🇮🇹 Sights of Rome

PIAZZA DI SPAGNA

Today we woke up extremely early and struggled to get back to sleep.  We made a beautiful breakfast of omelette and crusty bread.  Off at 6:30am to catch the Metro to see the Spanish steps – scary part of the Metro was the escalators – don’t look down as they go forever and are very steep.  When we arrived at the Piazza di Spagna – we realised two things – 1. No one gets up at this ungodly hour – the place was empty 2. It was a lot colder than we thought – last night it wasn’t cold at all.  So we had to do a reset and went back home to layer up.

Ready to go!

Then we decided to walk from the apartment.  We went past the Colosseum (which we are seeing tomorrow) – very impressive!

Then we stopped at the Arch of Titus and wandered through the outside of the Forum.  Crowds were massive to get into the Colosseum and just got bigger through the day.  Our next mission was to find a coffee – Kim already thought she was in her favourite movie (you know the one with the streets – is what she is telling me – Rob trying to narrow down all movies to the one with the streets .  . realises she is talking about Bourne Identity).  It was impossible to order coffee – they didn’t have soy milk – because the place was crowded and I placed the order 8 times – each time the guy repeats the order and then makes someone else’s and takes someone else’s order.  He then looked back at me and asked what I wanted.  His memory was worse than Rob’s!  We think it was because Rob’s Italian was not up to par.  We found that although we had an idea of the places we wanted to see – there was so much more to see – like a kid in a candy store!  Everywhere was ruins, beautiful churches, monuments  – so much to see.

We even saw a student that Rob taught – very trippy experience!  We walked around the monument to Victor Emmanuel II monument – which was massive in scale.  One of the highlights was wandering around the farmers’ market.  We got a beautiful beetroot, carrot, ginger juice and Kim got to hop in the van.

Lunch – we went to Trastevere – we learned that if you eat early you can beat the crowds.  We had pizza – looked like it had nothing on it – how can so little taste so good??   Wine was very cheap – some people were ordering a litre for $6.  Went to Piazza Navona – but there were no Christmas markets.  Went to the Pantheon – awe inspiring!

Kim also found the water fountains to fill up for free.

The most crowded place by far was the Trevii Fountain – so many selfie sticks!  Still amazing to see.

Had gelati = so good!  Probably walked about 14 kms today.  Feet sore, bellies full, happy day.