Tuesday, October 12th

We woke up Tuesday over the Swiss Alps, having crossed over England and France while we were sleeping. The views out the window were breathtaking and helped us break out of the sleep-deprived fog. We flew down the Italian coast and straight into the Rome Fiumicino Airport. I always enjoy flying into international airports for all the plane-spotting opportunities (yes, I’m a nerd!). We got off the plane and experienced hands-down the easiest customs process that I have ever seen. Our passports couldn’t have been out of our hands for more than 3 seconds. It was long enough to get a stamp, but hardly enough time to read our name or make any attempt to record our entry into the country. We purchased our Roma Passes, which would get us into the main attractions and provided a pass for the transit system. Since we were only traveling with carry-on bags, we proceeded directly to the airport train station and took the train into downtown Rome.

We arrived at the downtown Termini and transferred to the Metro train. Two stops later, we got off at the Colosseo station and found ourselves staring at the Roman Colosseum. We snapped a couple pictures and then headed to our hotel (Capo d’Africa) located about 5 blocks from the Colosseum. We checked into the hotel and took a chance to shower and refresh from the long journey. Then it was off to explore Rome.

Our first stop was a café for lunch. We certainly were struggling with Italian, so we resorted to pointing at the items we wanted and using charades to determine the price. I ended up with a toasted panini and Christina had a spaghetti bowl. As we ate lunch, we watched an amazing scene of busy Italians eating and chatting during their breaks from the work day. We were amused by how many businessmen we saw in fancy suits eating huge gelato sundaes!

After lunch, we went to the National Museum where they have many artifacts from the Roman civilizations. We took pictures of many statues, tablets, and paintings. What caught my eye was a complete set of armor and weapons from a Lanuvium warrior dated from 475 BC. It was just staggering to think that we were looking at items made almost 2500 years ago! After about an hour in the museum, my energy levels started to plummet as those sleepless hours on the plane were racing to catch up with me. We headed back to the hotel and completely crashed.

What was supposed to be a 2-hour siesta turned into a 4-hour coma after I subconsciously decided to ignore my alarm clock. I have dim memories of turning the alarm off, but I can’t remember having any motivation to get up at the time. By the time we woke up, it was a little past 7:00 PM. With our energy levels refreshed, we continued our walking tour of the city. We wandered past the Colosseum, Campo de' Fiori, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. Dinner was pizza to-go. The Italians definitely know how to make pizza! Best of all, they have to-go pizza that is folded to create a pizza sandwich that is portable and tastes great.

Our plan was to buy gelato and eat it on the Spanish Steps, but the shop we tried wanted to charge us 15 Euros (about $22.50) for 2 scoops of ice cream! We said No Thanks and handed the cone back and walked out the door. We took the metro back to the Colloseum and got gelato by our hotel for 3 Euros. We borrowed the computer at the main desk to send a quick e-mail update, then headed off to sleep