To Rome At Last

Cheers to Rome! Happy 29th Anniversary and 50th Birthday! We made it! On our first day, we took the taxi to Hotel Nerva, checked in, and then had to taxi over immediately to the Vatican for our afternoon tour. We saw the Sistine chapel with many other tourists. Since it was crowded, we dodged the tour groups and made good timing getting through. Then we made our way down the street to St. Peter's square and the Basilica. It was amazing inside the Basilica. It is the size of many football fields.

 

After, we were fortunate in our timing, as we left, that we saw the changing of the Swiss guards.

 

 

Here's a clip of the changing of the guards in action:

 

 

 

Our hotel room at Hotel Nerva, Rome

The stairs going up to our room. The first of MANY stairs in Italy for us to encounter. Thank God this hotel had an elevator. Many do not!

The view from our hotel entrance:

 

The narrow streets of Rome are best navigated on foot. Be wary of speeding taxis, scooters and cars! Walking here is not for the faint of heart.  The Roman and Augustus, Nerva Forums ruins below were just across the street from our Hotel Nerva. Nerva became emperor at age 65. In fact, every where you turn is something amazing, and old and beautiful like this.

 

 

 Celebrating that we made it to Rome! Jet lagged, but excited. We had a great first dinner inside this nice restaurant, Tavernelle Dal 870 Antica Trattoria Monti, a few blocks walk from the hotel. Caprese to start...

 Arne had suckling lamb, I had carbonara. And tiramisu to finish with an espresso for Arne.

Our Hotel Nerva cappucino and breakfast served in the dining area. Ah....my first of many to come.

 Day two: Roman Forum walk and the Colosseum

Roman Forum walk on day two of our visit to Rome, started out as a very hot day! The ruins were remarkable, unbelievable. Huge and towering and amazingly intact. There were fountains inside the forum that had running water, at which you could safely refill your drinking water bottle.

 

 

 

Up at the Palatine Hill area of our walk.

 

More of the Forum area. Everything is so incredibly huge. It's unbelievable to think you are walking on the same ground where all these emporers ruled and lived and walked and where some were buried.

 

A sized down panoramic of the Roman Forum:

Inside Capitoline museum after making our way through the Roman Forum. Marble with the look of plaid was intriguing.

Views from the windows inside the museum were beautiful also.

 

 

Panoramic from Capitoline museum

  

 

After the walking tour of the Roman Forum, and the Capitoline museum, a caffe freddo (cold coffee) and panini at the Capitoline museum cafe....we had one more stop. However, the weather turned on us, and we had to literally run to the Colosseum in a torrential downpour and buy an umbrella from a street vendor for 3 euros! Funny, my only souvenir from Rome is a black umbrella! Never have we been so wet. And that is saying alot, coming from Seattleites. Our quick dry travel gear was put to the test.

 

 

The Colosseum was incredible. You can see where the spectators sat to watch, and where the animals were held underneath. Unbelievable how it is still standing. After the Colosseum, we experienced being ripped off by our taxi driver. Be wary, when you hand them the bill to say out loud, "Here is 10 Euro", as they are sneaky and pull a 5 euro from their sleeve and say, "You gave me 5 euro". Even though we were very aware this could happen, it still happened to us. That ride cost about 15 euros!

Of course my time in Rome would not be complete if I had not found a gelato place. "To the Pantheon", we told our taxi driver and off he went, right to the very street. And lo and behold, like magic, a gelato place was right there! I was not disappointed. I tried to order it the right way. You pay first, and then take your receipt to the counter. After that important business was taken care of, we could head in to the amazing Pantheon.

 

 

Exploring Piazza Navona and walking to the bridge with view of the Vatican prior to our dinner.

 

 

We ate at L'Old Bear, the same restaurant Nicole dined at when she did her stay in Rome. I ordered the pumpkin lasagne. We smelled bug repellent and smoke here mingled with the good food smells.

Our second and last night in Rome...Tomorrow we are off to Orvieto by train.

Lessons learned so far: The weather can change on you any minute. Wear amazing walking shoes. Don't trust any taxi drivers. Keep your sense of humor!

Now, don't laugh at this video clip of us eating dinner and me videotaping the guitarist who came to serenade us, no doubt, looking for euros!

