Benvenuti a Roma!

Our expat timing has turned out to be great timing as we have a lot of friends celebrating milestone birthdays and/or big anniversaries with a trip to Europe!!! Woohoo! Annie and Jim (friends and neighbors from Twilight Trail) have been planning their trip to Italy for quite some time to celebrate their anniversary, and we knew we wanted to join in on the fun! They sent us their itinerary and we picked Rome, as I had never been before and it fell over a weekend.

This was our view as we arrived in Rome!!

Altar of the Fatherland - view from the taxi on our way to the hotel

We usually book our stays through Booking.com with our European travels, and Andy found this cute hotel! I think they upgraded us to the honeymoon sweet and I bet they were shocked when a seven month pregnant lady walked through the door! Ha! This was our first time sleeping on a circle bed - nice, but we both kept feeling like we were going to fall off the edge OR our feet hung off the bed.  Never thought that would happen being 5'4".

The entrance to our hotel

We arrived on Friday afternoon and headed out to meet up with the Roslanskys! First stop - gelato!

We then of course had to stop for a drink at a little cafe outside of the Pantheon.  We didn't go inside, as we didn't know that we could enter for free, but the view from outside was beautiful!

On our way to dinner at La Fraschetta, we walked by the Castel Sant'Angelo - also beautiful! Pretty much everything in Rome is beautiful!!!

La Fraschetta Restaurant

Fun messages written on napkins as the decor!

Meat and cheese plates are big in Italy

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican

Castel Sant'Angelo at night

Walking the streets was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

Fontana Del Nettuno

Andy had a great idea with watching Angels and Demons while in Rome, as most of the movie takes place in Rome.  It was really fun to see the sights during the day and see them in the movie at night!

Castel Sant'Angelo in Angels and Demons

Day #2 started with about five minutes of rain that then turned into a really nice day! Our itinerary for the day was a four hour tour of the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica, and then a walk to the Colosseum.

Our Vatican tour guide with Walks of Italy!

Part of the wall around the Vatican

St. Peter's Basilica

Fontana della Pigna

Annie and Jim rubbing the foot of St. Peter for good luck.

Benini finished this 96-foot-tall baldacchino (canopy-like structure over the alter) in 1633

The ending scene in Angels and Demons happened down there -
the bad guy setting himself on fire.

The guards attire!

I have been a lover of soups ever since I was little - sneaking a bite (or half a bowl) from my dad!
Italy did not disappoint with their soups!

After lunch, we made our way to the Colosseum.  Annie and Jim had been inside on Friday morning, so we didn't venture in, but I definitely want to take a tour inside next time we are in Rome! 

More gelato please!

After posting on Facebook that we were in Rome on Friday, these two lovely people, David and Briana Leeder, reached out and said that they were starting their honeymoon in Rome and would arrive Saturday afternoon!!! They had told me about their three week long trip across Europe when I was home for the summer, but we never connected the dates and locations.  What a wonderful surprise to have dinner with them and get in some extra hugs!!!

Etabli Restaurant

More gelato!!!

After dinner and gelato, we headed to the Fontana Di Trevi-Roma.  It was beautiful!!! And huge!

And to top off the day - I think I was at like 20k steps at this point - we climbed the Spanish Stairs. Why not!?! 

View from the top

To end the trip, we headed to the Piazza del Popolo, as there was an excellent view of Rome from the top of a stairwell in the piazza.  

Latte served with potato chips and olives - umm, okay, looks delicious!

Even though our time in Rome was short, we had an amazing time seeing the sights and more importantly, catching up with Jim and Annie! Until next time, Rome! Ciao!!!