculus" inside the Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon

Us

Of course there are thousands of cathedrals in Rome, so we stopped in several.  All were so beautiful and ornate.  Nothing compares to it.

We then headed to Piazza Navona.  There were tons of artists there and so we bought some artwork.  There are also so many beautiful fountains and window boxes/balconies with stunning flowers and bougainvillea hanging.

A few random photos on our walk through the city...

beautiful architecture

beautiful flowers

the main mode of transportation over there.....scooters/vespas.

A little cheese shop next to the Pantheon.  Love all these little shops all over.

We then headed to the beautiful Trevi Fountain.  I could sit at this place for hours.  Definitely my happy place.  So beautiful and just sitting there listening to the rushing water just puts me at ease.  It was VERY crowded there though and tons of street vendors that absolutely drove Josh crazy! ha!  They say that if you toss a coin over your shoulder into the fountain that one day you will return.  It worked for me the first time, so I threw another coin in this time for good measure! :-)

Trevi Fountain

 We then began our walk to the Spanish Steps.  Throughout this whole trip, I was so impressed with how well Josh remembered his way around.  He lived there for a few months in college.  It was so nice to have my own personal tour guide.

A neat door that Josh remembered on one of the backstreets on our way to the Spanish Steps.

At the top of the Spanish Steps

Me at the Spanish Steps

The area around the Spanish Steps is known for all its high-end shopping.

Prada

One word for the food in Italy....PHENOMENAL!  I thoroughly enjoyed every meal we had.  We only had 2 bad experiences while we were there, but one was partly our fault due to fail in communication. :-)  The first night we had dinner at a little outdoor cafe on a little side street.  As we sat there, we were serenaded by a burly man playing the guitar for us.  I got a Funghi pizza (mushroom) and it was heavenly.  I don't think I've ever been that excited for food before.  It's one of those things I never forgot and looked forward to so much on this trip.  Yum!

Our other favorite thing about Italy is Gelato.  Italy's version of ice cream.  It can't be beat.  Even if you've had gelato in the United States, you haven't really had gelato.  Seriously, It's as smooth as butter.  We had gelato every day sometimes twice a day.  The gelato place closest to us at the Pantheon got to know us really well and we didn't even have to tell them what we wanted by the next week.  I kinda felt like Norm on the old tv show Cheers. ha!  Our first night though we went to a highly recommended, wonderful gelato place called Giolitti.

Just seeing this picture again makes me want to go back....now.   

We tried to fit so much into our first day.  We decided to head down to the ancient Roman Forum and the Colosseum to see it at night.  I didn't take my camera with me, so these pics were from our phones .  The Colosseum is absolutely breathtaking at night.  It was still so hard to believe that we were right there where so much history began! We did a little evening walk like this every night and it became a little nightly ritual that I loved.  Strolling around the city at night....plus, it was cooler. :-)