 

Countdown Final Check List

Get the euros...check.
Get the shuttle arranged to and fro the airport...check.
Emailed the hotel for dinner reservations in Rome...still waiting to hear on that...check.
Agonize over the packing a few more days...check.
Get books loaded on Kindle...check.
Make sure light raincoat is packed...we see rain in the forecast mixed with high temps...check.
Arrange all chargers, cords and camera stuff... almost check.
Weigh carryon...it's too heavy..., yikes.check!
Email my new buddy in Lucca (story to come) to exchange weather info and tell her we're coming soon! ...check!
Listen to audio tapes in car to try to absorb some language skills....check.
Walk around in the shoes alot that we plan to wear on the trip....check.
Get advice from other people who traveled about how to avoid pickpockets and get on the right train...check.
Return the duffel and the luggage tag that didn't work....check.
Get the duffel and the luggage tag that will work...check.
A few nervous butterflies in the stomach?....check.

All the planning is done and though not every book or factoid has been studied or read, all our best efforts have been made. Tour Guide Barbie is proud of me! And I am grateful for her help.
There is some satisfaction in planning out your own trip details and taking ownership of them. Though very hard work, it is rewarding. Now even with the best planning, will come surprises and spontaneous moments and maybe even a few glitches.  Of that we can be certain.
Soon it will be "ready or not here we come, Italy!"

Packing Light, Simple, and Cool

Well packing light will prove to be interesting traveling with the airline carryon size restrictions and weight restrictions.

I'm taking this wider body type roll on and hopefully will make it through the carryon check in with no problems. It is shorter than a normal roll on bag. We've heard mixed reviews on travelers with this, so we are hoping for the best. On top is the Bagellini with the zipper that fits over the handle. It will have my Kindle, earplugs, wallet, passport and make up bag, adapter, phone, charger cord, medications and possibly the infamous quart-sized zipper bag with the liquids/gels for hand checking. It will also have another purse inside that will be used when I get there for touring around during the days, which I ordered online by Ebags. It has alot of zippered pockets, a water bottle mesh holder on one side, an ipod pocket with a place for the cord on the other size, magnetic closure on front flap and adjustable strap. Looks like plenty big enough for my wallet and would also hold a Kindle and your sunglasses, phone and small notepad or quidebook:

 Next is trying on all the outfits, and combinations to make sure each outfit is flexible or can be worn more than one way, or changed up with a scarf.

On the packing list:
 I chose quick drying versions of these items:a few tank tops, 2 travel skirts, one pair capris, one skort,one travel pant, one dress, 2 scarves, a lightweight windbreaker, one easy wash short sleeve button shirt, one sweater, 3 pr. undies, lightweight socks to prevent blisters, one dressier mary jane shoe, and one pair Privos, one pair sandals. Believe it or not, with just these items I am already at my baggage weight limit.
Travel tips:
Keep it simple, coordinated, light, washable. My colors are blacks, khakis, and some blues/purples and grays that all seem to go fine mix and matching.
Wear the pants, and sweater and heaviest slip- on shoes on the plane.
Get a small duffle in case you want to take it along and check it in on the way home in checked baggage.
Here is all the stuff  I need to still find a place for...hmm..electronics, meds, maps, handwipes...Tour guide Barbie says to nix the allergy stick. I heard there were alot of mosquitoes though...

 This little handy zipper case will hold cords and chargers, and my ipod. When I saw the book jacket title on it, I had to chuckle. Let's hope I am not The Lost Girl in Italy.

Now to the scariest part,...how to fit all of the gels, lotions, shampoos, etc. and go from this:

To this:            Can it be done? It must be done! Of course I can still have a make up kit as well.

A few more weeks to go! We are finalizing what we want to do in Rome now, and have our tickets booked online to the Vatican museum and Sistine chapel. I found a free translator app for my android and it works great. I found it helpful to say some sample phrases into it and then listen to the Italian translation. It also will save your history for future reference. This may help save me from accidentally ordering a glass of house wine instead of train tickets at the station! We got a program for the ipad that is a gps and Italy map, and plugged in our hotel stays and other points of interest by the coordinates onto it.
We are looking up good gelato and hotel places to eat, using some references from others who have gone before us, and online through searches.  I have listened a bit to some audio discs I got at Half Price Books of English to Italian translations and will do more of that in the next week.
Post surgery, I am at 9 weeks and back into my easy walk/jogs. I am also daily picking up that suitcase, lifting it and carrying it around the house a bit to get used to doing that.
We have made a spreadsheet guestimating our euros needed for the first big part of the trip. My husband now has his international drivers license as well. He picked up the euros the other day which we ordered through the bank, and they are quite beautiful, all trimmed with silver and in different colors.
Any restaurants that are well reviewed that we plan to dine in, we are attempting to have reservations made in advance.
We are having a nice Seattle heatwave for us to practice a few early morning or late evening walks in the heat! In our travel shoes, of course.