Day 3 in Florence but Really Day 1 in Rome

We got up early to make it to the train on time. I did manage to make myself a tea before we left!


 Away we go!

Popped into Paella at the train station for some breakfast before we board. 


We have a seat on the floor to eat our grub and wait for the train. We are all ready to go!


Wait, hold on, what’s all this about a train strike?! Yes indeed turns out there is an Italian rail strike happening!


They (the Italian rail workers) want better working conditions and improvement of safety protocols. So we wait.



And stare at the board hoping the train doesn’t get cancelled. There it is! 


We found our seats, Brienna found her book, and Matthew found some zzzz. At least until the snack cart arrived. 





Arrived in Rome. 


Our check in time wasn’t until after 3 so we had plenty of time for sight seeing. First stop, Papal Basillica of Saint Mary Major.








Notice how the Italian priests aren’t smoking and doom scrolling like the French (see earlier post). 🤭


Next we strolled through the ruins until we made to Matthew’s favorite place - the Colosseum. 





Fun fact - in Rome on the first Sunday of every month all the sites are FREE. Yeah you heard that right - 100% off. Fantastic right? Not really. Fun fact - although the sites are free they still require a ticket to enter and because the tickets are free there are a million people in line trying to get them. The line to get in was over three hours and that was after waiting for however long in the ticket line. Nope. We decided to walk the perimeter instead. 











We kept on walking on through the ruins outside the colosseum and went into this small church. 




And back to walking through more ruins until we decided to eat lunch.



Rime has free water throughout the city with these random fountains which had constant running water. We filled our water bottles.


We stopped for the lunch at Restorante Pizzeria Imperiale. They had an impressive sign in front.


We had lots of water, fresh lemonade with mint, caprese for appetizer, main course D and M - lasagna, B - pizza, these little birds? pieces of B’s crust.






Next we wandered our way up to the Parthenon. 








There it is, but we will get much closer.


There is a LOT of walking and stairs and thankfully the Romans thought of benches there!


We ascended to the first level.







Matthew stayed at this level and Brienna and I wanted to go to the top.



The roof can only be accessed by elevator, so we waiting in line and went up.







Now it was time for us to check in at the condo I rented near the Vatican, so we grabbed a ride to meet Marco!


He mer us and gave us the run down on the place and the surrounding areas of Rome.


 Brienna got her own room!




Matthew decides to take a break and Brienna and I headed out for more sight seeing.First stop Castel Saint Angelo. But on the way stopped for some scrapping (I don’t think it will fit in carry on). 


And the castle in the distance.


And in we go!




Need to get up there! 


We found the circular cave going up.



And are we at the top?




Brienna really liked that one!

But no, not the top!






Enough of that for now, Brienna wants to shop.




And we stopped in a cafe for one of those delish lemon drinks (from earlier post you might remember 😃).



Next stop. Also the Pantheon of Rome - built by Marc Agrippa son of Lucius son in law of Augustus. 




Next we stopped at the Santa Messa Church which contained some magic mirror that when you take a look it reverses the perspective of the ceiling - I dunno sounded like fake news to us so we skipped the mirror.



The  Trevi Fountain was next on our walk. Crowded but worth a visit.





We stopped in this church.



And then we stopped at one of the many churches of gelato - Gelato Valentina. The lady behind the counter in the white hat told me she doesn’t love me - 😜 We both had three flavors; Me - cherry, cheesecake, strawberry. B - cherry, pistachio, vanilla.




Last stop was a park called Villa Borghese. 


We walked around a bit and decided it should have been called Villa MoreSleazey. After those wonderful French parks we weren’t prepared for the brown weed filled spaces and it was trashy. I took some pics that prob make it look nicer. You are welcome Rome.







After surviving the park, we ordered a ride and waited next to the Rome Harley shoo (it was closed).


We made a quick stop at the Supermarket so Brienna could get more shampoo (she left the other one on Florence).


We also picked up a pizza for Matthew on way back. 

Then we tried to get in but the keys didn’t work to let us in!!! 



Luckily since Matthew stayed back I called him to open the door and bring the other set of keys. He came right away. I testes the new keys and they worked! The owner also sent me codes so we don’t even need keys. 


All worked out and Matthew liked his pizza.


Tomorrow - Vatican. 




 


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