FIRST DAY IN ROME

Saturday, March 20, 2010

An easy morning getting to the train station for our trip to Rome; the train was about twenty minutes late but it was less than two hours to Rome. The train was packed and of course we got on the wrong end of the car and had to move our luggage after we finally found our seats. But, once settled in, it was a smooth and fast ride on the AV Trains….not the milk run….we didn’t have any stops between Florence and Rome.

We were able to get a taxi and paid a fortunate to get us and all of our luggage the short distance to our Hotel Andreotti; a necessity for Barbara. After we settled in Jim and I walked to the Galleria Borghese to pick up our tickets for tomorrow at 11 am. Now we won’t have to rush to get there to pick up our tickets early tomorrow.

After resting a bit we caught a taxi to the top of the Spanish Steps and enjoyed the twilight just before sunset as we slowly descended the steps while the sun was setting. By the time we reached the fountain at the bottom it was nearly dark. The crowds were thick everywhere and then we remembered it is Saturday night!

Stopped about half way to Trevi Fountain and had dinner at a Trattoria called Zi Cir. I had a marguerite pizza, Jim had Spaghetti a la carbonara (egg white, cheese and bacon) and Barbara had Fetechini bolganese …. Guessing at the spelling…. But it was all very good and we also shared a brurshetta….I could use an Italian cookbook for spelling help!

On to Trevi Fountain…hard to get near it because of the numbers of people; but we enjoyed tossing our coins in to ensure that we’ll come back to Rome again! Seems to always work, we come back regularly! You’ll notice some photos of locks in the slideshow. There is a fence around a church next to Trevi Fountain; a year ago it was covered in padlocks…they kiss and through away the key…a fun thing to do….the officials have started fining people for putting the locks on and they keep cutting them off regularly. But, the kids keep putting them on all over Europe. Soon it was time to call it a night; it was easy to find a taxi there at the fountain for our fast trip back to the hotel.

We’re tucked in for the night….a nice start to our five days in Rome.