Arrivederci Reality! Rome here we come!

That's what we were singing on Sept 3rd when we set off for our Euro vacation!  We were off to travel through Italy with a quick stop in Paris for 15 days!!!!

Our itinerary was as such:

• 4 nights in Rome
• 3 nights near San Gimignano
• 1 night in Lucca
• 2 nights in Cinque Terre (Monterosso)
• 3 nights in Paris

For today, lets focus on the eternal city - Roma!  After 23+ hours of flying we had arrived in Rome!  We ended up getting in about 2 hours later than planned and this wouldn't' have been an issue BUT we were renting an apartment.  Instead of staying at a hotel I had booked this place  through VRBO and had made all arrangements to meet our host, Alessandro, upfront.  So this delay was really throwing off my arrangements!
Your thinking "So what, you were delayed, who hasn't been, - what do you think cell phone's were invented for people?".  That's what were were thinking too, especially since we checked with our carrier beforehand to make sure our phone would work!  Well you can imagine our shock when we turned on our smart phones (smart my arse!) and they didn't work!?!?!?!  At this point we were exhausted, greasy and jet lagged we said "F it", lets just head to the apartment and see if Alessandro is there.  30 minutes later, there we were, in a back cobblestone street sitting on our luggage and there was no Alessandro.  We were too tired to think at this point and we just sat, for about 15 minutes, sat in silence and then I heard it - in the distance "Ciao!  Heather!!??!!"  - it was Alessandro, he found us!  That was just one of many moments on this trip you realize how much you NEED your technology!

Rome Night 1:
After finally getting into our room, we did the 1 thing EVERYONE tells you NOT to do when you travel, we took a nap.  We had promised ourselves we were going to fight it, stay up until we could hardly stand it, to help acclimate.  With out speaking we looked at each other and I headed to one bed and Cayce to the other, we turned up the AC and pulled the drapes and we were both OUT. 

We woke up around 9pm and after a couple of showers we were brand new lovely people.  Our apartment was in Campo di Fiori, so we found a little spot and shared our first of many bottles of wine, pizza, pasta and bruschetta:

Mercado for Dinner

We then just walked around a bit, found another bar, shared a carafe of wine.  It was raining really hard and we debated walking around but both of us still felt tired so we decided to call it a night.  On our walk back home (which was literally about 2 minutes, if that) I decided I had to buy a umbrella, because I was "sure I'll use it again on the trip" - I didn't have to, I guess I forget the rest of the word doesn't see as much rain as we do!

Walking to Apartment

Our Apartment - there was loft bed on each side of the place, where the ship-like windows are

Rome Day 2:

Anniversary day!  Surprisingly we were able to sleep (even after our 5 hour nap!) and slept in until about noon on day 2.  Now I know a lot of of people would think it's a travesty to sleep in on your vacation until lunchtime, but my husband and I are sleepers and this was in fact VACATION, so we slept in!  After getting ready we headed for the Coliseum - after a cappuccino of course!  We spent the whole day wondering around ancient Rome, here a few pics:


 



Notice Cayce carrying my purse, now that is LOVE!

Yay for self pics!

We actually thought this was the coliseum for about 15 minutes and tool a bunch of pics, then realized it was just an old building!



We found it!

After a day of sightseeing in the 100 degree + heat, we headed back to the apartment for a much needed beer and siesta.  We woke refreshed again and got gussied up to celebrate one year of happily-ever-after!  We did the night walk that is outlined in Rick Steve's Italy travel guide which takes you through Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain and up to the Spanish Steps.  It was a beautiful walk, the only hiccups being when a gypsy tried to take our camera and the awful dinner we ate.  But we weren't going to let that ruin things for us!  We sat and listened to some kids play music on the Spanish steps and wandered our way home through the beautiful streets of Roma, stopping off for gelato and a night cap - what a wonderful 1st anniversary (minus the gypsy and the meal!).



1 year!

More Rome to come next post!